Discovery of Romance #Review

 

연애의 발견 / Yeonaeui Balgyeon

Genre: Romance, comedy
Episodes: 16  
Broadcast network: KBS2
Broadcast period: Aug to Oct, 2014

 

This was good.
Surprisingly good.

I didn't like the leading lady much, but she did an excellent job of portraying the character's messed up personality.  

I just wasn't all that convinced that she was deserving or attractive enough to have not one but two hot, successful men after her.

The chemistry wasn't there in either relationship, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is a rom-com with more rom than com, but with enough com to make me laugh through at least the first half.

It's about a woman who experiences love at first sight and sticks with this guy (Eric) for over five years when things go south and they break up.

Three years later, she meets another hot guy (Seong jun) and the same thing happens again -- instant attraction, hook-up, and romance.

A little more than a year later, she finds out that Seong jun's Nam Ha jin is on a blind date and storms the hotel lobby to make an ass of herself.

She plunks down at a small seating arrangement directly in front of Han jin's cozy nook, hides behind a newspaper, and passes the guy already seated there a quick note to let him know why she's barged in on his privacy, and to please excuse her rude behavior just this once.

The guy turns out to be Eric's Kang Tae ha.

They're both stunned to see one another again, and she shouts at him about things from their past, but that Ha jin presumes have to do with his being there on a blind date.

The first half of this 16-episode melodrama with comedy tossed in for relief is about the first relationship and why they broke up and why she's clinging to Ha jin (the plastic surgeon with his own mixed up past).

It was a little disconcerting to have her mother, some guy, and her assistant showing up every now & then since it didn't seem (to me) like it had anything to do with the plot.

 And then to be just as confused with Han Yeo reum (Jung Yoo mi as the female love interest) living with a guy and a girl (friends) whom I was first led to believe were brother/sister, but then it turns out they're not, she's Yeo reum's sister and then no, she's not.

He is Yeo reum's brother.

No, wait. None of them are actually related. They just all live together. (scratches head)

The second plot was about Ha jin's past, his being an orphan who did something he felt was pretty mean to a little girl he once cared deeply for at the orphanage.

Those two end up meeting, and for the rest of the episodes, the secret remains just that -- because of his guilt.

Around episode 13-14, I got bummed thinking she would end up with the wrong guy.

By the start of episode 15, I was like, I hope neither guy is stupid enough to continue to want to stick it out with her.

It had a happy ending, and I was pleased with the final choice between the two leading men, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the relationship in general or its chances for survival.

Unless she makes some major personality changes.

The show flowed well, the music wasn't invasive, and there wasn't too much repetitious rehash of previous scenes & you-just-said-that dialogue, no 10-minute long dwelling instances of someone walking aimlessly while thinking, or a lot of weepy angst & brutality in the form of verbal & physical abuse like you get with most KDo's, which annoy and distract from the story.

If I recall correctly, there was only one instance of someone doing something that the camera needed to show in triple-effect, too.

I got the slightest hint of old 90's and 00's dramas -- like What Happened in Bali -- but nowhere near those dark and dismal melodramas from back in the day.

I said hint

 

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Que Sera, Sera / 케세라, 세라

Que Sera Sera

2007, 17-episode Korean drama that starred Eric Moon (Shinhwa) as an average guy trying to make it in high-society Korea and thus loses his soul as a result of his efforts.

At the start, he's entangled with a rich chick who has given up on true love and uses her money, influence, and appearance to keep men at her side.

At the same time, he and the prerequisite mousy chick bump into one another in the hallway of their shared apartment complex, and they don't hit it off.

She ends up getting a job at the same company where Eric's character works, and which the rich chick's father owns.

He hates the mouse / he loves the mouse / he uses the rich girl / he chooses the rich girl / he lies to the mouse / he confesses to the mouse / he tries to dump the rich girl / rich girl gets even / several episodes of angst ........ etc.

This one also had the foolhardy oma who gambles away the family fortune, a deceased ahpah, and a Dong-saeng with a terminal heart condition.

Perhaps this was about the time when this formula had already run its course and even the ahjumma set were getting tired of watching the same, old sh*t day after day, I don't know - but I do know I'm over it, and the next time I decide to watch something that even REMOTELY resembles this scenario, I'm gonna pass and look for something else to waste my time.

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신입사원 / Shin-ip Sa-won

Super Rookie

2005 Korean Drama that starred Eric Moon as Kang ho, the super rookie who lands a job at world-class LK Corporation despite his slacker mentality and the simple but complex fact that he scored a big, fat ZERO on the entrance exam.

A computer glitch no one at the prestigious corporation wants to admit to, much less take the blame for or let the secret be told for the whole world to hear forces the big-wigs to take Kang ho in and hide him away in an unused office until things calm down or Kang ho decides to walk.

Unfortunately for them (or maybe not) Kang ho isn't the type to just sit by idly and let the world pass him by even if he is a slacker!

He's already met with some interesting characters before landing the to-die-for position in the Administration department, and one of them is a mousy chick he caught trying to throw her heartbroken ass off a bridge after being dumped by her boyfriend - Kang ho's old elementary school chum.

Oh Ji ho plays Park Bong sam; a dashing but ruthless character hired by LK through their up & coming prodigy program after having paid for his overseas education and all.

Oh is full of himself and latches onto the daughter of the LK Corp owner, so it seems obvious to him he has to get rid of old baggage (namely his school chums who didn't, quite make it in high society, and the mousy chick working as a temp at the same corporation).

Suh Hyun ah (Ye So yeon) is beautiful in every sense of the word; even when she's wearing Clark Kent glasses and ahjuma ankle socks to go along with the drab, tan uniform required of all temps at the Corporation (so as to distinguish themselves from the upper crust, no doubt).

(An aside ~ I watch Tokyo Fashion Express on a nightly basis, and it never fails to make me giggle when, at the end of almost every episode, they bother to show off the 'latest trends' in office/school uniforms - even going so far as to claim that some students/workers try to get in based on said uniform.

um ~ LOL!)

As the show went on, she did begin to unshed the mouse and transform into a lovely swan, getting to wear chic garb instead - but by the last, few frames some office hags put their fat feet down and Hyun ah was forced to don the drab uniform again.

Anyway - this is the story about a go-nowhere dude pushing 30 who ends up working at this world-renown firm because of a computer malfunction, and instead of letting the man stomp on him, Kang ho takes things in stride while also managing to thwart one disaster after another without the aid of brains, experience, or even foresight.

He's simply 'the man' and has amazing connections is all.

He's a happy-go-lucky type who always manages to land on his feet despite himself, and to the utter consternation of Bong sam and those in power at LK.

He's got the hots for Hyun ah, who is taking her time getting over Bong sam, who has since been dumped by the upper-class bitch so she can pursue Kang ho.

There was a lot of 'English' in this drama, and as a Linguistics/English major, I found myself shaking my head and groaning a lot to say the least.

They even made it a point to poke fun at the sorely lacking skills of the educators over there, who managed to drop the ball in that regard (though I still can't figure out why or even how, other than they use native-born Koreans to teach English, and THAT won't work).

Anyway, between Kang ho saving the day, getting into scraps with Bong sam, and trying to win Hyun ah's heart, we have a lot of inter-office BS going on to include collusion, insider trading, espionage, and moonlighting to mess things up even more.

Honestly, by the end of this MARVELOUS drama, I had to ask myself why ANYONE, let alone Kang ho, would want or even desire to work at such a place (madhouse is more like it, but whatever).

Personally, I'd give a rat's ass if they paid me a billion bucks a year to work there, the answer would undoubtedly be N.O. loud & clear, thank you very much.

These shows continue to give me a twisted, if not completely unrealistic view of what life is REALLY like over there - but anymore, I'm not so sure they are straying that far from the truth now.

Everyone hates everyone else, no one wants to see anyone succeed, they've all got a massive chip on their shoulder, and no one knows how to be nice or say a kind word to their kin, much less a stranger on the bus or beside them at the corner pojangmacha.

I would work my fingers to the bone day in and day out, til late at night and the ruination of my marriage for THAT?

If it had been me in Hyun ah's place, I'd have told everyone there to kiss my big, fat, white ass five HOURS after being hired and not wait five, long years of being trampled on, overlooked, and abused by pompous jerks at the top, but that's just me.

That aside, she lived above the coolest, run-down bar in all of Seoul, with two of the cutest, if not unbelievable bar maids in all of Korea.

Better still, the Yakuza doing all of Miyazaki's bidding was none other than Kim Hun goo from the earlier and BETTER days of 2 Days and 1 Night!

She also had a bad case of zits atop her forehead while the guy mucking up the works for everyone at the Corporation had a herpes outbreak that couldn't be denied.

Kang ho's younger brother (Suh Dong won as Kang min); the Bruce Lee wannabe, almost stole the show, he was that funny.

Also gave me a bad case of the munchies every night I watched, until I began to crave chicken wings since Kang ho and his educated but unemployed buddy tended to eat them every time they got together to bitch at one another out of spite.

How many chicken bones DID he chuck at Kang ho in the course of this drama, anyhow?

(do they REALLY talk with their mouths full over there?)

AND!

For the first time EVER, I actually hated Oh Ji ho's character start to finish, and I never thought that would ever happen, either.

As for the star of the the show, I still don't know what to think - I know he's the lead singer for one of my favorite, KPop bands, and at that time he had a mighty fine head of hair - but, I just, don't know how I feel about him in the love-interest category.

Let's just say he isn't bad and leave it at that.

He could certainly pass for Rain's older brother if they every decide to put those two together in a movie or drama!

It might not sound like it, but the longer that I watched this drama, the more involved that I became until I found myself staying up til WAY past my bedtime just to find out what would happen next.

LOVED it, and I think you will, too, if you haven't watched yet.

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