Tuesday, August 25, 2009

My Lovely Sam-Soon


My Lovely Sam-Soon (Nae I-reum-eun Kim Sam-soon/내 이름은 김삼순), or My Name is Kim Sam Soon, is a 2005 Korean romance/comedy drama. It stars Kim Sun Ah, Hyun Bin, Jung Ryu Won, and Daniel Henney. The synopsis is as follows [episode-by-episode synopsis here]:

Kim Sam Soon is a baker who has a talent in making pastries and cakes. On Christmas Eve, she caught her boyfriend, Min Hyun Woo, cheating on her and breaks up on the same night. On that same night, she accidentally went into the men's restroom and met Hyun Jin Hun, a somewhat callous fellow but sometimes considerate guy. By sheer coincidence, Jin Hun needs a baker for his restaurant Bon Appetit and Sam Soon is unemployed. Sam Soon is hired as the restaurant's chief baker and the two fights like cat and dog. Nevertheless, they started to have feeling for each other and Sam Soon agreed to post as Jin Hun's girlfriend so his mother would leave him alone. Things got complicated when Jin Hun's ex-girlfriend Yoo Hee Jin came back from the States intending to win him back.

This drama has been on my list of dramas-to-watch for quite a while and I finally got to it. :) Since today's the last day of my summer break (school starts again tomorrow!), I decided to just relax because once school starts, school is life. It's a pretty cute movie but with some stereotypical characteristics (i.e. a guy and girl who get together because they'll "never" be together, an illness, love triangles and squares) but on the other side, it's tweaked a bit.

For instance, the main female lead isn't one of those obviously pretty and slim females who turn heads wherever she goes. She's slightly plump and 30 years-old and she has an attitude to go alone with it. Of course, she's also pretty as well and it's not like she has rolls or anything, just a little squish. Then there's the 27 year-old male lead who's just great to look at and owns a high-class restaurant, where all of the female staff have a crush on him. Honestly, Jin Hun's ex looks more like the stereotypical "other half" but anyway, I like this inconsistency. :) The romance grows gradually and it's really cute and funny and there are several funny constants throughout the drama like the men's restroom, a certain blind date that is always interupted by Jin Hun... Ah yes, and English is also spoken in the drama, and it's not the Korean-accented English either and it's not only one small conversation but entire scenes were filled with it.

Anyway, even though it's a drama with all the usual things in it, it hooked me in it and I ended up finishing it in two days. I highly enjoyed it and I thought the acting and the chemistry was there.

You can watch it here.
Picture taken from here.

1 comment:

Sparks of Ember said...

I've heard a lot of conflicting things about this drama - seems people love or hate it. I think I'm going to have to watch it since everyone's so conflicted about it. Thanks for the review!