Based on the popular manga, Oh Ha Ni is a clumsy student who falls for the perfectionist, Baek Seung Jo. However, Seung Jo is indifferent towards her and rejects her love. When Ha Ni's house collapses, she and her father moves into his long-time friend's house. It turns out that Seung Jo is the friend's son and Ha Ni is given the opportunity to be near the guy she loves. Will she be able to move Seung Jo's heart?
When I first caught wind that a Korean version of ISWAK would be coming out, I decided that I absolutely had to watch it; there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Of course, this doesn't mean that I wasn't apprehensive. ISWAK took us on for a long ride and there were plenty of moments where I experienced a lot of second-hand embarrassment, courtesy of the female lead, but I guess it was her "charm." It doesn't hurt that Kim Hyun Joong would be playing the male lead either. ;) The ratings for the drama weren't very good at the beginning due to other popular dramas (i.e. Kim Tak Gu) and some comments weren't very positive about Kim's acting, but I still went on with it and I'm glad I did.
The drama pretty much squeezed most of the events from ISWAK and a part of TKA into 16 episodes when compared to the 40 or so total episodes of the Taiwanese version combined. Because it was shorter, it wasn't that painful watching Oh Ha Ni finally catch Baek Seung Jo's eye, but I feel that the ending could have ended with more closure. Then again, I was watching this drama with the Taiwanese series in mind which was much longer. The acting wasn't horrendous - isn't he supposed to be a cold and stoic guy anyway?? - and I felt that the foreign girl, Chris, was rather likeable and her Korean sounded much better than the foreign girl in the Taiwanese version, but I'm not an expert in Korean so that's just how it sounded to my inexperienced ears. ;) The last episode didn't leave you hanging - it did show snippets of everyone else's love life, which I thought was cute, but it really was just a hint. Hints are nice, but I also like nice, long stories that show you everything; you tend to get more involved. ...On the other hand, it's a good thing that Playful Kiss was shorter. I really can't have my Internet lagging for too long. >.>
To sum it up: if you love ISWAK and want some semblance of it back, you should totally watch this. If you haven't watched ISWAK, you should still watch this (as well as ISWAK). If you're just lazy and don't want to go through the 40-odd episodes of ISWAK + TKA, then you should watch this just to get a good idea of the plot. When you have and decide that you want to see a more in-depth version, then watch ISWAK. :] This seriously hooked me in, haha. And even though it took me a year to complete ISWAK and TKA because it was that painful to watch the girl for the first couple of episodes, it really is a good series.
I watched it on hulu because the quality was excellent as well as the subtitles. I attempted to watch it on MySoju and DramaCrazy but the videos kept on getting all wonky. :/
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