Genre: comedy, romance, drama
Duration: 20 episodes
Cast:
Kim Sun Ah as Shin Mi Rae
Chao Seung Won as Jo Gook
Choo Sang Mi as Min Joo Hwa
Lee Hyung Chul as Na Jung Do
Yoon Se Ah as Go Go Hae
Choi Il Hwa as BB
Lee Joon Hyuk as Ha Soo In
Synopsis: Shin Mi Rae (Kim Sun Ah) is an ungainly, simple-minded, naive, and unenthusiastic about the political settings or making a stand on issues. She is a low-level civil servant who would rather make coffee for all the people in the city hall and/or photocopy books which she has been doing for the last seven years than take a stand on political issues. Her world is disturbed when she meets a tall, handsome, calculative and a formidable genius in the political arena, Jo Gook (Chao Seung Won).
Jo Gook is a manipulative, ambitious with strong political connections, and strikingly good looks. He was sent to Inju City, his birth place, to become the Deputy Mayor. At first, he could not understand why he was sent to such an indigent place when he should have been preparing for the next election. He believed he was abandoned once again by BB (Choi Il Hwa), a strong political leader who was believed to have put the current President in the office. As such, he was prepared to do everything possible to impress BB and also to prepare his path to becoming the next President. In order to impress the old man, he was willing to do anything and everything possible, without regard to consequences or his conscience. Everything is for his ambition including choosing his fiancée, Go Go Hae (Yoon Se Ah), who is the daughter of a big conglomerate firm.
When he was assigned to handle the Ms Baendaengi beauty contest as the new Deputy Mayor, Shin Mi Rae pursued him relentlessly to allow her to join the contest thinking the prize money would definitely help her pay for her ex-bf’s debts. She even had her friends crash the government’s website just to pressure the committee to remove the age restriction and to not focus on looks alone. Jo Gook hated her guts, the way she carried herself without reservation, how she believes she’s the fantasy of all men and shamelessly doing all sorts of work including painting houses, doing wallpapers, etc. But her never-say-die attitude convinced him to let her join the contest. Against all odds, she won the contest with a little help from him when they did the tango dance.
However, all was not well as the beauty contest was a mere set-up to allow the Mayor to allocate funds for the campaign of the current congressman. When Shin Mi Rae was told the truth, she had to make a decision to either let the issue go or to be the brave witness and fight until the bitter end. When she decides to confront the mayor about her missing prize money, she was dismissed and was forcibly dragged out of city hall. She then decides to mount a one-man protest, to stand firm even when people threw eggs at her and to not budge even when her dress was ripped when men were pushing her away. At first, she was fighting for the prize money but threats kept coming in to stop her from protesting and she realized then, she was already fighting against all the injustices she has suffered including for her friends and neighbours.
Jo Gook didn’t understand it then but he was suddenly arrested with a desire to protect this naive girl. Whether it was for his own ambition or earnest desire to help Shin Mi Rae, he hands her the information of all the illegal activities of the mayor which ultimately forces the mayor to resign and she finally receives her prize money. Jo Gook in the meantime discovers that his personal secretary has been spying on him and reporting to BB. He decides to break ties with BB and ultimately prove what he is capable of.
Jo Gook then invites Shin Mi Rae to go on an overnight trip with him and they suddenly realize their growing feelings for each other. Jo Gook, being a man who puts his ambition before his emotions, strived hard to put a cap to his feelings. It was later revealed that his goal was to persuade Shin Mi Rae to run for the upcoming mayoralty election. It was his turn to then to pester her and badger her to convince her to run for office. Shin Mi Rae believed the idea too absurd and absolutely turned him down. She was only forced to run for office when her best friend, who was dismissed from office because of her, submitted her candidacy and paid for the registration fee.
At first, her goal was just to garner enough votes to get the registration fee back. In the midst of her campaign, she was suddenly assaulted with awful rumours that she considered dropping out from the race. However, Jo Gook would not allow her to give-up insisting she should fight until the end for the people who worked hard for her because they believed in her. Shin Mi Rae makes another miracle and she wins the election.
Staying by her side, Jo Gook made a few realizations about his beliefs, his ambitions and his methods. As he spend more time with Shin Mi Rae, the growing contrast to their ways and beliefs becomes more apparent to him, him having no qualms about the methods he use and Shin Mi Rae believing that sincerity and honesty should be used in dealing with politics. Even when he realized they were complete opposites, he could not seem to stop himself from wanting to be with her more.
In the end, could he abandon his ambition? Can Shin Mi Rae survive in the chaotic environment of politics? Just how far can a relationship go when both of them come from opposing beliefs?
Review:
Kim Sun Ah played her character so well that there were moments when I cringed and hid behind my pillow in shame for her. There were just too many antics that would have killed me from shame if it was in real life.
Chao Seung Won played the dashing and handsome guy only too well that I could not help my heart fluttering in some of their romantic scenes. It also helped that they did a lot of HOT kissing scenes and he is one really, really good kisser. This drama has a lot of good kissing scenes and has the hottest kiss I've ever seen on a Korean drama.
One of my favourite scenes was when Mi Rae was convincing Jo Gook to let her compete and showed up wearing her swimsuit. I thought I would just die from shame. Also, when Mi Rae bumped into a guy selling water and the guy freaked. Ji Sook rushes over and offers to pay the guy but the he refuses and continues to make ruckus. Ji Sook then trying to control himself from hitting the guy out of frustration tells him he loves the woman so much it’s killing him but he is standing at the edge of the cliff and behind him the mountain. If he holds on to her, she dies and if he lets her go, he dies. There was just too much passion and hurt in his statement, just too beautiful and romantic. Also, after she won as Mayor, Jo Sook took her to the hill and showed her the whole Inju City and there, she pictured her dream for her city. I found it really sweet and inspiring. I also felt this was the beginning of the real change for Jo Sook.
In the process of the two leads falling in love, there were really sweet moments that made me understand how they feel so strongly about each other. But there was a nagging thought I had while watching the love between them happen and that would be, he has a fiancée. She may have been portrayed as someone bad but the thought of him having a fiancée and pursuing another woman kept disturbing my peace in watching the whole thing. It bothered me so much that it sometimes prevented me from enjoying the show fully and that Shin Mi Rae would accept a man who has already promised another woman to marry. I felt it just wasn’t right. I understand he’s hot and all that (tee hee!) but I just wish she had held back a little. But i forgive her though since Jo Gook looks really hot and dashing...just dreamy!
Also, how come she’s always going against women who are really beautiful? (In kim sam soon, she was against Jung Ryu Won who I also found very beautiful).
Also may be worth mentioning, I found his secretary very dashing. It's a shame he wasn't given a lot of break on this drama. I thought they would play the love triangle with him. He has a lot of potentials and I hope I would be able to see him as a male lead in another drama soon.
Although I found the drama entertaining, it seemed to be lacking something. I still have not figured it out yet though so I may be making amends to this entry soon. I give this show 8 out of 10 stars.
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