Review on Korean Drama: Take Care of the Young Lady (2009)

Title: Take Care of Aghassi/My Fair Lady/Take Care of the Young Lady

Genre:  Comedy, Romance

Duration:  16 episodes

Cast:

Yoon Eun Hye as Kang Hae Na

Yoon Sang Hyun as Seo Dong Chan

Jung Il woo as Lee Tae Yoon

Moon Chae Won as Yeo Yi Joo

Yoon Ye Hee as Jo Mi Ok

Synopsis: Kang Hae Na belongs to the richest family in Korea and the most sought after by men and hated by women for her looks and her background.  She is the sole successor to the largest conglomerate company, Kang-san Group and has always lived her princess-like life in her castle-like house.

She lost both her parents when she was young and was brought up by servants who scamper to fulfil her every demand making her ill-tempered, rude and obnoxious.  Her grandfather could never say no to her demands further encouraging her princess-type attitude. 

Being the sole successor of the company, her grandfather had been pressuring her to marry and to take over the company but she continued with her devil may care attitude with the mentality that her grandfather would always shield her from everything and she would always have the money to make everything right.

When she met Seo Dong Chan, Yoon Sang Hyun, in a traffic accident, she refused to apologize for cutting him and threw him some bills to pay for the inconvenience.  Dong Chan’s pride was ruffled and a car chase ensued that ended in the police station after Hae Na tried to run his truck over. 

When Dong Chan and Hae Na’s lawyer was negotiating the price for settlement, Hae Na refused to settle and struck Dong Chan’s pride again telling him that he was really only after the money.  Instead of accepting the money, Dong Chan decided to pursue the case which led Hae Na to do community service and was humiliated in the tabloids. 
After that, it was an act of revenge after another for both parties that eventually led to Dong Chan rushing over to Hae Na’s house to demand an apology but meeting her grandfather instead.  After hearing the whole story, her grandfather decided to hire Dong Chan as Hae Na’s butler hoping that he could change her attitude for the better. 

In the process of changing her, Dong Chan eventually realized that Hae Na’s princess image is a ruse to protect herself from the hurt from others.  In reality, she is very lonely, clueless and wanting to trust someone without the fear of them being after her money.  Gradually, he started to fall in love with her and wanting to sincerely protect her instead of his initial plan of making her fall in love with him and pay for his debts.  Against his better judgement, he helps her develop a relationship with the Human Rights lawyer Lee Tae Yoon, Jung Il Woo. 

After some time, Dong Chan has developed his innate sense of knowing when Hae Na needs his protection; Hae Na started to depend on him more and more.  She even trusts his advice on how to run her company.  She was however devastated when she learns that his initial purpose was actually to seduce her and get her money.  She also learned that he was previously a gigolo and that made her doubt his sincerity from the beginning.

While she was debating whether she would trust him again or not, Tae Yoon begun to notice that she might not just be feeling friendly towards Dong Chan and begins to feel pangs of jealousy.  In the end, he demanded that Dong Chan stay away from his girlfriend specially when he learned that he had developed real feelings for Hae Na.

Hae Na realizing that she has fallen in love with Dong Chan was determined to give everything up just to be with him.  She however changes her mind when her grandfather suffered a major stroke after she confesses her love for Dong Chan and insists on marrying him. 

In the end, will their love be able to conquer all?  Will Hae Na give everything up for Dong Chan including her beloved grandfather?

Review: I felt bad for Il Woo.  His character was neither given any depth nor any chance to really shine.  Sadly, the story revolved only around the two main protagonists.  I wonder why he decided to go with this project specially after being the lead for the Return of Iljimae.  Although he looked so much better in his previous drama, he didn’t look bad.  Just too bad that he did not display any particular strength for his character in this drama.

I just felt that the drama lacked a cohesive story and an eventful ending.  It was simply a story of two people falling in love despite their past and their backgrounds.  I wished the writers gave it more depth and gave Hae Na’s character some growing-up pains and changing for the better besides realizing that she loves a man against everything she believed in.

Tae Yoon’s character started really well but went down flat and became a mere third party in the story.  Although his character lacked depth and story, I still loved seeing him smile.  It could melt my heart just seeing him smile and wishing earnestly that he would end up with YEH in the end.

I give this show 6 out of 10 stars because I like YEH but her hair drove me crazy.  It was just too red, too dry and too painful to watch specially that she’s a princess that could have gotten everything with money.  She could at least have her hair rebonded, fixed or could have worn a wig.