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.  

Review on Korean Drama: Painter of the Wind (2008)

Title: Painter of the Wind (2008)

Genre: Period Drama, Romance, Comedy
Duration: 20 episodes
Cast:
Moon Geun Young as Shin Yoon Bok
Park Shin Yang as Kim Hong Do
Moon Chae Won as Jeong Hyang
Bae Soo Bin as King Jeong Jo
Lee Joon as Shin Young Bok

Synopsis:

"What is a painting? Painting is the absence of someone or making you remember someone who is not there.  Painting is missing someone..."

In the beginning, it already gave me the expectation that it would not have a happy ending showing the painting of a woman and Kim Hong Do (Park Shin Yang) crying for the lady in the painting, talking about her as if she lives in his past. Kim Hong Do was a genius in painting, with a keen sense to details and so well-loved by the king that officials and painters envied him so much they schemed devious ways to send him away from the court.  He was sent to the mountains and was only allowed back to investigate the truth about the painting that made the queen so mad.

The woman in the painting is none other than his disciple, Shin Yoon Bok (Moon Geun Young) who was the daughter of Kim Hong Do's best friend.  It was believed that his best friend and his family were killed 10 years ago due to some big conspiracy that involves the legitimacy of the king.  When they were killed though, Yoon Bok was able to hide and evade being killed that night.

Yoon Bok was so talented that after her family was killed, she was adopted by one of the members of the Ministry of Painting, after seeing how talented she was in painting. He believed that with her genius in painting, she would be one of the royal painters someday and with this in mind, he adopted her.  He made her wear a man's clothes, and provided everything to develop her talent. At that time, women were not allowed to pursue the art of painting.  

To protect her and her identity, his brother, Shin Young Bok (Lee Joon) always followed her around making sure she's far from harm and from discovery.  Shin Young dared not confess his real feelings for her sister and preferred to exert all effort to support her and to make her happy even at the expense of his life.  To Young Bok, his adopted sister is simply "god".  He gave her unconditional and undying devotion, not sparing any thought for his well-being.  To save his sister, he would willingly lay his life for her, burying his feelings for her and watching her from a distance.

In the beginning, Kim Hong Do was  just so impressed with how talented Yoon Bok was that he could not bear to reveal that she was the one who was behind the painting that made the queen mad.  He could not bear to sacrifice losing her hand and so offered to have his hand destroyed in her stead.  He sent her away to protect her but realizing how her master would protect her, she decided to return and take the responsibility for painting the picture.  

Hearing her confess, Young Bok declared he was the culprit and begged to bear the full responsibility for the painting and to spare his sister.  Hong Do pleaded with the king, telling him that he could not bear to have this kind of talent go to waste that the king devised a plan to force the queen to cancel the harsh punishment. Instead, Shin Young Bok was sent to the place where they mixed paints.  Young Bok was more than happy to bear the consequences for his sister but Yoon Bok was distraught with guilt that her brother will suffer for her.  In her anguish, she also hit her hand with a big stone and lost her drive for painting.  

Hong Do had to carefully draw her out of the shell and make her want to paint again.  It started the journey for the master and disciple towards the pursuit of improving their craft and overcoming overwhelming odds.  Compared to the paintings at that time, both their paintings were lively-spirited, detailed and a lot were very controversial.  Shin Yoon Bok dared to confront the limits of society by painting women which were not allowed at that time.  It was believed that if they painted women, the painter would fall in love with the subject. She went to great lengths to portray every detail which made the paintings come to life and also which brought her to difficult situations for a couple of times.

After so much struggle and drama, Hong Do and Yoon Bok became the royal artists and were commissioned to paint the king's portrait to lift him to a new level. Yoon Bok was striving to please the king in the hopes that she would be able to ask the king to let his brother return to the ministry of painting to be able to paint again. Unfortunately, the paint (ink) to be used for the robe was jeopardized that Young Bok had to mix so much paint to be able to finish the king's portrait. Unbeknownst to Yoon Bok, his brother was poisoned due to mixing too much paint for her that he hallucinated and fell, dying instantly.  He visited her in her sleep and said his goodbye to her.  (This was where I started to cry...bawl was more like it)

Unable to accept his death, she tore the king's painting after hearing the ministers question the quality of the paint used in the portrait, calling it unfit and vulgar.  At that time, all paint to be used for the king's portrait had to be approved prior to being used.  This shocked everyone including the king and made him so furious he ordered to have her head cut.  

Hong Do knelt in front of the gate pleading for an audience with the king.  The king though was too angry he ignored the pleas.  Taunted by the other ministers on his sincerity for pleading for his disciple's life, he threw his precious hand into the fire to show and clamoured for the king to forgive her.  The king moved by the master's love for his disciple, decided to hear Hong Do's plea for her life. (I was just crying right when her brother fell until the final judgement was given. Longest I've cried for any scene. LOL)

Review:

This drama gave me so much pain.  I don't think I have ever cried that much for a drama it became ridiculous. I was crying even before the drama started and still crying even when the scene was no longer that dramatic. I just felt so much for the characters in the show. This show has superb cast and the leads were just awesome. 

I was initially disappointed and worried about the huuuuugeeee age gap between the leads.  I felt it would make the story awkward.  

Also, the parts wherein it showed Yoon Bok's confused towards the feelings she had for the Jeong Hyang (Moon Chae Won) made me cringe and I was almost wanted to literally grab her shoulders and stop her.  Being a genius, both artists had to struggle with so much specially Young Bok.  She was so passionate towards her art, so emotional that she unintentionally endangers everyone who loves her.    

I loved how they showed how the paintings were made and the passion the painters showed in creating their masterpieces that it actually made me want to paint...Unfortunately, painting never agreed with me.

I love his brother's selfless devotion to her, never sparing a thought for his well-being if it means Yoon Bok would be able to continue with her passion for painting.  It was an unrequited love until the end and the only consolation he got was a tearful hug he got from her when he gave her the paint that would ultimately lead to his untimely death.  Everything that Yoon Bok did that was careless was almost always because of her guilt for her brother's sacrifice.  I almost hated her for it because ultimately, Kim Hong Do would have to strive harder, offering his life in exchange for hers, time and time again.
It was evident that Hong Do loved Young Bok with his devotion and selfless offering to follow her wherever she may be.  For all the troubles she brought, she also breathes new life to his paintings and he begun to enjoy life again.   Unfortunately, in the end, all he had is the painting of her and forever be reminded of her absence and his pain.
Having seen so many Korean dramas, there are only a few actors who are able to bring so much emotion and character on screen without overdoing it.  A little quirk of the brow, a mischievous smile, expressive eyes...Moon Geun Young's acting was definitely excellent on this drama.  She brought so many emotions and so many expressions.  She really deserved to be the female protagonist for this drama.
This definitely would be one of my favourite dramas and a sure classic but I'm not sure I would recommend you to watch it unless you're prepared to shed buckets of tears.  Definitely 10 out of 10 stars for me.