My Name Is Kim Sam Soon, ep. 01-07 (no spoilers)

[oyceter]

This is the most of any kdrama I have watched! (I am only up to ep. 4 of Coffee Prince, though I keep meaning to finish.)

Kim Sam Soon is a pastry chef. On Christmas Eve (a big day for romance in Korea, I think?), she finds her boyfriend of three years has been cheating on her. Fast forward a year, and she ends up becoming the pastry chef for the restaurant Bon Appetit, run by young Hyun Jin Hun (his parents own a hotel chain). Jin Hun is, however, still obsessed with a girl named Hee Jin, and then there's a cute Korean-American named Henry Kim who gets thrown into the mix.

Kim Sam Soon's apparently the Bridget Jones of Korea; the descriptions of the show on sites describe her as "chubby" and "middle aged." She's 30 and skinnier than me, but still, at least she's 30. And Jin Hun is 27! The actress was also 30 while playing the part, and the guy who plays Jin Hun was 23 at the time.

So far, I am enjoying the wacky hijinks, the food porn (not enough!), and the way Kim Sam Soon yells at everyone. She has the same reactions I would have in many situations, which is a relief, because everyone else in the show is definitely from a kdrama. Also, Jin Hun gets whapped on the head a lot by his mom. This amuses me.

From this and Coffee Prince, I have now learned the following about kdramas (please let me know if I'm wrong! I am totally making this up):

• Love is best expressed via piggy-back rides. I vaguely remember rilina mentioning that this was a part of Korean wedding ceremonies?


• Tragic misunderstandings are good. Tragic misunderstandings brought about by the complete failure of people to tell the truth or say what they mean to are even better.


• Why have a love triangle when you can have even more complex shapes?


• Your childhood love will leave your for three years and never tell you why and expect you to understand this.


• The heroine must come from a poor background.


• The hero must be insanely rich.


• The old love interest will be the childhood love of the hero.


• The hero must have an overbearing mother who whaps him a lot.


• The heroine has an annoying sister.


• Everyone finds true love by getting into the restaurant business.


• If you ever hug someone of the opposite sex, your beloved will walk in on you.


• The best way to the hero's heart is to fall down clumsily in front of him, or to engage in other such embarrassing activities. If he smiles a teeny bit and hides it under immediate gruffness, you win!

I alas don't include Damo in here because I suspect historical kdramas are a different beast all together. Except the part about the love triangles, and possibly with additional swordfighting.

Please no spoilers in the comments! I'll post something with spoilers later.

Links:
- shewhohashope's write ups
- rilina's write ups

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Take out the annoying sister and replace "restaurant" with "hotel" and yup, that's pretty much every kdrama.

Damo should not be included, as it is, indeed, a whole other beast. And the best thing to ever emerge from Korea. I am amazingly picky about the modern kdramas I'll watch(I dislike Goong, almost everyone's favorite, and have given up on several, but like My Girl, 1% of Anything-where the acting is so bad it's charming-and Fantasy Couple) but will watch(or at least add to my list and hope to eventually watch) virtually any period kdrama. They really are completely different, wven the non-fighting ones like Hwang Jin Yi(though the unarmed but buttkicking bodyguard was the best thing about that show)

(meanwhile, 2 people on my list who, as far as I know, don't know each other at all, are watching KSS...I wonder if that's a sign?)

[oyceter]

Oooh what other period kdrama do you rec? And who else is watching KSS?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

her name's dangermousie, though most of my drama fans rec kss.

Emperor of the Sea is long but amazing. Hwang Jin Yi is one of the saddest(in terms of her life, not "everyone dies") things i've ever seen, but extremely good. Also stars Ha Ji Won(Chae-Ohk)

Haven't seen any more yet, but plan to watch Seo Dong Yo, Dae Jang Geun, Jumong, Legend, and Captial Scandal.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I want to watch Jumong, but I'm intimidated by the 80+ hours of it.

To be honest, I've probably already spent that much time watching different dramas if you combine everything I've seen.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

If you have watched any regular US TV show longer than 4 or so seasons, you've watched almost as long as jumong is.

[oyceter]

Oooo, thanks! OMG. I think I have already filled my new computer's hard drive after a week, thanks to all the recs.

A random drive-by commenter...

[jabbberwocky.livejournal.com]

I had a bit of a shock seeing Kim Sam-Soon on my flist; I have just finished watching the series and suddenly, its mention pops up everywhere!

Your list of kdrama tropes is so true, from what I've seen! Another series, Full House, contains 9 of your listed 12!

Re: A random drive-by commenter...

[oyceter]

Oh awesome! Who else is watching KSS?

Re: A random drive-by commenter...

[jabbberwocky.livejournal.com]

Two cousins of mine and some RL friends were all watching it, one of whom burned me the series (and another one that I've yet to watch: "If In Love...Like Them"). The way KSS was spreading seemed a bit viral with several unconnected people watching it around the same time, and then to see your post on it on my flist was, like, "!!!".

Re: A random drive-by commenter...

[oyceter]

Awesome! I love it when things like that happen.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Piggy-back ride = TRUE LOVE pops up in Damo too. How else would I know how the love polygons will be resolved? Of course they may be wily and confuse me with a piggy-back ride between the other sides of the polygon.

[oyceter]

Yes! I saw! In the flashbacks of incredible cute!

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that's two new series to watch in one morning! Cut it out, woman! ^_~

And I still haven't watched any of the Coffee Prince I "acquired". Time to clean out the hard drive!

[oyceter]

Muhahaha! I think I like Coffee Prince better so far, but that could just be because the insane romantic complications haven't kicked in yet.

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. Are you dling? Is there a subtitled version available?

[oyceter]

I'm dling KSS with subtitles. I think I just googled the name + torrent and found stuff.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

So, like, do you totally see how your genre breakdown above can be put into the Emperor's Heart to change the game into a soap drama? I need to watch more soaps but I bet we could make a version that works that way easy :)

[oyceter]

Ok, that is awesomesauce. We should definitely do a kdrama version.