21 April 2009

Korean Dramas

The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince

The life of Go Eun Chan (Yoon Eun Hye) is not easy; she works many jobs to pay off debts and even gave up her feminine image. Choi Han Kyul (Gong Yoo) is the heir of a big food company, but his grandmother wants him to settle down, so she arranged many dates for him. After Eun Chan bumped into Han Kyul and was mistaken for a boy, Han Kyul decided to hire Eun Chan to be his gay lover in order to avoid the arranged dates. Desperately in need of money, Eun Chan had no choice but to accept. Han Kyul's grandmother also made Han Kyul in charge of a filthy coffee shop in danger of being bankrupt. Eun Chan begged to work at the coffee shop, and not long after, feelings start to spark, except, how would Han Kyul accept his "homosexuality"?


Princess HourS

Set in an alternate 21st-century reality where Korea possesses a royal family, this show revolves around the lives of the Crown Prince (Hwangtaeja) Yi Shin, and his new bride, Chae-kyeong. The depicted royal family in the show is modelled after the last royal family of Korea, which in reality reigned until the start of the Japanese Occupation in 1911 and was not reinstated after Japanese surrender in WW2.
The series starts off with the news that the King, Shin's father, is very ill. With the grim outlook on the King's health, the royal family scrambles to find a wife for Shin, so as to allow him to take over the royal throne if the situation requires. Despite being in love with another girl, the ambitious and talented ballerina Hyo-rin whom Shin initially proposed to (she rejects him to pursue her ballet dreams), Shin eventually marries a commoner to whom he was betrothed by his late grandfather in an old agreement with the girl's grandfather. Shin marries the headstrong yet lovable Chae-kyeong after Hyo-rin's rejection. Despite initially feeling nothing for Chae-kyeong, love eventually blossoms between the couple.
In the meantime, however, matters are further complicated with the return of Yi Yul and his mother Lady Hwa-Young, who was once the Crown Princess (Bingoong) before the death of her husband, the late Crown Prince, older brother of the current King. Yul and his mother were chased out of the palace some time after the death of his father, and it is later revealed that this was due to the King's discovery of an affair between Yul's mother and the current King who was his father's younger brother. Yul's mother had returned with a sinister motive in mind; to restore her son back to the throne, which would have been his eventually, if his father had not died. A series of events befall the palace with the schemes Yul's mother carries out, and is further intensified by the various scandals involving the royal family, which are inclusive of the Shin's continuing relationship with his old flame Hyo-rin, and the budding love Yul develops for Chae-kyeong, his cousin's new-found bride.



Witch Yoo Hee

As the director of her father's advertising company, Ma Yoo Hee (Han Ga In) is known as a witch for her ruthless, no nonsense character. After a string of failed attempts to hire a housekeeper, she (literally) runs into Chae Moo Ryong (Jae Hee), ex-medical student turned aspiring chef. As a way to work off his debt for crashing into her car, he agrees to become her housekeeper and personal love affairs coach for one month. Gladly, he gives her a makeover that attracts both her old friend Johnny Kruger (Dennis Oh) and her first love Joon Ha (Kim Jeong Hoon). Despite having a girlfriend, Sung Mi (Jun Hye Bin), Moo Ryong eventually finds himself falling for Yoo Hee.





Wonderful Life


Han Seung-wan (Kim Jae Won) leaves for Singapore to surprise his girlfried on her birthday, and Jung Se-jin (Eugene) is on the same flight to say farewell to her deceased "first love" who died in Singapore. When literally bumping into each other at the airport, they accidentally take each other's passports. They meet again and Seung-wan and Se-jin end up spending the day together. Se-jin knows about his girlfriend, who is two timing Seung-Wan with Min Do-Hyuk (Lee Ji Hoon). Partially to help Seung-Wan avoid from discovering the truth, Se-Jin spends the rest of her time with him. They both get drunk out of sadness of their loves, and end up sleeping together. Back in Korea, Se-jin discovers she is pregnant. She leaves to have the baby alone. A series of events happens for about a year, and Se-Jin's clueless sister ends up spilling the secret to Seung-Wan at this engagement party, showing up with Han Shin-Bi (Jung Da Bin), his daughter, without Se-Jin. Seung-wan's life is forced to face fatherhood and the anger of his two-timing girlfriend - Lee Chae-young (Han Eun Jung). Se-jin reappears as they are forced to marry by their respective families. Complicated love takes place, as Do-Hyuk starts to fall for Se-Jin, and so does Seung-Wan, though Se-Jin is more focused on her loving daughter, as something surprising happens to her. The rest of the story revolves around the family's journey in learning to take responsibility, and learning to love each other.




Only You


Eun Jae (Han Chae Young) was a stubborn and head-strong girl who had a passion for cooking. She did not have any interest in going to college and with the help of her hig school friend, Jung Hyun Sung (Lee Chun Hee)ran away to Italy to enroll in a cooking school. Jung Hyun Sung who loved her dearly went along with her.
Han Yi-Joon (Jo Hyun Jae) came from a wealthy family. He travelled to Italy looking for his mother and there he ran into Eun Jae, who had also been seeking the same person to learn the secrets to making great pasta. She comforted Yi-Joon, who was distraught over his mother's remarrying, and they ended up making love. Yi Joon left Eun Jae the next morning over some misunderstanding. Eun Jae became pregnant and had no choice but to give up her dream and to return to Korea.
6 years later, Eun Jae was working in low paying restaurant jobs, Yi-Joon atarted to take over the operations of his family's business, and Hyun Sung was working as a chef for one of the restarurants owned by Yi-Joon and managed by Ji Soo Yeon (Hong Soo Hyun). Hyun Sung was good with Eun Jae's son and he was helping out Eun Jae's whole family financially as they had fallen on hard times. Yi-Joon found out that he still had feelings for Eun Jae as they ran into each other when he was looking for a new chef for his restaurant. The dramatic tension unfolds as the four main characters worked out their feelings for each other.



Hello! MisS

Lee Soo Ha, 38th granddaughter of the Jae Ahn Lee clan and owner of the clan manor Hwa Ahn Dang, is trying to save the place from going bankrupt. Hwang Dong Gyu, oldest grandson of the president of TOP Group, is trying to buy Hwa Ahn Dang because his grandfather, who was once a servant at the manor, cannot rest in peace unless he spends his last days in Hwa Ahn Dang's master suite. Hwang Chan Min, Dong Gyu's playboy cousin, is his rival in business and love. Enter Seo Hwa Ran, a model who has a secret history with and a secret plan for Hwa Ahn Dang (and Chan Min), and Lee Joon Yong, Soo Ha's brother and Chan Min's friend who can't forget a girl from Hwa Ahn Dang he knew when he was a kid...
This drama is adapted from the novel, "Kimchi Mandu."

I'm Sorry, I love You

Cha Moo Hyuk (So Ji Sup) is an orphan that was abused by his adoptive family. So he ran away and learned the way of the streets, meeting all sorts of people. Because of an accident involving is ex-girlfriend, he has 3 months to live. So he goes to Korea filled with anger and hurt about his birth mother.
Then in Korea he meets someone he least expect himself to love. But how can he be able to love, hate, and revenge within the short three months of his life?

A LOVE TO KILL

In A Love to Kill, Bi/Rain/Jeong Ji-Hoon plays a tough guy as the role of a K-1 Fighter, Kang Bok-gu. Bok-gu is a character who is dynamic in nature and grew up in a foster home. He falls in love with a woman whom he should not love. It was because of the woman, his emotionally-wounded brother fell off from the rooftop and became a human vegetable. So, his love is forbidden and inevitably tragic.
The woman is Cha Eun-seok (Shin Mina) who is a TV talent and movie actor. It was not that she jilted his brother on purpose, but upon a basis of misunderstanding, his hatred toward Cha Eun-soek grows more and more burning.
By becoming Cha Eun-seok’s private bodyguard, Bok-gu keeps concretely practicing his revenge upon her. He only desires ‘to bring his brother’s woman to her knees.’ He is gradually taking Cha Eun-seok to destruction, while he feels his love toward her growing deeper and deeper in his heart.Bok-gu is a cold guy character without any special concern for woman. Martial art of hand-to-hand fighting was just kind of his escape he choose from the shock of a spinster’s death whom he loved from a distance.

Goong S
The Empress (Myung Se Bin) is in her early 30s, but she is still not married. Since, the 1st successor to the throne died, the royal family is in search for a new successor. Incidentally, they come to know of a young man who was in fact a son of the prince to a woman who left the Palace for her to be able to keep her pregnancy a secret. The young man's name was Lee Hoo (Se7en), more commonly known to his friends as Kang Hoo. Lee Hoo worked as a delivery boy at a Chinese restaurant, and was known for his 7-minute maximum delivery time. Lee Hoo had been brought up as more of a punk than a prince so his habits and his way of conversing were very different from the people of royal blood. Although he had never dreamt of living in the Palace, he one day finds himself immersing himself in its grandeur and improving himself to prove that he indeed deserves to be called the Successor to the throne.
He soon finds out that not only will he be facing lessons to the path of royalty, and dilemmas of love and of stature, but he will also learn to compete for the position he had been, first and foremostly, called for.


FULL HOUSE


A story about love and heartbreak, sadness and self-preservation.
A naive, cheerful albeit, somewhat of a recluse writer, Han Ji Eun (Song Hye Gyo) is swindled out of everything she owns. Not by strangers, but her best friends! Stranded in China, she is determined to get home with the help of an actor, Lee Young Jae (Bi). She borrows money from him after coming up with a clever lie and plans to pay him back after landing in Korea, only to find that all which is precious to her has been sold. In an attempt to get her possessions back, she has entered in a contract marriage with Young Jae for one year. It is quite simple, until strong feelings start to develop. Everyone around them test the "love" Young Jae and Ji Eun have for one another.