The promos for this drama were weird and honestly a little off-putting so I didn't think I was going to watch it in spite of the fact that I love Kim Sun-ah.
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| See. Weird. |
I mean, this show has SHOES!!11!!! Shoes! And the ladies love shoes, amirite? We want to make sure that every promo features the shoes because SHOES!!!
Yeah.
I'm not all that into fashion or shoes, nor am I all that drawn to noona-killer plotlines, so I figured I'd give this one a pass. I'm not even sure what made me watch the first episode.
But, you know, it's pretty good. It's fluffy, but there's some interesting stuff going on here, too. I don't want to post spoilers, so I'm going to stick to the most general points.
More than anything, the plot really picked up momentum when the B lead was introduced. Yeom Na-Ri (played by Lim Soo-hyang) is the young and ambitious daughter of the company CEO. But she has her own drive to succeed as she is the illegitimate daughter of his mistress. She has impeccable credentials but no real world experience. She makes the rookie mistake of trying to dominate Hwang Ji-An (Kim Sun-ah), her sunbae, rather than learn from her. It makes for a great antagonism that has nothing to do with a man.
Also, ignore that picture up there, because Park Geon-hyeong is the B male lead and he is sex-on-a-stick. If he and Kim Sun-ah dance the tango in this I will probably spontaneously combust.
The male lead actor, Lee Jang-woo is fine. He does have some chemistry with Kim Sun-ah (but she is like Ha Ji-won in that I challenge an actor to not have chemistry with her.) I think acting opposite Kim Sun-ah will make him improve over time.
If I could make a K-drama wish, it would be that A-chick ends up with B-dude and A-dude ends up with B-chick. I will be shocked if this actually happens.
One of my all-time favorite movies is Strictly Ballroom, so when I saw the synopsis for this I was sold.
It stars Moon Geun-young and Park Geon-hyeong. She's channeling her Mary character from Mary Stayed Out All Night a little bit in this one. She's got the innocent waif thing DOWN. In this case, she's an ethnic Korean from China in danger of human trafficking and Park Geon-hyeong is the best ballroom dancing instructor in Korea who is recovering from a leg injury and trying to find the will to dance again.
The romance in this is incredibly sweet and the soundtrack is awesome. I'm not familiar with Park Geon-hyeong's other work but he and Moon Geun-young do a great job with the choreography. The angst is good and serves the story well without being too over the top. I also liked the character arc that both the main characters go through; they both change for the better and I felt the happy ending was earned.
The story itself is pretty simple, there's no deep message here, but I liked the movie a lot and I would definitely watch it again.
Tropes that sucked me in: Contract marriage, forced living situation, ugly duckling turned swan (though in this case it was more clumsy duckling turned graceful swan).
