As I told Bear Hugs, I caved in and bought the DVD set of My Lovely Sam-Soon, succumbing to my great need to know what happened in the end. Needless to say, I have stayed up nights to finish the show (only 16 episodes anyway). 
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that this is a romantic comedy. One reason why I like good romantic comedies is how they put across views about life, relationships etc more subtly than those heavy-going, serious dramas do.
Life, according to My Lovely Sam-Soon, is this:
Life is to be lived -- to be enjoyed, tasted, experienced, in all its bitterness, sweetness, uncertainty, happiness.
Some of my favourite scenes where this come across:
1. Sam-Soon occasionally has fantasies in which she imagines all kinds of funny things happening. She also has a few 'conversations' with her late father. In one, towards the end of the show when her relationship with Jin-Heon is finally back on track, she tells her father that she feels very happy and fortunate. However, she is crying and when her father asks why, she says she is so happy that she is worried that this wonderful experience would just disappear. Her father says something like:
'You silly girl, why are you worrying about something that hasn't happened? You can't even finish enjoying all this happiness and you want to think about this?'
2. Jin-Heon's ex-girlfriend reminds him that relationships will lose their 'lustre' after some time, just like theirs, and asks him whether, knowing this, he still wants to go on with his relationship with Sam-Soon. He says:
'We all know we are going to die some day but we still carry on living our lives every day anyway.'
3. Sam-Soon echoes this view at the end of the show when she says:
'Who knows, one day our relationship may come to an end, but I'm not going to be frightened off by that thought... I'm going to work hard at loving this person.'
4. And Jin-Heon's personal mantra whenever he faces crises:
'At least I'm not dead.'
I enjoyed the dialogue in the show so much, despite my horrible Mandarin and having to figure out what they are saying from the Mandarin subtitles! I can only imagine that the script in Korean is just crackling with life. The funny lines are so well-embedded that sometimes, the line is over before you realise it. And it's really funny throughout the show - even the 'bedroom scenes', their 'romantic' scenes, and Sam-Soon's 'confrontations' with the ex-girlfriend, etc have their funny parts. The sub-plots were funny, too, especially the ones about the co-workers from the restaurant, who I couldn't help but think of as cartoon characters.
I read somewhere that to create humour in a story, you must introduce the 'unexpected' and let me just give a couple of examples:
1. When Jin-Heon kisses Sam-Soon and tells her he can't stop thinking about her, they are in the gents' and she is dressed in her very un-glam home clothes - grubby t-shirt, long shorts and slippers!
2. The whole sequence about Jin-Heon trying to win Sam-Soon's mother's approval. He went on the Internet to get help with how to get into the good books of your future mother-in-law, and when he got to Sam-Soon's house, he was trembling in fear. And I'll bet you will never guess what gift he got the mother -- a pet dog! And then they all ended up going to the KTV lounge, which was quite, quite hilarious.
And the soundtrack sounded pretty good, though I'd have no clue what the songs are about if not for the subtitles.
I thoroughly enjoyed the acting, too. But I must say that the maturity of the actress playing Sam-Soon, both in terms of experience and talent, overshadowed that of the guy who played Jin-Heon. Not that he's a bad actor or anything. It is just that she's the so-much-better of the two. Anyway, apparently, he's quite a newbie in the business and I'm sure he will improve and also, he somewhat makes up for it with his very good looks:
Guess this is about all you can take about the show, especially if you haven't watched it, but let me just end with a poem that Sam-Soon read at a bus-stop, which is, well, life, according to Sam-Soon:
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that this is a romantic comedy. One reason why I like good romantic comedies is how they put across views about life, relationships etc more subtly than those heavy-going, serious dramas do.Life, according to My Lovely Sam-Soon, is this:
Life is to be lived -- to be enjoyed, tasted, experienced, in all its bitterness, sweetness, uncertainty, happiness.
Some of my favourite scenes where this come across:
1. Sam-Soon occasionally has fantasies in which she imagines all kinds of funny things happening. She also has a few 'conversations' with her late father. In one, towards the end of the show when her relationship with Jin-Heon is finally back on track, she tells her father that she feels very happy and fortunate. However, she is crying and when her father asks why, she says she is so happy that she is worried that this wonderful experience would just disappear. Her father says something like:
'You silly girl, why are you worrying about something that hasn't happened? You can't even finish enjoying all this happiness and you want to think about this?'
2. Jin-Heon's ex-girlfriend reminds him that relationships will lose their 'lustre' after some time, just like theirs, and asks him whether, knowing this, he still wants to go on with his relationship with Sam-Soon. He says:'We all know we are going to die some day but we still carry on living our lives every day anyway.'
3. Sam-Soon echoes this view at the end of the show when she says:
'Who knows, one day our relationship may come to an end, but I'm not going to be frightened off by that thought... I'm going to work hard at loving this person.'
4. And Jin-Heon's personal mantra whenever he faces crises:
'At least I'm not dead.'
I enjoyed the dialogue in the show so much, despite my horrible Mandarin and having to figure out what they are saying from the Mandarin subtitles! I can only imagine that the script in Korean is just crackling with life. The funny lines are so well-embedded that sometimes, the line is over before you realise it. And it's really funny throughout the show - even the 'bedroom scenes', their 'romantic' scenes, and Sam-Soon's 'confrontations' with the ex-girlfriend, etc have their funny parts. The sub-plots were funny, too, especially the ones about the co-workers from the restaurant, who I couldn't help but think of as cartoon characters.
I read somewhere that to create humour in a story, you must introduce the 'unexpected' and let me just give a couple of examples:
1. When Jin-Heon kisses Sam-Soon and tells her he can't stop thinking about her, they are in the gents' and she is dressed in her very un-glam home clothes - grubby t-shirt, long shorts and slippers!
2. The whole sequence about Jin-Heon trying to win Sam-Soon's mother's approval. He went on the Internet to get help with how to get into the good books of your future mother-in-law, and when he got to Sam-Soon's house, he was trembling in fear. And I'll bet you will never guess what gift he got the mother -- a pet dog! And then they all ended up going to the KTV lounge, which was quite, quite hilarious.
And the soundtrack sounded pretty good, though I'd have no clue what the songs are about if not for the subtitles.
I thoroughly enjoyed the acting, too. But I must say that the maturity of the actress playing Sam-Soon, both in terms of experience and talent, overshadowed that of the guy who played Jin-Heon. Not that he's a bad actor or anything. It is just that she's the so-much-better of the two. Anyway, apparently, he's quite a newbie in the business and I'm sure he will improve and also, he somewhat makes up for it with his very good looks:
Guess this is about all you can take about the show, especially if you haven't watched it, but let me just end with a poem that Sam-Soon read at a bus-stop, which is, well, life, according to Sam-Soon:Go ahead and love, like you've never been hurt before
Go ahead and dance, like there's no one watching you
Go ahead and sing, like there's no one listening to you
Go ahead and work, like money doesn't matter at all
Go ahead and live, like today's your last day alive...
(translation taken from this blog post)
Pictures all taken from this website. Have no clue what anything on the website means but managed to get the pictures!
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