Yum - French pastries and a Korean Bridget who can cook!

My current favourite drama serial - My Lovely Sam-Soon - which, alas, comes on only once a week. Sam-Soon is a Bridget Jones-ish character - overweight, 'plain' (she's supposed to be plain but I think she looks ok and, in fact, some camera angles are rather flattering for her), and looking for a man who will marry her. She works as a pastry chef.

I'm not really into K drama but I really like this one. I stopped watching the one I mentioned before, Love Story in Harvard, after a few episodes. The male leads spoke astoundingly horrible English, and they were supposed to be the top students in their Harvard law class (!!) and the story was becoming unrealistic.

I like this Sam-Soon show because it is a refreshing departure from the other Korean but Taiwan-style melodramas about star-crossed lovers (though younger and wearing nicer clothes in the Korean ones) and people with various illnesses. Sam-Soon is not a slim long-haired 'pretty' girl, and her man, good-looking Jin-Heon, is rich (his family owns Bon Apetit, the restaurant where she works) and is younger than she is. She is forthright, sometimes bumbling, and 'common', very unlike the demure, pretty leads in other shows.

I also thought it was rather unusual for a 'conservative' society like Korea to produce and embrace this very honest look at single women. Sam-Soon, for example, very openly goes for matchmaking sessions (blind dates) and talks about them.

The show is not without its share of 'stock' characters, of course. There's the pretty, long-haired and slim ex-girlfriend (who had/has cancer), matriarchal mother (Jin-Heon's, who wants to run his work and personal life), over-protective mother (Sam-Soon's, who tries to beat Jin-Heon up on her daughter's behalf; too much beating and hitting on this show, I thought) and the ditzy, pretty, long-haired slim rich girl (Sam-Soon's former classmate who is now engaged to her ex-boyfriend).

Personally, I find that the characterisation rather imbalanced. It's very well done for Sam-Soon, her sister (pretty, long-haired and divorced) and Sam-Soon's ex-boyfriend (think the actor did a great job of looking sly, disgruntled and silly at the right times). Even Jin-Heon's character is not as dynamic. He is the usual rich mummy's boy, arrogant and self-centred. He's also got this rather annoying expressionless expression on his face when I think he's supposed to be surprised or shocked.

I also like it because it's a chick flick. I don't know why but I enjoy chick lit and chick flick stuff quite a bit. This show, in fact, came about from an 'Internet novel'. Not very sure what that is but maybe chick lit in a blog format??

I wonder if the writer/producers are also fans of BJD and Pride and Prejudice. There are these fights between Jin-Heon and Sam-Soon's ex-boyfriend which are so much like the Colin Firth-Hugh Grant ones. And there are these piano-playing scenes a la those in P & P, only the piano player is Jin-Heon. There was a particular scene where Sam-Soon left him at the restaurant after some piano-playing and I thought his reaction was just like Mr Darcy's when Elizabeth left after the piano-playing at his mansion. I wish, though, that they had got Jin-Heon to play some impressive classical stuff, rather than tunes like 'Over the Rainbow', which he made a show of playing professionally but sounded pretty ordinary to me.

I think most of you are bored out of your mind reading this but I really enjoy this show. Seems it was a hit in Korea, too, with enquiries about pastry courses going up and all. If my guess is correct, at most only GNH, my ex-roommate, is also watching this show. Bear Hugs, are you still connected to Channel 55? You can watch it on Sat nights.

Anyway, here is my lovely new Samsung (ha ha, so corny):

I'm not well-versed in all its 3G capabilities, though I know that if I had a Starhub line (which I don't) I could actually watch Sam-Soon on it. As it is, what is available to me are news, some local stuff and Taiwanese drama (just my luck). It can also do video calls, of course, but why would I want to do that?

Well, cliched as this will be, bon apetit! Hope you at least enjoy the scrumptious pastry pictures. Lots of those to be seen on the show.