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The 2010 Korean drama starring Choi Si-Won as Sung Min-Woo and Chae Rim as Yoon Gae-Hwa.
Brief summary: Yoon Gae-Hwa is a divorcee with financial struggles and Sung Min-Woo is a popular TV star. In their own spheres, they should have nothing to do with each other. Yoon Gae-Hwa takes up a job as a maid under an unknown client, who turns out to be Sung Min-Woo, and the two of them don’t exactly get along perfectly. They are set to part ways when a mysterious little girl is dropped off at Min-Woo’s apartment building. It’s going to take the two of them together to figure out who she is and how to deal with her.
This show was actually pretty cute. I started watching it for Choi Si-Won and was not disappointed with his part at all, but I didn’t have particular expectations for the quality or acting abilities of the other characters. It was better than even my lack of expectations!
The story isn’t quite what I thought it would be. I thought I was looking at a “love-at-first-fight,” contract-marriage theme. Although the characters are brought to work together with a contract, the story has a central theme on parenting and family. The main characters present two parents in completely different stages. Yoon Gae-Hwa is the divorcee who wants to support herself and her daughter Min-Ji. Min-Ji’s opinion of her mom matters to Gae-Hwa a lot, and Gae-Hwa is determined to only do that which would keep Min-Ji proud of her. On the other side, Sung Min-Woo starts off the drama not even knowing that he is a parent, so he behaves on his own however he likes. Ye-Eun’s existence and appearance turns him into a figurative porcupine, prickly all over. He doesn’t even know how to take care of her. The main idea that the writers were probably going for is that Gae-Hwa is the angel that shares her knowledge and virtues with Sung Min-Woo, who desperately needs them in order to be a better father.
Second to the main idea of how to be a parent is the concept of what we are willing to do as parents. Gae-Hwa’s ex-husband is the prime example of this kind of failure. He acknowledges that he is a father (unlike Min-Woo’s character) but what he is willing to do for Min-Ji is actually quite minimal. His negligence requires Gae-Hwa’s decisive action quite often! For Min-Ji, Gae-Hwa will go out of her way. In fact, all Gae-Hwa does is with Min-Ji in mind. Who is more interesting in this regard, though, is Sung Min-Woo. At first, Sung Min-Woo only makes monetary sacrifices for Ye-Eun. Gradually he progresses to donating his time, to both Ye-Eun and Gae-Hwa. And then in episode 14, Sung Min-Woo is willing to throw away what he had held most dear— his reputation. So where do we all individually lie on the scale of sacrifice, or how far are we willing to go for something (a child in the drama’s situation) that needs our attention? What does that say about our own characters?
A love interest comes third to how to be a parent and what do as a parent. The development between Gae-Hwa and Min-Woo was slow. Most of their bonding is over Ye-Eun. Only in episode 14 does Min-Woo recognize that he misses Gae-Hwa’s presence in his house. It’s definitely gradual. Some may say too gradual and almost not romantic at all. The final episode was more like a crash-course that barely scored an A- in the romance subject. For this reason, I’d label this drama as family-oriented instead of a rom-com.
But this drama is a cute one! It makes you think a lot about family, and it’s perfect for every Choi Si-Won fan! 4/5 stars!
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