2 So Ji-sub Films That Will Make You Cry (+6 of His K-dramas)

ALWAYS | BE WITH YOU | THE MASTER'S SUN | I'M SORRY, I LOVE YOU | OH MY VENUS | MY SECRET, TERRIUS | GHOST | ONE SUNNY DAY

📽️ Always (오직 그대만) ☆☆☆
📽️ Be With You (지금 만나러 갑니다) ☆☆☆
Ghost (유령) ☆☆½
I'm Sorry, I Love You (미안하다 사랑한다) ☆☆½
The Master’s Sun (주군의 태양) ☆☆½
My Secret, Terrius (내 뒤에 테리우스) ☆☆☆
Oh My Venus (오 마이 비너스) ☆☆☆½
One Sunny Day (좋은 날) ☆☆½

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“Always”

오직 그대만
☆☆☆☆
Chul Min (played by So Ji-Sub)
Jung Hwa (played by Han Hyo-Joo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Don’t let these sunny photos fool you. “Always” (오직 그대만)  just about broke my heart.

After spending 4½ years in prison, Chul Min is trying to turn his life around. Working multiple jobs to make ends up, the former boxer starts a new position as a night-time parking attendant. There, he meets Jung Hwa, who has grown accustomed to “watching” TV shows with the previous elderly attendant. Though she lost her sight — and her parents — in a horrific car accident, she enjoys having the visuals described to her and sharing snacks.

During one of their conversations, she asks him if he is handsome. Since Chul Min is portrayed by So Ji Sub, the answer — of course — is yes. But he says, “People tell me that I look manly.”

Smiling, Jung Hwa says, “Ah, that means you’re not very good looking.”

As vivacious and optimistic as Chul Min is sullen, Jung Hwa’s glass-half-full outlook on life begins to rub off on him. Their friendship progresses along nicely into romance, with Chul Min wanting to become a better man for her.

But when he saves her from being assaulted by her boss and severely beats him, Jung Hwa begs him to stop. Even though he saved her from being raped, her fear was that she would be fired. Jobs are so difficult to come by in South Korea. For people with disabilities, they are nearly impossible.

Viewers learn what Jung Hwa doesn’t know. After his boxing career ended, Chul Min worked as an enforcer collecting debts and severely beat people who couldn’t pay. During one such collection, his desperate victim set himself on fire. Chul Min tried to save him just as the police arrived and arrested him for attempted murder.

When Jung Hwa has the opportunity to get surgery to restore her vision, Chul Min tells her he has some savings to cover the procedure. Through his boxing connections, he signs up for a illegal ultimate fight in Thailand where he will earn $30,000, if he isn’t killed in the fight. He wins, but ends up crippled by the criminals who never thought he would survive the tournament.

Jung Hwa, meanwhile, resumes her sculpting career and makes a fine living with her creations. (And, yes, I couldn’t help but think of Lionel Richie’s video for “Hello” during her sculpting scenes.)

For two years, Jung Hwa has no idea where he is. When they are reunited, she doesn’t realize who he is, but her dog does.

Both So and Han Hyo Joo (“Happiness,” “Moving,” “W”) are appealing in their roles. They convey the right emotions, without being maudlin or resorting to histrionics.

Some might say that the ending to this 2011 film was cheesy, but I found it to be delightful and full of hope.

Spoiler alert: We learn in the movie that Jung Hwa’s parents were killed in the same car accident that left her blind. The last scene she remembers before their car crashed was watching as a burning man fell out of a building. The man was the one who Chul Min had beat up, and then tried to save. Before he jumped, he told Chul Min to change his life — that the way he was surviving was no way to live.

It wasn’t just love that spurred him to the underground fight in Thailand, but also guilt. Once he realized that he was responsible for Jung Hwa losing her sight, he knew he was also responsible for making things right. And, in the end, I believe he finds a bit of redemption.

Release date: October 20, 2011.

Running time: 106 minutes.

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“Be With You”

지금 만나러 갑니다
☆☆☆☆
Woo-Jin (played by So Ji-Sub)
Soo-Ah (played by Son Ye-Jin)
Ji-Ho (played by Kim Ji-hwan)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I knew going in that “Be With You” is a love story, where the plot is driven by the wife’s death and a fantastical premise of coming back to life. But the ending was unexpected…in a good way…and tied the film up in a way that gave me all the feels.

As the story unfolds, Soo-Ah has been dead for a year. Her husband, Woo-Jin, was a former swimming champion. But an illness forced him to quit. He works a menial job at the local pool, where a smitten co-worker gently flirts with him. But he is oblivious to her attention. He is still mourning Soo-Ah’s death. He’s also busy raising their first grader, Ji-Ho, who clings onto the hope his mother will return one day.

When he needs his mother’s comfort, he makes do by curling up amongst her clothes in her armoire.

That was the premise of a book his mother had made for him — that a Mother Penguin was watching her baby from way up in the clouds. But during the rainy season, she came would return to (temporarily) be with her child.

And that is what happens one day. But there’s a catch: The woman who re-appears has lost her memory and is confused. She doesn’t realize she’s a wife and mother, but allows her memory to be jogged by Woo-Jin’s anecdotes (and home videos). As the days pass, she begins to remember more of her past.

In a review in the Korea Herald, its film critic made an odd observation: “Their chemistry with the child actor is quite astonishing, which is somewhat ironic considering that the both are childless.”

Wow. It’s almost as if a good actor can portray someone they’re not. Interesting…

The acting by all three lead actors is superb. Younger actors play them as high school students. And though So and Son are both much too old to realistically pass as college students, their performances are so subtle and sweet that they beautifully convey the angst and thrill of first love.

Kim Ji-hwan is precociously adorable as Ji-Ho. And you have no doubt that (as his mother says) he will grow up to be as handsome as his father. (And he does. Park Seo-Joon makes a cameo appearance as the 18-year-old version of Ji-Ho.)

Release Dates: South Korea: March 14, 2018; United States: April 6, 2018; Singapore: April 19, 2018.

Running Time: 132 minutes.

Spoiler Alert: Soo-Ah kept a diary, including entries about her high school crush on Woo-Jin. When she has to return to the clouds (so to speak), she leaves it behind for him. He learns that when she was a graduate student, she saw him walking away and ran across the street to catch up to him. She was hit by a van and remained in a coma for six weeks. When she awoke, she had jumped eight years into the future — as Woo-Jin’s wife and Ji-Ho’s mother. Through more time travel —  which, frankly, was confusing — she had the choice to carve out a different life for herself, where she could grow older in a new relationship. Or, she could be with Woo-Jin and Ji-Ho, knowing that she would die at the age of 32. “I survived that accident, because you and Ji-Ho were desperately waiting for me in the future,” she wrote in her journal. The film ends with Woo-Jin sitting alone outside. Though never said, it’s strongly implied that he never remarried after her death.

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“Ghost” (aka “Phantom”)

유령
☆☆½
Kim Woo Hyun / Park Ki Young (played by So Ji-Sub)
Yoo Kang Mi (played by Lee Yeon-Hee)
Kwon Hyuk Joo (played by Kwak Do-Won)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“My motto is, ‘Don’t believe anything with a mouth.'”

That’s sound advice, coming from Kwon Hyuk Joo (aka Crazy Cow), the head of the cyber unit. And that’s also good advice when trying to figure out who’s telling the truth in this 2012 police procedural.

The series starts with the apparent suicide of a starlet, online hacking and police corruption. And at the end of its 20-episode run, it ends with another suicide. Most of the mysteries have been resolved and there appears to be a happily ever after finale for the main characters.

Former classmates Ki Young (Daniel Choi) and Woo Hyun (So Ji-Sub) face off.

At the police academy, Woo Hyun and Ki Young were best friends and at the top of their class. A computer whiz, Ki Young stumbled upon coded files that revealed corruption within the police force, including Woo Hyun’s father. Kicked out of the academy, Ki Young disappears.

When they meet again, they are both in their early 30s and neither is who he appears to be. They are both painted as good, then bad and then … fate intervenes.

Daniel Choi as Park Ki Young.

Spoiler alert: Although I hate to do a spoiler alert this early in the review, it’s necessary since it’s an essential plot throughout the series. Also, the showrunners reveal this pretty early on in the series, so I don’t feel too badly about it.

Anyhow, both become victims of the starlet’s murderer in a fiery “accident” that leaves Woo Hyun dead and Ki Young severely injured. Thanks to a mixup in the nametags, the rescuers believe that Ki Young is actually Woo Hyun. Doctors perform cosmetic surgery to restore him to his (Woo Hyun’s) original looks. And Ki Young vows to avenge Woo Hyun’s death.

Would this happen in real life? No. Daniel Choi (the actor playing Ki Young) is handsome, as is So Ji-Sub (who plays Woo Hyun, and then Ki Young pretending to be Woo Hyun). But not even the most talented plastic surgeon could make a disfigured man look exactly like So Ji Sub — er, I mean — Woo Hyun.

Speaking of So’s looks, his features weren’t always considered handsome. According to a 2008 article in the Chosun Ilbo, So’s manager tried to get him (early in his career) to undergo plastic surgery to enlarge his eyes. He didn’t. And he’s a huge international star (not necessarily in the U.S., but there are countries besides ours, so…).

I remember my father used to show me portraits of people who were considered beautiful during his childhood. Back then, having smaller, less round eyes was the standard of beauty.

I’m not against cosmetic surgery if that’s something people really want to do. But there’s also value in seeing beauty in what’s already there.

And, frankly, look at him. His eyes are just fine. They also set him apart from some of his younger colleagues, who tend to have the same, cutesy look onscreen.

Back to the series. Faster than you can say Ctrl Alt Del, Ki Young and his cyber team are on it to try to get the powerful killer behind bars.

There were some really great moments in this series. I particularly enjoyed the backstory of Ki Young and Woo Hyun’s friendship and wish that both could have survived. I think of how the duo could’ve teamed up to bring down the bad guys. They also did a great job of hiding which members of the police were truly trustworthy.

But as with many police shows, whether it’s “CSI” or “Law & Order,” the director dragged out the main story at the expense of the more interesting subplots. The one that stands out in particular involves a string of apparent suicides at a cut-throat high school. The twists and turns in that episode were far more interesting than the big reveal that ended “Ghost.”

So Ji-Sub as Ki Young (pretending to be Woo Hyun).

Spoiler alert Part 2: The killer commits suicide at the end. He had killed his starlet girlfriend, thinking that she was going to turn him into the police for killing — well — a whole ton of other people. Ki Young shows him evidence that she was pregnant with his baby. That sends him over the edge (literally).

I didn’t buy it. This man is a sociopath who was incapable of loving anyone (other than his deceased father). Perhaps he mourned the loss of the baby that could have been. But, he’s also the type of man who would’ve replaced that child with another by any means necessary. He valued his own survival too much to throw it away.

Um Ki-Joon played this character at his smarmy best. (He played a much more sympathetic role in 2011’s “Dream High.”)

The guest stars:

There were a slew of recognizable actors and actresses in this series.

G.O (Jung Byung-Hee) of the K-Pop band MBLAQ is part of the police cyber squad.

Choi Jung-Woo, who played Joong-Won’s right hand man in “The Master’s Sun“, portrays a corrupt cop here.

Choi Jin-Ho, who played Young Ho’s right hand man in “Oh My Venus,” played an evil cyber guy here.

Ji Kyeong, who played Young Ho’s meek stepmom in “Oh My Venus,” plays the ruthless head teacher at Korea’s top high school.

Jae-Yoon Peter Lee, who you may recognize from the swimming and judo portions of “Cool Kiz on the Block,” plays an heir framed for murder.

Airdates: This 20-episode SBS series aired from May 30 to August 9, 2012.

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“I’m Sorry, I Love You”

미안하다 사랑한다
☆☆½
Moo-hyuk (played by So Ji-Sub)
Eun-chae (played by Im Soo-Jung)
Yoon (played by Jung Kyung-Ho)
Min-Joo (played by Seo Ji-Young)
Oh Deul-hee (played by Lee Hye-Young)
Gal-chi (played by Park Gun-Tae)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

There’s a scene early on in “I’m Sorry, I Love You” that encapsulates the best and worst elements of this dramatic series. A man returns to a strip club just as they are about to auction off a young woman, who doesn’t realize what’s happening to her. He grabs her from them and they outrun the goons sent to chase them down.

What she doesn’t know is that while she had been passed out drunk, he had sold her to the bar’s owner.

So, why the change of heart?

Part of the problem with this 16-episode drama (which aired in 2004 on the Korean network KBS) is that we’re not sure how to feel about him. Moo-Hyuk was abandoned at birth in Korea and sent to an orphanage, where he was adopted at the age of two by an Australian family. In his backstory, we learn that his adoptive parents were abusive and basically threw him away…just like his birth mom.

Angry and uneducated, Moo-hyuk is street smart and quick at picking up languages. Thanks to his Korean-Aussie girlfriend, he has learned to speak conversational Korean. He has also picked up enough Chinese and Japanese to scam Asian tourists who accept his offer to help them. Instead, he and his gang steal their valuables.

That’s how he met Eun-chae, the young woman he sold to the strip club. She’s a little mouse of a girl who walks around for most of the series with a confused look on her face.

She’s a complete doormat for Yoon, her childhood friend whose music career is on the rise. She works as his stylist and is in love with him. He is in love with Min-Joo, a popular actress who also happens to be one of Eun-Chae’s best friends. After seeing the two cozy up to each other on a videoshoot in Melbourne, Eun-chae tells them she’ll meet them at the airport. That’s when she got lost, was robbed and was “saved” by Moo-hyuk.

She could’ve saved herself some trouble by simply calling Yoon or Min-Joo. Instead of phoning them — or the rest of the team traveling with them — for help, she simply stares wistfully at photos of Yoon on her phone. That’s the kind of woman Eun-chae is. She’d rather put herself in danger than inconvenience others.

“I’m Sorry, I Love You” would’ve benefited from some taut editing. Had this series had been cut down to a 2-hour film or a 4-hour mini-series, the showrunners really could have created something special.

As much as I enjoyed looking at heartthrob So Ji-Sub, watching him suffer for 16 hours was just too much. No doubt Moo-hyuk has led an incredibly difficult life. First his birth parents abandoned him. Then his adoptive parents threw him out. And then his girlfriend dumped him for an old, Aussie mob boss. Why? She loves Moo-hyuk, she says, but the mob guy is rich.

The Aussies must run a nicer mob than Americans, because even after Moo-hyuk steals her away moments before she is to walk down the aisle, there is no retribution. When he returns her to the villa, no one so much as lays a finger on him. He does, however, end up with two bullets in the head that were meant for the mob boss. Even though his ex-girlfriend had betrayed him, Moo-hyuk tried to shield her from getting hurt.

One of the bullets would become his death sentence. The doctor’s prognosis: He has a year a live. The newly minted Mrs. Mob Boss tells him that her husband now wants him dead. She gives him “enough money to last a lifetime.” (How she managed to get that money without her husband knowing is beyond me.) She tells him to return to Korea to find his biological parents.

He flies off to Korea and is reunited with Eun-chae, who believes that he came all the way to Seoul because he is in love with her.

Unlike thousands of real-life adoptees who are unable to locate their birth families, Moo-hyuk learns that he has a twin sister, who has a young son who takes care of her. When she was 5, she chased after a car thinking that her birth mom might be in there and was hit by another automobile. Since then, her mental faculties remained at that age, which is why she named her son Gal-chi. (In English, Gal-chi translates into hairtail fish.)

The time that Moo-hyuk spends with his twin and his nephew are some of the best moments of the series. Gal-chi doesn’t have to be the adult of the house when his uncle is around. And his sister doesn’t have to worry about being assaulted by the neighborhood men, who know that she can’t and won’t fight back.

Later, Moo-Hyuk finds out that his birth mom is a famous, rich actress and that her son is none other than Yoon. He had always imagined that he was given away for adoption because his mother was too poor to raise him. Why did she throw him away? Devastated and enraged, he plots his revenge on both mother and son. He befriends Yoon and gets hired as his driver.

One of the more amusing elements was his plot against Yoon. Moo-Hyuk sets up a swanky pad in the same condo complex as Min-Joo (the actress that Yoon pines for). Instead of wearing his ubiquitous newsboy cap, he hides behind sunglasses, slicked back hair and a ridiculous little stick-on porn ‘stache. In almost every encounter they have, he ignores her, which only makes her want him more.

His plan works. Yoon discovers the two of them together and gets into what could be a fatal car accident. Yoon could survive with a new heart.

Moo-hyuk tells Eun-chae he will give Yoon his heart, if she will stay with him until he dies.

The real travesty is the time spent trying to spare everyone from getting hurt. When Eun-chae and Moo-hyuk realize they have fallen in love with each other, they spend so much time trying to protect each other from the inevitable that they waste precious time.

His Ex, who had married the mob boss, comes to Korea to find Moo-Hyuk and say she still loves him. She has left her husband and found a surgeon in Germany who was confident he could save Moo-Hyuk’s life.

Instead of devoting so many hours on the co-dependent relationships between Eun-chae and Yoon, and Eun-chae and Moo-Hyuk, I wish that the writers had spent more time on fleshing out some of the other characters. I would like to know what Yoon’s mother was like during her youth. Was there another side of her than what was presented to us? Giving up her first child for adoption could certainly be one reason why she overcompensated by coddling Yoon. (Although, allowing a 25-year-old man to crawl into her bed because he’s having a bad dream reeks of all kinds of ewwww.) But was she always so rude to people who weren’t family?

There is not one moment when she is sincerely nice to Moo-Hyuk — not even after she learns that he has offered to donate his heart to her son.

He never tells her that he’s her first-born son.

Spoiler alert: Moo-hyuk dies. He chooses to kill himself in a motorcycle accident. There is no last-minute miracle that saves him. And the scene is quite tragic. His body is buried in Australia. Eun-chae returns to Australia to visit his gravesite and kills herself.

Moo-hyuk’s birthmom never knew that she had a son. As a budding starlet, she had an affair with a married movie director who got her pregnant. Expecting to wake up to hold her child, she was instead told that he had died. She also wasn’t told that she had given birth to twins. Her parents had worried that her career and future would be ruined by the scandal. So they instructed her chauffeur to take the babies to an orphanage. The chauffeur was Eun-chae’s father.

Before Moo-hyuk died, Yoon told him that he had been adopted.

Yoon survives after receiving Moo-hyuk’s heart. He doesn’t tell his mother that the heart beating inside of him belongs to the son she believed to be dead.

A few thoughts about the adoption plot: While much of this series was overly dramatic, one aspect that rang true was the adoption plotline. To this day, there is a huge stigma surrounding unwed mothers in Korea, who have a very difficult time raising children as single parents. Employers can terminate them for their lack of “morals” and the government doesn’t provide the same sort of economic assistance as countries such as the U.S.

There is also the expectation that ethnically Korean people should be fluent in Korean, regardless of where they were raised. Because this was a Korean drama aimed at viewers who speak Korean, the series had explained that Moo-kyuk learned to speak nearly flawless Korean from his girlfriend. But for the majority of adoptees raised by non-Korean speaking families, this would be next to impossible.

The scene that best exemplified these expectations was when a Korean documentary crew interviewed Korean adoptees in Melbourne. When editing the piece together, the director complained about Moo-hyuk not using honorifics, as is customary in Korean speech. The fact that a young man who was an Australian national could even speak Korean was a feat in itself. (Imagine how they would’ve praised a white man who could speak a few words of the language.) It was heartbreaking that his achievement was seen as less than.

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“The Master’s Sun”

주군의 태양
☆☆½
Joo Joong-Won (played by So Ji-Sub)
Tae Gong-Sil (played by Gong Hyo-Jin)
Kang Woo (played by Seo In-Guk)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Joong-Won is the president of a huge department store and refers to himself as the master — a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by his employees.

Tae Gong-Sil can see dead people. They keep her up at night, asking her to help them resolve their unfinished business so that they may rest in peace eternally.

Taeyang, in Korean, means sun. And for much of the series, Tae Gong-Sil longs to be Joong-Won’s girl. (The Master’s Sun. Get it?)

When they meet up, Gong-Sil realizes that when she touches Joong-Won, the ghosts that torment (and entertain) her disappear. Why? We don’t know, but that’s the premise of this 16-episode ghost story, which provides equal parts drama and humor.

Joong-Won isn’t without his own tragedy. As a teenager, he and his girlfriend were kidnapped. He was rescued, but she died.

While this 2013 series clearly wants viewers to root for Joong-Won and Gong-Sil to couple up, the burgeoning romance grew old fast. The audience is expected to believe that Gong-Sil, with all her ghost-related problems and lack of appropriate hygiene, would be the object of affection not only from persnickety and unlikable (but handsome) Joong-Won, but also the sweet, young, model-worthy security guard, Kang Woo.

No. Just, no.

It is not easy to make So Ji-Sub appear anything less than swoonworthy. But here, he’s forced to wear a frown that’s almost as unpleasant as the unfortunate Boys Over Flowers hairstyle he’s sporting. (Whyyyyyyyy???)

As with many series, “The Master’s Sun” would’ve benefited from some judicious editing. Too much time is spent on whether or not this couple will get together. We all know they will. That’s a given.

The real meat of the storyline is Gong-Sil’s ability to put restless souls at ease.

When she goes all Nancy Drew and Joong-Won revs up his inner Remington Steele, they are unstoppable.

The stand-out episodes focused on abuse in the military, bullying at school and a hit-and-run death. There was also a rage-inducing and heartbreaking scene where a mother beat her pre-school age child for misplacing his backpack. When caught, she said it was her right to do so, since he was her son.

When I used to watch Korean dramas with my mother way back in the day, the storylines tended to be non controversial. I’ve been surprised that for all the chaste kisses that the leads bestow on each other, the subject matter in the current dramas are very progressive.

Besides the rich man/poor woman (or vice versa) storylines, the showrunners tackle child abuse, cosmetic surgery, adoption and transgender issues.

Kim Myung-Soo (left) plays the younger version of So Ji Sub’s character.

Lee Jong-Hyuk (“Once Upon a Time in High School“) guest stars as Joong-Won’s business nemesis, Lee Jae-Seok. Gong-Sil is being haunted by Jae-seok’s father, who died suddenly. His wish is that she hide something from his son. Jae-seok is positive that his father had a secret mistress. And by the look of all the high-end dresses and accessories in his father’s closet, it certainly appears that his suspicions are correct.

But Gong-Sil discovers that the elder Lee was a cross dresser who wanted her to destroy the photos that would out him to his family.

Throw in a few juicy subplots — a Mean-ish Girl movie star, a case of mistaken identity — and “The Master’s Sun” is entertaining enough.

But, it’s not in the same league as So’s superior series, “Oh My Venus.”

Spoiler alert: It turns out that Joong-Won was kidnapped by his girlfriend and her twin sister, who no one ever knew about. One twin had been adopted by a rich English family. The other had grown up in an orphanage in Korea. When one of them dies, the other twin takes her place.

Co-star bonus: Seo In Guk, who portrays Kang Woo — the head of security — made a big splash starring in K.Will’s 2012 music video of “Please Don’t.” In less than four-minutes, the director of that video presents a love triangle in a beautiful and tragic way. I’m not saying that “The Master’s Sun” should’ve been a 4-minute video. But, there’s something to be said for brevity once all the bases have already been covered.

If you haven’t already seen this video, I highly recommend it. The ending surprised me.

Airdates: This 16-episode series aired on SBS from August 7 to Oct. 3, 2013.

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“My Secret, Terrius”

내 뒤에 테리우스
☆☆☆☆
Kim Bon (played by So Ji-Sub)
Go Ae-Rin (played by Jung In-Sun)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

A spy and a widowed housewife become embroiled in espionage, kidnapping and murder. But it’s not all thrills in this breezy series (also known as “Terius Behind Me”), which offers comic relief in the form of an apartment complex full of nosy neighbors, who are almost as skilled in ferreting out secrets as the secret agents.

So Ji-Sub plays Bon — a stoic black ops agent whose code name is Terrius. Set up as a murderer, he has been hiding out and trying to clear his name. Ae-Rin (played by Jung In-Sun) becomes his unlikely ally. After her husband unwittingly witnesses a government official’s execution, he, too, is murdered. She becomes a person of interest to Bon professionally (and, later, personally).

In order to enjoy this series, it’s best to suspend your belief in reality and take everything with a grain of salt. Otherwise, we wouldn’t haven’t cute moments such as Terrius enjoying playtime as Ae-Rin’s babysitter for her highly active twins, who are as adorable as they are mischievous. Though the twins’ level of energy was played for laughs, most parents would agree that a 5-year-old child hopped up on ice cream could tire out even the most stealth secret agent. 

Son Ho-Jun plays Ae-Rin’s sleazy boss, who may (or may not) have a heart of gold. Son was so good in “Reply 1994” and “Go Back Couple.” Here, he is good at being bad. In real life, his actions would warrant prison time. But in the context of this drama, he’s an antihero who was clearly written to be liked. Even his victims forgive him (though I wouldn’t have).

I guessed all the plot points in this series and you probably will, too. What I will say is that while the relationship between Bon and Ae-Rin was sweet, it wasn’t the highlight for me. The best parts of this series revolved around the Kingcastle Information System (KIS) — the neighborhood watch group at Ae-Rin’s apartment complex.

Kang Ki-Young — who was so good in “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?” — is hysterical as the only male member of KIS. A stay-at-home dad, he is proud of his wife, who makes enough money to support their family.

So Ji-Sub is one of my favorite actors, but I am not a fan of his monotone delivery in roles such as this. He is such a nuanced actor that his skills seem wasted in this part, which could’ve been delivered by less-seasoned performers.

Still, he and Jung In-Sun share warm camaraderie and the series ends in a fun, hopeful way.

Airdates: Thirty-two half-hour episodes aired on MBC from September 27 to November 15, 2018.

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“Oh My Venus”

오 마이 비너스
☆☆☆½
Young Ho/John Kim (played by So Ji-Sub)
Joo Eun (played by Shin Min-A)
Woo Sik (played by Jung Gyu-Woon)
Soo Jin (played by Yoo In-Young)
Joon Sung (played by Bang Sung-Hoon)
Ji Young (played by Henry Lau)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I got hooked on “Oh My Venus” a few years ago when I was home sick with bronchitis. I started watching and was hooked to the point where I was trying not to fall asleep so that I could watch more.

An easy to watch rom-com, the 16-part series has its flaws (the fat shaming could’ve been toned down). But, it’s a fun, addictive show that lives up to the hype. The two leads share amazing chemistry and are just so enjoyable to watch.

When we first meet Joo Eun, she’s the prettiest girl in high school and is referred to as the city’s Venus. Knowing that every teenage boy in Daegu is is love with her, Woo Sik ups the ante by declaring her his first love. He gives her his gold medal from a national swimming championship.

She bites on it to make sure it’s real.

That’s the kind of girl Joo Eun is. Beautiful, but also practical and driven, and not so easy to impress.

Flash forward to present day. Still unmarried, the two have been together for 15 years. But instead of proposing, Woo Sik gently breaks up with Joo Eun.

(from L) Henry Lau, So Ji-Sub, Sung Hoon

Meanwhile, we meet John Kim, a mysterious personal trainer to the stars. Famous for whipping celebrities into shape, he gets embroiled in a scandal involving American movie star Anna Sue.

Honestly, I’m not sure what that scandal is. Did they have an affair, or did he simply train her to get back in shape?

Regardless, the Korean press goes nuts trying to uncover his true identity.

It doesn’t take long before we learn that John Kim is Kim Young Ho, the heir to one of Korea’s wealthiest companies. The reason he keeps his “John Kim” persona quiet is because working with movie stars is considered unseemly and could hurt his family’s reputation.

His grandmother wants him to move back to Seoul to take over the family business.

Reluctantly, he leaves Los Angeles with his best friends Joon Sung — an MMA fighter known as the Korean Snake who he trains — and Ji Young, who manages Joon Sung.

The trio provides quite the oppa parade, for K-Drama’s female fans.

Through a series of mishaps, Young Ho saves Joo Eun (on a plane after she passes out; at a hotel after she falls and dislocates her shoulder; from a stalker who breaks into her home). Eventually, she learns that he is the elusive John Kim and she persuades him to become her trainer.

By American standards, Joo Eun isn’t obese. She’s lumpy and out of shape. The prosthetics added to her face do little to hide her beauty.

Joo Eun’s weight gain and health problems were caused by hyperthyroidism, which was exacerbated by her having to work long hours to support her mother and younger brother after their father died. Young Ho’s rock-hard body is the result of a meticulous diet and workout schedule, spurred on by his battle with cancer and multiple childhood surgeries. That’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want to lead his family’s business. They run hospitals, and he spent so much of his childhood in intensive care.

Both have overcome a lot in in their lives.

A few things that I really liked about this drama:

♥ During the time the spend together working out, Young Ho falls in love with Joo Eun. She is still heavy and not in the best of health. But she is smart, fearless and unfraid of the unknown. I love that they became a couple before her Venus-like transformation was complete.

♥ The proposal (in Episode 15) is insanely romantic and unique. Sorry if I spoiled it for you. That said, there’s no way anyone could watch this series and not realize that they would end up together.

♥ Woo Sik doesn’t become the villian by virtue of breaking up with Joo Eun. He didn’t break up with her because of her weight. He ended it because he wasn’t in love with her any longer. When he forges a relationship with their college friend, Soo Jin, it’s not rushed.

♥ The friendship that Young Ho, Joon Sung and Ji Young share with each other, and then with Joo Eun, is simply lovely. They are a family.

As with many series finales, I found this one to be lacking. While they addressed all the major plot points, it felt rushed and pieced together. But, you left feeling that all would be right in their world. And there’s something to be said for that.

Overall, this is the perfect K-Drama and one that I look forward to rewatching.

Spoiler alert: The finale ends before the wedding, but Joo Eun is already pregnant with Young Ho’s twins. This will make his grandmother verrrrry happy. It would’ve made me very happy to watch her walk down the aisle in her wedding gown. But, that’s just a small quibble.

We also see a flashback to a time when the Joo Eun and Young Ho met briefly as children. Walking home from school, she sees him sitting outside by himself in his wheelchair. She puts a bandage on his cast and tells him he’ll feel better soon. He asks how she knows that. She says, “If you believe it, you can do it.”

Shin Min-A and So Ji-sub

What I would’ve changed: Near the end of the series, Young Ho’s uncle (his stepmother’s brother) tries to kill him, to prevent him from running the family company.

The recovery process takes over a year and is filled with painful rehabilitation, much of it in Los Angeles.

During that time, Young Ho refuses to see Joo Eun. He doesn’t want her to suffer by seeing him in pain.

He has always said that the most attractive trait is when a person is healthy.

I understand the need to forgive loved ones. But when Young Ho invited his uncle to come back to work for him — knowing what he had done — I found the move to be careless and stupid. You should never trust someone who has tried to kill you.

The subplots: I was really impressed with all the issues that were dealt with in this series, including:

• Fat-shaming. Besides being the butt of jokes, due to her weight, Joo Eun is ridiculed by the police when she tries to press charges against her stalker. They laugh in her face and ask why a man like him would have any interest in someone like her — as if perverts only harm thin, beautiful women. (This line of thought was also prevalent in a recent judo segment on the Korean reality series “Cool Kiz on the Block,” where the cast members joked that the middle-aged female comedian would be safe because she wasn’t pretty. WTF, people?)

Soo Jin is also ridiculed for her weight. There’s a scene from their college years when she is set up on a blind date. The male, who is unattractive, still feels he has the right to verbally abuse her for being fat. He orders her to never be seen in public looking the way she does. As if fat people don’t have a right to see and be seen. As if his ugliness wasn’t manifested in both his inner and outer core.

• Birth mothers. We learn that Joon Sung’s mother was abused by her husband and killed him in desperation. She gave birth to Joon Sung in prison and lost custody of him. He was raised in an orphanage. After he won fame as the Korean Snake, he donated most of his money. His soon-to-be girlfriend asks why an orphan would give his money to unwed mothers’ groups rather than to orphanages. This has been a huge issue in Korea amongst adoptees, who rightfully point out that the stigma against unwed mothers is so strong that many have no choice but to give their babies up. They are unable to find work, once it is out in the open that they have had a child out of wedlock. Joon Sung’s actions, I believe, are to help other children from having to grow up without their mothers. If the women have money to raise their babies, they won’t have to send them to orphanages.

• Domestic abuse. Showing that the cycle of abuse doesn’t end easily, Joon Sung’s mother is riddled in bruises. Her current husband also beats her. In the finale, they “resolve” this problem by saying that things are better now that the husband is getting treatment for whatever his issue is (alcohol? anger management?). I’d like to believe that’s the solution, but the better resolution would’ve been for her to move out and into her own place or with her son.

• Bloodline. The grandmother’s focus on bloodline is obsessive, but not that uncommon. Young Ho is her (deceased) daughter’s son and her only grandchild. Though Young Ho’s father remarried and had a second son, she doesn’t consider the younger boy to be a true grandchild, since he doesn’t share her bloodline. This provides a little insight into why Koreans are not the biggest proponent of adopting orphans within their own country.

Run dates: The 16-episode KBS series premiered  in South Korea on November 16, 2015 and aired its finale on January 5, 2016.

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“One Sunny Day”

좋은 날
☆☆½
Ji Ho (played by So Ji-Sub)
The Girl (played by Kim Ji-Won))
Young Ho (played by Lee Jong-Hyuk)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

This short series consists of 10 episodes, each lasting about 14-minutes long. Light and easy to watch (on your phone or when you don’t have a lot of time to invest in a new series), it stars two likable actors who share nice chemistry.

What’s lacking in this 2014 K-Drama, however, is a strong plot.

Ji Ho has just had his heartbroken, but it’s not so easy to feel sorry for him. He knew his girlfriend was engaged to another man, but that didn’t stop him from having a long-term affair with her. When she finally calls it off, he becomes even more solemn than usual.

While on a business trip to Jeju, he meets a young, spunky woman who clearly is interested in him. As luck (or lack of it) would have it, both of them end up being robbed of their belongings. They end up staying at the same bed and breakfast and, since she no longer has a cell phone, he allows her to use his.

The two make cute visiting various parts of the island. But, Ji Ho can’t enjoy himself, because he’s still mourning his breakup.

Lee Jong-Hyuk provides some nice comedic relief portraying Ji Ho’s best friend and boss, Young Ho. The last time I saw Lee was in “Once Upon a Time In High School.” There, he played a sadistic high school bully. Here, he plays a bossy, but good friend.

When it’s time to go home, Ji Ho and The Girl say their goodbyes. They don’t exchange phone numbers or business cards, even though she would like to. She tells him that if she gives him her number, there would be expectations to get together and it would be a burden for him if he isn’t interested. And should they meet unexpectedly, it’d be awkward.

But, if they go away as strangers and happen to run into each other one day, they will be surprised and happy at the coincidence.

Will they ever meet again? Do the two ever become a real couple?

I think you already know the answer to that.

Airdates: This web drama aired 10 episodes on LINE TV from December 19 to 31, 2014.

Spoiler alert: The girl has the exact same name as Ji Ho. Clearly, they were meant for each other. Ta da!

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