“My Lovely Sam-soon”: A Problematic Love Story

"Even though I liked you, without you, I will live well."

“My Lovely Sam-Soon”

Hyun Bin and Kim Sun-ah

내 이름은 김삼순
☆☆½ (out of ☆☆☆☆)

Kim Sam-soon (played by Kim Sun-ah)
Hyun Jin-heon (played by Hyun Bin)
Dr. Henry Kim (played by Daniel Henney)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Overweight by Korean standards — actress Kim Sun-ah famously gained 15 pounds in an attempt to appear fat — Kim Sam-soon is a 29-year-old baker. Her life goes into turmoil when she discovers that her long-time boyfriend has cheated on her throughout their relationship. She falls apart and places part of the blame on (of all things) her name, which she hates. She wants to change her name to the more modern and presumably feminine name, Kim Hee-jin.

Coincidentally, Hee-jin is also the name of Hyun Jin-heon’s long-lost girlfriend. He is a restaurateur who hasn’t gotten over her, despite his claims otherwise. He is constantly berated by his chaebol mother for not yet being married (even though he’s only in his mid-20s) and for refusing to work at her hotel empire.

Near the end of "My Lovely Sam-Soon," the titular character has an epiphany: "Even though I liked you, without you, I will live well."

We all know what’s going to happen next, right? Jin-heon hires Sam-soon to become his pastry chef. And to get his mother off his back, he convinces Sam-soon to sign a relationship contract, where they will pretend to be dating. It’s the perfect lie, he says, because they’ll never become a real couple, since he’s repulsed by her appearance and she finds him to be a spoiled dilettante.

Like “Boys Over Flowers,” “My Lovely Sam-soon” (also known as “My Name is Kim Sam-soon”) looks and feels very dated. I didn’t expect the production value to be as impressive as Hyun Bin’s more recent series, “Memories of the Alhambra.” But I think it was the men’s hairstyles that had me chortling. Aside from Daniel Henney, who played a Korean-American doctor, most of the men had unfortunate haircuts. Like this:

Kim Sun-ah and Hyun Bin

There are some enjoyable elements in this series. During their more tender moments, Sam-soon and Jin-heon are rather sweet together.

But there are so many control issues that I wanted Sam-soon to just live, without listening to everyone who was pressuring her to marry.

Her ex-boyfriend is written to be a creep, so his possessiveness fits the asshole-ry of his character. But Jin-heon is supposed to be a good guy — a troubled, but still good guy. So when he starts to have some romantic feelings towards Sam-s oon and says things like, “Don’t look at other men,” or “Don’t talk to other men,” it’s gross. The writers clearly intended it to be romantic — his way of showing his affection for her — but it came off as controlling. I found it incredibly disrespectful and manipulative when he deliberately sabotaged her dates with a very nice man who liked her just the way she was. Even as he does this, Jin-heon reminds her that he has no interest in her. In the world of pickup artists, he would be negging her. He doesn’t want her, but he doesn’t want any other man to date her, either.

In his own way, he’s as bad as Sam-soon’s ex. To entice her into the relationship contract, he offers her $50,000 (so she can pay off her mother’s house from foreclosure). When Sam-soon insists she will pay him back, he agrees. But as circumstances change, he flips and flops about the money. He does something horrible and tells her that she doesn’t have to pay him back. A nanosecond later, he tells her that can’t leave until she pays him back. When he sees her going to a bar with another man, he spitefully badmouths her to all the other pastry shops in town, saying she’s an irresponsible employee.

WTF?

Her interactions with Henry (played by Daniel Henney) are so funny and sweet. Even though his character is besotted with Hee-jin, I kept wishing he and Sam-soon would become a couple.

At 16 episodes long, this series dragged on and would’ve benefited from some judicious editing. Without giving away the ending, I would’ve liked to have seen this scenario play out: Sam-soon cuts her ties with all the toxic men in her life and gains enough confidence to forge her own way in the world without giving in to society’s demands of who she should be and who she should be with.

As she says in narration near the end of the series, “Even though I liked you, without you, I will live well.”

Yes, girl. Yes!

Airdates: MBC aired 16 episodes from June 1 to July 21, 2005. (It’s streaming now on Viki, KOCOWA and Prime Video.)

Spoiler Alert: The reason Hee-jin left Korea for the U.S. (for three years!) was because she had cancer, her parents lived there and there were better treatment options in the U.S. But mainly, she didn’t want Jin-heon to worry about her and to burden him. His brother and sister-in-law had just died in a car accident and she didn’t think he could handle another traumatic event.

I can understand how he would be angry at her when he learns the truth. But there was absolutely no reason for him to hit her in the face over this revelation. When he did that, I pretty much lost any amount of respect I had for his character.

There was also a problematic scene involving secondary characters that was repulsive. A chef forcefully kisses his baking assistant without her permission in the restaurant bathroom. He’s excited because he got to kiss the girl he has a crush on. But for her, it was traumatic. This was her first kiss. Rather than being a romantic sign of affection that she could remember fondly, it was an assault that was played off as cute. The writers cared about the man getting what he wanted, without considering her feelings at all. And that was just messed up.

© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved

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