Typical Korean melodrama fare that's as likable as it is frustrating.

cremea

My Girl; a 2005 Korean melodrama series that gets a lot of credit for being one of the better K-dramas in the last decade or so, and, it is just that for about 12-13 episodes. Unfortunately, this show is 16 episodes long, and it has some other problems as well, for which I feel some demerits are in order.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Here's your story: Lee Da-hae plays Ju-Yoo-rin; she's the poor young girl who meets the young rich dude who's the male lead. You will see this same theme play out a lot in various K-dramas; many of these shows are quite similar, and they often use the same story lines over and over again. To further illustrate this, the young rich dude in this series is a hotel heir who needs to hire the services of Yoo-rin off the street in a pinch because she speaks the same foreign language of one of the hotel guests (which is the exact same way this exact same actress gets involved with another hotelier in the series Miss Ripley several years later). My Girl is a lot more comedic and whimsical than Miss Ripley, but the same aspects are in play, as is the case with many other Korean melodramas i.e. 2 handsome dudes   2 pretty girls (usually with a rich/poor angle) going through their paces of some story or another while they straighten out their love lives.

After helping out the hotel's foreign guests, Yoo-rin is asked by the heir to pretend to be his long lost sister or cousin (can't remember which), so that his dying grandfather can meet her just once before he croaks. She does so, but the grandfather miraculously recovers soon after (of course), so Yoo-rin and the hotel heir are stuck playing the charade of being siblings/cousins for much longer than they anticipated. Along the way, the 2 leads reluctantly start to develop feelings for one another (of course), and other people slowly start to suspect that Yoo-rin is not really the granddaughter (of course). After that, it's just a matter of following along to see how the story will ultimately unfold over time, and what the outcome will be in regards to the budding relationship between our two romantic leads.

Aside from the two leads, there's a host of other characters straight out of central casting: the playboy cousin who discovers the ruse of the 2 leads, the former girlfriend who reappears in the hotel heir's life, Yoo-rin's worthless dad, the hotel family patriarch, 2 competing aunts, various friends, etc. They all play some part in helping or hindering the primary story over time, and/or, have their own smaller side stories going on in the meantime. Most, if not all, of this secondary cast is effective in their roles.

I like a number of things about this show: This show is pretty lighthearted in tone for most of its run, and it's often quite funny (particularly so in the first several episodes). In addition, the two main leads are terrific; Lee Dong-wook is plenty enjoyable & likable in his role as the handsome hotel heir, and, Lee Da-hae is regularly, and often fantastically, effective within this KTV melodrama genre (regardless of whether she's playing the funny kind girl, or the sexy evil woman, or what have you).

The primary problem with this show is the abysmal pacing and writing that occurs during the final four episodes or so. This occurs all too often near the end of many K-dramas, and it's really starting to get on my nerves. The collective parts working in this field on a regular basis need to fix this problem once and for all and stop ruining what are otherwise excellent TV shows. This has nothing to do with how I wished a particular story would've concluded, but rather I would appreciate some more effort when it comes to getting these shows "over the final hurdle". This series (and many others like it) would be absolutely awesome, if there was only some better way to consistently resolve their stories in some coherent and well written manner that doesn't drag on forever.

The other really bothersome thing here is the ongoing reason why Yoo-rin and the hotel heir couldn't be together due simply to this story they've concocted. Yoo-rin has already fulfilled her purpose of meeting the grandfather, and it was well understood by all that she was going to return to her "adoptive father" sooner or later. So, just send her off somewhere asap and be done with it; there's nothing stopping the 2 leads from seeing each other without them living under the same roof with the grandfather. Even if the grandfather eventually found out the scheme, it's a simple matter of the grandson telling his granddad that he's sorry he lied, but he couldn't find the real granddaughter in time so he hired some girl to act as such in order to make him happy before he died. That would have almost certainly would have worked better than what actually occurred.

Bottom Line: This show is extremely good if you stop watching it at about the ¾ mark. After that, it mostly sucks (save for a few bright spots here and there that eventually wrap things up). So, 6-7 out of 10 stars for me. I will reluctantly give it 7 stars. It's enjoyable and solid for the most part, but it could have been so, so, so much better with some improved endgame writing/foresight/storytelling.

score 7/10

cremea 6 February 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2749501/