Cast:
Won Bin – Kim Ji-Hoon
Fukada Kyoko – Asahi Tomoko
Lee Dong-Gin – Park Kyung-Ju
Han Hye-Jin – Park Hye-Jin
Okawa Yukiyoshi – Sakamaki
Yada Akiko – Yuko
Kelly Chan – A clerk at clothing store (Guest star)
Price: P300.00
CDs: 6
Introduction
to the Drama
This is the first drama which was ever made by Japan and Korea together. Won Bin and Fukada Kyoko, very famous idols from Korea and Japan respectively, were cast as the main actor and actress, and the drama was filmed in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.
The production had to overcome the language differences, cultural differences, and the touchy feelings in both countries.
Story
Ji-Hoon, who loved filmmaking, went to Hong Kong to visit his aunt who owned a restaurant. Tomoko also was in Hong Kong for traveling, but she was pick-pocketed. When she chased after the thief, she bumped into Ji-Hoon.
Tomoko followed Ji-Hoon since she had no money, so Ji-Hoon took her to his aunt’s restaurant to feed her. Tomoko and Ji-Hoon started getting to know each other through body language.
Instead of paying the bill for the food, Ji-Hoon asked Tomoko to be his actress. Tomoko was happy to do that, but Ji-Hoon only asked her to run from point to point. While filming her running, Ji-Hoon fell in love with this naïve, kind, and cute Tomoko.
When Ji-Hoon came back to Seoul, he received an e-mail from Tomoko, and they continued their relationship via e-mails. In the mean time, Ji-Hoon was the only son in the Kim family, so his parents were shocked by the fact that Ji-Hoon was dating a Japanese girl.
Tomoko started learning Korean and became fluent in the language. The touching love relationship became increasingly difficult to maintain because of their nationalities and the cultural differences. Can they be together in the end?
About the cast
I personally thought Won Bin did an OK job. I think he is a great model, but I have never thought him as a great actor.
He had limited facial expressions, and if you were expecting his acting from this series, I would not recommend watching. I personally never liked Fukada Kyoko, but I thought she did her best in the series.
It had been really hard for to pronounce all those difficult Korean words, but she did it with a very cute Japanese accent.
Other actors and actresses seemed very depressed in the series to me, for some reason. The only actor who came across as natural (acting-wise) was Lee Dong-Gun.
About the
scenery and costume
Beautiful shots of the Hong Kong night views and the Seoul Han river night views were plus points of the series. Other than that, the producer really didn’t care about the beauty of the two countries.
I must say there was a lack of understanding of Korean costumes for some reason in this drama. I can’t believe Ji-Hoon’s mother and father wore Han Bok (the Korean traditional dress) all the time.
I have never seen any family in Korea do that. I think the producer wanted to show how traditional Ji-Hoon’s family was, but still it didn’t make sense to me.
About the story
The producer wanted to touch on too many topics in such a short drama, so the trip to Hong Kong, Ji-Hoon joining the military, Tomoko learning Korean, separation, and love were dealt with too quickly and it was hard for me to swallow all of them in 4 episodes.
On the other hand, I am glad that the producer actually tried to show the touchy subjects like the Korean military duty, the highly expected first son’s duty in Korea, and the traditional family life in Korea.
Actually the drama showed more of Korea than Japan, so in a way you could say it lost the balance between the two countries.
The script itself was predictable. However, I would like to give them credit for showing the sides of Korea and Japan that not many people would have seen.
Conclusion
Overall, I thought the drama was cute and watchable. If you are a die-hard Won Bin fan, you might want to see this drama for his charming appearance.
Even though it had a predictable storyline and rather rapid progress of the relationship between the two main characters, it was a touching experience for me since I am of both Korean and Japanese blood.
The second Japan-Korea drama is already airing in Japan, and I hope to see more coming up in the future.
