Top 5 Gong Hyo Jin Dramas

Top 5 

Gong Hyo Jin Dramas

Gong Hyo Jin is in no way an unknown face K-Dramaland. Her dramas somehow always manage to make it onto people’s favourite lists, so chances are if you’ve already dipped your toes in the K-Drama water, it's likely you've already encountered her. Gong Hyo Jin has a knack for picking great projects (there have been some duds also, but we’ll ignore that for the moment), and tends to play her characters with a straightforward, likeable attitude. Her chemistry with her costars tends to be pretty explosive- making for some delightful, addictive romances. Regardless of if you liked or loved (or heaven forbid disliked) the drama, shows with Gong Hyo Jin always remain memorable.

5: Jealousy Incarnate

It’s not my favourite drama- far from it. But the fact is, when considering a ‘Top 5’ you can’t ignore the opinion of the masses. And according to the masses this is a fabulous drama. Gong Hyo Jin’s character does feel a little similar to other characters she’s played, but the effect was still nice. In a world so full of Candy heroines, Gong Hyo Jin always feels like a breath of fresh air- and she continues to be that way in ‘Jealousy’. She brings the humour in a fantastic way, but what really sells the show is her adorable bickering dialogue with Jo Jung Seok. The two get along like a house on fire, and that alone is worth the watch.

4: Master’s Sun

Gong Hyo Jin plays another plucky heroine, with the small addition of seeing the dead. The show really captures Gong Hyo Jin’s wonderful ability to bring out the earnestness of her character in the midst of a comedic scene. While there can be some hilarious ghost shenanigans going on, Gong Hyo Jin’s character never feels like a ridiculous cartoon character. She plays the part (as she usually does) with a delightful mix of humour and sincerity, and it gives the show a great deal of heart. Also, she’s got wonderful chemistry with the lead, So Ji Sub.

3: The Producers

Definitely one of my favourite Gong Hyo Jin dramas- the mockumentary style seems as if it was made for her. It totally capitalises on her straight-faced humour, and somehow it’s always funny to see her blatantly state something in interview, and then act the complete opposite (unknowingly of course) once the cameras were turned. The writers seemed well aware of what Gong Hyo Jin’s strengths are, and so the story and character just suit her perfectly. The character’s overplayed and often misplaced confidence becomes doublely hilarious when paired with bright-eyed honesty that Gong Hyo Jin exudes. And let’s not forget the love-lines. There are love-lines everywhere so Gong Hyo Jin gets to rub her chemistry on everyone. She has an adorable noona-romace line with Kim Soo Hyun, and a comfortable, hilarious friends-to-lovers line with Cha Tae Hyun. It’s icing on the cake that Cha Tae Hyun is such comedic gold- when you put the two together the result is marvellously hysterical.

2: The Greatest Love

This is one of Gong Hyo Jin’s funniest works in my opinion. While much of the humour comes from the wackiness of her costar Cha Seung Won, Gong Hyo Jin plays her character with the same straight-faced humour she’s known for, which provides a solid base for the comedy to work around. She grounds the series in reality and gives it a sincere tone, while allowing full room for Cha Seung Won’s antics. What sets this drama apart from the rest is the constant banter between the two characters that is laced with humour, wit, and often deeper meaning. While the comedy is what makes the drama stand out, the romance is what gives the show an addictive quality, and Gong Hyo Jin is charming throughout. 

1: Hello My Teacher

I still remain completely and totally baffled as to why this drama is so wonderful. It really shouldn’t be when you look at it on paper, and yet whatever Top List I’m trying to make, I always want to sneak it on because I LOVE IT. The ridiculous chemistry between Gong Hyo Jin and Gong Yoo is probably what did it. The drama is fairly early on in both their careers, so the casting director probably didn’t even know what an absolute gold mine he was hitting when he put them together. The whole story becomes hilarious and heartwarming just because the two leads make it so. No one else in the drama really matters, and doesn’t that just go to show what great actors they both are- they completely monopolise screen time and story, yet make it into a highly successful drama rather than a total flop.

What are your favourite Gong Hyo Jin dramas?

Top 5 Chaebol Romances

Top 5 

Chaebol Romances

There are many scenarios that make common appearances in K-Dramaland, perhaps none more so than the Cinderella set-up. While many genres come in and out of style, it’s pretty guaranteed that there will be at least one or two Chaebol Romances each year. There’s so many, you’d almost believe that every second man in Korea was a third-generation chaebol. K-Drama writers seem to love the idea of a young, rich man with everything to lose falling for a young, poor girl with nothing to her name. There have been some beautifully memorable Chaebol dramas and some real shockers, but here’s my pick of the best 5 Chaebol Romance K-Dramas I’ve seen so far.

5: The Heirs

‘Heirs’ was one of the most hyped dramas of its year, mainly due to its star-studded cast. Lee Min Ho plays the role of the rich boy with Park Shin Hye the penniless subject of his advances. There’s even Kim Woo Bin as Lee Min Ho’s rich rival. The story takes place mostly in a high school catered for young chaebols, with Park Shin Hye’s character somehow finding herself in possession of a scholarship- but there’s still plenty of company plot-line and family drama despite Lee Min Ho’s lack of greed for power. While the plot was interesting enough, it’s definitely the stars’ big names that are the drama’s biggest assets.

4: Master’s Sun

While the main focus of the drama is our heroine’s ability to see the dead, we still get a great Chaebol Romance, as the only way she stops seeing ghosts is to touch…you guessed it- a young, handsome, rich dude. The drama is packed with laughs and reasons for skinship. While the company story plays in the background to the ghost plots, it’s still constantly present. So Ji Sub plays the young owner of a department store, haunted by his past, and Gong Hyo Jin plays the poor heroine haunted by actual ghosts. 

3: Kill Me, Heal Me

The son of a wealthy family develops Dissociative Identity Disorder and has many split personalities. If his company’s shareholders found out about his condition he would be forced out of power. And so enters our heroine as his personal psychiatrist. Ji Sung is our chaebol and Hwang Jung Eum is our psychiatrist. The many personality comedy-fest is definitely what takes centre stage, but company dealings weave in and out of the plot, and are also the driving force behind our couple’s connection. 

2: My Name is Kim Sam Soon

Not only is it a Chaebol romance, but it’s also a Noona Romance- two birds, one drama. Our titular heroine Sam Soon, played by Kim Sun Ah, has a poor educational background, but due to her talent is hired by a large hotel restaurant as its pastry chef. The young air to the hotel chain, played by Hyun Bin, offers Sam Soon money in order to pretend to be his girlfriend so he can stop being sent on blind dates. Of course they fall for each other for real and the process is sweet and fun, with Chaebol Mum throwing in a bunch of conflict. A fair amount of the drama revolves around Hyun Bin’s character being the inheritor of the hotel chain, and as Sam Soon is an employee, much of the drama takes place in the hotel- where Hyun Bin has all the power despite being younger.

1: Secret Garden

When you think Chaebol Romance, you think ‘Secret Garden’. While it has so many Chaebol cliches, they’re spun together in fresh, funny ways- often taking a direction you don’t expect. There’s something endearing about a heroine who accepts money from Chaebol Mum but continues to see her Chaebol son anyway. Hyun Bin is our rich hero once more (he’s very good at playing Chaebol heroes) and Ha Ji Won is the poor girl he falls for. The main focus is the difficulties of the Chaebol romance and how the two lovers come from completely different worlds, resulting in problems with understanding and communication- and of course the disapproving mother who will do anything to free her son from an ‘unworthy’ woman. There’s even some body swapping to really keep the laughs flowing and give the romance a kick-start.

What are your favourite Chaebol Romances?

Master's Sun

Master’s Sun

7/10

Master's Sun

Genre:                          Episodes: 17                      Year: 2013

Romance

Comedy

Supernatural 

Synopsis:

Tae Gong Shil has the ability to see spirits and ghosts. The ghosts do whatever they can to get her attention so that she can fulfil their requests, and often resort to terrifying her until she obliges. Due to her fear of ghosts, Gong Shil stays away from crowded places and struggles to live a normal life. By coincidence she runs into the CEO of a shopping mall, Joo Joong Won. Gong Shil soon discovers that when she touches Joong Won, she looses her ability to see the dead and decides to stay by him at all costs.

Cast:

Gong Hyo Jin (Tae Gong Shil/Tae Yang)

So Ji Sub (Joo Joong Won)

Seo In Guk (Kang Woo)

Kim Yoo Ri (Tae Yi Ryung)

Choi Jung Woo (Kim Gwi Do)

Han Bo Reum (Cha Hee Joo/Han Na Brown)

Hwang Sun Hee (Han Na Brown)

L (Joon Joong Won)

General Thoughts:

It’s generally a sweet drama that zips along quite nicely. There are definitely some plot points that aren’t quite A-Grade material, but the ridiculous amounts of cute from our leading couple does a pretty great job at covering any other weaknesses that the series develops. Also this set-up is the best excuse for skinship I’ve ever seen. Yes. Wonderful.

More Please

That being said, the downside of the leading couple carrying most of the interest meant that any time they weren’t together (and this is a Hong Sisters drama- so there’s going to be a time they’re not together) the drama was stripped of most of its entertainment. A lot of credit for this drama has to go to its leading actors- they really sold the romance, and the romance was at the heart of the show. Gong Hyo Jin is delightful (of course).

Everyone loves Gong Hyo Jin. Everyone loves So Ji Sub

I wouldn’t go as far as saying she’s the best actress out there, but there’s just something about her that draws you in and makes you love her, and whatever character she’s playing. So Ji Sub was wonderful as CEO Joo Joong Won- which is a huge feat in a world so full of K-Dramas staring abrasive CEOs. What I loved most about the character of Joong Won is that he wasn’t a hard-exterior-soft-interior type of CEO lead. He was kind of an ass…all the time. Meeting this ghost-seeing heroine didn’t magically melt away his prickly personality- he simply liked her in spite of his prickly personality. Which is adorable and hilarious, and So Ji Sub could deliver it so, so well. Unfortunately there’s not a lot to say about the other cast members as the leading couple definitely dominated, and thus reduced the screen time, plot time and interest levels of the other characters. Seo In Guk has a similar quality to Gong Hyo Jin- you just adore him in whatever role he’s playing, and he was cute as the bodyguard with a fear of ghosts. Even if his character did get little development and was booted out of the love-triangle pretty darn quick. Which is a shame, I would have liked to see Kang Candy get a little more development- he was too interesting a character to have fall by the wayside.

Plus their dates getting crashed by ghosts was always hilarious

Kang Candy’s final love interest almost bored me to tears. I’m not a huge fan of stroppy, entitled female characters- so Tae Yi Ryung didn’t do a lot for me. Sure, there were times when I thought she was a little bit cute, and the ending between her and Kang Woo was super adorable (that red carpet walk), but all in all I thought Kang Woo could do a lot better. Again, a little character development probably would have done that pairing the world of good. Plot-wise the drama was well played out.

More kissing, less conflict

Small ghost conflicts helped out our main couple development until our characters were at the point that they could handle the main ghost conflict. Which actually turned out to be a little lacking. I pegged the twin bait-and-switch pretty early on (and I know a lot of other viewers did too). Predictability isn’t necessarily a huge problem if you’ve got the substance to pull of the story believably. However, the drama seemed to be relying on no one clicking on to the fact that the girls were twins, or that it was the good twin that died. Which is unfortunate, because that twist isn’t even that huge- the only real difference it made was how our hero viewed his dead first love- is she the sweet angel he initially thought, or the bad b*tch he came to know her as? Once again, I wish just a tad more effort had been spent developing the twin characters in order to give the final reveal a bit more of an emotional blow. Even better, I wish that both twins had perhaps been a little bit dark and Han Na actually wanted to take over Tae Yang’s body- at least then the stakes would have been higher. As it was, the two girls were rather flat, two-dimensional characters with not a lot going on under the surface. If indeed we had one evil twin and one good twin (egghhh the cliche), why didn’t the good dead twin just tell Tae Yang what the deal was? You’re telling me she actually placed the sister she’d known very briefly (who then killed her) over the man she completely loved? Yeaaaahhh…not buying that.

And in case you needed help, the twins were conveniently colour-coded. White = Good. Dark = Bad.

It did feel a little like the writers were grasping at whatever they could think of to explain why Joong Won saw his first love at his kidnapping, and then why her ghost stuck around. Ah well- it wasn't great, but it didn't suck either. Also, I won’t lie- I remember nothing from the soundtrack, so I think it’s safe to say it was pretty unexceptional. 

What Was Great:

Ghost of the Hour:

The ghosts were scary as f*ck. No joke. They were terrifying. Which was awesome. Having the ghosts be as scary as they were actually did an excellent job of highlighting our heroine’s main conflict. She sees dead people. They’re scary.

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

She doesn’t like seeing dead people. It made her instantaneous clinging to Joong Won so much more understandable than if the ghosts had simply been slightly translucent people with pale faces. I would cling to whatever man came my way if I saw stuff like that and he could make it disappear. Freakiness aside, the ghost stories that ran over one or two episodes did a great job at not only keeping interest while the main conflict was building, but also impacted on our main characters and their relationship. Unlike in some other supernatural dramas (cough, ‘Who Are You’, cough), the small ghost plots helped to shape the way our characters viewed each other, and were a nice way to bring them closer- rather than simply providing filler episodes. Each ghost story caused something new to be revealed about either Tae Yang or Joong Won, which of course furthered the romance. And we love it when the romance is furthered. 

This is okay though, I can deal with this

Is He Dead?:

I give full props to the show for making me believe that there was the possibility of them killing off the male lead 3/4 of the way in. In most rom-coms this is an inconceivable event- but with the whole ghost premise, it’s actually fairly plausible in this setting. Sure, it was only left as a cliffhanger for one episode- BUT I WAS HANGING OFF THAT CLIFF. There were various upsides and downsides to killing of the hero midway through- all which would have been consistent with the rules the show set up. Which is another thing this drama did rather brilliantly. It followed its own rules in regards to the supernatural elements. We’d seen previously that Tae Yang could see the spirits of ghosts in comas, so it wasn’t a bolt out of the blue or an easy pass that the writers used when Joong Won was just in a coma, or had died momentarily, or whatever nightmare that was.

Scarier than ghosts- nearly having Joong Won killed off

It would have just been seen as a get-out-of-jail-free card if the idea hadn’t been explored previously (again- cough, ‘Who Are You’, cough). Don’t get me wrong- I’m super stoked that Joong Won didn’t cark it before the completion of this drama. Because I love him. But it was a nice to change to actually genuinely worry about the safety of our hero. Because in a drama all about a ghost-whisperer- your hero is far from immortal. 

Happy characters, happy viewers

Conclusion:

Everything was tied in a nice pretty bow, which is exactly what I want in a rom-com. People got hitched, babies got conceived, and everyone earned their happily ever after. Yay! Some of the happy ever afters were a bit random as we’d had very little to do with some of the characters, so we didn’t actually know what their deal was- but it was still nice. I’m so glad the show ultimately decided to go with Tae Yang keeping her ability to see ghosts, as that was kind of the whole point. It would have felt like too much of a cop-out to have her magically ‘cured’ of her ailment in the last episode. That being said, I do wish we’d been taken on Tae Yang’s journey of self discovery rather than hearing about it as she was telling Joong Won. Because it was a really nice tie-up for where her ability came from and how she could now live on with it. 

What Wasn’t:

Support Character Immobility:

Our support characters kind of became a bit of a waste. Kang Candy fell away pretty swiftly after he was exiled from the love-triangle, and you never really saw him fall hard for that second chick. His end tie-up with her was nice, but we didn’t really get a sense of how he got there.

So not on board for this love-line. Go get a different fish for your aquarium, Kang Candy

Joong Won’s father seemed to be a big plot-point that we sort of darted around completely- so much so that I wonder why they bothered including him in the drama at all. Lee Chun Hee was brought in far too late to really matter- which is a shame, as his presence would have added a whole heap more conflict to the series. The idea of staying comfortable with someone from your own world (Lee Chun Hee) or stepping out for someone different (Joong Won) was an interesting dilemma. But it became far less interesting as Tae Yang had already fallen for Joong Won. Hard. I really wish Lee Chun Hee’s role had a bigger part to play in the series. I don’t even know what his character was supposed to be called- he was just Lee Chun Hee for the two or three episodes he was in.

Unexpected (but far from unwanted) bromance

All in all, the characters that weren’t our main leads seemed to fall into two distinct, two-dimensional categories: Cheering for Main Couple, and Trying to Split Up Main Couple. Except for maybe Secretary Kim. Who was delightful and surprisingly substantial. Who else was glad that he didn’t turn out to be a bad guy? I sure was. 

Push and Pull:

My least liked type of romances are push-and-pull romances. Thankfully this drama did have very little, but the episodes where this type of romance came into play were downright irritating. I prefer when our characters both try and pull away from each other, both try to pull closer to each other, or one pulls closer while the other stays stationary.

Looks like it's time for all that unnecessary angst to kick in

It becomes a tad too angsty for my taste when for every step our hero makes forward, our heroine is taking a step back. Particularly when they’ve both expressed their interest. Not to mention that characters born from the Hong Sisters’ creation tend to stand around and talk about their feelings a lot. Which is okay if it were pure and honest- but half the time it’s the characters trying to convince each other (and sometimes themselves) that they don’t need each other and they’ll be fine on their own. Hoo boy. I’d much rather see them acting on their feelings rather than chitty-chatting about them, especially when the chitty-chat doesn’t actually result in anything. With the lack of action and all the not-quite-true statements, it can get a little confusing with subtitles and things getting left out in translation. Granted, most of the talk was logical, and at least it was easy to see where the characters were coming from. But at the end of the day, if you’re sad with them but miserable without them, isn’t sadness the slightly better option? I don’t know, I feel like they were trying so hard to make Tae Yang different from a Candy Girl- but that’s kind of how she ended up anyway. Sure, her reasoning for disappearing off was for herself and not some sort of misguided sense of ‘he’s better off without me’- but she still ended up disappearing off.

Classic Hong Sisters Finale Wind-Up (Or Wind-Down):

Of course, of course, the Hong Sisters have to chuck in some of my most hates K-Drama tropes. Right at the end too. Amnesia- check. Separation of leads- check. Time skip- check. Oof. Not what I was wanting in a drama that was managing to balance its momentum quite nicely.

Who are you? Who am I? Where'd my girlfriend go?

Okay, Joong Won’s amnesia wasn’t the worst case of memory loss I’ve ever seen (who could forget the Hong Sister’s last fiasco?), but it still felt like it was simply trying to draaaaaaw out the last couple of episodes. I’ve already seen him fall for our heroine despite her creepy ghost vision, do I really have to watch him figure all that out again? Then the time skip where our main leads are separated. Seriously, does anyone actually enjoy this?

Please. Just make out and be done with it.

Why do K-Dramas insist on doing this in attempts to add dramatic tension in the final hour? IT’S JUST ANNOYING GUYS, STOP IT. While I’ll admit there was some reasoning behind the separation of our characters, I still didn’t love the idea. If perhaps we’d journeyed with Tae Yang on her brilliant self-discovery trip I’d be singing a different tune- but no. I was back here watching Joong Won be sad and lonely while Tae Yang went and ‘found herself’. And then we get some bull about her wanting to appear like a normal girl before telling him that, yes- she can in fact still see ghosts. Sorry, I’m firmly in Joong Won’s camp for this one. If the result is the same, why does the order matter? Not to mention we’ve just spent the last 16 episodes watching how he loves her in spite of her ability. If not more so because of it, as he sees how warm and caring she is through it. 

Re-watch?

Probably not. While I did enjoy the drama overall, much of this enjoyment came from the chemistry between our two leads. The main plot was a tad weak, and our support characters were a little flat. Gong Hyo Jin and So Ji Sub were dynamic- but not enough to warrant a re-watch.

♫ Can you feel my heartbeat? It's beating for you ♫