Sunday, March 14, 2010

My girl





Joo Yoo Rin (Lee Da Hae) is a tour guide in a small company in charge of running mini tours in the Jeju Island of South Korea. Her father is a gambling addict, but despite all the debts that he runs up, Yoo Rin always finds a way to help repay them. She leads a below-average life but is happy as long as she has her dad around her. Because of her father's gambling ways, she has had to move from country to country whenever her father runs from one place to another to avoid their debtors. This has in turn brought her the ability to converse fluently in Chinese and Japanese, which are of great help as a tour guide whenever she has to entertain tourists from China and Japan.

Seol Gongchan (Lee Dong Wook) is the only heir of the owner of L'Avenuel Hotel, which is one of the top hotels in Korea. His grandfather, Seol Woong, charges him with the duty of finding his granddaughter, who is also Gongchan's cousin. Seol Woong had disowned his own daughter, Gongchan's aunt, when she decided to marry a man not of his choice. However, when Seol Woong had a change of heart and wished to accept his daughter back, an earthquake struck where his daughter lived, and since then, he has lost all contact with his kin and perhaps the chance to make amends for his own stubbornness, to take care of his granddaughter and hopefully make things right.

Kim Seohyun (Park Si Yeon) is the girlfriend of Seol Gongchan. A rising star in the tennis world, she returns to Korea to look for Gongchan as she cannot forget him.

Seo Jung Woong (Lee Jun Ki) is the son of one of the main shareholders of L'Avenuel Hotel and also the best friend of Seol Gongchan. Unlike Gongchan who is responsible and hardworking, Jung Woong is a flirt who is known to have many girlfriends.

The story starts with Yoo Rin rushing to the airport. She is helping her friend delay a flight so that the tourists of her friend will not miss their flight. Out of ideas, she plays a damsel in distress, who is apparently mourning her impending death and her dying wish to see her boyfriend who is apparently on the flight. And so after much crying and the entire airport empathizing with her, she gets to get on board the plane to look for her boyfriend who never really existed. As she walks, she realizes she cannot find anyone and pretends to faint. Alas, she faints beside the seat of our male lead, Seol Gongchan, who knows a liar when he sees one. Although their first encounter is weird, it doesn't leave much of an impression in each other's mind.

Later, however, when Gongchan has to entertain a bunch of Chinese visitors and realizes he has no translator, he engages the services of Yoo Rin coincidentally and through Yoorin, his potential Chinese investors have a great time at the L'Avenuel Hotel branch in Jeju, and Yoorin has much credit to claim for it.

After a series of comical events including Yoorin staying at his hotel lodge without paying, and Yoorin selling his hotel fruit-yard's oranges to make a small profit (to clear her father's debts again), Gongchan's impression of Yoo Rin is one of a cheat and he would want to do anything to distance himself from her.

But then word from mainland Korea is that his grandfather is dying and at his bedside, Seol Woong, through his respirator, can only meekly repeat that he must not and cannot die until he sees his granddaughter again.

Driven by desperation and his love for his grandfather, Gongchan will do anything to ease his burden. When pointed out by his secretary that Yoo Rin bears a resemblance to his aunt, Gongchan hatches a plan to pass off Yoo Rin as his grandfather's long-lost granddaughter whilst he carries on searching for the real one.

Yoo Rin, who is desperate for money to repay her father's debt, is unwilling to do the job as it involves lying to a dying man, something that she staunchly refuses to do. But when Seol Gongchan desperately begs her and she realizes she is somewhat indebted to him for not bringing her to the police after her little business in his hotel, she caves in and pretends to the long-lost granddaughter.

And so things seem to be going well, with the search for Gongchan's long-lost cousin making progress and perhaps more importantly, the improvement of Gongchan's grandfather's conditions thanks to Yoo Rin. As Yoo Rin spends more time with Gongchan's family, she gets showered with the love she never received as a child and finds herself drawn to Gongchan. She finds herself changing from the liar that she once was to a person who tries to tell the truth when she can. She knows all too well that her one-sided love will never materialize as the difference in social status between Gongchan and herself is too big.

But unknown to her, Gongchan is also slowly being drawn to her...

My sassy girl




Part one

The film tells the story of a male college student, Gyeon-woo (Cha Tae-Hyun), and the Girl (Jun Ji-hyun) who is never named in the movie. Gyeon-woo just cannot seem to catch a romantic break. His prospects are so pathetic that even his mother tries to help, telling him to visit his aunt for two reasons. Firstly, because Gyeon-woo reminds his aunt of her son who drowned recently; secondly, because there is a girl his aunt wants to introduce him to. Gyeon-woo repeatedly puts off going to see his aunt.

The movie begins with Gyeon-woo on top of a mountain, speaking wistfully about a girl he knew two years ago that had buried a time capsule with him on that mountain. She had never returned like she'd promised. Next, one sees Gyeon-woo at a photo studio, having his passport photo taken. He is called by his aunt so that she can finally introduce him to the girl she's been trying to set him up with. The movie then flashes back to the past.

While Gyeon-woo is at a restaurant with some of his friends, he is interrupted by a call from his mother telling him to go meet the girl that his aunt wants to set him up with. He refuses and continues to eat with his friends. At the train station on his way to his aunt's, he observes a girl, drunk, standing precariously close to the edge of the train platform as the train approaches; he pulls her to safety just in time. Inside the train, Gyeon-woo cannot help but stare at the girl wavering back and forth. He is slightly attracted to her but repulsed by her drunkenness. Finally, she throws up on a passenger and faints but not before she calls Gyeon-woo "honey". The passenger aggressively chides Gyeon-woo and tells him to take care of his girlfriend. Gyeon-woo, completely flustered, carries her all the way to the nearest hotel. While he is showering, her cell phone rings. Stark naked, he runs out to answer it and informs the caller of their location. Just as Gyeon-woo realizes there are no towels in the shower, a pair of women police officers burst into the room and arrest him.

After getting out of jail—where he was bullied by gangsters—he goes home. His mother beats him with a vacuum cleaner for not turning up at his aunt's and there is a brief flashback of his lifetime failings as a student. He receives a call from the Girl demanding he meet her and explain why he was naked in bed with her. The Girl's dominating and demanding tone during the telephone call establishes her typical posture as a xanthippe, an attitude she maintains throughout the film. Both at the takeaway joint and at the bar to which she drags him she tells him to order, criticises his choices and then tells him what to order. Over soju she cries, admits to breaking up with her boyfriend the day before and gets thoroughly drunk, resulting in another trip to the previous hotel.

After this second overnight stay at the hotel, she begins to become a more active part of his life. She visits Gyeon-woo in school and manages to get him to hang out with her. In one situation she obtains permission from a teacher by claiming she needs him to accompany her on the way to an abortion, with Gyeon-woo being the father. Her mood swings wildly from joyful to downright violent but Gyeon-woo puts up with it and lets her abuse him for her amusement.

She is an aspiring scriptwriter and throughout the movie gives Gyeon-woo three different screenplays from different genres. The first is an action movie—The Demolition Terminator—which switches gender roles, symbolically having the Girl save her helpless lover (Gyeon-woo). The second is a wild perversion of a Korean short story—Sonagi—in which the Girl, having died, asks that her lover be buried along with her—even though he's still alive. The resulting situation is quite humorous. The last is a wuxia/samurai movie spoof full of genre clichés and anachronisms. All three feature the same common thread: the Girl is from the future.

Despite all the horrible things Gyeon-woo endures, he is determined to help cure the girl's pain. In one scene, he decides to surprise her for her birthday and takes her on a nighttime trip to an amusement park which ends up quite differently than how he planned: The pair encounter an AWOL soldier who holds them hostage and rants about his misery. Gyeon-woo convinces him to release her, and she in turn convinces the soldier to free Gyeon-woo and go on with his life. Throughout the first half of the movie she is resolute in her pain, dishing it out in plenty. As the second half comes around, however, she begins to change: she shows vulnerability.

Part two

The second - more dramatic - half of the movie begins with the Girl waiting for Gyeon-woo after class. They are walking through the university campus when she suddenly complains about the pain caused by her high-heels and convinces Gyeon-woo to switch shoes with her. Overjoyed, she tells him to chase her, which he does wearing her high heels. It starts raining and they return to her home. At her house Gyeon-woo overhears an impassioned argument between the girl and her mother over her relationship with him. He does not hear from her for quite some time and his life without her begins.

However, one day she calls him and tells him to bring her a rose during class to commemorate their 100th-day anniversary. He does this, leading to a touching and romantic scene where he arrives in disguise and is about to leave the packed auditorium but is led to the front by the beautiful melody of George Winston's variations on Pachelbel's Canon in D. The Girl is onstage playing a piano in front of an audience of her all-female classmates who applaud in approval at his romantic gesture - a similar gesture, the viewer is later informed, was performed by her previous boyfriend. As the night further unfolds he is confronted at her house by her parents. Her father is naturally infuriated that she is drunk again and demands a break-up.

Time passes and one day the Girl calls Gyeon-woo to meet her for dinner. When he arrives he is surprised to see her with a date. The Girl introduces Gyeon-woo to him as "her friend." During dinner, the Girl leaves the table briefly, leaving Gyeon-woo and her date by themselves. Gyeon-woo candidly offers advice on how to ensure her happiness by following ten rules. He devised his rules from considerable pain, dedication and devotion to the Girl. When she returns her date begins to explain the rules. It is at this point that she realizes just how well Gyeon-woo understands and cares for her. She abruptly leaves her date and searches for Gyeon-woo. Once reunited the two realise they are at a turning point in their relationship.

They travel to a mountain in the countryside where she unveils a time capsule. During the previous night the couple wrote their true feelings in letters which the Girl says will be buried next to a particular tree on the mountain. They agree to meet again at the tree after two years to read the letters together. After burying the time capsule they go their separate ways.

Overtime

During the two year span, Gyeon-woo works hard to improve himself in many ways, even writing My Sassy Girl which someone has bought the movie rights to, an event he eagerly anticipates telling the Girl about. When the agreed upon date arrives, he travels to the mountain but the Girl does not show up. Eventually, he opens the time capsule and reads her letter and learns the root of her angst and behavior: Gyeon-woo reminds her of her previous boyfriend who, rather than breaking up with her, actually died before she met Gyeon-woo. All through the time the Girl and Gyeon-woo were seeing each other she had been seeing her dead boyfriend's mother, who wants to introduce her to a nice young man.

A year after Gyeon-woo visits the tree, the Girl finally arrives. Sitting under the tree is an old man. During their conversation the old man reveals the secret of the tree, that it is not the same tree; the original tree had been struck and killed by lightning a year before and a similar tree had been planted by a young man so that someone special wasn't sad, and that he has read the letters. The Girl says she had hoped that destiny would bring the couple together during the two years. As the girl begins to read the letter, she sees a UFO (time machine) flying away. This lead her to believe that the old man was Gyeon-woo from the future.The Girl then tries to call Gyeon-woo repeatedly, but she was informed that number is either changed or doesn't exists.

The film then cuts to Gyeon-woo entering a subway station, wearing the same suit he was wearing at the beginning of the movie. The flashback has ended and continuity is resumed from right after Gyeon-woo leaves the photo-studio. Gyeon-woo is caught outside the shutting doors of a train, presumably ignorant at first of the Girl's presence on the train but after a few seconds of staring he seems to realise whom it is he sees from behind. As the train pulls out he runs along but has to give up.

At lunch with her deceased boyfriend's mother after a year-and-a-half, the Girl is surprised to hear a familiar voice apologise for his lateness. The mother introduces her nephew Gyeon-woo whom she has been trying to introduce to the Girl for years. The mother, who is Gyeon-woo's aunt, tells the Girl to go out with him, he'll make things easier for her and then tells Gyeon-woo that the Girl can give advice to him about his impending trip to England but Gyeon-woo replies, "I don't have to go now." The pair hold hands under the table and the Girl says she thinks she met a man from the future (Gyeon-woo's future self). The final shot shows the pair in their activity from earlier in the film, dressed in school uniforms going into a bar.

Iljimae





Iljimae is a mysterious, black-swathed thief who robs from corrupt government officials and gives to the poor. He steals not only material treasures but also people, be they wrongfully held prisoners or criminals hiding from judgment. At the scene of each robbery, he leaves a small painting of a branch of red plum blossoms called a "mae hwa". (His name reflects this act: il means "one", ji means "branch" and mae means "plum tree".) The citizens support Iljimae while the king and the nobility try to catch him and find his identity.

Gyeom (겸) is the son of a virtuous nobleman Lee Won Ho (이원호), a trustworthy supporter and brother to the king and a central member of the secret organization Cheonwoohoe, comprised of important nobles and with the king as their leader. He lives peacefully in a house with many plum trees with his wife, daughter, and son. However, a mysterious rumor is spread that he is plotting to overthrow the king.

The king finds out about the rumor and kills Lee Won Ho as he believes that 'two suns cannot exist on the same sky'. Gyeom witnesses the incident from the inside of a safe where his father hid him. Later, he is saved and adopted by a retired thief, Soe Dol (쇠돌), after he becomes stricken with amnesia due to the shock of losing his father and being forced to throw a rock at his mother's head to prove that he was not the son. 13 years later, Gyeom, now called Yong (용), starts to regain his memories and begins to search for his older sister, Yeon (연), only to see her being sentenced and hanged.

The murder of his older sister leaves Gyeom seeking revenge. With the emblem on the killer's sword he remembers from 13 years ago his only clue, he swears that he will find the one who killed his father and murdered his older sister. To find the sword and its owner, he disguises himself as Iljimae and breaks into the nobles' estates. During the course of his actions, he winds up fighting not only for himself, but also for the people; and so he becomes a fighter for the common people, jumping into action whenever the people are oppressed and wrongly exploited for the sake of the nobles, although at the core of his motives his desire to bring the person who ruined his life and his family to justice burns bright.

Duelist





The movie opens with a fish tale narrated by a low-class metalsmith in a tavern in Joseon-era south-western Korea, . The scene then cuts to a street circus, in which an elegant masked swordmaster (Kang Dong-won) fascinates his market-place audience. Undercover detective Ahn (Ahn Sung-ki), and his protégé Namsoon (Ha Ji-won) are tracking down suspected money-counterfeiter gang, when the masked swordmaster ends his show by killing a government official who carries the kingdom's currency metal cast.

The swordmaster escapes when a cart crashes and disgorges a mountain of counterfeit coins, causing public commotion. The distraction is a success, but Namsoon chased and dueled with the escaping swordmaster/duelist, proving herself a master of martial arts specializing in a pair of long-knives. She succeeded in cutting a quarter of his mask and glanced at his revealed eye before he escaped. She and her team are left with bodies of the counterfeit gang, seemingly massacred in an instant by an unknown duelist.

It is then revealed that counterfeit coins are spreading wildly among the populace, causing hyperinflation that threatenes the monarchy. The police forces are determined to find and arrest the counterfeiters, believed to include an insider in the government. From a secret connection, the detectives obtain a picture of the duelist, noted for his "Sad Eyes", which Namsoon recognizes from her previous encounter. Their suspicion points to Song, the powerful defense minister. This suspicion is confirmed when Namsoon spots the duelist entering Song's manor.

Namsoon and Ahn failed to chase the duelist. However, as Namsoon is walking alone in the night, Sad Eyes appeared from the shadows, asking if she is following him "because you like me?" Namsoon attacks, entering a duel that starts to become affectionate. Eventually, he vanishes after making a small cut on her clothing, revealing her cleavage. The resolute Namsoon persuaded her team to infiltrate minister Song's palace. This plan is implemented, resulting with only Namsoon succeeding in her thinly-disguised appearance as a lady of pleasure. Coincidentally, she ends up having to serve the duelist in private, which she handles very tactlessly.

Song called the duelist, interrupting Namsoon's session with him. Song turns out to be a superb swordsman, the only person who can outperform the duelist. Their conversation reveals that Song plans to overthrow the reigning young king and replace him with his future son-in-law, and that the duelist has been involved in this plan since childhood. Song reminds Sad Eyes that the duelist can kill him anytime he distrusts him, hinting that the duelist might be the planned royal successor. Song says that he always loved the duelist like a son.

After assaulting Sad Eyes in public, Namsoon is dismissed from the case by her director, only to be secretly assigned to find the final evidence to prove Song's involvement. Overhearing Namsoon's objectives, the duelist gave the needed evidence in a secret meeting with her, thereby sacrificing his destiny. Namsoon realizes her feelings for Sad Eyes. The father-figure Ahn recognizes this, advising her to forgo her feelings since he is a criminal while she is a police. The movie draws towards a climax as scores of armed police surround Song's manor and attack the duelist and Song, as well as the other corrupt officials. In their last conversation, the minister tried to speak the nameless duelist's true name, but the police separate them and detective Ahn kills the minister.

After the battle, Namsoon anxiously searches for the duelist's fate, only to be told by Ahn that "he is dead". Devastated, she returns to the lanes where she had encountered the duelist, haunted by his images. While she is walking back, the duelist appears once more in front of her. Namsoon feels that finally she can express her feelings, and in a denouement the couple dances in a picturesque combat under the moonlight. They were fighting "like they were making love", but then "disappeared suddenly", as narrated by the metalsmith in the tavern from the first scene.

The final scene shows Namsoon and Sad Eyes spotting each other from a distance in the marketplace.

Marrying a Millionaire




Want to marry a millionaire? Add one Average Joe, be one of eight women selected, and money from the television network station and you can.

Han Eun-young works as a clerk at a bank, trying to pay off the debts her step-mother and sister have piled on her. Kim Young-hoon is your regular, 'Average Joe', worker. He provides for his father, his older brother and his wife, as well as his younger brother. One day, PD Yoo Jin-ha is asked to take over the project, "Marry a Millionaire". Reluctantly, he agrees to handle the project. His search begins for the perfect man to play the 'millionaire'. His goal is to use a man who is an average worker, but can pull off the facade of a millionaire. Kim Young-hoon is that man. Although he works hard for a living, there are many who can easily mistake him for a rich guy. By chance, Eun-young is selected to be a participant in the TV show. Although the women are not supposed to know that this millionaire of theirs is just a regular worker, Eun-young knows his true identity. How? Simple. Young-hoon was her first love. After many years, they meet up again at a party. Although she did not recognize him at first, she realized it was the young boy she had fallen in love with back in middle school. Although she says she made a mistake in liking him, being in the show with him is bringing up warm feelings once again.

Which star are you from




Kim plays Choi Seung-Hee, a young director who just made a successful international film debut. Following his success in Australia, he meets the girl of his dreams, Lee Hye-su (Jeong Ryeo-Won), an aspiring musician. After spending a lovestruck romp on Australia, they planned to get married. Hye-su, however, discovers her mother does not approve of Choi. Driving to eat out one day, Seung-hee suddenly proposes to Hye-su, and while putting the ring on her finger, Seung-hee careens wildly on the road to get out the way of a truck. The accident causes Lee's death. Choi then spends the next three years in reclusion, drinking and holing himself up in his apartment.

Han Jeong-hoon (Park Shi-hoo), who runs a film company, urges Director Kim to finish his grieving and to start working on film again. Choi pulls all his energy to push Hye-su out of his thoughts. On the day he decided to go out and to continue working, he sees a young woman at the sidewalk who looked exactly like his beloved Hye-su. Struck by the utter similarity, he starts to follow the girl to her hometown, which turned out to be a far-flung province. The girl, named Kim Bok-shil (also played by Jeong Ryeo-Won), realizing Choi had nowhere else to stay for the night, offers her home as an inn. Being poor, she considers all opportunities a chance to get good money.

After spending the night at the fake inn, the two also spends the morning together searching for fresh mountain water and encountering a wild boar in the process. Choi does not reveal his identity to Kim, and Kim mistakes him for a bum waiting to pass a long overdue exam. While walking on the countryside, Choi is inspired by the beauty of his surroundings and gets ready to prepare for his next film. He then returns to Seoul and later comes back to Kim's village to shoot. They see each other again, and Bok-shil realizes Seung-hee is a renowned director. Bok-shil then posiitons herself as a rice-server for the crew and comes to the set everyday. By a stroke of luck, Han Jeong-hoon, also on the set, absent-mindedly offers Bok-shil a job at the film company. Jeong-hoon is also struck by the similarity of Bok-shil and Hye-su.

Bok-shil starts work in Seoul as an assistant for Director Choi. In the hopes of saving enough money for her mother's surgery, Bok-shil braves the demands of her work despite her clumsy and awkward ways. Seung-hee finds himself being attracted to Bok-shil because of her face, initially, and then later on because of her unique charm and humor.

Hye-su's family, by chance, sees Bok-shil and realizes she is the long lost sister of Hye-su. Hye-su's mother, determined not to lose another daughter, runs an investigation to find out Bok-shil's real identity. Proving that Bok-shil is really Lee Hye-rim, her lost younger daughter, she pleads Bok-shil/Hye-rim to leave her rural life and adopted mother to embrace her true lineage. Through Yoon Mi-hyeon (Kang Jeong-hwa), the film company's music director who turned to be her cousin, Bok-shil realizes she is the sister of Hye-su, Director Choi's former girlfriend. She is now conflicted on how to tell the truth to Seung-hee, who is now also falling for her. After the initial shock and confusion, Seung-hee was able to overcome his fears and admits he is in love with Hye-rim as Kim Bok-shil. Bok-shil's real mother, pained yet again for her younger daughter's choice, becomes determined to put an end to the relationships. Her hate for the director has come full-circle, and Choi now has the chance to do what he wasn't able to do for Hye-su.

Love Story in Harvard




The first half of the series is set at Harvard University (but filmed at university campuses in California) and is mainly concerned with the burgeoning relationship between a Harvard Law School student, Kim Hyun Woo (played by Kim Rae Won), and a Harvard Medical School student, Lee Soo In (played by Kim Tae Hee).

Kim Hyun Woo and Alex Hong (played by Lee Jeong-jin) are two first-year students at Harvard Law School, both from South Korea. Alex applies himself more and as such is the favorite of Professor John H. Keynes (the class's strict Law professor, played by Emmy-nominated actor and comedian Frank Gorshin). Hyun Woo, who initially has a hard time adjusting to the workload, falls into the bad graces of the professor, who repeatedly humiliates or ignores him. However, Hyun Woo perseveres and eventually wins the respect of Professor Keynes and his classmates. Both men meet and fall for Lee Soo-In, a third-year Korean student at Harvard Medical School. This intensifies the rivalry between them.

Hyun Woo and Soo-In grow closer and eventually start dating. However, their relationship is short-lived as Soo-In's application to join OEP, an organization that provides medical care to patients in Third World countries, is accepted. After spending a night together, Soo In breaks off all contact with Hyun Woo and leaves to work in South America, leaving him devastated.

The second half of the story takes place mainly in Seoul, after Hyun Woo and Alex have graduated from Harvard Law School. Hyun Woo is now an idealistic lawyer, refusing to take on lucrative corporate cases and only defending people he feels have no voice in the legal system. Alex, who remained in the US after graduation, returns to Korea to take on a case for an international chemicals company, which is being accused of dumping toxic substances. Hyun Woo becomes involved in the same case, although on the side of the victims demanding compensation. In addition, Soo-In also returns to Korea at around the same time to conduct some medical research. Unknown to her at first, the research is related to the chemicals case that Alex and Hyun Woo are both working on, and predictably the three meet up again.

Although Hyun Woo is still angry at Soo-In for leaving him so abruptly, he still has feelings for her, as does Alex. Alex eventually reconciles with both Hyun Woo and Soo-In, helping them to win the case against the chemicals company. He returns to the United States to take up a teaching post at Harvard Law, while Hyun Woo and Soo-In marry and have children.