Saturday, June 18, 2011

Smile, Honey

Smile, Honey is a family Korean drama that revolves around 2 families and their interactions. First, there is the Suh family, who owe their riches and prestige to the now-deceased CEO/father/grandfather. There are 5 members in the Suh family: Suh Jung-gil who is the head of the family, his wife Ju-hee, Sung joon the eldest son who went to U.S. to become a pro golfer, Jung-Kyung the second child in the family and Jung-in, the youngest daughter.

Jung-gil is a snobbish man and looks down on people who have no money, his wife is more of an air-head that only cares about her nails and feels faint at the slightest sign of trouble of hardwork.

Bascially, the whole Suh family, except for Jung-kyung are snotty and out of touch with reality. Jung-kyung is the only one in her family that is rational. However, she is a little too rational and practical; that it would seem that she lacks emotion: she’s cool, professional, and detached. Her attitude causes strain to her relationship with her younger sister Jung-in. Jung-kyung chooses to focus on her career and at the start of the show, interacts or spends very little time with her family, preferring to stay at the hospital than go home. She does not think too highly of her younger sister who is the princess of the family and only dreams about getting married into a good rich family.

Then there is the Kang family. Kang Man-bok (Grandpd Kang) has been the driver to the Suh family since Jung-gil’s father’s time. Jung-gil is rude to Man-bok and disrespectful to him; he even fires Man-bok one morning because he felt that Man-bok was nagging too much. Gandpa Kang is not necessarily the lead character but certainly the central one who holds the rest together. It is though a twist of events that brings the two families together and mayhems ensues. It is good family fun and be the end of the (pretty long) series, almost everyone is paired up with everyone else and of course it is a happy ending.

This drama is recommended is you like the funny, the sweet and the happy family dramas that have a plot, no unrealistic drama and (yes) a happy ending!


Thursday, June 16, 2011

My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox: Episode 4

My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox >> Episode 4 [Watch it]

Realizing that she has been left behind, stranded on the boat on water, Mi-ho cries out to Dae-woong not to leave her. Although he hears hear, Dae-woong runs without looking back, feeling guilty with each step that he takes. Soon, Mi-ho starts to cry, and the sky as if in response to her crying, darkens and starts to rain.

As it starts to rain, Dae-woong remembers what Mi-ho said about her tears causing fox rain. The thought makes him stop and want to turn back. However, he stops himself and tries to reason with himself that that is is ridiculous. He continues on, but when he remembers that she declared that they are now friends, and that he promised to protect her fox bead, he whines that she's using her tears (rain) to hold onto him. Nonetheless, he turns back and runs to her.

Meanwhile, Mi-ho starts to lose control of her appearance as her fox bead is far away from her, her far of the water and being stranded on the boat does not help. When a dog comes close, her eyes start to turn blue. To hide her appearance, she dashes into the bathroom and hides as her other foxy features start to appear.


When Dae-woong finally reaches the boat when it docks, as he boards the boat, he overhears the family with the dog that there was a strange woman who looked like a monster. Bracing himself, he actually mistakes a dog with a fluffy tail for Mi-ho. He eventually finds her hiding in the bathroom. Mi-ho is glad that Dae-woong has returned for her, but she does not want to open the door as her appearance is changing. She is afraid she will scare Dae-woong. He insists that it is ok and that he won't be shocked as he has seen her tails enough times to prepare himself.

As she opens the door, Dae-woong cannot hide his shock at hear appearance (blue eyes and fur). He quickly grabs a tablecloth nearby and drapes it over her, and dashes off the boat. When they are land, Mi-ho asks him why he left her on the boat. Dae-woong feels guilty but lies that it was not him that left her, but that the boat had left him. Her blue eyes light up in glee as she picks up on the fact that Dae-woong came back because it started to rain.

Following right behind them is the boat attendant who is out to get his tablecloth back. As the attendant pulls the tablecloth off Mi-ho, Dae-woong draws her into a hug, which results in them being in a time-suspended mystical hug moment.

Mi-ho beams as she soon returns to human form. Thy smile at each other. Thinking that it is ok to go, Dae-wong starts to leave, but Mi-ho grabs his jacket and pulls him in for another hug, claiming that she needs to be close to her fox bead for a little longer.

Dae-woong is initially taken aback, but soon finds himself tentatively happy, as he gives in embraces her for a little longer. After a while, he awkwardly asks if that’s long enough, but she’ says she needs a little while longer, so he continues to hug her and pets her hair as she sighs blissfully, grinning away.

Meanwhile, the Gumiho Hunter, Dong-joo, visits the temple where Mi-ho was imprisoned, and tells the monk that the fox will be put back in her rightful place.

Happy to support the new and improved grandson of his, that is now willing to live for others instead of purely himself Dae-woong's Grandpa packs up his belongings and sends Aunt Min-sook to deliver them. Aunt Min-sook waits outside the action school, and ends up falling asleep on the bench. The "Chow Yun-fat" look-a-like discovers her napping. He rushes over, and opens up his trench coat to shield her from the sun. He remains in the same position until he’s sweating from head to toe, and she’s none the wiser. Later that night, he waits to catch anotherr glimpse of the mysterious girl who can jump without wires, but to no avail.

When it is dinner time, Mi-ho complains that dinner is chicken again. Dae-woong retorts that under their current circumstances, it would be shameless for her to ask for cow. She points out that she can be as shameless as she wants since she’s not human.

He laments that he cannot afford cow at the moment as his dreams to be an action star were shattered. Not understanding, Mi-ho asks what an action star is, and he says it’s something that he is really good at. Mi-ho answers: “Running away?” Dae-woong insists that although she might see him as a weak human, to other normal girls, he’s reallt great. Haring that Mi-ho adds with a thumbs-up that even she thinks he’s pretty cool.

Goaded by her reaction, he gives her a demonstration of his action skills, in an imaginary sword-fight scene. Mi-ho delights in the demonstration, while Dae-woong gets to show off. Mi-ho starts to copy all of his sayings and gestures, which amuses Dae-woong. He kicks a brick wall, and she follows suit... However she kicks it with so much force that it almost crumbles.

The director with the Chow Yun-fat demour happens to head that way to relieve himself,. They run and hide when he approaches their direction. They run and hide, and watch in horror (with Dae-woong covering Mi-ho’s eyes) as he starts to urinate on that very spot. The mere force of him urinating is just enough to send the wall crashing down, and on the other side is a very surprised lady.
He gets hauled away to the police station, where the cop accuses him of being a trench coat-pervert. The producer insists he’s nothing of the sort, and insists that he was just urinating: “And it wasn’t even pee that I was holding. It was of the normal variety.”

At the police station, Dae-woong comes to his defense, vouching as an eye-witness that all he did was pee. Being at the police station voching for the director, gives Dae-woong the opportunity introduce himself as Sun-nyeo’s friend. Upon hearing that he is his daughter's friend, the director is happy to give him another chance at his audition, as long as the night’s events are kept a secret.
When Dae-woong comes out of the police station, he finds Mi-ho digging in the trash, with a rib bone in her mouth. Realizing that she’s looking a bit worse for wear, he takes her shopping for necessities such as toiletries and clothes.

Bavk home, he tries to teach her how to brush her teeth and wash up,. But she ends up eating most of the the cleaning products, to his dismay. Mi-ho exclaims that she is happy because of him. However, he breaks her happy reverie by asking when she’s going to take back her fox bead. She gives the excuse that she’s too tired to eat and goes to bed.
Dong-joo sits in his room and says that he doesn’t want to have to send Mi-ho back. He’d rather she went quietly, but he knows she’s not about to give in so easily.
While Dae-woong is asleep, Mi-ho checks on her fox bead, and realizes that he’s almost healed. She sighs to herself that if she told him the truth, he would send her away instantly. She wonders why she can’t just stay by his side, killing the mosquitoes for him while he sleeps, and comes to the realization that she’s not human.

The next day, Mi-ho proclaims that she is not going to follow Dae-woong around, so that he can do well on his audition without any trouble. He is surprised. He doesn’t quite believe her at first, so he keeps coming back to give her money for food, then to tell her not to dig in the trash, and to call him if anything happens.

Although Dae-woong finally leaves, he feels uneasy about her staying behind. He finds it a little strange without her following right behind him. When she comes out and waves at him from the rooftop, he stops himself from waving back, saying that he has to stop growing attached to her.
So Mi-ho spends the day digging through trash cans to find chicken coupons with the belief that if she is able to collect all tem, it would turn into a chicken. She even fights with the neighborhood ajumma for the last one.

Dong-joo finds her, and takes her for a drive. Mi-ho is amazed to find that even though he is no human, he has an ID, a social security number, and a cell phone.

Dae-woong does well on his audition, and gets cast right away. Hye-in runs into him, and asks to have a congratulatory dinner together. He promised Mi-ho he would return and treat her to cow, so he uses Grandpa as an excuse. She concedes that family is a good enough excuse and lets him go.

Meanwhile, Dong-joo takes Mi-ho to his apartment, where she is amazed and marvels at his life as a human. He explains that he moves from place to place every few years, changing his name and never getting too close to anyone. He has been living this way far longer than she has being trapped in that painting. She wants him to teach her how to pass for human too. But Dong-joo tells her that by living his way, she cannot be close to humans: she’ll never have friends, or family, or love. He continues, “The way I’m living…it’s not that different from being trapped in that painting. You should return.” She hangs her head in disappointment, saying that she really, really doesn’t want to go back. Dong-joo throws down the gauntlet: “Then are you willing to die?”

Having said that, Dong-joo takes out his magical knife, and cuts his hand. He lets his blood drip into a glass, and tells her that the knife and/or his blood can kill her. If she drinks it his blood, while she has her fox bead collect the ki of a human being for one hundred days, she’ll become human. She asks why he is telling her all this and he replies that it’s because of another girl who looked like her, and wanted the same thing. He’ll help her die, but wonders if Cha Dae-woong can be trusted to protect her fox bead for a hundred days.


He reminds her again that humans cannot be trusted, and insists she forget it all and go back. Mi-ho leaves, the question hanging over her. while she holds a vial of Dong-joo’s blood in her hand. As she watches people on the street below her she thinks to herself: “Does dying mean disappearing? I just want to live down there.”

On her way home, she gets recognized by the director. He chases her but cannot catch up with her. Hye-in sees this from afar, and realized that nott only does Mi-ho have Dae-woong’s affections, but now she’s got the Director’s too, for that coveted lead role.
Hye-in decides to call Dae-woong to discuss it, but she catches him in a lie as he nears home with a bundle of meat in his hands. They find a place to sit down to talk. Hye-in asks if he likes her, and says in a roundabout way that she’s been waiting for him to declare his feelings, and preparing her answer. She tells him that she’s losing her faith in him, and wavering in her feelings, and not to make her wait too long.

After the conversation, Dae-woong drowns his angst in soju. Mi-ho eagerly awaits his return and leaves him a voicemail, telling him that she has something important to ask him. She asks if she can stay by his side longer. She smells his scent as he approaches, and runs to find him in the gym. She comes upon him slumped over in the dark. He announces that he’s drunk. He drunkenly pleads with her to go away and stop making his life so difficult, as he slumps to the ground and passes out. Her reaction is heartbreaking as she looks down at him and says that she will leave. She lets go of his hand.

The next morning when Dae-woong wakes up in his bed, not knowing how he got there. He calls out to Mi-ho, but she’s nowhere to be found. He looks around and ponders for a while before he comes to the realization that she's gone!