A review of My Lovely Sam Soon starring Kim Sun-a and Hyun Bin.
Filled with romance tropes – enemies to lovers, love triangle, and fake dating – this show did not disappoint. I was pulled in by the contract dating concept but stayed for all the rest. While this holds a special place in my heart, being the first K-drama I ever watched, it has been a long time since I have seen it. I decided to do a rewatch and see if the love for this story would still be there after seeing so many other dramas.
This is an older drama, hailing from the year 2005, and you can definitely feel that while watching. The hairstyles, wardrobe, and technology scream 20 years ago. That being said, it was still an enjoyable watch even if some of the story didn’t age as well.
Here’s how I rank each of the sections in my rating scale:
Story (7/10)
Written by Kim Do-woo and Ji Su-hyeon the story centers around Kim Sam-soon played by Kim Sun-a, a thirty-year old pastry chef who is navigating a break-up, a job hunt, and the constant nagging of her mother. To top it all off, she absolutely despises her name, which I had to look up to understand, it literally means third daughter, I’m pretty sure I would hate that too.
Kim Sam-soon meets Hyun Jin-heon played by Hyun Bin who owns an upscale restaurant and gives Kim Sam-soon two offers – to join his team as the head pastry chef and to be his fake girlfriend to get his mother to stop setting him up on blind dates.
While the overall premise is not a unique one, this drama kept me enraptured the entire time. The only reason I docked it a few points is because of the repeated storyline that Kim Sam-soon needs to lose weight. I know this may be partially because of the time in which this was written and partially part of the Korean culture that I am not completely familiar with, it still left a little bit of a bad aftertaste to me.
Characters (7/10)
I liked all of the characters in this show and they each brought something to the storyline, though when I reflect on all of the other dramas that I have seen, there are definitely shows with stronger characters. While I did enjoy these characters, I do feel like their development wasn’t as transformative as it should have been, which is why I gave the characters a 7 out of 10.
Outside of the main couple, all of the supporting characters brought a lot to the table from deep emotions to laughs to outright hatred. Yoo Hee-jin played by Jung Ryeo-wan, our third in the love triangle, gave us a character we were sympathetic towards while also rooting against her.
Dr. Henry Kim, played by Daniel Henney, was one of my favorites in this show. He was the caring, intelligent, and rational character that contrasted with all of the twists, turns, and illogical trappings of the other characters. Not only that, but he did this as an English-speaking character who did not understand Korean. To this day, one of the best English-speaking performances I have seen in a Korean drama. He really set the bar high for me which overshadows most other dramas I have seen since. But I guess that is to be expected as he has gone on to do brilliant things in Hollywood.
Binge-ability (9/10)
How easy was it for me to binge or want to binge this show? Super easy! The episodes for the most part weren’t too emotionally charged and weren’t so intense that they required me to take a breather like some shows do. It was very easy to want to keep going to the next and to race through these episodes.
There are 16, sixty-minute episodes which is easily done in a weekend. 😊
Repeatability (8/10)
This is definitely a show that will be easy to watch again in the future. It probably won’t be on the list of my go-to, feel-good repeats, but will be one I seek out when I get the occasional hankering for a contract-dating classic.
TOTAL 31 out of 40 Delicious Cupcakes!
This puts this drama solidly in the middle of my all-time show rankings.
Stay tuned for my other reviews to start seeing my list build itself.
Where to Watch My Lovely Sam-Soon
If you want to give this a watch, you can find it on Viki.com with VIKIPASS Standard or a KOCOWA+ subscription.
