My Fair Lady (2009)

Take Care of the Young Lady/My Fair Lady is one of those dramas that begin on a funny/light hearted note and end with a melo/romantic note.

The plot revolves around Dongchan, a former gigolo who owes a ridiculous amount of money to three loan sharks (whom I dub as the Three Stooges because they are honestly more comical than threatening). He plans his way to pay the debt by becoming the personal butler of the extremely wealthy and egotistical Kang Hyena.

It surprises me how some people were not able to see the chemistry between the two main leads. Yoon Sang Hyun and Yoon Eun Hye won the Best Couple Award for this drama. So, its safe to say that the duo won't disappoint you. In the beginning episodes you'll probably not like Hyena. For one, she's verbally insensitive to those around her and has no qualms with being quick with the hands. Then along comes Dongchan who quickly puts Hyena in her place... though he suffers for it both verbally and physically.

Now you all are probably saying to yourselves "How can I get behind this romance when one is abusive?!" Well I'm here to tell you that that abuse doesn't last very long. I wish I could do a more in depth review but since this site has a "No spoilers" policy then I'll try my best to keep shut with certain points. As the story progresses, you realize and see for yourself that Hyena is not a bad person by any means. All she is is just spoiled. Lets take a look at Hyena. Hyena was born with a sliver spoon in her mouth. She's filthy rich and with a snap of her fingers she gets what she wants.
When you watch the drama, you realize that she doesn't have any real, TRUE friends. Why? You could say it is because of her personality and that she has an air of superiority around her but try and look at it from her perspective. Hyena doesn't trust anyone. Why? She's rich and because of that fact she FEELS like she can't trust anyone. Hyena has that little voice in the back of her mind telling her that the only reason a person will ever get close to her is because of her money. I'm not rich but as I watched this drama I could see why Hyena would close herself off and be distrusting of others.

When it comes to Dongchan, he's a down to earth kind of guy who has made some tough decisions in his past. Your heart will ache a bit for him when you learn the real reason why he became a gigolo and ended up in so much debt. His relationship with Hyena has many funny and touching moments. Dongchan too realizes that Hyena is just a spoiled brat and instead of becoming her enemy, as he had planned, he becomes her friend. Their friendship gets to the point where Hyena feels she can't even go a day without him by her side. And from there you know the usual K-Drama formula of the two eventually falling in love with each other.

What I loved the most about this drama was the relationship between the two leads and how they truly fell in love. Dongchan is very hesitant since many would view him as a poor man with a shady past. He is willing to give up his love if it means that Hyena will be happy. Hyena on the other hand refuses to let go and pretty much says screw what other people think.

What I disliked about the drama... though not exactly relevant to the main plot, there are a few parts where characters mention Hyena's ex-boyfriend and its kinda left up in the air for the viewer to figure out what happened. Overall I'd say its just a nitpick.

Also, the supporting characters Eui Joo and Taeyun are great as well. I always chuckled a bit whenever Eui Joo would say or do something funny and in turn would make Taeyun smile or laugh.

The music is great and meshes well with many of the scenes. Fun fact: Yoon Sang Hyun sang two of the songs in the soundtrack. One of them is a duet with Yoon Eun Hye. Both of them have beautiful singing voices.

I would recommend to those that are interested in this awesome drama is to give it a chance. When I start something, I finish it. Maybe I won't finish a drama right away but eventually I will. Hope you all enjoyed reading this review and take the time to check out this drama.

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Admittedly, I only stated watching this drama because of Yoon Eun Hye's main role. For those who are her fan, this drama displays a "fresh" new role for her as a princess-type-brat; worthy of seeing as she plays it very well. As for the chemistry between the main couple- I'll confess it was lacking, however, the storyline made up for it as it was a surprisingly easy drama to get through. The comedy in the drama left no room for any dry bits and the overall story came across as very touching. Ironically summarized, the drama is about growing up and gaining independence through unexpected love. What I really enjoyed about this drama was the selfless love it seemed to portray from many angles, I recommend you give it a shot.

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This drama is really good. It had to be one of my favorite dramas. This type of drama is one of those types where the rich fall in love with the poor and they can't be allowed to be together because of their status and how mostly the rich person is the guy and he falls in love with the maid. Well, in this drama it's the girl who is the rich person and her butler. She is a spoiled, bratty, princess who likes everything to go her way. Everybody fears her because of her attitude. He is a man who likes to be busy and does a lot of things in order to survive life. He doesn't care whether she is rich or not, he treats her like everybody else. They hate each other at first but they soon come to realize that they both need each other in their lives. This drama I would say is REALLY REALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Although it was predictable but who cares? I loved every minute of it. The storyline was great. I laughed, I cried, and I enjoyed this drama. This drama is definitely a MUST SEE!!! The characters were very well played here.......I think that I might go watch this again! lol, have fun watching My Fair Lady.

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I must be going blind or something.

I couldn't feel the chemistry between the main leads that others are talking about. Where is it?! Yoon Eun Hye plays a spoiled second generation chaebol and her love interest is her butler, played by Yoon Sang Hyun. While they are actually notably good actors separately, I just couldn't feel any spark between them.

I was more interested on how the second leads were developing their own romance!

Story - Other than the rich-poor falling in love story line, the man helps the woman gain foothold in her harabuji's company and the main and the second male lead fighting over Hye Na's love, the writers must've ran out of cliches to show and ended it with yet another cliche!

Acting/Cast - Yoon Eun Hye, forgive me. I have always liked you, but that wail you keep on doing is grating on my nerves. Kudos though for Jung Il Woo and Moon Chae Won for keeping the cute love side-story to an otherwise boring main cast.

Rewatch value: Please don't make me.

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To be honest I enjoyed this drama more for the cast than the actual story.

The story and plot are fast paced in the beginning because its new and the characters are starting to interact with each other. It starts off funny but becomes drama central in the second half. The ending was short but cute.

I loved the entire cast but the main 4 leads had this chemistry. I seriously loved watching them interact. This is probably my favorite role of YEH. She is such a great actress really believable as a snobby heiress and so pretty! loved her style=)

The music stands out and went on my ipod straight away.

I could watch this twice in a year just because the cast is awesome

Overall the script isnt perfect but youll have fun watching.

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I haven't seen an accurate plot summary so here goes: A man with a checkered past and a big gambling debt takes on the job of butler to a spoiled young woman.

Role reversals made this drama refreshing; the lead female character was the spoiled young chaebol while the lead male character was the one from a humble background who had to endure all sorts of indignities.

Good story, a bit predictable but then isn't all k-drama. Gorgeous wardrobe for the female lead. Couldn't wait to see what she'd be wearing in each scene.

Great supporting actors in secondary roles that were nonetheless important to the overall story.

Overuse of 2 or 3 songs as background music throughout the series. Also one huge inconsistency - sometimes the female lead's hair was long and other times short.

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There were cool things about this drama but also lots of crap. Actor Yoon Eun Hye tried a boss/princess type role and she was so-so at it which made it kinda frustrating. I know she’s a good actress, (Ive seen some of her good performances which include some parts in this very drama) and I'm not even saying the role doesn't suit her or anything like that. Thing is, I don't know if it was due a lack of appropriate practice/rehearsal but she seemed to fall in and out of her role at times. Sometimes it seems she’s playing the role quite right and next you catch her so very out of character which I presume are traces of her character in reality. Her character suffers a huge blow for this as it makes the character less believable which is supposed to be the whole point of acting. Partial blame on the script though. The character written for her is quite far from being a chabol its supposed to be. It would've more believable if she was simply the daughter of some wealthy man. Chabol was setting their aims too high as they weren't consistent with the image through the production. Anyways I just find myself making the -____-" face a lot.

Next is the story & plot. Lets get over the bad first. There are quite a lot of cheezy parts, which I found annoying and there are some severely unrealistic stuff. Some I could laugh off and some had me with the long face again. I could just visualize the script writers and directors not being able to come up with good enough ideas so they just got lazy or something and went along the easy-crappy route. Also there were times I didn't quite like Kang Hye Na’s style. Though I’d consider it stylish, I perceived it as too derogatory to her as an actor and person. Some might count is as sex appeal though but I just happen to care for her image as person? (kinda like brotherly love I guess? Yea we're far from being related but please get my point -_-") And therefore I wasn't pleased with it. And lastly a good part of the story was predictable but maybe that's just me.

Regardless no need to worry there is enough good stuff in this drama for us viewers which is why its able to get an 8/10 from me. The story, though very typical k-drama style, can surely hold even the interest of long time viewers. And there are also great supporting actors. Like really. Yoon Eun Hye is probably the only actor I had an issue with. You’ll also find the good chunk of comedy in this drama and that helped a great deal.

Overall I felt this drama seemed like "just another job" to some of its creators (its lacking that special love & great attention to detail) but due to their professionalism it still ended up ok. Good for them.

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A regurgitated story with wasted chemistry

Let me start off this review by saying that I really wanted to like this drama. I really did. This drama was Yoon Eun Hye`s first project after massively popular and rightfully heralded "Coffee Prince", a drama that will forever stay as a classic and my second favorite show ever. On the other hand, this was my first experience with Yoon Sang-Hyun`s acting, given that I dropped "Secret Garden" fairly quickly, so I only got a proper glimpse of him as the famous Oska. I found that his portrayal, while not perfect by any means, is rather earnest and despite everything else, the chemistry between him and Eun Hye is definitely palpable. Which is why I`m disappointed. And I knew what I was getting into. While MDL ratings don`t reflect the quality of a drama in most cases, they still serve as pointers for what a watcher should expect in terms of originality and thinking outside of the box. And this box was too narrow to get out of.

Unlike most people on this site, I actually prefer unrelatable and bratty characters most of the time, since my life is too damn flat to go out of my way and watch those kind of characters for fun too. And, with that being said, with a few exceptions, I didn`t find anything wrong with Yoon Eun Hye`s acting. I found those flaws in directing, however. Actors would often deliver their lines and then obviously pretend to do something in order to fulfill the scene. Only they do it in such a way where it`s obvious that the hammy acting isn`t their fault, but the fault of director`s vision and disability to, well, direct. Shots are generally uninspiring, while some amateurish mistakes make their way into the final cut. The script...is a script. It`s cliché, written by numbers type of script. The worst part of this whole drama for me, however, is the waste of actual chemistry here. Not one of these relationships feel genuine. There`s lack of affection, decisions made without any kind of credible backing and I hate it. Tae-Yun asks Hae Na to marry him without them even kissing, only meeting in passing like you would do with an old friend. Hae Na and Dong Chan`s relationship progresses so quickly in the last few episodes from two unexciting kisses to making love without anything in between, it`s so weird. It`s jarring too so all this sexual tension that is there evaporates because of the writers` inability to show intimacy progression well. The last few episodes I had on as background noise, because they were quite clearly filler. By the end, I didn`t care about anyone at all. The President`s death didn't move me, the second couple`s chemistry is entirely nonexistent and the over-the-top presentation becomes an ugly crutch.

While I can`t agree with reviewers saying that the main couple had no chemistry(their connection was the actual highlight for me and that`s what ultimately kept me watching), I agree on almost everything else. This drama is uninspiring slug of good ideas and bad executions, so it was a bust on more levels than I`d like to admit.

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