A Gentleman's Dignity (2012)

I can’t believe it took me so long to watch it

This drama has been on my watch list for a while and I finally decided to give it a go. I am so glad I did. At first I thought like others “man these guys are ugly”. Then I slowly got sucked. I am a sucker for former playboys who finally meet their match. If you like that sort of story, then this is for you. It was fun watching these guys and their antics. I found myself laughing quite a bit. The funny parts are not your typical “silliness” but instead something you could totally picture in real life moments. The romance and relationship development is also more life like with its moments and difficulties. This is not your typical melodrama but feels more like a fun journey and you end up rooting for the couples.

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Unique in that it is about older couples (late 30s/early 40s)

8/10 is my rating. This is a 2012 South Korean drama with 20, 60 minute episodes.

The story centers around four men who have been friends since high school.

?Kim Do-jin (Jang Dong-gun) is handsome and after several failed business attempts also successful. He has had serious relationships in the past but is not looking for that now and is enjoying his 40‘s by playing the field. That is until he has a chance meeting with a girl who is radically different than most women in his life, Seo Yi-soo (Kim Ha-Neul). Yi-soo teaches High School kids and her devotion and mentoring goes above and beyond resulting in her turning around some troubled youth, such as Kim Dong-Hyun (Kim Woo-bin), a troubled young man that Yi-so frequently extricates from trouble. Dong-hyun has a crush on his kind, beautiful and intelligent teacher and several of his conflicts with others are, unknown to Yi-so, in defense of her. Yi-soo’s devotion to her young charges leads many former students to go on to do great things, and garners fierce loyalty and friendship from both current and past students. Im Maeri was Yi-soo’s student and is now more of a trusted friend. She also is the umpire for many of the men’s baseball games which is how she has stayed close to Do-jin’s friend and business partner Im Tae-San (Kim Su-roj. Do-Jin loses his heart to this beautiful and unique woman. However, Yi-soo has no interest in someone living their romantic life so frivolously and Do-Jin discovers Yi-soo secretly loves one of the four best friends, Im Tae-san. Not able to put his feelings aside so easily, Do-Jin finds himself in the novel position of loving someone who does not love him back and he is determined to replace Im Tae-San in Yi-so’s heart. Due to stressful events in the past, Do-Jin developed memory problems when stress so he carries a special pen that is always recording audio (this is the center of many comedic moments).
?Betty is Do-jin’s car. Do-Jin’s love for his car easily surpasses his love for most people.
?Im Tae-san meets Yi-soo's roommate through Yi-soo and begins dating her. Hong Se-ra (Yoon Se-ah) Is not only Yi-so’s roommate but also a close friend so Yi-soo keeps her feelings a secret. Se-ra is a pro golfer who has never made it on her golf skills and relies on her beauty to have some notice in the world of golf. Tae-san heads up the construction part of the architectural firm and his muscular body mixed with a kind demeanor appeals to many women.
?Choi Yoon (Kim Min-Jong) is a lawyer who represents his friends, as they need it, with their architectural firm. Im Meari Yoon Jin-yi) is his Tae-san’s younger sister who has had a very blatant love for Choi Yoon from a very young age. Im Meari has known her brother’s three friends her whole life and is treated like a little sister by all. She recently returned from studying abroad in America. Im Meari’s relentless pursuit and undying love has slowly chipped away at the ice that developed in Choi yoon’s heart after hus wife’s death four years before. He buries his feelings and repeatedly turns Im Maeri away to not damage his relationship with Tae-san who has made it clear he considers his sister off limits.
?Lee Jung-rok (Lee Jong-Hyun) is a flirt who drives his successful, rich wife, Park Min-sook (Kim Jung-nan) to the brink of divorce. She is their landlord and a huge investor in both the architectural and law firms so the friends are constantly trying to hide Jung-roc’s misdeeds to keep Min-sook happy. Jong-roc owns a restaurant and bar and it is a place where Jung-roc encounters many women,
?Colin (Lee Jong-hyun) is the son of the four men’s mutual love interest in their twenties, Kim Eun-hee (Park Joo-mi). Colin was born in America but comes to Korea in pursuit of his biological father. He believes one of the four friends is his father and has come to learn which one. He has chance encounter with Yi-soo who immediately recognizes him as a student and treats him as such and Im Meari who he develops an interest in.

Spoiler ? I found it refreshing that this drama was around characters that were a little older than your typical drama. The central story, in a romantic sense, is really good and I could see the two falling for each other even if it was real life. It was surprising to me that the other romances the drama had a lot of focus on, that it was much harder to see how those couples fit together. The pro golfer, maybe it’s just a personal bias, but she just didn’t seem to have much depth and she seemed pretty selfish most of the time. The story includes a vague allusion that there could be reasons for selfishness and lack of depth but they never really get into it so I did not have any understanding for her character. The relationship between the young sister and one of the friends is also really hard to understand because you only really get to see him pushing her away and not what made her develop feelings for him in the first place. Ironically for me anyway I could more see her with Colin because you got to see them have a bit of a relationship. Same with the friend who has a rich businesswoman as his wife. I got to say I really loved her character. She seem brusque on the surface but did so many kind things for the friend group and for other people that she was one of the people in the drama that I wanted to see happy. So the side romances for me were not all that compelling and I found each time it switched focus to that I was just waiting for it to get back to the main couple or the friendship storyline. There were also times when things would be happening that the friends were talking about that I did not get what was going on or how it had any significance in building the characters or to any of the storylines. That seem to happen more early in the story and I was happy later on that I felt less lost on the points of something. I also had a bit of hard time with who they defined as really attractive among the friends and their romantic interests because I am not sure that everyone would find those people universally physically attractive. Usually when somebody is really attractive most people would agree.

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I can honestly say that I've rewatched this drama at least three times. There are some iconic scenes and moments that are WORTH rewatching. I can guarantee that you fall in love with almost every character by the end.

This is a funny, feel-good drama. The music is so good, especially My Love and Illa Illa. I recommend this drama to people who like a classic romance. The humor fits in perfectly and the character development is spot on.

The acting is great. Only a good actor can make you truly hate their character. This was my initial feeling toward Se Ra. Don't worry, I'm not spoiling :)

The ending is also sooooo good. It nicely wraps everything up in a cute and spring-y way (like the theme of this drama).

To describe A Gentleman's Dignity in a few words: spring, funny, cute, love, friendship.

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Story
The story is at the same time cliché and original (do I even make sense?). It's supposed to be your typical romance drama with an unexpected and fateful encounter leading to a hate-love relationship. However it's better than this, the boys are in their 40s and cannot act innocent anymore, well not really. I dare to sum up this story as "all the forms of heterosexual love stories".
The 1st love, the unrequited love, the budding love, the spiritual love (a widower), the "scared of commitment" love, the end of love with a couple at the edge of a divorce... it's all in one drama.

Acting/cast
The strong point of this drama is definitely the 4 men, their friendship and their interaction. You fall in love with them, you hate them, you want to be in their group, you laugh with and at them. You gotta love these boys. They are hilarious and perfectly played by the different actors.
The story tries (sometimes succeed, sometimes fail) to create the same atmosphere between the women. The feminine characters are a bit blander which is a pity. Though, I absolutely loved the character of Park Min Sook.
Loved also the students, especially Dong Hyup & his friendship with Colin.

Music
Juniel & Lee JongHyun and you cannot go wrong.

Rewatch Value
It's still totally modern and worth another watch.

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I can say that I had fun watching this drama. All the characters are lovely, even though this drama revolves around 4 men who are childhood friends, I like the women more in this drama. The OSTs are good too. The only thing I find weird here is the age gap of Choi Yoon and Im Meari. Personally I think Yoon is too old for Meari, but I don't feel awkward when watching them maybe because of their acting skills and chemistry. They do look cute together.

I'll give it an 8/10. I found some scenes especially in the first episodes cringey(?) for example is when Dojin pinned Yisoo on the door. But overall it's fun.

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The concept for this drama was really interesting to me. Male friendships are rarely a central topic of a drama in any country, let alone Korea. And for me, this aspect of the drama was well done. The friendships among the male characters were great -- they were hilarious together, but also very much there for each other when the going got tough. I liked the juxtaposition of the adult male friendships and the young men's friendships, too. Unfortunately, I disliked the lead couple's storyline and, since it took up so much screen time, I couldn't just ignore it or get past it.

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A Nice Gem

This show was pretty good actually. It showed three middle aged men who all had flaws of their own maneuver careers, love, etc. The main pairing had decent chemistry, it felt there was something missing at times tbh, the secondary pairing (younger sister with friend) was a bit creepy in my opinion. Just leave the man alone and the last guy's story I barely remember. I think he dated the main lady's friend or something. The show was good but not really memorable imo. I don't regret watching it but maybe they could've included more drama than the younger/older couple's issues and some drama for the main leads.

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I actually skipped this drama before since the story revolved around adults and I felt like I just won`t relate to it or find it worth watching even though this drama was highly rated and was even dubbed for easier understanding in my country. I just went and gave it a go after watching 18 again and I`m glad that I did. Because not only is the storyline good but it was also legit funny. Like for real. It`s actually a good drama that showcases some reality of being in the 40`s. It doesn`t matter what age you are, everyone would always have the part where they will/can be child-like.

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