In
City Hall a powerful politician goes to a small town with the intention of winning a seat in the South Korean senate so he can one day run for President. There he meets a shy, clumsy office lady who he sees as the perfect scapegoat he can use to reach his political ends (she works at City Hall). There's only one problem: he can't seem to control his heart. The more time he spends with her, he finds himself falling for the unpretentious small town girl. I loved this drama. Cha Seung Won and Kim Sun Ah were great in the leading roles and had amazing chemistry together! While Mi-ræ was a little naive, she wasn't this overly innocent woman-child (like most 'innocent' female leads) who doesn't know what to do with herself around a man. She had a quiet strength about her that made the male lead think twice about underestimating her. They made a great team & I really enjoyed watching them falling in love. This drama had one of the happiest, like literally happy, endings I've ever seen.
Coincidentally,
Lovers is written by the same screenwriter as City Hall. This features a reforming gangster falling for a preacher's daughter (you don't get 'bad boy goes after innocent poor girl' any more than that lol). What ensues is a hilarious, sexually charged flirtation between the two that really, really floated my boat. Gosh, I've never seen such
incredible on-screen chemistry between 2 characters in an Asian drama before or since! It was sick! But it's more than just a campy romcom -- while the leads' first encounters are funny and cute, the story deals with complicated themes like emotional infidelity, falling out of love, doing the right thing and so on. I absolutely loved it, but Lovers seems to be a hit or miss with audiences due to it's subject matter and perhaps because of its backdrop (the Korean underworld) so I have no idea if you'll like it or not, but you can check it and see if it's your cup of tea.
Que Sera Sera also seems to be a good choice. This is about a gigolo (although he doesn't defines himself as such) who will stop at nothing to get rich quick. He's a gold digger and proud of it. The one place he's going is up and he doesn't care what anyone says; he has no time or patience for 'real' love and all that crap. So what's a guy to do when he finds himself falling for an innocent, wide-eyed country bumpkin? Run like hell? Succumb? This drama is a roller coaster! I normally can't stand love triangles and squares but this one took me on a ride and I loved it! I really love how irreverent and unrepentant the male lead was. He's the epitome of the ultimate bad boy. I'm not sure I'd date someone like him in real life, but I sure did enjoy watching his antics unfold on screen!
