2005/MBC
So we're back in 2005, over 6-7 years ago. A rather youthful Hyun Bin delivers a performance that easily matches his role in Secret Garden. For some reason though, the writers still demand that he plays rather outrageous and unbelievable characters with little common sense that people could relate to. It's a Korean drama, so no big surprise there. Take that for granted and you will enjoy the performances of the other leads as well. Kim Sun-A as lead Kim Sam-Soon delivers a (relative to other dramas) very realistic performances which clearly translates itself into the ratings it received when it first aired. The other actors and actresses don't disappoint either, all of them give credible performances. Special attention deserves to go out to the performances of Yun Ye-Hee as Yoon Hyun-Sook (President Na's secretary) and Lee A-Hyeon as Kim Yi-Young (Sam Soon's sister) for both giving very good performances.
The usual paragraph that I spend on complaining about how the support characters did not get enough screen time can be kept short for this drama. The only issue I have is that a few ends remain loose and the fact that we lose sight of a few other supporting characters. I wish they would just cut the flashbacks accompanied by music and award the time to characters such as Lee in-Hye (played by Han Yeo-Woon ), Jang Young-Ja ( Kim Hyun-Jung ) and cute little Mi-Joo ( Seo Ji-Hee ].
The script is not very unfamiliar for those that have seen Bridget Jones' Diary, but there is enough Korean culture mixed into this drama in order for it to come across as original. It also makes this drama more daring than many of the popular dramas that have followed since. Many of today's dramas don't dare or simply don't care about that additional level of realism. I wish they'd try more though, but this is really an achievement that sets this drama apart from others.
I wasn't exceptionally moved by the music in this drama, although Bonbons au Chocolat was a very touching instrumental track, played throughout the drama in a few different variations. The slower ones were the better ones in my opinion.
I would recommend this drama, most definitely. It is ageing rapidly though, so if you're trying to catch up on kdrama's from the past, let this be high up on your list.
7/10
http://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/llv67/my_name_is_kim_sam_soon?_???_???_2005mbc_more/
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