Nae ireumeun Kim Sam-soon

Your typical formula for a Korean TV drama goes something like this: A poor but hardworking and ambitious girl coincidentally gets involved in the life of a rich and spoiled playboy. Their interactions ultimately result in their falling in love with each other and him becoming a better person. Then, something devastating happens, like one of them finding out they have cancer or an old ex coming back, and the couple is temporarily torn apart. A few dramatic episodes later, they work things out and get back together for a happy ending.

Generally, both leads are attractive and thin, and their "love" is as innocent as two middle school students dating for the first time. The premise of this kind of show may sound cheesy, but there's something charming about Korean dramas that makes it all work.

My Lovely Sam Soon is not that typical TV drama. While it does include the trope of a poor girl catching the heart of a rich guy with some conflict mixed in to keep things interesting, My Lovely Sam Soon provides a refreshing, more mature take on the typical Korean drama. It also includes something somewhat unique in Asian entertainment: the female lead is older, overweight, and foulmouthed.

There are so many things I liked about this drama that it would take pages to list them all, but a few aspects of the show really stood out: the relationships were realistic, the comedic moments were genuinely funny, and the characters were relatable.

In many Korean dramas, the romantic moments in the show are pretty lackluster. The kisses are always a surprise for the receiver, and the receiver looks like they've been assaulted half the time. You will almost never see anything remotely related to an intimate scene in a Korean drama, and couples will oftentimes sleep next to each other but never with each other.

My Lovely Sam Soon is the complete opposite. The drama does not shy away from showing intimacy between characters, and all of the romantic scenes are tastefully done. This ultimately makes the relationships in the drama seem more realistic, and it also makes you care more about what happens to the characters.

In addition, the hardships the characters go through are relatable, and the acting is superb, which makes the drama all the more interesting and fun to watch. I found myself laughing multiple times throughout the series, and for me there was never a dull moment in the plot. The only thing I didn't particularly like about the drama was that some overused tropes were thrown in. Without spoiling anything, some unnecessary dramatic conventions were tossed into the mix in addition to the old-ex-comes-back-into-the-picture cliché.

A sort of American counterpart to this show would be the film Bridget Jones's Diary, which also features an overweight woman as the protagonist. Some even consider Sam Soon the Asian Bridget Jones. With that in mind, I would recommend My Lovely Sam Soon to anyone who enjoyed that film as well as to anyone who enjoys a good laugh with a little drama mixed in.

How do you know if the series is doing well? For "My Lovely Samsoon", critics did not have to look far with the increase of inquiries on pastry-chefs, bakeries finding themselves running out of stock exponentially faster and even bookstores selling the German children's book "MOMO" caught off guard. When the locations of filming also because guided tour-sites, there was little left to wonder.

Such was the craze that swept South Korea and eventually many other Southeast Asian countries with the release of this koreanovella.

I was not a fan prior to watching "My lovely Samsoon". In fact, I was quite the skeptic. Knowing how Asia's film/series industry cater to unrealistic love stories I was actually getting ready to thrash this series to pieces.

Yet it was such a wonderful surprise as I finished the 16 episodes and now re-watching every single one for the umpteenth times! I don't want to bore you with big words and exaggerations.

Realistic dialogs, direct yet layered storytelling and cinematography, superb acting are only some of the delightful quirks and twists one will find this series.

I don't understand a word of Korean but it didn't matter.

Enjoy! ;-)

My mother had actually watched umpteen times of this on the DVD she had bought. It almost incur the 'wrath' and became the joke of the family of her likeness towards to this drama/comedy. I am starting to really embrace the Korean wave and after seeing how much my mother loves it, I watched it too.

I had heard that this is somehow like a Korean version of sorts to 'Bridget Jones's Diary'. I had never watched that movie though.

Sam-soon is a single 30-year-old. Though her plump appearance may turned some down, she always take things in her stride. Being a baker has always been what she wanted to do and she did even went Le Cordo Bleu (fyi...it's one of the most famous cooking schools in the world) in France to realise her ambition.

At the beginning of the series, she realised her boyfriend had been seeing someone else and so she broke up with him. Imagine it happened on Christmas Eve. But, that is the start of the meeting with a hotelier's son who actually owned a restaurant on his own who needed a baker for his restaurant. With even the ex-boyfriend trying to get her back, it's kind of exciting and a little comical at times. Also even with the girlfriend of the hotelier's son coming back for a holiday from her studies in America, everything became almost so complicated.

I have to frankly admit, the guy playing the ex-boyfriend is actually kind of handsome as well, other than the hotelier's son. Okay, this is just me.

If you can find out that there's subtitles involved and/or dubbing included if your local TV station is showing, it's good if you are not so much aware of the Korean language. Given the DVD where I watched it from has Mandarin subtitles and dubbing as well, I can catch what is happening.

Really. Comical at its best. I don't know how many times I had laughed when watching. No wonder my mother is right about it...

For 2005, this hit show was quite forward and groundbreaking. The heroine is plump and sex is dealt with frankly, no waiting for ep 15 for a kiss. Sometimes the physical comedy is repetitive like the slapping and hitting. The saving grace is the humor is spontaneous and original. Great performances by Kim Sun Ah who put on weight for the role and a young Hyun Bin. The secondary lead actress is good too - Jung Ryeo Won. Daniel Henney is funny just by grinning. The ex boyfriend cheater is hilarious.

Worth watching and still ok by 2023 standards maybe a bit chauvinistic but that's how all the shows were then.

I watched it again today. I last saw it way back 2009 when It was translated to tagalog. I loved the chemistry between the two and for some reasons my heart hurts and flutter when they have romantic scenes or they are fighting. This is one of the classic romantic comedy that should be in your list if you are only beginning to watch a Kdrama.