My Name is Kim Sam Soon
Last chance at love? (A review of "My Name is Kim Sam Soon")
"My Name is Kim Sam Soon" (or "My Lovely Sam Soon") is a Korean drama series about a chubby woman who finds herself jobless and alone a few months before she turns 30. Her unfaithful boyfriend broke up with her on Christmas Eve; on the same day, she got fired. Whether it was a fortunate or an unfortunate stroke of luck that on that same day Kim Sam-soon meets Hyun Jin-heon can only be determined as their love-hate story unfolds.
Hyun Jin-heon, on the other hand, is nursing his own broken heart, having been abandoned by his long-time girlfriend, Yoo Hee-jin, three years ago for reasons unknown to him. In order to forget the past, he diverted his attention to setting up his own business – a restaurant where eventually Sam Soon worked as a patissiere.
What started as purely an employer-employee relationship became complicated because of a KrW 50M dating contract that they signed – Jin-heon, because he needed a girlfriend to present to his domineering mother and Sam-soon, because she needed the money to save her family's house from being taken over by her uncle's creditors.
Because the backdrop of the story is a restaurant and the series treats its audience to a mouth-watering feast of French pastries, "My Name is Kim Sam Soon" is reminiscent of "Only You," another series which had aired in the same month in Korea. In "Only You", the male protagonist fell in love with the female protagonist because of her cooking but in KSS, Jin-heon was not attracted to Sam-soon because of the latter's pastries; in fact, Jin-heon said that he did not particularly like eating sweets. According to Jin-heon, what made Sam-soon more attractive was because she was unassuming; Sam-soon did not know in herself that she was attractive.
KSS is the most unique of all the Korean dramas that have been dubbed in Filipino and shown in Philippine television. For one, no other Korean drama has a female protagonist who is both old and fat. Although perceptions are changing these days, 30 (and beyond) is still considered a late age to get married and weight still does matter for one to be considered beautiful, at least for most superficial minds in society. Sam-soon, therefore, breaks the stereotype of the Korean drama protagonist who is beautiful, young and innocent, to the point of being naïve; she is not even close to being considered cute. But she is funny, very funny. She is smart, too and she is human because like any real human being, she fell for the traps of love – twice, at that.
Though she puts up a strong, at times, an overbearing feminist attitude, deep in her heart, Sam-soon worried, like any single unattached woman nearing her 30s, that she might end up an old maid. While the other Korean drama, "Princess Lulu," tells of a woman's first encounter with love, KSS is a story of a woman's last chance at it.
Was love sweeter the second time around for Sam-soon? Sweet, it is, but not without a tinge of bitterness and the saltiness of tears. Women are supposed to be known for being as changeable as the weather; ironically, in watching this series, the audience can cry in frustration, as Sam-soon did, because Jin-heon remains indecisive on whether he wanted to renew his old relationship with Hee-jin or he wanted to start over with Sam-soon.
KSS, and all Korean dramas for that matter, also reflect the Korean as one who loves unconditionally and unfailingly. Sam-soon loved Jin-heon no matter what, albeit the uncertainties of his feelings for her. She believed in the strength of their relationship, even if Jin-heon's mother remained opposed to it until the end.
Another striking feature of KSS is that it repeats scenes. The audience will see Jin-heon interfering with Sam-soon's blind dates twice or thrice throughout the series. On the first episode, Jin-heon and Sam-soon's first embarrassing encounter was in the men's restroom while in one of the climactic episodes, we will find the two in that same restroom in yet another embarrassing situation. Twice or thrice also, Jin-heon follows Sam-soon around in order to win her back. Another repeating scene was Sam-soon hastily leaving the restaurant and Jin-heon just looking on. We will also see several uncomfortable circumstances with Jin-heon, Sam-soon and Hee-jin together.
Avid followers of Korean dramas will likely be reminded of "Full House" as they watch KSS. The "Full House" romance also began and centered on a relationship of convenience. The male protagonists in both series are holding on to an old relationship and finding it difficult to move on. But as in most Korean dramas, KSS shows that true love (or what we thought of as true love) does not happen only once in a lifetime. Although the memories of an old love can't be completely erased, a person can, in fact, fall in love again.
At the series' close, Sam-soon and Jin-heon end up in each other's arms – an unbelievable conclusion we must say, given this unlikely pair of lovers. It is an unbelievable ending that we want to believe in, anyway, like we believe in true love.
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching". - Satchel Paige
