Sassy Girl Chun Hyang
Also Known As: Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang
A Brief Synopsis:
It’s a modern interpretation of “The Legend of Choon-Hyang,” that feudal tale of unwavering love, and the lengths to which we will go through to preserve it.
Lee Mong-Ryong has always been a troublemaker, to the chagrin of his constable father. In an attempt to have Mong-Ryong embrace a slower pace of life, his father moves the family from Seoul to a smaller town in the countryside, away from Mong-Ryong’s unrequited crush Hong Chae-Rin. Almost immediately Mong-Ryong ends up in a bit of a fix where he meets Sung Choon-Hyang, a very pretty, intelligent, and sassy girl who gives him as much trouble as he makes.
Due to some unlucky circumstances, they end up being forced into marriage with each other to avoid scandal. The newlywed couple go through high school together, bickering and making up the entire way. However, when Chae-Rin suddenly reappears in Mong-Ryong’s life, Choon-Hyang suddenly finds herself left on the wayside, open to the attentions of a famous and wealthy film agent, Byun Hak-Do.
Plot Review:
Even though it’s a retelling of an old legend, it is far from a simple modernization. What this series really does is preserve the essence of the original tale and incorporate it into a brand-new story. It truly is about how far you would go to help the one you care about.
However, the plot contained way too many elements that weren’t narrated very well. I felt like we skipped from scene to scene without much investment in each one, and without much relation to each other. I always asked myself, “What was the point of that scene?”
I like the pace of the story, which is quite fast. In a single episode, two new plotlines can be introduced while another is resolved. It makes for some heady watching.
One thing that I really dislike is how much time ends up passing before the entire thing resolves, ten years to be precise. I can only think of how many years were wasted while the characters were off doing their own thing.
And I truly believe that although Choon-Hyang finds happiness in the end, she really got a raw deal. She sacrificed so much for herself, only to end up having Mong-Ryong reap the benefits. I’m happy for her at the end, but it’ll always be a little sour for me, since she ended up losing so much in terms of — well, everything! She loses time, money, energy, and opportunities, not to mention being physically and emotionally drained.
I understand that the misunderstanding is an essential part to any Asian drama, but the ones in "Choon-Hyang" were just too numerous and too poorly included. What they really demonstrate is a severe lack of communication and honesty between the lead characters, which makes their relationship less believable. This is poor plotting, in my opinion.
Character Review:
Choon-Hyang – A great, awesome character: highly intelligent, funny, strong-willed, caring and foxy to boot. It would be easy for anyone to fall in love with her. What I like best is how she doesn’t melt into a helpless puddle whenever problems arise, but always tries to figure it out for herself. She keeps the tears to a minimum, which I appreciate. In some dramas, a lot of problems are resolved when the man feels sorry for a crying woman and fixes things for her. Not Choon-Hyang; she takes control of her own life.
Mong-Ryong – Brash and cocky, with a smart mouth to boot. I’m not surprised that his father wants to beat him all the time. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s hysterically funny, with great expressions and pratfalls. He does come off as being fairly insensitive and ignorant at times, though. And he definitely has a one-track mind. He’s a likeable character, but the way he treats Choon-Hyang (at least in the beginning) is pretty cruel — but I mostly blame that on Chae-Rin.
Chae-Rin – A completely and utterly unlikeable character. She rejects what she doesn’t want, but as soon as she finds out that it’s unavailable to her, she changes her mind in a hurry and suddenly goes through all kinds of lengths to snatch it back. She comes off as spiteful, selfish, and totally one-sided. I don’t know how you would be able to sympathize with her at any point. How did Mong-Ryong ever like her more than Choon-Hyang?
Hak-Do – The most complex, and in my opinion, intriguing character of all. He starts off as a successful businessman, whose success comes from his ability to make decisions entirely without passion. He shows a softer side for awhile, and then suddenly makes a downward spiral into becoming even more ruthless and malicious than before, only to come to his senses and redeem himself at the end. It’s a true emotional roller-coaster ride for him the whole way — a man with the emotional maturity of a teenager.
Han Dan-Hee & Pang Ji-Hyuk – A loveable set of supporting characters with their own love issues to work out. They truly are great to watch, because you can see how they always have their friends’ best interests in mind. They are constantly working to get Choon-Hyang and Mong-Ryong together. Dan-Hee irritates me with her gullibility though. I’m so glad that Ji-Hyuk found success and happiness at the end — he deserved it.
Mong-Ryong’s Parents – The mother is typically doting and slightly self-absorbed, but the father is an amazing character in his own right. From the very start, he saw what Choon-Hyang could do for his son that he never could, and he comes across as intelligent, upright, wise, and sensitive. As the series progressed, I wished I could see even more of him, because he not only possessed all those virtues, he was hysterical as well — great expressions, timing, and physicality.
Actor Review:
Han Chae-Young – I don’t know much about her, but I really fell in love with her from this series, because she translates so much without words. Her face gives everything away, but the best is always this knowing, sassy look that tells everyone that she knows what’s going down and where it’s at. By the way, did I mention that she is really hot?
Jae Hee – I don’t know whether it’s just good acting or something natural, but he truly embodies the essence of cocky. He always seems to be swaggering to me. I liked the scenes where he displayed a gruff sensitivity, because it always came off a little boyish. He definitely didn’t deliver on scenes which required a little more pathos— the tears were there, the emotions were missing. Good-looking - until he got that gross used car salesman look as a D.A.
Park Shi-Eun – Pretty, but not much else. She didn’t have very much expression, but then again, her character was pretty bland in general.
Uhm Tae-Woong – Amazing actor. Somehow, he was able to play a ruthless, obsessive, and cold character yet still make himself sympathetic. I’m no actor, but I imagine this must be very difficult to do. One thing I do dislike about him is that he has one expression for everything, which is indifferent. Even when he’s happy or depressed, that expression of indifference sometimes kills it for me.
Quibbles and Comments:
Again, I love the fantasy scenes, especially the ones which reflected the original legend. Fantasy scenes are always so fun because you get to escape from the real story and have the characters do something that is completely out-of-character. The best one has to be Choon-Hyang’s explanation to Mong-Ryong about what she did during her absence. The parody of “Full House” was awesome! And it parodied about every other Korean romance as well.
The music was great in this series. When they played Brandy’s “Talk About Our Love” in the first episode, I was smiling since it’s a great song. They played a lot of American songs, which is a great change from the usual Korean ballads.
By the way, the dancing scenes in the nightclub made me laugh because it really did seem awkward and conservative compared to how people dance here in the U.S. Choon-Hyang has such a great body — she should have really worked it during her song.
Again, Choon-Hyang got a real raw deal. She should have been able to attend the university sooner — but instead, she got married to a guy who would never have made it into the university without her tireless help. I have a feeling that the conclusion would not be popular to many girls in the U.S.
Actually, they did a really good job on having the actors “grow up” during the series, mostly through altering hair styles and clothing—all except for Mong-Ryong’s D.A. hairdo — ugh.
In Korea, does no one fight with weaponry? I guess everyone knows kung fu over there, huh?
Choon-Hyang was number one in her school, and she still couldn’t get some kind of financial aid? She missed the deadline, but couldn’t arrange a meeting with the school authorities to set something up for her? That’s pretty strict. I got a full ride to a good university in California, and I wasn’t the top student by any means at my high school.
Final Thoughts:
A good drama, with equal amounts of comedy and seriousness. In the end though, I thought that the plot came out pretty clunky, and didn’t flow very naturally. It was a lot of flash, and less on quality. I thought its rival, “My Girl,” was the better quality show, but that’s not the way it ended up in Korea, apparently. I’m not shocked that “My Girl” is much more popular here in the U.S.—“Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang” might be a little too male-chauvinist for U.S. taste.
