Sweet 18
Cast:
Han Ji Hye as Yoon Jung-Sook
Lee Dong Gun as Kwon Hyuk-Joon
Lee Da Hae as Moon Ga-Young (Hyuk Joon’s ex-girlfriend)
Lee Joon as Jee Chul-Reum
Yoo Hye Jung as Kwon Sun-Ah (Hyuk Joon’s elder sister)
Park Hyung Jae as Jung Chan (Hyuk Joon’s colleague and best friend)
Lee Soon Jae as Hyuk-Joon’s grandfather
Kim Hae Sook as Jung-Sook's mother
Jung Kyung Ho as Jung-Sook's blind date
Synopsis:
A marriage is arranged between two prominent traditional Korean families. The Kwon grandson is 10 while the Yoon granddaughter is one. The Yoons meet with financial difficulties and are forced to escape their creditors in the middle of the night. Contact between the two families is thus lost. The Yoons settle in Seoul. At his deathbed, the Yoon patriarch reminds the family to honour the arranged marriage between their family and the Kwons.
Time passes and Yoon Jung-Sook is now 18. She is in high school and part of a five-girl gang called the Five Princesses of the Mirror Sect. She is rebellious and strong-willed. She is not interested in furthering her education, and instead, spends her days running around with her friends and fantasying about the “scholar” she accidentally bumps into while running away from trouble. She romanticizes about their “meeting” and the fact that she does not know his name nor seen his face does not deter her from convincing herself that he is her “first love”.
The Kwons finally locate Jung-Sook and her mother and bring up the subject of the arranged marriage. Madam Yoon is very touched by the Kwons' sincerity in honouring the arrangement in spite of the decline of the Yoons' fortunes. A meeting is arranged between the two young people and Hyuk-Joon recognises Jung-Sook as one of the underaged girls he caught at a nightspot raid! Instead of rejecting her (as she fantasies), he tells her that he is the one to rein her in. Jung-Sook’s mother is happy about the match and a date is arranged for the couple to be married.
Jung-Sook thinks of ways to get out of the marriage, even asking an admirer of hers to pretend to be her fiancé. Hyuk-Joon “wishes” them well because he does not really want to marry her - but he is respectful of his grandfather’s wishes. His parents were disowned by his grandfather when his father refused to assume the duties as the eldest son of the family to eventually become the family patriarch. Hyuk-Joon is duty bound and does not wish to disobey or disappoint his grandfather after the debacle with his parents. Jung-Sook informs Hyuk-Joon of his grandfather’s plan to meet with her and assures him that she will not be attending. Jung-Sook is still harbouring fantasies of her mysterious “first love” but inadvertently discovers that her “first love” is none other than Hyuk-Joon - this makes her change her mind about marrying him.
Hyuk-Joon arrives at his ancestral home only to discover Jung-Sook there and that his grandfather has taken a liking to her. A wedding date is set for the couple to marry.
Drama ensues as the couple later rushes to the Kwon ancestral home for the marriage ceremony. A snow storm the night before prevents them from driving further and they are forced to spend an awkward night together in the only hotel room left in the vicinity. Then there is a humorous scene of them rushing to their wedding site on a motor bike riding pillion as their car breaks down along the way!
More drama follows after the wedding as they start life together. It is sweet to see how Hyuk-Joon gradually develops feelings for Jung-Sook and the clumsy ways he tries to express his feelings to her. Despite Hyuk-Joon’s ex-girlfriend’s efforts to break them apart, the couple eventually learn to love each other truly.
Review:
This is one of the happier Korean dramas I have watched. I loved the story right from the beginning and the leads’ relationship held me captivated from the very first! I would definitely recommend this drama for lots of fun and laughter.
You get to learn a little about traditional Korean values and customs as well - which makes it somewhat educational! The family is the most important part of Korean life. In Confucian tradition, the father is the head of the family and it is his responsibility to provide food, clothing and shelter, and to approve marriages and dictate the lives of family members. The eldest son has special duties including first his elders - which would include grandparents and parents. Family welfare is much more important than the individual. This is the premise of the story between the arranged marriage of Sook-Jung and Hyuk-Joon and how a highly educated public prosecutor like Hyuk-Joon would defer to his grandfather’s wishes to marry Sook-Jung in order to honour his family, even though he does not know her, let alone love her.
The love that eventually blossoms between Sook-Jung and Hyuk-Joon is very sweet to watch and in a way feels very real. The pacing of drama was just right and the ending was very satisfying as well. The narrative by Jung-Sook and Hyuk-Joon can make you winch at times (it is definitely too mushy for me!) but the show is worth watching!
I liked the way Lee Da Hae played out her role as the psycho ex-girlfriend of Hyuk-Joon’s. She adds drama to an otherwise straightforward love comedy. She is very funny to watch at times especially when she swings from being all sweet and sincere in front of Hyuk-Joon and psychotic in front of Sook-Jung. It was hilarious to watch the catfight scene between Sook-Jung and Ga-Young.
