Witch Amusement

a.k.a. Witch Yoo Hee

Main Cast

Han Ga In as Ma Yoo Hee
Jae Hee as Chae Moo Ryong
Jun Hye Bin as Nam Seung Mi
Kim Jeong Hoon as Yoo Joon Ha
Dennis Oh as Johnny Kruger

Short Descriptions of Main Characters

Ma Yoo Hee– She is the daughter of MK Company’s President, director of an advertising company, and known by others a witch because she’s so cruel and coldblooded.
Chae Moo Ryong – Aspiring to be a French cuisine chef, his parents want him to go to medical school, but he refuses. His girlfriend is Nam Seung Mi, who used to be his childhood friend for about 10 years before they started dating.
Nam Seung Mi – The Manager of a restaurant, Seung Mi is Moo Ryong’s girlfriend. She is very emotional and gets jealous easily.
Yoo Joon Ha – Yoo Hee’s first love, Joon Ha lost contact with her when he went overseas to study in order to become a doctor. When Joon Ha comes back, he is already engaged, but later ends his engagement and makes numerous deals with Yoo Hee’s father to get Yoo Hee’s heart again.
Johnny Kruger – A Chef famous for French cuisine, Johnny Kruger comes to Korea to work in the restaurant that Seung Mi manages. He’s very good friends with Yoo Hee ever since she helped him out, but later he starts to develop feelings for Yoo Hee. Although Yoo Hee rejects Johnny Kruger, they still remain as good friends.

Synopsis

As the director of her father's advertising company, Ma Yoo Hee (Han Ga In) is known as a witch for her ruthless, no nonsense character. After a string of failed attempts to hire a housekeeper, she (literally) runs into Chae Moo Ryong (Jae Hee), ex-medical student turned aspiring chef. As a way to work off his debt for crashing into her car, he agrees to become her housekeeper and personal love affairs coach for one month. Gladly, he gives her a makeover that attracts both her old friend Johnny Kruger (Dennis Oh) and her first love Joon Ha (Kim Jeong Hoon). Despite having a girlfriend, Seung Mi (Jun Hye Bin), Moo Ryong eventually finds himself falling for Yoo Hee. Who will Yoo Hee choose? Her first love, a famous chef, or her love coach?

Overview of the Entire Drama

Ok, so this is basically an overview of the entire drama from the beginning to end. This probably has some MAJOR SPOILERS so if you don’t want me to ruin the drama for you, then please don’t read further. (Also, sorry, this might not be the correct order of sequences in how the drama went...just to let you know.)

In the beginning, the drama portrays Yoo Hee as an ugly woman with glasses and her hair always tied in a ponytail. She’s very serious at work and strict about many things. Her wardrobe is full of many suits that all look the same, except maybe different colors, and many different types of glasses. And to make her style look worse, Yoo Hee’s underwear/boxers are very childish. So now, back to her personality. Yoo Hee is feared by everyone at work, and that’s how she becomes known as a “witch” in the eyes of others. She goes on many blind dates, but always gets rejected. (She wasn’t rejected once until the man on the blind date saw her beating up another guy, so he ran away in fear of her.) Although Yoo Hee seems very strong on the outside, we later learn that she has a soft heart and she looks strong because she is afraid.

Meanwhile, Moo Ryong is looking for a job in a restaurant to be a chef, but he keeps getting fired and his reputation is spreading to the other restaurants, so he can’t find a job. Let’s twist the subject a little and talk about his family. Moo Ryong’s father owns a jja-jang-myun shop, and his brother comes Song Hwa used to be really good and dedicated at Tae Kwon Do until an accident happened to his friend because of him. One day, Song Hwa comes home with his girlfriend, who’s an orphan that needs a home. She’s also pregnant. As a result of this, Moo Ryong has to sleep outside of his room on the floor.

One day, Moo Ryong’s friend asks Moo Ryong to go on a blind date for him or else he’ll be fired from his company. After talking and persuading, Moo Ryong finally agrees to go on the blind date. This is how he and Yoo Hee first meet each other. At the end of the blind date, both are unsatisfied, and because Yoo Hee wasn’t happy about the blind date, Moo Ryong’s friend ends up getting fired.

Later as fate would have it, something happens with Moo Ryong going on the motorcycle really fast (the one that he uses to deliver the jja-jang-myun) and he accidentally hits Yoo Hee’s car, creating a huge dent in it. Because of this accident, he owes Yoo Hee about $40,000 (U.S. money) to pay for the accident. She gives him a very short amount of time to pay back the debt (about one week or a couple days), but then later she makes the time period even less. Moo Ryong asks his parents for money, but they don’t give him any, and they don’t even know why he needs so much money.

Meanwhile, Yoo Hee’s friend and famous French cuisine chef Johnny Kruger has come to Korea to be the head chef at the restaurant that Moo Ryong’s girlfriend Seung Mi manages. Johnny Kruger even turns out to be good friends with Yoo Hee. (We find out later in the drama that Johnny once made a big mistake by accidentally food poisoning a guest, so he was removed from the cooking world. But because of Yoo Hee and her efforts, he was able to get back into the cooking industry and become a top chef again. So he owes a LOT to Yoo Hee.)

So anyways, one day, Yoo Hee’s “friend” Han Sae Ra comes to Yoo Hee’s office with her fiancé (who is also the man that ran away from Yoo Hee on the blind date). Sae Ra talks and irritates Yoo Hee, telling Yoo Hee that it’s just too sad that she’s still single without a man. Yoo Hee gets mad and lies to Sae Ra, telling her that she’s already had a boyfriend for a while. Sae Ra obviously doesn’t believe it, and even tells Yoo Hee to bring him to the reunion party (where they meet up with old classmates). Sae Ra also tells Yoo Hee that her first love Yoo Joon Ha is coming to the party with his fiancée.

Yoo Hee asks Moo Ryong to be her “boyfriend” for the party, and Moo Ryong laughs and says no. But then when Yoo Hee offers reducing part of his debt, he agrees. As they are about to go to the party, Moo Ryong tells Yoo Hee that he’s ashamed to go to the party with her because a normal person doesn’t dress like that to go to a party. So they go shopping for new clothes so that Yoo Hee will look better for the party. They finally pick out the perfect clothes and Moo Ryong takes Yoo Hee’s glasses off, and he breaks them. He also takes off her hair tie, so when she entered the party, everyone turned and looked at her because she looked so astounding. Moo Ryong is introduced to everyone as Yoo Hee’s boyfriend, and he even lies saying that he’s a plastic surgeon. As he’s talking to Sae Ra and a couple other people, Yoo Hee’s walking around when she sees her first love Joon Ha. (Oh yeah, in between that, Moo Ryong accidentally spilled water on Joon Ha’s fiancée’s shirt and started wiping it. Joon Ha and his fiancée got mad at this and thought that Moo Ryong was purposely touching her. Haha, this was a really funny moment.) Anyways, Yoo Hee sees her first love. An embarrassing moment occurs when Sae Ra was tripping, and she grabbed Yoo Hee’s dress to hold herself up, but Yoo Hee’s dress came loose and her childish boxers filled with cartoon characters were exposed. Moo Ryong ends up coming to the rescue, leaving the reunion party with Yoo Hee.

The time limit has passed to pay back the debt, and Moo Ryong still hasn’t payed it back, so he says that he’ll offer his body to Yoo Hee to pay off the debt. Yoo Hee misunderstands and thinks that he wants to go to jail, but he meant by working his debt off, so Yoo Hee hires him as a maid and later lets him live at her place too. Meanwhile, Moo Ryong’s parents really want him to go back to medical school, so he makes up a lie and tells them that he got a good deal to travel abroad in New York (..Or somewhere around there. But I’m pretty sure it’s New York). Moo Ryong’s parents send him off at the airport, but his mom is so emotional that he tells his parents to just leave before he goes in and boards the plane. His dad brings his crying mom out, and after a while, when Moo Ryong knows that they’re out of the airport and probably back home, Moo Ryong goes to Yoo Hee’s place to work as a maid.

Moo Ryong and Yoo Hee make a contract that Moo Ryong will be Yoo Hee’s maid, give her a complete makeover, and be her love coach for a month. They sign the agreement, and the transformation begins. First, Yoo Hee gets a haircut. Then her whole wardrobe is taken out – her suits, her shoes (heels), and her childish boxers too, and they’re replaced with newer, fresher, and more modern clothes, heels, and under-garments. All of Yoo Hee’s glasses are gone too. Yoo Hee goes to an optometrist to get contacts. This transformation was so big that when Yoo Hee went to work the next day, her secretary didn’t even recognize her. Although Yoo Hee’s appearance was changed, her personality was not.

So some time passes in the drama......Moo Ryong is currently working as Yoo Hee’s maid, doing errands for her like checking on her brother Pa Ran, tidying the house, selecting the outfit that Yoo Hee wears the next day, and making her meals too.........and then.....

One day Moo Ryong and Pa Ran (who is Yoo Hee’s younger brother) go to an amusement park and as they’re at the little shop at the amusement park, they bump into Song Hwa (Moo Ryong’s brother) and his girlfriend, who escaped from the housework to have fun. Song Hwa promises to keep it a promise that Moo Ryong’s not studying abroad, but he eventually spills it out....................................

And Moo Ryong’s mom drags Moo Ryong backs home. She calls Yoo Hee a witch for treating Moo Ryong like a maid, and won’t let Moo Ryong get out of the house. But one day then Moo Ryong’s mom thinks that Yoo Hee is going to take Moo Ryong to jail because of the way they’re talking to each other, his mom begs Yoo Hee to just bring Moo Ryong back to her house and not to jail. So once again Moo Ryong is back at Yoo Hee’s house.

Moo Ryong really wants to be a French cuisine chef under the teachings of Johnny Kruger, so he begs Seung Mi to help arrange a meeting between Moo Ryong and Johnny Kruger. Johnny Kruger doesn’t really know Moo Ryong, so he doesn’t accept him as his apprentice. Moo Ryong continually sees Johnny Kruger, but that just makes Johnny’s disagreement to teach Moo Ryong grow more. Then one day Moo Ryong sees Johnny and Yoo Hee talking, and Moo Ryong begs Yoo Hee to ask to Johnny to teach Moo Ryong. Later Johnny agrees and takes Moo Ryong in as his apprentice.

The plot gets complicated when Moo Ryong’s girlfriend Seung Mi starts getting really jealous of Yoo Hee, thinking that something other than a master maid relationship is going on between Yoo Hee and Moo Ryong. She also feels uncomfortable that Moo Ryong is living with Yoo Hee. Seung Mi begs Moo Ryong to move out, but he refuses to. She even offers to pay back the debt to Yoo Hee, and tries to rush the marriage between her and Moo Ryong. Johnny Kruger also starts falling in love with Yoo Hee.

Yoo Hee’s first love, Joon Ha, realizes that he really likes Yoo Hee, so he cancels the engagement and pursues Yoo Hee. Yoo Hee is obviously happy, but then her dad meets with Joon Ha and tells him to go overseas again. (We find out that it was Yoo Hee’s dad that paid for Joon Ha’s overseas trip just to get him away from Yoo Hee.) Joon Ha agrees to go overseas again, but after Yoo Hee’s dad finds out about Moo Ryong, his new target is to get rid of Moo Ryong, and he does that by making a deal with Joon Ha. Yoo Hee’s dad tell Joon Ha that if he can somehow get rid of Moo Ryong and get Yoo Hee to fall in love with him, then he’ll let Joon Ha marry Yoo Hee AND own the hospital that he works in. Joon Ha is one greedy man, so he agrees to the request.

So, after more drama (that I don’t really need to/feel like mentioning), it all leads to....

Yoo Hee and Joon Ha end up dating, but Yoo Hee starts having feelings for Moo Ryong and Moo Ryong starts having feelings for Yoo Hee. Yoo Hee dumps Joon Ha and Moo Ryong breaks up with Seung Mi. Yoo Hee and Moo Ryong start dating, but Yoo Hee’s dad is against it and offers Moo Ryong an overseas trip to get him away from Yoo Hee. Unlike Joon Ha, Moo Ryong objects to it. Unfortunately, consequences fall on Yoo Hee. Her company starts losing their advertisement contracts with other companies, all her credit cards are canceled, and her house is put on sale, including everything else along with it.

Eventually, somehow Yoo Hee agrees to get married to Joon Ha, and her dad is very satisfied. But on their wedding day, Yoo Hee is frowning and when the priest asks Yoo Hee if she’d take Joon Ha as her husband, she says “I can’t go on with this wedding” and rushes out. Moo Ryong comes just in time and rescues Yoo Hee. They get in Johnny’s car and drive away. Yoo Hee’s dad sends people out to find Yoo Hee, but their attempts fail. A couple days later Moo Ryong and Yoo Hee are found and Yoo Hee’s dad is in the hospital.

Johnny Kruger is going back to the United States, and he invites Moo Ryong to come with him. This time, Moo Ryong actually goes there. Actually, he almost goes there. When Yoo Hee’s dad wakes up, he realizes that he was a terrible dad and instead of protecting Yoo Hee, he was just benefiting himself. He tells Yoo Hee to hurry and go to the airport to get to Moo Ryong before he leaves. Yoo Hee goes, and with the help of Joon Ha (who becomes nice now), Yoo Hee gets to the airport in time and catches Moo Ryong, and they kiss, ending the drama. :)

Some Random Things that I left out of the Drama

-Song Hwa’s girlfriend turns out to be lying about being pregnant.
-Yoo Hee and Moo Ryong pretended to be a couple for one week so that Yoo Hee could get the feeling of love for an advertisement
-When Moo Ryong refused to let go of Yoo Hee, her dad brought people to their restaurant to mess everything up (turn the tables over, etc).
-When Yoo Hee became homeless, Moo Ryong brought her to his place, and she lived there for a while.
-At one point, Joon Ha has an accident because of Yoo Hee’s harsh words to him. Yoo Hee’s dad tells Yoo Hee that Joon Ha can’t hold a surgery knife anymore, so Yoo Hee feels really bad. But, in reality, Joon Ha CAN hold a surgery knife. His hand/arm isn’t even broken, and it was just a scheme set up by Yoo Hee and her dad to get Yoo Hee to be by Joon Ha’s side again and help him out.

Things that I liked in this drama

-Yoo Hee’s transformation
-How Yoo Hee keeps getting problems with her heels since she’s not used to them
-When Moo Ryong and Yoo Hee were pretending to be dating
-Yoo Hee’s brother Pa Ran. His character is so lovable and it just grows on you.

Some Things I didn’t like about the drama

-All the scheming between Joon Ha and Yoo Hee’s father
-In my opinion, Seung Mi was way TOO emotional and sensitive

Review

For me, this was a really good and interesting drama, showing the change from a “witch” who becomes a better person, outside and in. This drama also focuses on how someone with no experience in love suddenly becomes learns the tricks of it. I really enjoyed this drama, maybe because I really like the main cast, but also because of its plot. Even though Witch Yoo Hee’s format is like that of a typical Korean drama, its plot was very different from other dramas, making it more unique. But, everyone’s opinions about dramas are different...If you asked me if I’d recommend this drama, it’s a definite YES! This ends my review and happy Drama-watching!! :D