Lovers

SBS Drama - 2006

The story of "Lovers" revolves around the lives of Ha Kang Jae and Yoon Mi Joo. Kang Jae and Mi Joo are two people from very different worlds who fall in love with each other. Mi Joo is a simple and kind-hearted soul who teaches Kang Jae to be a "better person". Ironically he leaves his love-time love to be with Mi Joo.

Kang Jae to Mi Joo - "You once asked why I saved trash like you. I am trying - to not be trash."

Kim Jung Eun as Yoon Mi Joo
Mi Joo is a plastic surgeon. She is a feisty happy-go-lucky character. Her father is a poor country pastor who runs an orphanage. She works to support her family. Her dream is to open a hospital of her own. By chance, she saves Kang Jae's life when he was stabbed in an attack. She finds herself slowly falling for Kang Jae.

Lee Seo Jin as Ha Kang Jae
Kang Jae is an orphan who was taken in by President Kang (a gangland boss) when he was sixteen. He rose through the ranks in President Kang's organization and is the trusted right-hand man of President Kang. He is a loyal servant and does not crave benefit for himself. As such, the other trusted lieutenants of President Kang are jealous of him and plot to bring about his downfall.

Kim Kyu Ri as Park Yoo Jin
Yoo Jin first met Kang Jae when he went to threaten her to pay her father's debts. They became lovers and were together for 6 years before Mi Joo came onto the scene. She is also Sae Yeon's first love.

Jung Chan as Kang Sae Yeon
Sae Yoon is President's son. He has always felt neglected by his father. He developed a hatred for Kang Jae when his father gave Kang Jae the watch which President Kang always wore. He is in competition with Kang Jae his whole life, even losing the woman he loves to Kang Jae.

Ep. 1
Kang Jae goes around intimidating stockholders of Baek Eun Construction Company so that President Kang can have a legitimate channel for his business.

Mi Joo is a plastic surgeon. She often turns away business from rich socialites as she refuses to operate on patients who she thinks are already "perfect", much to her boss's chagrin. Sae Yeon's mother tries to set Mi Joo up with Sae Yeon.

Sae Yeon sets Mi Joo up with an obnoxious man and watches them from the next table. Sae Yeon is attracted to her feisty manner. The meeting goes south and Mi Joo returns the dress she bought to the store. She meets Kang Jae, who buys the dress she returns. Sae Yeon had set Mi Joo up with another man and was attracted to her feisty character. He meets with her and asks her for a date to eat "jjajangmyun" (noodles). Unbeknownst to her, he means to fly her to Hainan for this date. He sends her an air ticket.

Mi Joo mistakes Kang Jae for the lout who abandoned her pregnant sister and tries to beat him up. Mi Joo's father puts his land in Shin Do up as collateral for a loan for a fellow villager who has now absconded.

Ep. 2
Kang Jae's girlfriend, Yoo Jin refuses to see him. Yoo Jin happens to live in the apartment next to Mi Joo. Kang Jae knocks on Mi Joo's door intending to climb over to Yoo Jin's apartment through the balcony of Mi Joon's apartment. Mi Joo tells Kang Jae the code to Yoo Jin's apartment instead. Yoo Jin tells Kang Jae he either lives with her or she will break up with him. Mi Joo hears things being broken in Yoo Jin's apartment and assumes that Kang Jae is an abusive boyfriend.

Kang Jae and Yoo Jin meet again when he happens to be the buyer who is interested in her land in Incheon. He gets ambushed and stabbed. Yoo Jin saves his life.

Ep. 3
Mi Joo stays on the island to take care of Kang Jae. She returns to work only to find that she has been fired. Before she leaves, she insults her boss. Her boss retaliates by calling all her contacts and advising them not to hire Mi Joo. Kang Jae starts falling for Mi Joo.

Since she has lost her job, Mi Joo decided to take a break and fly to meet Sae Yeon in Hainan Island. She sits next to Kang Jae on the plane, much to his annoyance.

Ep. 4
Kang Jae has been sent to Hainan to bring Sae Yeon back from "exile". In the meantime, Sae Yeon is trying to foil Kang Jae's attempts to get an effective control of the shares of Baek Eun Construction Company. Sae Yeon continues his pursuit of Mi Joo. Kang Jae is surprised that Sae Yeon was the "boyfriend" Mi Joo came to see. Kang Jae uses Mi Joon to lure Sae Yeon out to meet him by threatening to foreclose on her mortgage. Mi Joo is disgusted by Kang Jae's behaviour.

Mi Joo tells Sae Yeon that if they are fated, they will meet again in Seoul. Mi Joon tells Kang Jae that she will repay the mortgage on her land but that it would take some time.

Ep. 5
President Kang's attempts to take over Baek Eun Construction Company are foiled by Sae Yeon. Mi Joo tries to apply for a job but her attempts are futile as her ex-boss manages to convince the clinics not to hire her.

Ep. 6
To get Mi Joo hired, Kang Jae sends all his men to "Hope Cosmetic Clinic" for "procedures". The director is impressed and intimidated enough by Kang Jae to hire Mi Joo. Mi Joo starts falling for Kang Jae.

Ep. 7
Kang Jae manages to win Baek Jong Dae (an old guard of Baek Eun Construction) over and Jong Dae facilitates the takeover. President Kang hands the reins of the business to Sae Yeon. Sae Yeon persuades Kang Jae to release Eom Sang Taek (Kang Jae's right-hand man) to work for the company as its finance director.

Ep. 8
Kang Jae discovers that is was Nam Chang Bae who sent him up. Kang Jae tells Eom Sang Taek to quit the gang and take up Sae Yeon's offer for the sake of his family. Kang Jae gets jealous when he sees Mi Joo with Sae Yeon. Yoo Jin tells Mi Joo to keep away from her man (Kang Jae).

Ep. 9
Kang Jae turns up at Shin Do and stays at Mi Joo's father's house. Kang Jae joins in a Christmas party with the children at the orphanage (Mi Joo's "siblings"). Mi Joo sees the soft side of Kang Jae and finds herself falling in love with him in spite of herself.

Ep. 10
Yoo Jin miscarries but she does not tell Kang Jae for fear that he would leave her. Kang Jae expresses his love for Mi Joo. Kang Jae passes his "business" to his subordinate and decides to go "straight". He joins Baek Eun Construction Company. Mi Joo tells Sae Yeon it is more important for a woman to have a man who loves her more than a man that she loves. Sae Yeon is torn by his feelings for Mi Joo and the knowledge that she likes Kang Jae when she tells him she is prepared to go out with him.

Ep. 11
Kang Jae and Mi Joo find themselves falling for each other in spite of themselves. Mi Joo is going out with Sae Yeon - Kang Jae is jealous and finds it hard to fight his feelings for her. Yoo Jin is depressed and finally breaks down - she goes to the hospital and demands to know the sex of her miscarried baby. Mi Joo's brother-in-law is offered a job at Yoo Jin's bakery. Kang Jae saves Mi Joo from being beaten up by gangsters when she confronts them for cheating her pregnant sister out of her rental deposit.

Ep. 12
Kang Jae drags Mi Joo to a store to buy her a coat to cover up. Her sweater was torn when she was fighting with the gangsters. Kang Jae is deeply torn by his feelings for Mi Joo and his sense of obligation to Yoo Jin. Sae Yeon decides to develop his relationship with Mi Joo.

Ep. 13
Mi Joo and Sae Yeon meet Kang Jae and Yoo Jin outside the girls' respective apartments. It is an awarkad encounter and Yoo Jin suggests going out for dinner together. Mi Joo gets drunk and tries to lighten the mood at dinner but it is obvious to everyone present that Kang Jae is very much in love with Mi Joo. Kang Jae proposes to Yoo Jin. Mi Joo is heartbroken but accepts the fact that Kang Jae can never be hers. Sae Yeon's mother sends a "bodyguard" to ferry Mi Joo around as she is aware of Mi Joo's feelings for Kang Jae.

Ep. 14
Sae Yoon tells Mi Joo that he does not want to see her since she is in love with Kang Jae. He will never force a woman to like him. Sae Yoon's assistant arrives and tells him that Kang Jae is President Kang's illegitimate son. Sae Yoon reveals that he had always known this fact and warns her never to divulge the information to anyone or their relationship is through.

Ep. 15
President Kang makes a will leaving everything to Kang Jae. He even verifies that Sae Yeon is not his son. Sae Yeon is devastated when he learns that he is not President Kang's son.

Ep. 16
Mrs. Kang learns about the will. She plots to get rid of Kang Jae. She is shocked when Sae Yeon confronts her about his parentage.

Ep. 17
Nam Chang Bae reveals his plan to rid of Kang Jae and President Kang.

Ep. 18
Sae Yeon expresses his gratitude to President Kang for raising him. He asks President Kang when he knew that Sae Yeon was not his son. President Kang replies that he found out when Sae Yeon was 12. President Kang says that he hated Sae Yeon because President Kang cannot forgive his wife for her betrayal. He tells Sae Yeon to leave Korea for the U.S. where he has a house and money for them. President Kang goes to see Kang Jae with the intention of revealing his parentage to him but is stabbed by Nam Chang Bae.

Ep. 19
Mi Joo and Kang Jae spend the night together and Mi Joo gets awkward about the incident in the morning.

Sae Yeon thanks President Kang for raising him and asks when he knew that Sae Yeon was not his son. President Kang tells Sae Yeon that he had known the truth since Sae Yeon was 12 as it was obvious who Sae Yeon looked like. He tells Sae Yeon that it was because he could not forgive Sae Yeon's mother that he started to hate Sae Yeon. He tells Sae Yeon to leave for America with his mother.

President Kang decides to tell Kang Jae the truth about his parentage. He goes to Kang Jae's apartment at the hotel and walks in on Nam Chang Bae and his men ransacking Kang Jae's apartment for President Kang's will. President Kang expresses his displeasure at Nam Chang Bae but this provokes Nam Chang Bae to stab him. President Kang dies from his injuries in hospital and Kang Jae goes to look for Nam Chang Bae to avenge President Kang. Kang Jae tells Eom Sang Taek to take care of Mi Joo and Yoo Jin (as Yoo Jin saw Nam Chang Bae leave the scene of the crime).

Mi Joo and Eom Sang Taek are captured by Nam Chang Bae. Eom Sang Taek is seriously injured. Kang Jae confronts Nam Chang Bae but his hands are tied as Nam Chang Bae threatens him with Mi Joo's and Sang Taek's lives.

Ep. 20
Kang Jae is captured by Nam Chang Bae but does not retaliate as Nam Chang Bae is holding both Eom Sang Taek and Mi Joo captive. Nam Chang Bae's accomplice betrays him and defends Kang Jae instead. A fight breaks out between the two gangs. Eom Sang Taek is stabbed in the back by Nam Chang Bae when he takes a knife for Kang Jae. Nam Chang Bae tries to escape and a car chase ensues between Nam Chang Bae and Kang Jae. Both men are captured by the police. In the meantime, Mi Joo donates blood at the hospital in a bid to save Eom Sang Taek's life. Kang Jae attends President Kang's funeral in handcuffs. He bids farewell to his father. San informs him of Eom Sang Taek's death. Kang Jae is devastated. He leaves without saying a word to Mi Joo.

Eom Sang Taek's wife tells Mi Joo that it is useless for a "gangster's woman to cry" and thanks her for donating blood to Sang Taek as it gave him 3 days more to live. She thanks her for giving her "3 whole days to spend with Sang Taek and to send him off properly".

Nam Chang Bae is sentenced to death while Kang Jae is sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment for their criminal activities. Kang Jae refuses visitors in prison.

Four years later...
Kang Jae still refuses to have visitors. Sae Yeon and Mi Joo do not give up trying to see him. Their appeal against his sentence is successful and he is released from prison. His men, together with Sae Yeon, Mi Joo and San wait for him outside the prison gates to greet him. Kang Jae asks to pay his respects to Eom Sang Taek. He continues to ignore Mi Joo and even tells her he has forgotten about her.

Mi Joo, in her grief, tells Kang Jae that she would have waited even 20 years for him and in that time, she would help others. She tells him that if he has forgotten about her, she would leave and never let him find her or see her again.

Sae Yeon wants to return the company and all his father's assets to Kang Jae according to President Kang's will. He tells Kang Jae that he will leave the company to Kang Jae and join his mother in America. Kang Jae tells Sae Yeon to stay to help him.

Mi Joo prepares to leave Korea to join a volunteer doctor organization. She visits the seaside hotel where Kang Jae and her sat the whole night talking. She sees Kang Jae on the beach. She is angry at him and accuses him of lying about forgetting about her. She tells him that if she leaves tomorrow, she will never come back. Kang Jae finally relents and expresses his love for her. They finally kiss.

Funny Scenes
**Mi Joo grabbing Kang Jae's collar at a Japanese restaurant and threatening him when she mistakes him for her sister's no-good boyfriend - when the sliding partitions opens, revealing his gang of men.

**Mi Yoon pretending that Kang Jae is her boyfriend to fend off a lecherous colleague at a medical seminar. She emphasizes that Kang Jae is a gangster!

**Kang Jae driving around with a "Violent Gangster On Board" sign stuck on by Mi Joo.

**Mi Joo confronts a bunch of gangsters outside a nightclub who had tricked her pregnant sister out of her rental deposit. One of the gangsters gets rough with her and tears her sweater. Kang Jae comes to the rescue together with San and Sang Taek. He is both amused and annoyed (and very jealous, as she was going out with Sae Yeon then) by her behavior and drags her to a clothing store to get a new coat for her.

**Nam Chang Bae thinking that Kang Jae was going to let him off by not destroying Nam's drug loot when Kang Jae appeared to have accepted two-thirds of the spoils - only to have Kang Jae turn round and tell him - "....then it is not so bad for you - you are only losing one third!" as Kang Jae set fire to the spoils!

**How no one in the hotel reacted when a whole gang of men in black stormed into the hotel.

Comments
The storyline is different from the usual K-drama where someone always has some disease or other! None of that here. The first few episodes were interesting enough for the viewer to want to watch more. It does get a bit "draggy" in the middle though.

Lee Seo Jin does not have the pretty-boy look of the typical Korean actor but he grows on the viewer. His character, Kang Jae is quite believable until perhaps the end. He was in jail for 4 years - and had been determined not to continue his relationship with Mi Joon but he suddenly relents when he sees her at the beach. If you really put in 4 years trying hard to forget about a person so as not to "destroy" the other person's life, you do not just relent! I suppose the writers had to give the story a good ending, albeit quite abruptly. It would have been a much stronger ending if Kang Jae had expressed his love for Mi Joon - say something like "I have tried so hard to forget you but my love for you is too strong. I may not be the best thing for you but if you will have me, I will stay by your side forever...." and she could say - "You have paid for your sins - and so have I. We will start anew - you and I." Give the girl a choice!

The story is about loyalty as well. Kang Jae's trusted lieutenants were with him until the end though his judgment may not have been the best. Eom Sang Taek dies for Kang Jae when he took a knife on his behalf. San stands by him and waits for him to be released from prison - keeping the organization intact in the meantime. They fight with him and were willing to die for him. This shows something about Kang Jae's character as well.

I still cannot say I find Kim Jung Eun pretty. She looks good in stills - but she tends to look like a strung chicken when she pouts or speaks for that matter! I could not stand her whining and wailing either! She sounded like a banshee! (Have watched her in "Lovers in Paris" - where she sounded male some times!) Her dressing in the show was quite awful - she looked as if she was wearing sacks most of the time. Kim Kyu Ri (as Park Yoo Jin) had a much better wardrobe!

The "love" scene between Mi Joon and Kang Jae was uninspiring! It was at best clumsy! There is definitely a lack of a "love" chemistry between Kim Jung Eun and Lee Seo Jin - although the angsty bits where they could not "express" their love for each other made for interesting drama. Their bickering and jealousy whenever they saw each other with some other love interest were hilarious. However, there just wasn't that much chemistry between the two when they did get together!

Overall, it is a drama that is worth watching. This is the second drama I have watched with Lee Seo Jin in the lead. He is not a bad actor but his range of expressions can be improved!