I’m always up for trying out a new TV show, so when a friend told me that she had a great suggestion, I was psyched. When she then told me to check out some Korean “soap operas” (a genre with which I have no familiarity), I was slightly less psyched, but still game. I’m not too big on American soaps, what with their melodramatic heterosexual romances, white middle class woes, and BO-RING costumes, but figured that this might be different. Her first recommendation was a series called My Girl (“Mai geol” in transliterated Korean), which I started watching this weekend.
I’m not sure if My Girl is an accurate reflection of the genre at large, but it’s pretty freaking fantastic. The heroine, Joo Yoo-rin, is a well-meaning, sharp-witted (though occasionally clumsy) young woman, with a talent for perpetrating hilarious “victimless crimes.” She also dresses like an Ewok designing for Delia’s:
Joo Yoo-rin, in a "dressier" outfit
She’s quick on her feet, has a flair for the absurd, and is generally sort of impossible not to like. Her main love interest, from what I can tell from the first episode, is going to be the dashing and handsome director of a large chain of hotels, a young man named Seol Gong-chan:
Seol Gong-chan, in an unusually tame outfit
I realize that it’s probably drawing on a broad range of cliches and caricatures with which I’m just not familiar enough to be irritated, but I’m still finding My Girl highly entertaining. Maybe if American soap operas had more kung fu, sparkle effects, and Mozart-based synth tracks, I’d get more out of them.
Check out the first ten minutes of the first episode for yourself:
If you’re into it, I’m sure you can find the rest of at least that episode floating around out there.
Tags: my girl
March 9th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I don’t know if Peggy ever introduced you to or mentioned Una, who lived next door to her and across the hall from me in Collins. She’s from Guam and speaks Korean and <3ed Korean soaps and would rent them on a regular basis from the Korean all-purpose store. Our first year my roommate and I would watch them with her and make her pause them periodically and tell us what the heck just happened (though sometimes we could tell.) It is one of my best memories from my freshman year of college and I still look fondly on all Korean soaps.
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