A Surprisingly Good Romantic Drama - Personal Taste

Personal Taste (2010) is a surprisingly good comedy starring Lee Min Ho 李敏鎬 and Son Ye Jin 孫藝珍. To be honest, the reason I decide to watch it is because of Lee Min Ho and his amazing performance in “City Hunter”, an excellent story about a hero fighting corruption and injustice, very much like the modern day “Iljimae”. After watching such intense drama, I was amused to find Lee Min Ho in this delightful romantic story about a man pretending to be a gay to move in with a girl for a straight business reason and later falling in love with her.

At the beginning, I had little expectation for it to be a “great” drama series, interesting maybe, but not outstanding. I figure it probably follows the footsteps of other popular romantic dramas. However, a few episodes into the series, I know I was wrong, wrong in a thankful way. The story is interesting and refreshing. The script is very funny and touching with a good pace. The actors’ performances are believable and memorable. I find myself being totally swept off my feet by this mini-series, and repetitively laughing right out loud.

Furniture designer Park Gae-in (Son Ye-jin-孫藝珍) is kind, impulsive, clumsy, and a complete slob in her personal habits. She lives inSanggojae (meaning "a place for mutual love"); a modernizedhanok(traditional Korean house) designed by her father, a famous and reclusive architecture professor (Kang Shin-il). Naïve and trusting, she has been dating longtime boyfriend Han Chang-ryul (Kim Ji-seok) for years despite the fact that he takes her for granted. One day, out of blue, he breaks up with her without telling her the real reason. She finds out the very next day that he is marrying her roommate Kim In-hee (Wang Ji-hye). Her bad luck continues when a trusting friend mortgaged her house. She is in danger of losing her home. With In-hee out of her house, she needs to find a new roommate and quickly.

And here comes our unlikely hero to the rescue. To keep his small firm afloat, architect Jeon Jin-ho (Lee Min-ho-李敏鎬) is desperately trying to win a project bid for the Dam Art Center against Future Construction, a prestigious company owned and operated by Chang-ryul's father (Ahn Suk-hwan). In order to win the favor of the Dam Art Center director, and win the moneymaking bid, Jin-ho has to find a way to dig up more information about the art center director’s favorite building: Sanggojae, which has never even once been opened to the public.

Knowing that Gae-in would never let a man (let alone a stranger) be her new roommate, the straitlaced (and straight) Jin-ho pretends to be gay to get access to the house — and all the information that he's sure is hidden within. At the same time, the DAC director (Ryoo Seung-ryong), who actually is gay, finds himself attracted to Jin-ho.

As the duo starts to develop feelings for each other while living under the same roof, our poor hero, Jin-ho finds himself in a terrible dilemma: to love Gae-in, he must confess that he is not a gay and consequently moves out of her house. On the other hand, the gay DAC director would be devastated if he learns that Jin-ho is purposely lying to him, which puts the entire project bid in peril. No matter what Jin-ho decides, someone is bound to be hurt.

On top of that, the terrible secret hidden underneath Sanggojae that Jin-ho dying to find out might be the one that will destroy his firm and himself.

What I like about this drama the most (other than the actors) is the clever script. The main character Jin-ho is relentlessly entangled in series of terrible and embarrassing situations, mostly caused by Gae-in, who keeps announcing in the public that he is a gay, which is far from the truth. Those awkward moments fuel the drama with laughter and delight.

It’s refreshing to see a completely different Lee Min Ho in an unlikely role. He is tall and handsome, no wonder women love him. He is also prim and graceful. Even men fall for him. At the beginning of the drama, his serious manner produces lots of unexpected laughter. The best of all, the character himself has no idea what others think of him, which makes the situation even funnier. The leading lady is actually 5 years older than the leading man, but the maturity of Lee Min Ho makes up for the age gap. The two of them look perfect together on screen.

Last, but not the least, music. There are lots of nice songs and music in the drama especially a piece called “Depression of the Director”. It’s used throughout the drama, beautiful, yet intertwined with many emotions.

I don’t know about you, but this 16-episode romantic K-drama series definitely suits my taste and is very well produced, worthy of watching time and time again. Hope you find this review helpful. Enjoy!