Korean TV dramas generally depict poor girls falling for rich men; the kdrama Encounter flips that with an ordinary, free-spirited guy falling for a wealthy older woman when they meet by chance in an exotic place. Together the lead actors make one of the most heart-breaking romantic couples I've ever seen in a series, which is probably why Encounter was so successful.
The unusual story starts off when rich hotel CEO Cha Soo-hyeong (Song Hye-kyo) travels to Cuba to sign a contract to build a hotel there, and crosses the path of vacationing fruit seller Kim Jin-hyuk (Park Bo-gum). She's in an accident that damages his beloved vintage camera, and later he prevents her from taking a bad fall when she passes out. The two then spend a wonderful romantic evening together eating, drinking and even dancing. They plan to meet again the next day, but circumstances prevent that, and the two have to go their separate ways.
Back in Korea Jin-hyuk learns he's landed a job at Donghwa Hotel, and is overjoyed to finally have steady employment. The other shoe drops when he discovers that the hotel's CEO is none other than the beautiful woman he met in Cuba. Soo-hyeong's also stunned to find out her handsome rescuer from that night is now working in her PR department. The attraction between these two should end right there, but instead grows even stronger, resulting in a secret romance that is eventually outed by the media.
When two people from completely different worlds fall in love there's usually conflict over the contrasts in their situations, but this is not the case. Jin-hyuk and Song-hyeong simply fall in love with each other despite their age and status differences, and they are 100% convincing (probably why there were all those rumors about the actors themselves falling in love.) It's everyone else in their lives who try to tear them apart, from Song-hyeong's horrible, scheming ex-mother-in-law, spineless ex-husband and heartless mother to Jin-hyuk's worried and somewhat terrified parents.
There's a lot to love about this series, and Park Bo-gum's depiction of the hero is at the top of my own list. His acting was simply flawless. Song Hye-kyo does an admirable job with the equally difficult role of being a woman who has been maneuvered and manipulated most of her life by some pretty horrible wealthy people, which I imagine wasn't much of a stretch for her. It was how these two actors played off each other than really charmed me. In the end I fell for them both as a star-crossed couple who should never have gotten together, and yet belonged to each other entirely.
I purchased Encounter on DVD, but it's also available on Viki.com. Highly recommended.
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