Skip to main content

Pure Romance

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Thrifts of the Year, Part Two

Today I'm looking back at my best thrifts of the year to date in fabric. #4 is this collection of quilt kits, as it's the one that was the biggest surprise and also made me very happy, as I'd missed out on a similar lot that ended up going for a lot more at auction. #3 is this box of scrap fabric which I bought for $3.99 last month. I didn't post about it on the blog, as I just got around to sorting and measuring it. All together it's 54.35 yards, which works out to seven cents a yard. #2 is the lot with which I won my thrifting challenge bet. It was in brand new condition and will be making some local quilters very happy at this year's guild show. #1 is of course the enormous 103+ yards lot I bought for $15.00, which is still the largest and best thrifted fabric haul I've made to date.
Post a Comment
Read more

Fasten Your Seatbelt

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is an epic, dazzling film that hurls you into the Korean version of the afterlife while showcasing some of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in any movie. The story begins with the death of firefighter Kim Ja-Hong (Cha Tae-hyun) who jumps out of a burning building with a child in his arms. The kid lives, but he dies at the scene. Two strangers inform him that he has passed away right on schedule, and toss him into a vortex that takes him to the world of the afterlife, where he meets his three guardians: Gang-rim (Ha Jung-woo), Haewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) and Lee Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi). At the gates of the afterlife Ja-Hong learns that he is considered a paragon (an exemplary person who lived a noble and self-sacrificing life) and is eligible to be reincarnated -- but there's a catch. First he has 49 days to make it through seven hells in which he will be judged on his sins. His three guardians will help and defend...
Post a Comment
Read more