{my humility knows no bounds!!!}
I realize of course that this review is actually getting a revamp & that yes it's Saturday afternoon. But seeing as I am one of the main authors, here on TCA, I can do whatever I want. Bonus. Oh yeah it's good to be one of the bosses.
One of the reasons my post has been delayed & is being redone is that it took me all week long to pick a new drama. Decisions, decisions. I know we promised we'd review Dr Jin but after watching the first 2 episodes, all I could think was I can review the show if I am allowed to pick on it mercilessly. But it's okay since JaeJoong is my dongsaeng's most favoritest K-Idol, she took on the review chore for both of us. Thank you dongsaeng. You should check it out if you haven't already, she's pretty awesome.
I went back & forth over a couple new dramas that premiered this last week, I Do I Do, starring Kim Sun Ah & A Gentleman's Dignity, starring Jang Dong Geon. And just couldn't make up my mind...as both shows were fascinating for different reasons. So I watched both shows to try & decide which one spoke to me more.
Obviously from the title of this post you can tell that I picked...
All of the guys in this drama are in their 40's, a nice change of pace. As my own real life Oppa {CA} is himself, just starting his 40's. I really have enjoyed rubbing in the fact that I still have a few more years {less years than I'd like} to go before I hit the BIG 4 0. Hence the reason this drama intrigued me.
A Gentleman's Dignity Cast:
Jang Dong Geon as Kim Do Jin Playboy Architect
Kim Ha Neul as Seo Yi Soo High school Teacher, who has a crush on Im Tae San & is friends w/ him & Choi Yoon.
Kim Su Ro as Im Tae San Co President of the architect firm w/ Kim Do Jin
Kim Min Jong as Choi Yoon A lawyer & widower of 7 years
Lee Jong Hyuk as Lee Jung Rok Is actually the only one that is married in the group...but his marriage has major issues...as in his wandering eye & faithfulness. He's quite the interesting character.
The rest of the cast includes Yun Se Ah, who plays Seo Yi Soo's roommate, Hong Se Ra, & friend, I guess you could call her a friend...so far she doesn't seem like a very nice woman, I will watch her with interest. And Kim Jung Nan as Park Min Sook, Lee Jung Rok's wealthy wife. And Yoon Jin Yi as Im Mi Ah Ri, Im Tae San's little sister who has a major crush on Choi Yoon. There are others but they haven't really made any impression on me yet, as main characters...just secondary cast that are helping to propel the story forward as "in between the lines" kind of subplot characters. If they make more marked appearances or become more integral to the story I will go into more detail on them.
Okay so to give you a little background. Our male leads are all best friends & have been best friends for the last 20+ years. Awww I love a good bromance. Don't you? Kim Do Jin & Im Tae San own & run their own architectural firm. Im Tae San is friends with Seo Yi Soo, who has had a crush on him for a really long time but has never said anything to him about her feelings. Choi Yoon, the lawyer, who lost his wife 7 years ago & hasn't gotten completely over her loss, seems so far, to be the most mature of the men & honestly, I think he's the cutest. And then there is Lee Jung Rok, who I find funny but detestable. Married a rich woman & then cheats on her continuously. In the first episode alone he took off his wedding ring like 3 times & shoved it in his pocket.
I think I am going to pick this drama & treat it like a case study of the male species, that I genuinely like. They are intriguing & interesting to me. While women tend to be confusing & always thinking, always worrying, always doing something, which is why we are so good at multi-tasking, men seem extraordinarily simple. But all is not what it seems, I believe their simplicity masks their well hidden complexity, IMHO. Of course I could be wrong & they could be just as simplistic as they seem. I intend to enjoy this shows insights into the man brain. Over the last year of watching K-Drama & K-Pop I have seen a lot of girls/women all over Pinterest etc...thinking that Korean men are a highly superior form of men. I disagree. I think that what K-Drama has taught me is that all men. And I do mean ALL men, ALL around this great big beautiful world are just that...men. It's in their DNA. I have said it before.... "A man is a man is a man is a man." No matter where you live, what you skin color is or what your facial features look like. Some are more highly evolved than others, but you can find that difference in evolutionary level in every country. But they all answer to their primitive counterparts. They can't help themselves. They are, in short, men.
Episode one starts off with all the men going to a funeral. We have to have that HoTT shot of all the Hot Shots, at least they think they are, walking down the street together.
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| In their heads they are saying, "We make this look GOOD." |
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| Every one at the funeral jumps in, except our 4 main guys. Who are busy paying their respects, as quickly as they can, & trying to stay out of the fracas. |
After the excitement of the funeral we get to meet the main lead female character Seo Yi Soo. Who is enjoying some shopping, when it starts to rain she takes shelter under the umbrella of an outside table at a cafe. In the window behind her we see Kim Do Jin, working. He looks up, notices the rain & the woman. She turns & our 2 main leads have a nice moment of staring into each other's eyes. But then one of Kim Do Jin's many girls shows up from behind & covers his eyes. When he gets free from her claws the women is gone. You discover through his brief conversation w/ the woman who covered his eyes & called him 'Oppa', that he is not her fan in return & he's actually kind of a jerk to her.
{Doesn't he know his K-Drama 101? In K-Drama 101 if you are a jerk to a girl they like you more?! Duh.}
Anyway we later see Seo Yi Soo inside the cafe, she gets a phone call from Im Tae San, who asks her if she could introduce him to her roommate, Se Ra. Obviously as Seo Yi Soo has a crush on Tae San she looks heartbroken, which of course attracts Kim Do Jin. {Can I just stop you for a moment & ask...."What is it with guys liking sad girls that need help???" What about all us positive smiley girls, who struggle on our own, never telling anyone when we're sad & in need of help? You'd think they'd be more attracted to the positive upbeat fighter chick than the sad damsel in distress chick that is so needy. Humph!}
After this we get another glimpse into Lee Jung Rok's infidelity. As this cafe we're in? It's his cafe. And he's interviewing a new waitress, who happens to be gorgeous. Off comes the ring & into the pocket it goes. Next scene we see Seo Yi Soo actually telling Se Ra about Im Tae San wanting her number & then on cue Im Tae San calls. But Se Ra? She's the female 'playa' of the story. She doesn't answer because she knows it will make him pursue her more. Interesting spin on the male/female dichotomy.
And she stops at a book stand & is perusing the books when Kim Do Jin walks past, & she has dropped something, she bends to pick it up & bumps into his bag & him, as he passes behind her.
What she & he do not know yet is that her sweater dress has caught on his bag & is unraveling very quickly. He discovers it, goes back pulling the red thread as he goes. Unraveling the dress more & more as he does. After the usual where did you get this thread chat, she figures it out & freaks out because her hind end is bare, well she has a slip on, thank goodness.
Being the definitive man that he is, he then asks her if she lives nearby? Nope. Does she have a car? it's at home. Then, there is nothing else he can do & he grabs her arm pulls her in front of him & in a "Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn" mimic from one of my favorite movie classics, Bringing Up Baby, they walk down the street together, with him in the back covering her backside.
He helps her by buying a tablecloth off a street stands table & ties it up for her fancy, to look like a sarong skirt. Complete with a matching jeweled flower pin. He could be a fashion designer with his impeccable taste. He leaves & she hops into a cab.
Im Tae San & Seo Yi Soo's roommate, Se Ra, are officially dating, which leaves Yi Soo home & alone. I get the feeling this is pretty typical for our female lead. But all is not perfect for Im Tae San & Se Ra. Guess that's kind of expected as she is a female playa & all. Poor Im Tae San, he really does seem like a decent enough guy.
During one of their date nights, Yi Soo is back at the house cleaning, she spots Se Ra's make up laying about & decides to try & glam herself up . It's just well she's not very good at applying make up & ends up looking like a raccoon. It's of course the perfect moment for her thug students to pick a fight with an ahjussi, what ahjussi? Kim Do Jin of course. They meet up near his house, they demand he buy them cigarettes. He refuses & the next thing we see, they all, this includes Choi Yoon, end up at the police station & Do Jin is going to press charges. Especially once the police hear the recording he has of the whole incident on his fountain pen. It would seem Do Jin has a habit of recording conversations on this special pen. And it proves the kids' were at fault. They call the teacher to come & get her students. Do Jin & Yi Soo do NOT meet that night but as Do Jin & Choi Yoon are leaving the police station, Choi Yoon sees her & hides. He doesn't want his friend to see him in such an embarrassing situation, ie having been beaten up by 17 year old kids.
As the guys all meet up afterwards Do Jin makes the mistake of leaving his pen on the table & while his version of the story has him standing up to the punks & being all manly & fighting with them/teaching them a lesson, his pen tells a different story & the men all laugh at him when the truth comes out that actually he was about to give in to the punks & give them whatever they wanted. Back at the police station Yi Soo has gotten the contact info from the punks that Do Jin left behind & she starts a long drawn out stalking trying to talk him into settling.
The rest of the episode is more of the same, Seo Yi Soo trying to get Do Jin to settle. The problem is that he is enjoying dragging it out because he really likes her & is trying to get her to like him back. Which proves that the little boy mentality of 'if you like a girl you must treat her badly to get her to like you back' is present in 40 year old men's minds too. It's just a day or so later, at a baseball game that Yi Soo is an umpire for, and Tae San, Do Jin & Choi Yoon are participating in, that Do Jin figures out that she is the teacher of the punks, the girl in the unraveling skirt & the girl outside the cafe that day in the rain. And he has totally fallen for her. But she ignores him & pretends after meeting him that she doesn't remember his face or the unraveling skirt incident because she is afraid he'll tell Tae San & then she will be even more embarrassed. I love it when he yells out to her to think about it hard, "Your butt remembers what I did last spring!" Awesome!
Choi Yoon will later spill the beans to her that the guy at the baseball game Do Jin, is the same guy she's been trying to get to settle the issue with her students. The playboy who treats women like the loose change in the couch cushions is ignored & overlooked repeatedly by Yi Soo. It's really funny the more she overlooks him, the more intrigued he is by her & likes her. I guess playing hard to get is a good policy. Only she's not playing, she just doesn't see him.
They arrange to meet at his company, via text messages the next morning. And it is while he is punishing her & torturing her, he sees her holding & fondly looking at Tae San's leather gloves. Uh-oh the cat is now out of the bag. And they end ep 1 with him asking her if she likes Tae San straight out.
Episode 2 starts off with the men sitting in a cafe enjoying lunch waxing philosophical. And an irritated Do Jin, not happy that the girl he likes, likes Tae San & not him. Kim Do Jin is explaining how Confucius said, "The age of forty signifies an age when, no matter where you are in the world, you are not shaken by worldly desires...." when a sexy young thing in a tight. red. mini. mini dress, walks past the restaurant & stops, and as she bends over you can almost hear their thoughts... "Sexy woman ugh...can't think...all blood left brain, headed south... must stop talking & stare her up & down lasciviously" And then when she bends over, they bend over & tilt their heads, to see if they can get a better view of her... ahem..."assets". LMBO!!!
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| ~Sigh~ I heart men. Chincha. They're a bunch of predictable pigs but I still heart them. |
Seo Yi Soo tries to get the punks to apologize to Do Jin but he isn't falling for it. He is still waiting for her answer to his question at the end of the last episode about Tae San. She refuses to answer. So then she goes to the cafe & tries to buy him off with a cup of coffee. He makes her sit & wait for him....again. She has way more patience than I do. I'd have totally told him where he can stick his charges. He gets mad at her & leaves & then she uses his special pen to write him a note. Ok she writes him several notes, some of which are not quite as um.... diplomatic, as they should be, when you are trying to get someone to agree to settle a lawsuit. Then she leaves & spots him at the cafe & realizes that he is the man she locked eyes on with that rainy day. And she sticks the note on the outside of the window & walks away.
And we get to meet the incredibly cute, bubbly, upbeat, positive straightforward Im Mi Ah Ri. Im Tae San's little sister, who texts Yi Soo, letting her know that she will be arriving at Incheon very soon. It seems teacher & former student are good friends. I liked her immediately. Especially, when she starts watching Secret Garden on the laptop of the guy sitting next to her.
{It's been so long since I saw Hyun Bin Oppa in a drama. Hyun Bin, I cannot wait for you to get out of the military. I miss your dimple so much!}
Yi Soo picks up a very pretty cute bubbly Im Mi Ah Ri from the airport & it would seem that Im Mi Ah Ri used to be pudgy because Yi Soo is truly flabbergasted by how thin & pretty Im Mi Ah Ri is now. Who has come back early from abroad & doesn't want her brother to know she is back yet so she is going to be hiding out at Yi Soo & Se Ra's house. BTW Se Ra & Im Mi Ah Ri do NOT like each other. It is obvious that Im Mi Ah Ri knows Yi Soo likes her brother & would much prefer Yi Soo, for a sister in law, to Se Ra.
Back at Yi Soo's house & after Se Ra & Im Mi Ah Ri share a few insults back & forth, Do Jin shows up looking for his precious pen. Since Yi Soo was the last to use it, obviously she has it, but she is unaware that she has it & so she righteously dumps out her purse & is shocked to see the pen fall out. She scooped it up when she was scooping up lots of crumpled notes from his desk. Oops... All the mean notes she didn't use & didn't intend for him to see but he sees when they are on the floor next to his pen. Oops again.
In another awesome men 'covering for their slimy guy friend' scene, we see 3 of the 4 men out to dinner & just as they discover that Lee Jung Rok has made them his cover story by ditching them & his phone, which his wife uses to track his whereabouts, his wife calls looking for her husband. So they lie to her & tell her that they are at another restaurant, to buy some time. After they panic & lie to her & are trying to figure out how they are going to pull this off & calling the next place & setting it up to look 4 men have been there eating & drinking, Do Jin reveals he knows the number to Jung Rok's other phone.
She shows up just after they get their lie all set up. She walks in on them toasting each other.
Lucky duck. I can't wait to see him truly get caught.
A few days after Im Mi Ah Ri has arrived, she finally comes out of hiding & meets up w/ her brother & his friends at the park where they are hanging out. The ever classy Lee Jung Rok doesn't recognize his friend's little sister & hits on her. She runs up & embraces ..... Choi Yoon, not her brother, yes she definitely ahs a thing for Choi Yoon. Brother is not happy about this. They go home & we discover that Choi Yoon lives with Tae San. And has for the last year. Tae San warns his little sister to stay away from his friend. And Do Jin offers to let Choi Yoon move in with him. There is more to the story behind Choi Yoon being a widower than we know at this point. I am sure there is more & I want to know his story. Guess I'll have to wait like everyone else.
That night, Yi Soo meets up with Do Jin for dinner, where he is expecting her to confess her like for Tae San but one of his many girlfriends shows up. And then Tae San shows up. How can she admit such a thing in front of Tae San. So she leaves & Do Jin follows her out. So does Tae San, who really wants to help get Do Jin to settle his lawsuit against Yi Soo's students. He really is a good guy. So he pretends to spill the beans on the real story behind the not so manly fight between Do Jin & the punks. Do Jin, speaks up & stops Tae San before he can & quickly agrees to meet with her the next morning, in his desperate attempt to stay cool looking. Tae San is a good guy for trying to get his friend to settle. But once Tae San is out of the scene Do Jin goes back to driving Yi Soo, & me, crazy.
So what does she do in a fit of frustration? She sends mistaken text to Do Jin, using Tae San's name, to try & bully him into giving the settlement. They agree to meet again...JUST SIGN IT ALREADY!!! Sorry getting impatient...so I am going to skip ahead. She finally admits it to him that she does like Tae San, that its a secret crush & she'd like for him to keep her secret. Then she goes out drinking with Im Mi Ah Ri & in the midst of drunkenness she lets Im Mi Ah Ri order flowers & chocolates, supposedly for Choi Yoon but she actually orders them for Tae San & signs Yi Soo's name. Or maybe when Im Mi Ah Ri ordered her flowers, Yi Soo, who was just so drunk, ordered flowers too & forgot about it. I couldn't tell for sure. The next morning she wakes up hungover... of course, & gets a text message letting her know her Valentine's Day gift is out for delivery to Tae San. WHAT!?!?!
She calls Do Jin to ask if Tae San is there, he is not, so she shows up to try & remove the flowers from Tae San's desk. But Do Jin has already done this, not knowing that the flowers are hers for Tae San, he pretends they are for him to make himself look more cool & popular. HAHAHAHA...love seeing a foolish man for a change. Tae San walks in & wants to know why is Yi Soo there & she panics & tells him the flowers are for Do Jin & then wincing & grimacing & making faces at Do Jin to play along with her, she fake confesses to Do Jin, in front of Tae San. And that is where the show ended.
I hope you guys tune in to watch A Gentleman's Dignity with me. I am looking forward to fun, flirting, romance, a little drama, lots of handsome Oppas & laughing. And dissecting the male species. Because as we all know K-Dramas are true to life, more like documentaries than fictional TV shows. Right?!?!
Oh & just to let you know if you haven't figured it out already....the new layout for TCA is a little finicky. It would seem it's not so iPad/iPhone user friendly. I apologize for that. You can still see the posts it's just going to be a little more difficult. Blogger has issues w/ iPad & iPhone. It's very frustrating. If you go on to TCA via your computer/laptop you should have no problems. We've sent feedback to Blogger but we're at their mercy. We really like this layout better for the blog. It's much easier to see all the posts & looks a lot cleaner & professional. Which we really like. We hope you stick with us through all our growing pains. We heart you addiKts!
Until next week addiKts...
Saranghabnida,
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