Ex-Girlfriend Club eps 1-5: Let's Get This Party Started!

Well, well, well...this is rather unexpected. I hadn't said anything earlier for fear of jinxing myself (as I often do when I try to bite off more than I can chew), but I had hoped to recap a drama all on my very own in addition to the one I am co-capping with the lovely and marvelous KMuse (Producer). Except the one I had been planning on recapping was Masked Prosecutor, and here I am, changing my mind late in the game. Not that I didn't like Masked Prosecutor, episode one had me very entertained (once I could finally watch it) but, yeah, didn't inspire me as far as writing about it. Too much revenge and politics involved. Blah. This drama on the other hand, this one had me all fired up and just itching to dish with you all. So, I find myself 5 episodes behind the proverbial 8-ball, but ready to take on the challenge of playing catch up because this drama is just that good and totally worth the effort.

Let's get you all up to speed then, shall we?

Ex-Girlfriend Club, starring Song Ji Hyo of Running Man fame as our plucky heroine, Kim Soo Jin, with Byun Yo Han (Misaeng) as her leading guy, Bang Myeong Soo. Bang Myeong Soo is the writer of a popular webtoon series that Soo Jin's struggling production company picks up movie rights to. The webtoon is centered around Myeong Soo's past relationships. As fate would have it, Soo Jin starts out the drama considering herself as an ex of Myeong Soo -- until he went and set the record straight, sticking her solidly in friendzone territory and embarrassing her in front of the other three exes. That wasn't a very good day for our dear Soo Jin, suddenly being told that the relationship she thought she had been in wasn't what she had thought it to be. Ouch.

Myeong Soo's three exes, "Cat" Na Ji Ah, "Fox" Ra Ra, and "Lion" Jang Hwa Young have all come out of the woodwork to play as Soo Jin and Myeong Soo try to get this movie deal going. The three of them start out by fighting against the movie, but through hilarious hijinks and deals along the way, end up sort of on board at this point in the game. Further complicating things is the fact that Jang Hwa Young (by FAR my favorite of the three exes) is engaged to a rich chaebol who's company is fronting the cash for the movie as the sole investor. This chaebol has no idea that his fiance is the infamous Lion character from said movie (and the one that entertains him the most with her psycho craziness when he reads the script). Mr Finance/Fiance adds in another fun element to our already-zany situation when his friend, international superstar director, Jo Geun, joins the fray. Jo Geun is bent on revealing the flaws in his friend's fiance and quickly seems to pick up on who all these women hanging around Myeong Soo are. Add into that the fact that he apparently is a fan of Soo Jin's previous work (playing a big part in the award she once won at a film festival), and we have what appears to be a very interesting love polygon growing. Jang Hwa Young, desperate to cover up her true identity as Lioness from her fiance under the glaring eye of Director Geun, fashions a whole fake correlation between our characters that ends with Myeong Soo and Soo Jin playing lovers.

Episode 5 is the one I just finished watching, and there were some interesting twists and turns that occurred, namely between our leads and their relationship/non-relationship. It would seem that Soo Jin wasn't so firmly in the dreaded FRIENDZONE as she may have been led to believe. In response to the grilling from Director Geun about their first kiss, we get a little story - a story of what almost was. I will admit that it actually had me in tears, watching him sadly walk away from her and what would have surely been the turning point from friends to more-than-friends while hearing the regret in his voice as he tells the story, obviously changing the end for our pestering director friend and money guy, throwing a kiss that didn't happen in as the fictional ending to a non-fictional event. We then are further surprised by an almost-kiss right then and there in the present time. Who else felt that that was very, very real and definitely not him faking it for the sake of the charade? Stupid RaRa and her dropped wine glass interruption! After that scene, we end with a funny scene involving all of the exes, the friendzoned, and Myeong Soo in a bedroom, hiding from a concerned chaebol and his director pal. It was at that point, after going from tears, to heart racing, to hysteric laughing that I knew this was the drama, out of all the other dramas I am currently watching, that deserved its own recap.

Now, I have been DYING to get this off my chest ever since the beginning -- I think Myeong Soo likes Soo Jin. If you look at it, she is so vastly different from his three official exes. To lump her in with them is just silly - she's obviously nothing like them. You would at first see that and just assume that it means she isn't his type, but I look at it as she was special. She isn't like the other three. At all. But what they had was a closeness and friendship unparalleled by the other exes. Heck, in ep 5, he goes as far as to call her his soul mate. The reason she isn't in the webtoon and he doesn't call her an ex is simply because their relationship was much more than "dating". The fight scene at the end of ep 3 shows him being protective of her. I'm telling you, there is something different that he feels, something much deeper and more meaningful. The "kiss story" in 5 just confirms this. Also, the director has a thing for her. Who knows how sincere he is, but I suspect that he has liked her since he saw her work at the film festival. He knows who she is and respects her as a professional, but also seems to have an interest in her outside of film-making. I'm even going to go as far as to add in another male player and say that chaebol fiance is drawn to her. I don't think he realizes it or anything yet, but I think he is attracted to her. Just the way he acts around her and how he approached her at that event when she was looking for investors, I don't know, it just feels like there's a little something-something there. And the man is clearly clueless in matters of the heart, which is why his director buddy feels the need to protect him from his Lioness fiance.

Now, the exes. Hi-larious trio of characters! Three women that obviously still carry a torch for our leading man, with flames that grow brighter the more time they all spend together. Just the idea of having all of your past relationships hanging out together AND with you is cringe-worthy while lending itself to absolute entertainment and big laughs. I am just having so much fun with this drama! All of our cast members are killing it and are playing well off of each other. I'm not bored by a single one of them. Smoldering bad boy Director Geun to ditzy Ra Ra and everyone in between - rich and diverse characters that I can't wait to see more of as we continue on from here!

There is so much more that I could say about this drama, like how the OST is fun and I don't normally notice those very much, but hearing it just makes me smile and really adds to the mood. Or so many other things worth mentioning, but I'll save that for another day, and just leave it here for now. I apologize for the lack of screenshots and all that this time around - like I mentioned earlier, this one was not planned as a recap. I have hundreds of screencaps of Masked Prosector all ready to go, but that won't do me a lot of good now, will it? Next time, dear readers, next time. I am excited to be sharing this drama with you all and just hope it can get some of the love that it clearly deserves!

Back hugs and drama kisses to you all,

~Dongsaeng