Personal
Taste 개인의 취향 (2010) MBC 16 Episodes
Romantic Comedy Classic, Grade: A
Korean Drama Review by Jill,
USA
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How in the world
can I possibly describe how much I ADORE
this show, the Korean romantic comedy - drama Personal
Taste (2010)? Am I allowed to gush in a
serious review? ;) I've watched it several times by
now and each time I laugh even harder than before.
This wonderful show has some fun slapstick to it,
but also a serious side, dealing with deep seated
personal prejudices,
how lies can destroy relationships, and how a
parent's neglect of his daughter due to guilt can
have profound negative consequences on her life. Personal
Taste explores gender role and sexual
orientation differences with great success. It
always makes me happy to read the rave reviews of
new fans of this show. It's not just an entertaining
comedy, but a thinking person's show. The script,
written by a woman named Hee Ju Kim, who adapted the
story from a novel written by a woman named See In
Lee, is utterly brilliant; it possesses a great
combination of humor, romance, suspense and pathos.
All of the cast is perfect. Personal Taste
is a real treat, to be enjoyed again and again and
shared with others whenever possible.
I'm a huge fan of beautiful
Korean actress Ye Jin Son and I have watched all her
terrific K-dramas like Shark,
and her excellent movies like The Classic
and AprilSnow and A Moment To
Remember. I've seen Lee Min Hoin Boys
Over Flowers, City
Hunter, Heirs,
Mackerel
Run, and Faith,
and while he was great in those shows too I delight
perhaps the most in his character here in Personal
Taste for he is so modernand
realistic, strong yet vulnerable. I really liked
seeing him as an intelligent, ambitious, close to 30
year old professional with a witty sense of humor,
someone who had to work hard his entire life,
instead of the eighteen year old rich boys he played
in Boys
Over Flowers and Heirs.
The progression and deepening of his feelings for
the hurting but spunky girl in Personal Taste
is magical! You can actually see his character's
inner thoughts without them having to be expressed
in spoken words. Min Ho would have made a great
silent film actor back in the day. He's great at
mime! (For that matter, so is Ye Jin Son, which is
clearly evident in the scenes where she puts on a
man's clothes, hat and fake mustache and pretends to
be a dapper young gentleman. For some reason Charlie
Chaplin came to mind in those scenes).
The Story:
Ye Jin Son plays Gae In Park, a furniture designer
whose personal life needs a lot of shaping up. She
lives in a spectacular designer home called Sanggojae (meaning "a place for
mutual love") that her father built years before
for her mother, who is now deceased, but Gae In is
sloppy and inept, neglecting the house while her
father is away on an extended business trip, and
neglecting her own personal appearance as well.
She is liable to show up at a business meeting in
torn jeans or rumpled sweat pants, with a band-aid
on her head! Growing up without a mother's
influence and with a father gone a lot of the time
made Gae In grow up without a
firm foundation in how to live a successful life.
Min Ho plays an up and coming architect, Jin Ho
Jeon, with his own private practice, working with
his two friends Sang-jun Noh (funny actor Sung Hwa
Jung, who had me in stitches a lot of the time)
and the younger Tae Hoon Kim (Suel Ong Im), who is
in love with a young girl named Hye Mi Na (Eun Seo
Choi) who has a crush on Jin Ho, much to his
annoyance. Jin Ho often has to compete
professionally with a rival named Chang Ryul Han
(Ji Sook Kim) and his extremely avaricious father
Yoon Sub Han (Suk Hwan Ahn) who was responsible
for kicking him and his mother (Hae Mi Park) out
of their home after Jin Ho's father died. So there
is bad blood between them, which isn't helped when
Chang Ryul uses under-handed methods to win
architectural design jobs that Jin Ho and his team
want.
Gae
In had expected to receive a marriage
proposal from Chang Ryul, whom she had dated for a
long time, but unknown to her he is about to get
married to her best friend and roommate In Hee Kim
(cool actress Ji Hye Wang from The
Suspicious Housekeeper). In Hee had
waited for Chang Ryul to gain the courage to tell
Gae In the truth, but he kept putting off the
unpleasant task. He does manage to break up with Gae In over
dinner, telling her she reminds him of a lost
puppy in the rain, but he neglects to tell her
about marrying her best friend the next morning!
Nice guy!
When Gae In shows up at the
wedding of In Hee, along with another friend Young
Sun Lee (the delightful actress Eun Ji Jo), she is
astounded to see that it's Chang Ryul whom In Hee
is marrying. It causes havoc at the ceremony,
while all the time Jin Ho and his friend Sang-jun
look on and take note of the mess Chang Ryul has
made of his love life. That is the end of the
friendship between Gae
In and In Hee, and the marriage between Chang Ryul
and In Hee doesn't go off as planned. Just how
many people remain who can betray the sweet and
naive Gae In? We go through the
rest of the series to find out.
Her co-worker gambles away a significant amount of
Gae In's savings from her furniture business,
causing her to worry about paying the bills on
Sanggojae. Young Sun suggests she take in a paying
boarder to replace In Hee. Through a series of
hilarious coincidences Gae
In kept running into Jin Ho and from these awkward
moments she assumes that Jin Ho is gay. Then Jin
Ho discovers that she lives in the historic home Sanggojae, a
home that has never been opened to the public,
and once he learns that a new architectural
business opportunity with a rich businessman
named Do Bin Choi (suave character actor Seung
Ryong Ryu) might hinge on his learning about the
construction of this particular house, he
decides to go along with Gae In's false
assumption that he's gay and become her new
paying boarder, in an attempt to get in the
house, study its construction, and perhaps find
original blueprints. Gae In is told by her
friend Young Sun that she will be safe with Jin
Ho as a boarder, because of his supposed sexual
orientation that does not include an interest in
girls. She decides to let Jin Ho rent a room in
her historic house.
As time passes both Gae In and Jin Ho become
close friends and then both begin to feel
attracted to each other, feelings they have to
work hard to hide and suppress. When Chang Ryul
hears that Jin Ho is gay he doesn't believe it
and challenges Jin Ho to admit it publicly,
which Jin Ho finally does, within earshot of
businessman Do Bin, who had privately admitted
to Jin Ho that he was gay and felt attracted to
him. Also standing by watching is Gae
In, who then proceeds to tell off Chang Ryul and
yell at him for attacking Jin Ho's sexual
preference. Chang Ryul is astonished that his
former "lost wet puppy" has finally developed a
spine and is standing up to him for the first
time.
"That thing with wings ..." LOL!
Jin Ho is now caught up in a world of lies,
using underhanded methods to try and beat out
Chang Ryul professionally. To be fair he does
try to tell Gae In the truth several times, but
either Sang-jun begs him not to, fearing their
business will go under if they don't win the new
account from Do Bin, or Gae In herself
inadvertently cuts off his attempted confession.
Gae In is becoming more and more important to
him with every passing day. He struggles within
himself with the guilt and frustration about his
continued deception, but begins to worry he will
lose her if he reveals the truth. Jin Ho had
been trying to help Gae In get over her former
romantic feelings for Chang Ryul. He tells her
the best way to do it is to take revenge on
Chang Ryul by becoming more attractive, so that
Chang Ryul will regret giving her up. Gae In was
making great strides in that endeavor, looking
prettier and prettier all the time, but the more
she played the revenge game against Chang Ryul
the more deeply she secretly falls in love with
Jin Ho.
Feelings come to the boiling point between Gae
In and Jin Ho, and Chang Ryul and In Hee, and in
probably the most memorable kiss scene in
K-drama history, the "Game Over" kiss results,
after which Jin Ho finally admits to Gae In that
he isn't gay.
The Famous "Game Over" Kiss
(In Full, Not Partial)
Will Gae
In ever forgive Jin Ho for the
deception? She still doesn't know that
he pursued a relationship with her
simply to get into her house for his
professional goals; if she finds that
truth out will that be the straw that
breaks the camel's back and will their
relationship end permanently? Meanwhile
Gae In's father Chul Han Park (Shin Il
Kang) returns to the home and is
astonished to discover she is living
with Jin Ho. His return also coincides
with some vitally important childhood
memories Gae In suddenly recalls, having
to do with the way her mother died when
she was five years old. These memories
shake Gae In to the core and threaten
her romantic relationship with Jin Ho.
Personal Taste is an appealing love
story that will impress you by its bold
stances on many modern issues facing young
people today. For instance, I particularly
loved how respectful and compassionate Jin
Ho was toward the older gay businessman who
found him attractive. Those scenes must have
been difficult for Lee Min Ho but you would
never be able to tell that from the
sophistication of his performance. It also
must have been difficult for actress Ye Jin
Son to dress like a slob in the beginning of
Personal Taste, when she's been doing
modeling as well as acting for over fifteen
years and is the very essence of style and
beauty. I read an article on how the both of
them felt about this production and they
were both very proud of their work on this
show, and very complimentary of their fellow
cast members, praising their work to the
skies. I must say that in some K-dramas the
side characters are not very interesting to
me, but in Personal Taste most of
them are just as much fun to watch as the
leads, particularly darling Sang-jun, Jin
Ho's best friend, and Young Sun, Gae In's
best friend. Those two become good friends
in the story as well, and their relationship
made me giggle constantly.
This is such a joy of a show, with many
touching, unforgettable moments. Do not miss
it for the world!