My Blooming Days
aka My Spring Days
내 생애 봄날
MBC (2014) 16 Episodes
Romantic Melodrama, Grade: A
Korean Drama Review by Winnie, USA
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My Blooming Days is a beautifully filmed romantic melodrama that reminded me a lot of the Four Seasons' Korean Drama Classic Summer Scent. In some ways it was quite different though, such as the male lead character here was a widower with children, while in Summer Scent he was a widower who was single. In both dramas the chemistry on screen for both lead couples was awesome! In both dramas their cinematography and their soundtracks were outstanding. In both dramas the supporting cast members were excellent as well. In fact I think watching both dramas in a row would truly make you melt! :)
Suavely handsome male lead Kam Woo Sung, who had wowed me in dramas Alone In Love and The Wind Blows, as well as the Korean film classic The King And The Clown, was absolute perfection here as the widowed Dad; gorgeous actress Sooyoung (If You Wish Upon Me) complemented his performance with a gentle compassion for his grieving character; second male lead was the always amazing, handsome Lee Joon Hyuk (City Hunter) who was a real scene thief here; and the always complex second lead actress was Jang Shin Young who was so unforgettable for me in one of the my top favorite Korean dramas of all time, Rebirth-Next.
The Story:
Beautiful Lee Bom Yi (Choi Sooyoung) was sickly most of her life until a miracle suddenly happens for her and she receives a heart transplant. Well aware that the gift she received was likely from someone else's tragedy, she vows to do whatever she can to honor her donor's gift of life.
Her physician, Dr. Kang Dong Wook (Lee Joon Hyuk) falls in love with the brave Bom Yi and proposes marriage; she accepts. At one time, through flashbacks, we learn that he had had a one-sided secret love for his brother's wife, whose name had been Bae Ji Won (Jang Shin Young) and had been heartbroken when they publicly announced their engagement. He never told his brother outright but nevertheless that secret drove a perplexing wedge into their relationship.
Dr. Dong Wook knows Bom Yi has his late sister-in-law's heart but decides not to tell her for fear she would seek out his brother and become his brother's wife instead, out of a sense of duty. Fate and cellular memory (a phenomenon where a recipient takes on some mannerisms and feelings of their donor) seem to have other things in store for this trio.
Fatefully, Bom Yi winds up meeting the widower Kang Dong Ha (Kam Woo Sung) and his grieving two children, son Kang Ba Da (Gil Jung Woo) and daughter Kang Pureun (Jung Ji So) when she travels to the island where her donor passed away. Her mission was to honor her donor but, while there, she finds herself drawn to the widower and his two suffering children, and he, for the first time in years, sees in her someone compassionate whom he may be able to love again.
Neither know, at that time, their connection through Dong Wook, nor do they know the connection through Bom Yi's transplanted heart. Is it a strange twist of fate that Bom Yi and Dong Ha keep running into each other, even when, after finding out they are soon to be family, they vow to stay apart? Or is something, on a cellular level, drawing Bom Yi to the man her heart had truly grown to love while visiting the island? Will Bom Yi's and Dong Wook's love be strong enough to withstand a love that seemingly exists only at a cellular level? Or could it actually be true love that really has nothing to do with the heart transplanted into beautiful Bom Yi? That mystery is examined in a very thoughtful way in the script, in some ways better than it had been in its predecessor Summer Scent.
It's a little difficult to find this poignant romance online but you can probably find it if you use a search engine. Good luck, and enjoy! They just don't make Korean dramas this lovely anymore. Everything is trending toward harsh, dark stories today, instead of something inspiring and romantic like My Blooming Days.
