Delightful Girl Choon Hyang (Korean, Drama)

I clearly don't know why this drama doesn't get more attention. When you search online for the most popular dramas, mostly 'Boys Over Flowers', 'Playful  Kiss' or even the old time favourite 'Full House' come up. And even rarely it might be 'My Girl' or 'Personal Taste' even.
But according to me, 'Delightful Girl Choon Hyang' deserves way more popularity than it actually got, or is getting.
Coz I felt the love inside this story is more real than in any other drama where the hero and heroine never even communicates properly. In here, the hero and heroine are actually getting along fine as friends and even fights like siblings. That is too real and cute... :-)
Plus this drama is superb fun. We go ROFL from first episode till the last. Also gets emotional as the leads gets separated somewhere along the story.

Coming to talk in a more formal way, the drama 'Delightful Girl Choon Hyang' is a modern retelling of a Korean Folk Tale 'The Tale of Choon-Hyang'.It's also known as 'Sassy Girl Choon-Hyang', while the Korean title is 'Keyogul Choon-Hyang'. This drama was aired during the year 2005.

The characters in the drama feel a bit more real then the usual fakeness we see in the dramas, especially the male lead Mong-ryong. His character differ from most of the usual 'perfect guy' image that we see in other popular drama, yet is so lovable.
Actually, all the characters are too lovable in this drama. And I think Ahn Suk-hwan had his most lovable role ever as Mong-ryong's dad (Well, another of his loveable character is as Jhan-di's dad in 'Boys Over Flowers'. Can't say which is more lovable...) (Don't know why Ahn Suk-hwansshi turned to do negative characters when he was doing the positive dad characters so well... It's a bit of a waste.)

Another best thing about this drama is that the usual triangle is too subtle here. There is no second guy we will keep feeling bad for. There is a second guy and a girl, but we know whom we should like and root for from the starting itself, that the 'sympathy' element for the second guy and girl won't be there ever., more because they are the antagonists in this drama.

Technical Details : The drama is of 17 episodes, each episode being about 1 hr long.

Characters :

Sung Choon Hyang : A really well behaved, good girl living in a small town 'Namwon'. They say in her High School that Choon-Hyang is 'Great in Studies. Great in looks. Great in Personality'. That is how she is. She is the best student in school, and teachers and students equally love her. She gets the top marks in all the exams usually, but even if she gets second by chance, she is not the kind who will cry over it.
Her dad died when she was small, and her mom works at a bar as  a singer to raise her well.

Lee Mong-Ryong : The only son of The Cheif of Police. His mother loves him too much to spoil him. So he goes around causing troubles even when he doesn't intend to. So his strict dad always gets angry at him hitting.
But above all this, the best description for Mong-Ryong is what Choon-hyang says about him in Episode 2. "Mong-ryong is some one who roams around with a face where it will be written 'angry', 'happy', 'bored', 'pissed off', 'sorry' etc..." What he feels, he doesn't hide. He shows. That is the main quality of Mong-ryong. He is full of various emotions that make him be too lovablely real.

Byun Hak-Do : A rich film producer. Owner of a big production company 'Dodo entertainment'. This man never had to give up something he likes. He gets what he wants. There are a lot of people who waits on him and follow him around and ready to do what he wants. Though he seem a bit arrogant, he might not be all that bad. And he feels the softest of nature when he is with Choon-Hyang.

Hong Chae-rin : Mong-ryiong's old neighbour, and sort of friend. Though Cahe-rin is older than him, Mong-ryong always had a crush on his Chae-rin nuna. But Caherin rejects him saying that he is like a little brother to her. But that is only till she realise that she has lost him. After that Chae-rin selfishly feel possessive about Mong-ryog and try to get him away from Choon-hynag.




The Ji-Dan Set : Ji-Dan set refers to two people - Han Dan-hee and Bhang Ji-hyuk. They are refereed to as 'Ji-Dan Set' by Mong-ryong. Han Dan-hee and Bhang Ji-hyuk are Choon-Hyang's childhood friends. And they becomes friends with Mong-ryong as well when he moves in to same high school.
Hand Dan-hee wants to be an actress, and this has been her dream since always and she tries her hardest to archive this dream. While Bang Ji-Hyuk's life time dream is to make Dan-hee his girlfriend. He likes Dan-hee, and everybody including Dan-hee knows that, but Dan-hee always rejects his attempts to take the friendship a bit further. Though in the end they end up having a romance of their own.(Their love is cute :-) )
Apart from this the main job of the Ji-Dan Set is to fix Choon-Hyang and Mong-ryong together, and trying to push them towards each other at times.

Mong-ryong's dad /Chief of Police : A very honest man. He is strict with his son as he is always going around causing trouble. He is ashamed that his son, the chief of police's son, is behaving like all this. He is so loyal to his profession, and is such a honest man that he won't hesitate a second before arresting Mong-ryoing if he does anything illegal or ruthless (which Mong-ryong never actually does).
But as much as he is strict with Mong-ryong, he is that much loving towards Choon-hynag. He calls her 'child' or 'daughter' all the time and consider her like his own daughter.

Mong-ryong's Mom : She is a typical rich wife, and is a bit spot herself. she loves her only son a bit too much and to the point of being too much obsessed with her son.
She is not that much of a fan of Choon-hynag though...

Story line :

Choon-hyang is a really nice girl living in the small town 'Namwon'. Mong-ryong who always cause trouble and is a head ache for his dad, moves to 'Namwon' when his dad gets a transfer. Mong-ryong is a bit disappointed to be away from his crush, Che-rin, an older girl who lived next to his house. They were sort of friends too. He never got to confess to her as she is dating another man.
Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang meets with an accident when Choon-hyang mistake that Mong-ryong was taking photo of her underwear, and breaks his phone. Mong-ryong steals Choon-hyang's phone and ask her to repair and return his...
They fight a bit over this. But later return each others phone after a lot of teasing and trouble.
Later Mong-ryong joins in Choon-hyang's school, and he gets friends with Choon Hyang's friend Bhang Ji-hyuk. Also Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang becomes sort of in good terms.
One night when Choon-hyang gets a fever, Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang's friends Ji-hyuk and Dan-hee goes to her home to keep her company, as Choon-hyang's mom goes to work.
A series of events happen that night. First Mong-ryong drinks down a full bottle of vine thinking that it is juice, and slowly start to get drunken, and walked out and falls asleep outside.
Some bad guys steals Mong-ryong's Motorbike and on that steals the briefcase of the rich film producer, Byun Hak-do.
J-hyuk and Dan-hee doesn't find Mong-ryong anywhere in the house, and doesn't find the motorbike outside and think that maybe Mong-ryong left and goes home.
The police follow the motorbike, but the thieves crash the motorbike and escape. The police gets the crashed motor bike and confirm the motorbike belonging to Chief's son Mong-ryong's. The chief is super furious and is ready to lock his son up in the lock-up.
Mong-ryong who was sleeping outside Choon-hyang's house, gets too cold and creeps back in to the house, and lay down on Choon-hyang's bed along with her and pulls blanket over him and sleeps on.
The next morning Mong-ryong's dad (Chief) along with a few police men, and Mong-ryong's school's teacher, and Bang Ji-hyunk comes to search Mong-ryong in Choon-hyang's home. That is when Choon-hyang mom also returns and finds Mong-ryong sleeping almost naked with her daughter, and starts punching and hitting him, and that is when the rest of the men (dad, police men, teacher, and Ji-hyuk) arrive seeing this. (LOL! This scene is so funny that I laughed for at least 10 minutes...)

Mong-ryong runs away from there. Choon-hyang decides to help Mong-ryong and goes to see the victim of the theft Byun Hak-do and has a bit of misunderstanding there. As this doesn't help, Choon-hyang is left with no choice than to admit in front of the police men that Mong-ryong was with her, sleeping beside her all night, though this might tamper her good-name forever.
The teacher of their school, tells to keep this a secret. So no one is told about this.
But later in school, through Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang is trying their best to avoid each other, this gets noticed by Han Dan-hee. She pulls ji-hyuk in to the radio room, and ask what is all this about. Accidentely the radio equipment gets switched on and they goes on air. And Dan-hee's shocked statement - "What? Choon-hyang and Mong-ryong slept together?" - gets heard by everyone in school. Though the 'slept together' didn't mean anything else as Ji-hyuk and Dan-hee said, the whole school began starting rumours about the two...
And in a day or two the school authorities call their parents and ask the kids to voluntarily quit the school. The parents are in a fix. Plus Choon-hyang being a honour student her change of schools will tamper her scholarship for college. And Mong-ryong has so much school transfers that he can't afford any more.
Mong-ryoing's dad then has an idea and ask if it will be ok if the kids were to be married. And he decides to make the kids marry each other.
Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang who are friends by now are totally repulsed by the idea, and try to avoid this marriage by all their might, by combilned planning and helping each other.
But in the end they decided to marry as they are left with no other rational practical choice. Also cahe-rin rejets Mong-ryong saying he is like a brother. So Mong-ryong feel she has no reason to resist the wedding now.
But by now, Bhyun Hak-do meets Choon-hyang again some times and starts feeling a bit attracted to her.
Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang marries and makes a contract among themselves that they will reconsider about the marriage when they get in to college.

Cahe-rin comes to know that Mong-ryong married and now starts to feel all possessive about him and try to show off her closeness to Mong-ryong in front of Choon-hynag in a shameless way.
Mong-ryong and Choon-hyang are still best friends and continue to be like best friends even after marriage..
Though Mong-ryong may like Choon-hyang, he never realises his feelings. And Choon-hyang falls in love with him, and know so. But she see him giving too much attention to Chae-rin...
And in the middle, she gets really clsse friends with Byun Hak-do, whom she calls 'ajjushi', and talks a lot with. Byun Hak-do comes to know that Choon-hynag is married a bit later, and by then he had fallen for Choon-hyang.
Then follows a sort of tug of war between Choon-hang and Mong-ryong trying to be together in their friendship, and Chae-rin and Byun Hak-do doing something to prevent that...
Constantly Coon-hyang and Mong-ryong are pulled apart...

It's a happy end though. But the struggle for them to find happiness is so gripping and passionate. even the love seem so... I don't know how to describe it clearly... but it's different.
The way hoe a drunken Mong-ryong says to Choon-hyang when Choon-hyang decides to leave him the first time, "I have tried my best to be good to you...Living with you all these years, I at least thought that we will at least be close friends... That I will be a bit more of a closer fried to you than Ji-hyuk or Dan-hee. But guess not... It's not like that for you..." That once sentence, when Mong-ryong yet hasn't realised his love, felt so real. I mean, even in friendship you can feel so. And that friendship was so empathetic.

Another thing in the drama is that it is a bit joyous to just watch Han Che-yong and Jae Hee on screen. I was a fan of Jae Hee from the time I saw '3 Iron' movie. So loved him as Mong-ryong too. And of course, Che-young is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. (Though she looks a bit plain in Delightful Girl Choon Hyang. But she looks mesmerising in her later works, like 'Boys Over Flowers', or in the movies...)

The whole series of the drama is quiet entertaining and we won't feel bored even for a second.

The couple Mong-ryong and Choon-hynag had won that year's most popular couple award on SBS channel awards, and because of their popularity they had appeared on the series 'My Girl' in cameo roles in the last episodes. (As the real grand daugher and her husband). Though this drama seemed to be really popular while it was running, it seemed to have lost it's glory now, as other dramas get more attention.
And I still whole heartedly feel that this drama should get a whole lot more attention than many of the so-called 'popular drama' ever. And I do personally think that 'Delightful Girl Choon Hyang' (Year 2005) one is better than it's too much popular contemporaries like 'Full House' (Year 2004) and 'My Girl' (Year 2006). Also a bit better than top in popularity chart - 'Boys Over Flowers'.
(And of course this is my personal opinion... I know may of you out there would die for 'Full House' and 'My Girl' and 'Boys Over Flowers'. I also like those. But not as much as I love 'Delightful Girl Choon-hyang. They might be 10 while this is 11).

My Ratings of this Drama : 11/10

My Top 10 Korean Drama 

     

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