Fili’s world

The South Korean TV drama “My Lovely Sam Soon” (/”My name is Sam Soon”/내 이름은 김삼순/“סאם סון המתוקה”) is one of Asia’s most successful TV drama ever and it has finally made it to Israel with Hebrew subtitles. Aside from Anime series, I think this is the first Asian drama shown in Israeli TV, and that’s definitely a cause for celebration.

Synopsis

Kim Sam Soon (SS) is a 29 years old, fat, pastry chef, who has just lost her job and her boyfriend on Christmas Eve. She has all the insecurities of a woman grazing 30. With yet another failed relationship, SS scrambles desperately to rebuild her career and her love life.

SS manages to find a job at “Bon Appetite” restaurant when she gets acquainted with the owner of the restaurant, Hyun Jin Heon (JH). JH is young, handsome but aloof and cold.

JH is the only son of a hotel chain owner. Although born with a silver spoon, fate had dealt JH with a hard hand. Three years ago, a fatal car accident, where JH was the driver, resulted in the death of his elder brother and sister-in-law; and at the very same time his girlfriend of 5 years left him for her studies in the US. JH had to endure both physical and mental pain to overcome his problems and rebuild his life. The death defying experience left JH scarred as he stops believing in love and happiness.

Due to a moment of convenience, both SS and JH ended up signing a dating contract, where SS will receive KRW 50 mio (which she needed to redeem her family house) and in turn she will pretend to be JH’s girlfriend to fend off his mother’s endless efforts to get him match made and married.

When JH’s ex-girlfriend returns to seek reconciliation; SS realizes that she has fallen for JH, and their contractual relationship gets complicated.

My sister, who traveled across South and Central America, has been trying for years now to maintain and improve her Spanish, and to do that the only thing she passionately followed through was seeing this one Spanish Telenovela on the VIVA channel in Israel. Almost everyday, at 07:00, she would sit down, switch the subtitles off and try to follow, and she’s been doing pretty well. That was all until last week, when her 07:00 spot was replaced with “My Lovely Sam Soon”. According to her, she was surprised and disappointed at first, but as she stayed and watched the Korean show, she realized that it was extremely good and now she faces the dilemma of either moving to a new Spanish show or sticking to the Korean one.

You know, it’s funny, cause just the other week I was telling my Korean friend I remember that both in Vietnam and in Taiwan people, mostly women, were over obsessed with this one Korean drama that always screened during lunch time. In Saigon, I think it was 12:30, there was no body to talk to, as the women were the ones to run the small businesses and they all gathered around TV sets to follow this show.

I woke up early today to have a look, and I have to admit it’s surprisingly good, especially when compared to the other cr$p that’s running on that Telenovela channel. It’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s touching, it gives a feeling of authentic life in Korea, it’s adorable. If you missed the first episode last week, it’s available on Youtube.

Here’s from the Hebrew YNet story on the show :

My lovely Sam soon is a Korean drama that most chances are you won’t even know exists. That’s too bad, because it’s a magical show that conquered the hearts of audiences world wide. [...]

When 73 percent of the women in Korea think they’re fat (above 52 kilos), in a society where appearances are important and there’s pressure to get married early, it’s no wonder that Sam Soon became a role model. The Korean Bridget Jones was exactly what was missing in the South East Asian TV. The numbers speak for themselves - from the 4th episode, ratings have reached above 40%, the last show getting 50.5%.

And, I just have to translate some of the extremely positive female comments on the show:

Ayelet - Korean guys do it for me. I have to confess, I love Asians. I saw the first chapter and was turned on. They’re so smooth…

Galit - [...] and generally… the Koreans are really cute especially the lead actor, he’s such a cutie!

Inuyasha - Whaaaayyyy, they’re the hottest (fiLi - for males, it’s kind of a dirtier word than hot). Especially Japanese and Koreans, whaayyy, you wanna rape them.

Karina - Yoooo, it’s beautiful, I love Koreans, they’re so quietttt :)

Go watch it.