I Really Really Like You: a good drama gone bad

Why do some dramas start off so incredibly well only to somehow totally morph into very bad shows? In the beginning absolutely nothing is lacking: the characters are great, the set-up is intriguing, the early episodes are really exciting and engaging, and you’re stoked to have found another gem from amidst all the lackluster kdramas out there. But then somewhere along the way the production team suddenly and inexplicably drops the ball, and you barely even recognize the show you’ve committed yourself to watching, and sometimes it’s a struggle just to finish watching the formerly awesome show. This is an unfortunate and sinister syndrome that tragically plagues many a kdrama production (I think sometimes it has to do with encroaching deadlines, but I’m not really sure.) In any case, it undoubtedly claimed 2006’s I Really Really Like You as one of its many victims.

I Really Really Like You (진짜 진짜 좋아해) tells the story of Yeo Bong-Soon (played by Eugene), a young woman who’s lived a primitive sort of life with her grandmother deep in the mountains of one of South Korea’s most rural provinces. One day she saves the life of an injured hiker, a young doctor named Jang Joon-Won (Ryu Jin) who also happens to be the son of the country’s president. Joon-Won, who does his best to lead an independent life, guards the secret of his parentage very closely from other people, including Bong-Soon. The man sent to fetch the injured Joon-Won from the mountains is Nam Bong-Gi (Lee Min-Ki), a young and irascible member of the presidential guard. When Bong-Soon’s grandmother passes away shortly afterwards, she comes to Seoul looking for her birth parents, a search that leads her straight to the Blue House itself (South Korean presidential residence, equivalent of the White House). There she finds herself caught up in the lives of the Blue House staff, Joon-Won and his family, Bong-Gi and his family, and eventually her own newly discovered family as well. Needless to say, the emphasis on family relationships is heavy, with lots of comedy and romance thrown into the mix.

Like I said, this drama started out really, really well. With some very poignant, touching moments, it often managed to be funny and sweet and even bittersweet at the same time. Eugene’s character (in the beginning) was endearing and quirky, if a little on the Pollyannaish side. And Lee Min-Ki was great. In fact, he’s pretty much the only thing that I was consistently good from start to finish; if not for him, I might not have been able to finish this longish series (34 episodes total.) His character was somewhat of an insensitive jerk at first, but then again Bong-Soon did cause the short-tempered guy a heck of a lot of trouble in the beginning, and the gradual revelation of his more sweet and thoughtful side was somehow made really believable. Plus, he was extremely cute. I never really understood all the fuss about Lee Min-Ki even after watching Mixed-Up Investigative Agency and Dal-Ja’s Spring, but this drama totally converted me. All in all, I really, really liked the first 10 or 15 episodes of I Really Really Like You.

Alas, my (strongly negative) feelings about episodes 15-34 basically cancel out my initially positive impression of the show, and then some. It was like the writers just got lazy or something; the plot started going in circles, the dialogue became really repetitive and annoying, and these insipid subplots started encroaching on the main storylines, which were also stagnating. Also, I Bong-Soon’s character began to frustrate me more and more, and when you can’t get fully behind the heroine the watching experience is sort of soured. It was a combination of both how the character was written and Eugene’s acting that drove me bonkers more and more as the show went on. For example, whenever Bong-Soon was troubled by some “Serious Issue”, Eugene would affect this by basically turning into a zombie, walking listlessly around with a dull, lifeless look in her eyes. It started to get really annoying, especially since I rarely had much sympathy for whatever her big problem was at the moment. Oh, so her mother didn’t exactly turn out to be the shining beacon of perfect parenthood that she’d envisioned? Well, parents are people too, and none of us get to choose ours either. It’s like moving to the big city turned Bong-Soon into a more whiny, selfish version of her happy, easy-going self. Or maybe I was just miffed at her for being totally oblivious to Nam Bong-Gi for practically the entire series.

Which brings me to yet another major complaint: the relationship between the main couple was way too one-sided for way too long. Yeah, she chose Bong-Gi in the end, but only after spending the whole series hung up over the other (duller, married) guy. For her to truly not have been aware of Bong-Gi's blatantly manifested feelings for so long, she'd have had to have been either extremely dense or (as I suspect) in subconscious denial. Either way, it just seemed sloppy to have her come around in the final two episodes and think, Hey, I might actually like Bong-Gi, and for everything to be fine and dandy all of a sudden. I just thought their relationship was sadly unbalanced, and therefore not nearly as satisfying as it could have been.

In the beginning, I couldn’t wait to watch each successive episode of this drama. By the end, it was a struggle to even get through them. It’s really too bad that the drama went so far south of watchable sometime in the middle. Pretty much the only thing that kept me going was the adorableness of Lee Min-Ki. In spite of how much I loved it at first, I can’t bring myself, in light of later developments, to recommend this drama with any conviction.

Music: whatever I may say about this drama, I did enjoy the soundtrack, of which I’ve posted two tracks below. The first is the opening theme, and the second is a really lovely instrumental version of one of the songs I really liked.

Joh Ah Hae - Eugene, Mr Burn

Uhn Duk.wma -