SBS, 21 episodes
Synopsis
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Top actress Oh Seung-ah (Kim Ha-neul) refuses to accept the Best Actress award at an awards ceremony after finding out that she is to share the prize with another actress. In the process, she makes a fool out of Seo Young-eun (Song Yun-a) who was there to hand out the award.
Seo Young-eun is an extremely popular writer who has written corny dramas that have gained top ratings. But now she feels a need to change. She wants to write a drama series with depth. So she chooses to write about a drama that centers around a mental hospital. To get ideas for her script, she visits a mental institution only to run into Lee Gyeong-min (Park Yong-ha). Gyeong-min is conscious about the strange woman who keeps looking at him. He may look like someone from a well-to-do family but only the opposite is true. His family is very poor, and he’s the only breadwinner in his family. He had come to the hospital to borrow some money from his friend.
During a meeting with the production team, Young-eun’s proposal for a drama based on a mental hospital setting is dismissed. Young-eun is about to go crazy because of the head of the drama department keeps insisting that she write a romance piece about a girl in love with a rich man, only to catch a chronic illness. Moreover, the writer is seethed with anger after finding out that the main lead will be played by Oh Seung-ah.
Seung-ah feels that she’s unable to grow as a serious actress because the CEO of her management company is corrupt and too greedy. The one thing she’s been thinking about is to sign a contract with a different company once her current contract comes to an end. So she seeks out Jang Gi-jun (Lee Beom-su) who remembers Seung-ah. It was Gi-jun who had helped Seung-ah avoid a fraudulent scheme seven years ago when she was in her senior year in high school. Gi-jun company is on the verge of going under when Seung-ah decides to join his team. Seung-ah is intent on becoming a serious actress.
Young-eun meets up with Seung-ah with a new proposal for a script. Young-eun criticizes Seung-ah for being a terrible actress. On the other hand, Young-eun is also criticized for having axed the director. Young-eun bumps into the young director, Gyeong-min, for the first time after seeing each other at the mental hospital, creating an awkward moment. They agree to work on a drama series together. And Seung-ah is to join them!
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One of my favourite dramas in 2008. Park Yong-Ha has since committed suicide, after acting in this drama. So sad.
Completed the Korean drama "Spring Waltz" in 2 days, over the weekend. The series is simply enjoyable. Glad that it has a happy ending. Spring Waltz is the fourth and final installment of Yoon Suk-ho's season drama series - following Autumn Fairy Tale, Winter Sonata and Summer Scent. It's great to be watching fresh faces on the Korean drama scene! For Spring Waltz the 4 leads are Han Hyo-ju, Seo Do-young, Daniel Henney, Lee So-yeon. Daniel Henney is a familiar face - having acted in "My Lovely Samsoon".
"If you truly love him….if you genuinely miss him, someday you can meet and love him again…. Just like us playing a hide and seek during our childhood days,…. no matter how deep he hides himself from the world, and disappear from my sight, he who hides shall be somewhere out there…..always be waiting for me, the tagger. Regardless of how often failing to catch or missing each other’s ways, at the end of the day, your most earnest desire and pray shall lead you to him……only to meet and love again."
This is a story of two wounded hearts that fall in love with each other, heal each other and later forgive each other. Underlying their love are the shared memories of their childhood when they first met. Their dramatic love begins unfolding when the two – stouthearted rolled-rice seller Eun-young (played by Han Hyo-ju) and famous pianist Jae-ha (played by Seo Do-young) – accidentally run into each other on a train in Austria after Eun-young wins a grand prize and a trip to the country at an industrial art exhibition. But Jae-ha has no idea that the unabashed girl from South Korea whom he meets on the train is the love of his childhood, the beautiful Eun-young from a remote island who brought a warm spring into his frozen heart. Their destined love undergoes a test when Philip (Daniel Henney), Jae-ha’s manager, and Yi-na (Lee So-Yeon), who claims Jae-ha to be her childhood sweetheart, come into their lives.
Adding to the spellbinding and heart-moving love story of Eun-young and Jae-ha is the scenic backdrop of Austria, the homeland of waltz, and the picturesque landscape of Namdo Island on Korea’s southern coast. The shootings of the series have taken place around well-known tourist spots such as Hallstatt and Salzburg (in Austria). It certainly brings back memories of these places I have visited in 1997 esp Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds).
Seo Do-young 서도영 as Yoon Jae-ha (Chris Y.) 윤재하
Jaeha is a talented classical pianist of the next generation who has been closely watched with deep interests and concerns by Koreans since he won a prize in a famous concert. Even though he was brought up in a rich and enviable family under his father who is a foreign diplomat, Jaeha is a lonely person having only one friend because of his eccentric and particular personality. He is a well-mannered and dutiful son to his parents and never harms others, but his piano melody always sounds sad. He is hidden in a veil showing his true feelings only to his best friend and manager, Phillip. He is a sad person keeping the secrets of the past that nobody knows although he has a charismatic personality and wonderful environment.
Han Hyo Joo 한효주 as Park Eun-young 박은영
Eun-young is a diligent person who works at her adoptive mother’s gimbap (Korean rolled rice) house in the daytime and sells homemade accessories and clothes at her street stand at night. Even though she could not finish her studies, she is a talented person who is good with her hands and is to be able to win the grand prize in a handicraft contest open to the public. She never looses her smile nor her dashing spirit although she lives in poverty. She has an opportunity to visit Austria from her prize winning in the handicraft contest and meets Phillip and Jaeha by fate. Eun-young who does not know of this ironic fate deeply misses Suho from her childhood.
Daniel Henney as Phillip 필립 He is the only friend as well as the global manager of Yoon Jaeha. He was born to Austrian father and Korean mother and was expected to become a promising musician during his childhood. He plays the piano, the cello, the guitar, etc. Even though there are no musical instruments that he cannot play, he gave up playing music instruments. Instead, he decided to pursue his dream of a musician by becoming the manager of Jaeha who Phillip acknowledges as being a true musical genius. He is not only a considerate and warmhearted person who kindly understands Jae-Ha’s fretful personality but also is a romantic. Phillip is in love with Eun-young and despite knowing that she loves Jaeha, he chooses to stay by her side.
Lee So Yeon 이소연 as Song In-na 송이나
She is a capable career woman who started her career from the bottom and became the director of the planning department in a leading classical record and concert planning company by her own ability even though the company is owned by her parents. Inna is a perfect woman with remarkable beauty, wonderful background, and outstanding ability, but there is only one thing that she earnestly desires for. It is Jaeha who played the piano with her during her childhood. She has exceptionally liked Jaeha ever since her childhood; thus, she gave up playing the piano and left for Canada to find Jaeha after he left Korea. She has a reckless personality to do so. However, she could not find Jaeha but completed her study in Art Business in Canada. She voluntarily tries to promote Jaeha’s debut in Korea after she happened to see an article of Jaeha activeness in Austria.
Completed the Korean drama "Which Star Are You From" 넌 어느 별에서 왔니 starring Kim Rae-Won, Jeong Ryeo-Won, Park Si-Hu and Park Ji-Yoon. I enjoyed the movie. Jeong Ryeo-won has this famous "pig-tails" in the show. According to her character, she invented the hairdo. :O)
Also completed watching the 15-part Taiwanese series 花樣少年少女 (Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu) also known as Hana Kimi on YouTube. Didn't like the ending. I believe that there is a continuation to the show. Look forward to seeing the story developed!
I certainly enjoyed the song "怎么办" sang by S.H.E. - the theme song of Hana-Kimi and the songs by Tank.
I just purchased two VCDs from Poh Kim today. Saw both movies this evening. The second movie, 'Hello Brother' or "My Little Brother' tells a very touching story about a 9 year-old Hani (Park Ji-bin). Hani has a 12-year-old brother, Han-byul who falls sick often. Hani does not treat his older brother well and plays pranks on him often. For Hani, the world evolve around him and all he enjoys is computer games..
One day, Han-byul fall sick and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He undergoes brain surgery and is hospitalized in the pediatric ward. Their mother is so busy taking care of Han-byul that she can't really care for Hani. Hani felt that his brother is fonder of Wook - another kid in the pediatric ward who suffers from the same illness. Hence, Hani's worries begin.
Hani learnt about friendship with selflessness through his adventures with Wook. Incidents with his classmate Jun-tae (Sebastian) makes him understand that the world does not revolve only around him.
It was a painful experience for a 9 year-old child. However, that is the price that he has to pay to learn the value of the people close around him and become a boy who will do anything for them.
Hani was a self-centered boy who has to come to grips with his older brother becoming terminally ill. After his brother is diagnosed with a brain tumor, the whole family struggles to keep things from falling apart. But young Han-i doesn't quite understand the seriousness of the situation. It was an enjoyable but teary movie. My tears just keep falling like rain especially the last 20 minutes. You need lots of tissue on standby.
