Asian Addicts Anonymous

Oh! My Lady [오! 마이 레이디]

• Episodes: 16
• Broadcast network: SBS
• Broadcast period: 2010-Mar-22 to 2010-May-11
• Cast: Chae Rim, Choi Si Won, Lee Hyun Woo, Park Han Byul, Moon Jung Hee
• The premise: A middle-aged woman becomes housekeeper to a popular, self-centered, and completely untalented star. Sparks fly – don’t they always?

Chae Rim stars as Yoon Gae Hwa, a down-on-her-luck divorcee who is looking for full-time work in order to support herself and her daughter; however, her age and lack of skills makes finding a job difficult so she resorts to temping and odd jobs which doesn’t pay the bills at all. She is hoping to land a good job with benefits that will allow her to give her little girl (the very adorable Bang Joon So) the piano and the living environment she deserves.

Choi Si Won of Super Junior fame stars in his first lead role. He plays popular actor Sung Min Woo who gets by on looks alone. He seriously cannot act at all, but as women all over love him and his washboard abs, he is never wanting for work. His edict when it comes to acting: a simple role that’s easy to do. He is not one for memorizing lines and complicated scripts.

How exactly does an ahjumma divorcee doing temporary work end up crossing paths with a rising star? She becomes his temporary housekeeper. And I mean very temporary. She ends up getting fired in the first episode when she got an emergency call from her daughter in the middle of ironing Min Woo’s shirt. As you can imagine, she left the iron on and it burnt a hole in his shirt.

But there is hope for Gae Hwa! She gets a call saying that she has an interview for an internship at The Show Company. It is a theater company owned by Yoo Shi Joon (Lee Hyun Woo). If she manages to land this job, she would get a good salary and health benefits. Unfortunately, this cloud has a gray instead of silver lining. The company, in order to get sponsorship, threw out getting actor Sung Min Woo, which the potential sponsors lapped up. Oh, and to top it off, they want a young person, not a middle-aged ahjumma. However, Shi Joon states that if Gae Hwa manages to bring Min Woo into the production, then he will hire her on.

Let the battle begin!

My thoughts: I am already in love with this drama. Choi Si Won proves he is not just a pretty face and can act rather well. He does a great j0b playing an actor who can’t act, which takes talent. His real acting is good as is Chae Rim’s. I have loved her as an actress since watching Dal Ja’s Spring in which she starred in another older-woman-young-man relationship, so this kind of role isn’t new to her (she also played a single mother previously as well).

I also really like Bang Joon Seo’s portrayal of Kim Min Ji, Gae Hwa’s daughter. She is adorable and does well in playing the role. I especially loved the bathhouse scene where she and Chae Rim have a competition in the sauna. Mi Ji loves saunas despite being a little girl and Gae Hwa can barely stand them. It’s a cute scene that really shows the good mother-daughter relationship the two have.

As of now, I am really hating Chae Rim’s ex. He immediately states he has no money to give her to help when she calls him out (as the last resort). Now this is obviously a blatant lie as he is dressed well and drives a fancy car. He is a money miser. I really didn’t like how he at first didn’t want to take in Min Ji temporarily until Gae Hwa lands back on her feet. He does cave after he asks his new wife for permission (she must’ve granted it).

Oh No! moments:

• Yoon Gae Hwa and Kim Min Ji getting thrown out of their apartment with no other place to go
• Gae Hwa’s ex-husband mentioning all of her problems stem from her mother’s death draining her dry

Highlights:

• Gae Hwa’s an Min Ji’s bathhouse scene
• Gae Hwa hitting Min Woo in the head with a vacuum cleaner (she thinks he’s a thief)