Asian Addicts Anonymous

The drama was completely filmed and set to run for 16 episodes. After a slightly disappointing run, they cut it down to 15. Now, I actually liked the pace of this episode better to the lagging that this drama had for the past several episodes, but since they cut it down, I think a lot happened that just didn’t make sense in the grand scheme of things. We didn’t even really get any notifications that there was a time jump [but I think there was], things snapped into place way too conveniently without any explanation as to how they came about, and we never got to see Chungdamdong Gumiho which was performed, but we got to see several cuts from Bae Kang Hee’s last performance in Count Monte. WTF. Really? How disappointing!

This is will very brief and not too thorough as not a whole hella lot happened that can necessarily be explained as I think we might have had some integral scenes missing due to the series being cut by one episode. Anywho, like always, don’t read any farther if you don’t want the ending completely spoilt.

We backtrack to Eun Bi performing and Kang Hee threatening to completely annihilate her career and Gumiho. However, Jin has other plans. He manages to get a document to the meeting just in the nick of time saying that he gave Gu Jak back all rights to the musical, thus making it eligible for the DIMP prize and funding. Woot! Kang Hee’s plan to have the musical shelved has gone awry in a good way. Joon Hyuk goes to tell them the news and the gang all celebrates. He then calls up Ra Kyung to tell her what happened as well.

Kang Hee, unable to accept what happened, plays her trump card yet again. What is it? She calls up Yu to complain about his grandson. Eyeroll. Of course, Jae Joon is there and tells his grandfather all about Jin liking some girl in the musical, you know the one that even went to Sun Hee’s funeral. This does not make Yu happy at all so he takes action against his grandson. How? Jin has been reassigned to the secretarial pool of the corporation. Seriously? Oh, and the incompetent Jae Joon is put as the head of the Amour fund once again. He quickly goes back to his old ways of siphoning company funds and doing things half-assed. When he tries to find out what is happening with Gumiho, JIn’s assistant quickly hands in his resignation letter leaving Jae Joon to figure things out for himself.

Jin has also handed in his resignation letter to his grandfather. He understands that his grandfather thinks it is the right and best move for him to go back to the main company that way, and Jin may regret this decision later, but he must go his own way and do what he wants. Jin is floored when his assistant shows up and tells him that Gumiho is on the right track, but will need the help of a great financial advisor such as Jin. So Jin meets with Jae Yi and Gu Jak and offers his services and financial support for a small, really small, percentage of the profits. Gu Jak and Jae Yi cannot believe this offer and that Jin wants to put up some money to help himself. Jae Yi wants to decline immediately. Now, whether or not his offer is ever accepted is very unclear in all of this and that’s annoying as all hell.

Of course things don’t go smoothly for everyone. Sang Won is worried that Jae Joon took over the fund as he is totally different from Jin. Kang Hee tells him he doesn’t need to worry about anything because as long as she’s his wife, he will get the money to put up whatever he wants. This does not make Sang Won happy at all. We also have Gumiho hit a snag when all theaters that were supposed to be putting on the show cancel thanks to Jae Joon’s scheming. Jae Yi immediately goes to bawl Kang Hee out, but Eun Bi stops him as there is no point in confronting the other woman, and what if she wasn’t the one who did it. Jae Yi smiles and compliments Eun Bi on growing up. She is no longer crying and saying everything is her fault like she did in the past.

We get lots of cute Eun Bi-Jae Yi moments as their relationship progresses. Eun Bi also learns about her grandmother helping other older women learn how to use computers and the internet and she learns that her father is no longer completely against her doing musicals [since she’s got the lead and even one 1st in a competition]. We also have Ra Kyung and Joon Hyuk progressing nicely even though Ra Kyung is still insistent that nothing will ever come of their relationship. When Ra Kyung learns of the theater incident from the normally perky Joon Hyuk, she quickly goes into action and gets her uncle’s newly built theater for the show. Oh, and Ra Kyung and Jin end up meeting. He’s happy to see that she’s doing well. Ra Kyung asks if he really wants to help out with Gumiho since she, Joon Hyuk, Jae Yi, and Eun Bi are all in it. Jin’s okay with that.

I am happy that Jin is pursuing what he wants to do, but is anyone else a little sad that he gets no one? I mean, he and Ra Kyung obviously weren’t meant to be together, but I really did think he and Eun Bi had a friendship connection which could have become more if there was no Hong Hae Yi [even though I like those two, I really think there was more between Jin and Eun Bi than Jae Yi and Eun Bi].

We get several partial performances from Count Monte and then we cut to Kang Hee at her dressing  table singing a song from the musical. However, she can’t hit the notes like she was able to before. Kang Hee keeps trying and it just gets worse. What’s happening to her? Meanwhile, Jae Yi and Eun Bi practicing a final time before the opening day of Gumiho. Jae Yi is worried that Eun Bi won’t take good care of herself and wants her to stay overnight, but Eun Bi refuses. Why? She senses that Jae Yi’s intentions aren’t completely honorable [proven true when he goes to kiss her].

Kang Hee finds out that she has acute vocal cord damage. No surprise given she has been singing her entire life. Sang Won lets the company know and tells them that the new understudy will have to probably take over all shows to the end. Poor Kang Hee is devastated. She goes home and writes a goodbye letter to Sang Won saying that she will disappear from his life. Sang Won reads this and then stops her from leaving. He tells her that ne never loved her as an actress, but as a man. He wants to start fresh now. Kang Hee tries to go, but Sang Won holds her tight and won’t let her. He then says he doesn’t care if she can’t sing or act again, but he doesn’t want her to lose her voice. Why? There’s something he wants to hear from her. What is it? I think it’s pretty obvious that the one thing Sang Won wants to hear from his wife is just three simple words: “I. Love. You.”

And here we start getting into the WTF happenings. I mean, we have Yu hearing from Jin Young who is apparently back in the family business and working on the China proposal. They are in trouble if they can’t manage to get the 100 million they need. So in comes Jin to the rescue. He got an American investor to take over from Seo backing out. He will also go to China with his dad to help. Say what? Oh, and happily Ra Kyung decides that she and Joon Hyuk can be together and their romance is progressing nicely. As for Eun Bi and Jae Yi? Eun Bi finally spends the night with Jae Yi. He says he really loves her and her response is that she thinks she loves him. Oh geez.

And. That’s it. We then get an entire recap of the series after the Eun Bi-Jae Yi sleep over.

WHY, WHY no scenes from Gumiho!? How did the bad feelings get healed between the Yus? Kang Hee turned over a completely new leaf and decides to stay with her husband after losing her voice. She finally drinks the milk that Eun Bi brought her all the time instead of giving it all to her cat. Her turn around, although expected and nice, still almost seems unbelievable. And what happened to make Ra Kyung realize she can be with Joon Hyuk? What happened to Jae Joon and the fund? What happened with Gumiho? Was it a huge success? And just how did Gu Jak and Sang Mi become an official couple?

They didn’t tie up loose ends, but created more. Not a horrible drama. It had some great points, but lagged when they got away from the musical and into the drama between the people. I think it would have been better if they could have mixed more of the musical in with the interpersonal relationships. And ending early, they ended without clearing things up and making things confusing by doing things without putting in some needed explanations.