Asian Addicts Anonymous

I make no promises to take this through the end depending on how bogged down the plot gets. I’ll also always be a little bit behind on daily dramas. I really wanted to cover some Japanese dramas this season, but haven’t had the best of luck as of yet.

I’ve been waiting for this drama for some unfathomable reason. My very first completed daily drama was a disaster, but I haven’t learned my lesson one bit and keep plugging away at them.

천상 여자

Romanized title: Cheonsang Yeoja
Official English title: Angel’s Revenge
Literal English title: Heavenly Woman
Broadcast station: KBS2
Broadcast dates: 6 January – ? 2014
Episodes: 100
Main cast: Yoon So Yi, Park Jung Chul, Moon Bo Ryung, Kwon Yool
Synopsis: After the unfortunate death of her beloved older sister, Lee Sun Yu gives up her dream of being a nun to pursue revenge on the those who caused her sister’s death. Will a rich bad boy be able to save her from herself?

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We open with Lee Sun Yu [Yoon So Yi] going to confession. She tells the priest that someone has died because of her. We get a few flashes of a woman, a car, some blood. Sun Yu then goes on to say that she will seek revenge on those who killed the person she loved the most. The priest warns her against fighting sin with sin as it will only take her down the road to hell. Too late, without the person that she loves, she is already in hell.

We then go back to the beginning of our story. At the convent, the nuns are gathering the children for a final roll call, which the children resist. Sun Yu starts playing the mini-organ and says that instead of roll call, they will sing instead. The song begins and Sun Yu yells for the children to stop as something is amiss. A teen boy, looking very nervous, belts out loudly that they will sing louder. sun Yu approaches him and starts counting heads (annoying one girl because they aren’t animals to which Sun Yu responds they are all lambs of God). She notices three lambs are missing and tells the boy he is her sheep hound.

So where are the little lost lambs? The three girls are at a nightclub with older men. They talk about going to China for a weekend. They excuse themselves and worry in the bathroom since they don’t even have their IDs yet (meaning they are minors under 20), let alone passports. The head girl laughs and says it is no problem as they can just run and leave the boys to pick up the tab. This is, of course, heard by Seo Ji Suk (Kwon Yool) who was going to leave the party, but decides better to teach the girls a lesson. He comes back to the table and gets touchy and says they should definitely go to China, but before then, how about continuing this at a hotel? This freaks the teens out and they try to go. When the lead girl calls Ji Suk “ahjussi” (used with older males about your father’s age) instead of “oppa” (used for younger males), he admits he knows their age and demands they tell him where they live as he will send them home after a stern lecture. LOL. Not what you’d expect.

While this is going on, our nun and sheepdog are trying to get into the club. The bouncer refuses to let a nun in. Obviously. So our nun sees a girl and swaps out clothes. She then tells the boy to stay outside before he gives into temptation (he’s standing their drooling over scantily clad women). Sun Yu starts searching when a waiter comes up and grabs her arm to take her to meet some men she can have fun with. She tells him to unhand her, but he refuses. Our nun then turns into a gangster and easily flips the poor waiter over. She apologizes, makes the sign of the cross saying she warned him and hurries off.

She, of course, finds the girls while Ji Suk is doing his best to drag them out. She immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion and believes he’s doing something untoward to her girls. She leaps into the fray and demands to know what the evil man is doing to minors. Ji Suk also jumps to the conclusion that she is another minor (who must have been held back a few grades). The two argue and eventually Sun Yu lets out a flying kick. Ji Suk goes sprawling and a compass of his ends up getting into one of the girls’ dumped bag contents. The nun and her charges use this time to make good their escape. Ji Suk gingerly gets up, in disbelief of the double kicker, and leaves the club, not hearing the girl yelling out his name over the load music.

I will say this, Yoon So Yi is my age. We were born in the same year, which means we are a year away from 30. And no offense, you can’t mistake her for a high schooler. No, she doesn’t look old or anything like that, but she definitely looks more mature than your average high schooler. So…him thinking she’s a minor is a laugh.

Outside the club, Sun Yu changes back into her habit and runs into Jang Tae Jung [Park Jung Chul] who she calls “brother-in-law” essentially. She is happy to meet him, but immediately concerned because she hasn’t been able to contact her sister in China for awhile. She asks what he is doing at the club…surely not cheating on her sister? Tae Jung looks uncomfortable, but Sun Yu laughs it off as a joke because she knows he’d never cheat on her sister. She then takes her charges and leaves as the woman from earlier comes out of the club and waves to Tae Jung who worries Sun Yu will see, so he quickly ushers the woman into his car.

The woman is Seo Ji Hee [Moon Bo Ryung] and she is apparently a wealthy daughter of the company where Tae Jung works. He drops her off at her house where she vows that he will be the only man she marries no matter how long it takes to get the approval. Tae Jung leaves without saying goodbye and on his way home, he wipes his mouth and recalls a night where he was walking with Lee Jin Yu [Lee Se Eun] kissing all the way home when Sun Yu comes up and interrupts them. Sun Yu is a high school student and all for Tae Jung kissing her elder sister as long as he marries her. It’s a rather cute scene and you wonder what made him change to Ji Hee when he obviously seemed to really love Jin Yu. At the same time, Sun Yu has returned to the convent and is trying to get in touch with her sister to no avail. Sun Yu pleads with her to hurry back to Korea to quickly get married and have babies.

The next day Wu Ah Ran [Kim Chung] goes into her daughter’s room and demands to know why Ji Hee came in so late. Ji Hee says she paid for a company outing at a club for a job well done. Ah Ran insists that she will be the one to choose her daughter’s future husband. Right. Ji Hee then reveals that Ji Suk-oppa is back in Korea. This is shocking and Ah Ran has the pleasure of letting her mother-in-law know as she is certain Gong Jung Soon [Jung Young Sook] does not know her grandson is back. Hearing this news, Jung Soon quickly leaves the breakfast table, upsetting her handicapped son Seo Woo Hyun [Choi Jae Won] who also leaves after scolding his sister-in-law. Ji Hee scolds her mother for breaking the news and Ah Ran replies that it’s either Ji Suk or them that survives. Ji Suk is supposed to be her son…but I guess he can’t really be if she’s out to oust him.

Ji Suk gets a call from his unhappy granny who demands he return to see her NOW since he’s back in Seoul. Ji Suk is amazed his grandmother knows already and pretends that his phone is losing signal. Before he goes back home, he has to find the compass first. His car runs out of gas and he is forced to walk the rest of the way. There he meets the ring leader from earlier and asks for the compass. The girl says that the “hag” has it (that’s what the teen calls Sun Yu). The hag is up the mountain gathering herbs for the teen who complained of having a terrible stomach ache during mass earlier. Ji Suk climbs the mountain and sees a woman in nuns clothing. He is completely floored to see that this nun is the same woman wearing short shorts and fishnet who kicked him the night before. End episode.

This episode did have moments that made me laugh. But, there’s nothing special yet about it. It’s just a fairly typical drama. I am looking forward to Yoon So Yi’s transformation from the innocent (yet tough) nun into the revenge-driven woman, but I do wonder if she has the acting chops to do it. Right now her character seems very reminiscent of Byung So Ra from Color of Woman. I didn’t watch enough of Hero or Warrior Baek Dong Soo to know how good of a range she really has, so here’s hoping she can carry a revenge drama.