10/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean romantic comedy drama with 16, 70 minute episodes. Alternate title is Dal-ri and Gamjatang.
Kim Dali (Park Gyu-young) is tasked by her boss (at the museum where she works as a curator), to pick up a VVIP from the airport. However, VVIP Mr. Jin is not the only Mr. Jin coming into the airport that day and she winds up picking up the wrong Mr. Jin (Jin Moo-hak played by Kim Min-jae). This case of mistaken identity winds up being a fateful encounter as Dali offers the traveler a place to stay when his credit cards do not work. They part ways the next day and Moo-hak immediately regrets not getting her number but believes he will see her again before leaving the Netherlands. Right after they part, Dali discovers her father has died in South Korea and immediately leaves for her home country. Moo-hak leaves the Netherlands without seeing this girl he found an immediate connection with only to soon discover the girl he had been looking for is now the heiress of a museum he lent a significant sum of money to. Dali remains in South Korea to save the museum, which is her father's legacy, but finds there are multiple creditors looking to be paid. Moo-hak is torn between doing whatever it takes to recover the money and save face with his family and helping out this girl he finds so compelling. Moo hak knows a little something about making money having helped his father build a global food company from the ground up. Add in a wealthy ex fiance, a girl who is obsessed with Moo-hak, the mystery surrounding the real reason for her father's death and the current state of the museum's finances and the viewer is in for a wild ride.
I loved this movie from start to finish. It did not have any of the tired tropes that I sometimes find annoying, there were tons of suprise twists that suprised even someone that has watched hundreds of dramas. Dali is now one of my all time favorite characters I loved how she was such a thoughtful, kind and caring person yet could, at all the right times, really lose it. Moo-hak was so genuine and you could really see how he had gotten to where he was and even understand his crazy penny counting. Spoilers*** In the USA, at one time, kids were often not told they were adopted for fear of the social stigma surrounding a child that is not blood related. It was all tied into the stigma around being born out of wedlock. As the prevalance of that social stigma has decreased, so has the stigma around being adopted. Not to say it is not still present, it just isn't as widespread as it once was. In as much as this is an "accurate" portrayal in South Korea, it seem that social stigma is still something that is dealt with as well perhaps to a slightly higher degree. I was surprised that her simply being adopted could cause such a major hit to her social standing. There was also the concept of "old money" versus "new money" which is something that is tied to class distinction, to varying degrees, in developed societies perhaps the world over. I really like how she stood up to her ex-fiance and never validated what he did to her by going back to him. There are certain things a person can say or do to another person that there really is no going back from. Dali was generally calm, level headed, and sweet. Her character was the type that spreads calm when she walks in a room. I liked that you could tell she had learn those traits from her adopted father. I was happy the uncle came around and actually apologized to her for the horrible things he said to her. The museum staff was, on balance, loyal and I was glad they did not wind up turning on Dali as that would have lessened my enjoyment of that slice of life "family." Dali stood up to Moo hak's dad when he told her he didn't think her and his son should be together. It was truly a love that conquered all and it made it all the more sweet overall. They really tricked us with the year separation, I thought she had left for a year because of the father's disapproval. That is a trope I am not found of - that whole leave for 1, 2, 3 or you know 5 years, sometimes don't even call or contact, come back and everything is all hunky dory. The writers must have known that because they tricked us into thinking she left for a year then went "psych they were together the whole time". I would rewatch this and highly recommend it to anyone that loves this genre. So good. One of my favorites.
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