When he sees her going to a bar with another man, he spitefully badmouthes her to all the other pastry shops in town, saying she’s an irresponsible employee. A nanosecond later, he tells her that can’t leave until she pays him back. He does something horrible and tells her that she doesn’t have to pay him back. But as circumstances change, he flips and flops about the money. When Sam-Soon insists she will pay him back, he agrees.
To entice her into the relationship contract, he offers her $50,000 (so she can pay off her mother’s house and save it from foreclosure). In his own way, he’s as bad as Sam-Soon’s ex.
He doesn’t want her, but he doesn’t want any other man to date her, either. In the world of pickup artists, he would be negging her. Even as he does this, Jin-Heon reminds her that he has no interest in her. I found it incredibly disrespectful and manipulative when he deliberately sabotaged her dates with a very nice man who liked her just the way she was. The writers clearly intended it to be romantic - his way of showing his affection for her - but it came off as controlling. So when he starts to have some romantic feelings towards Sam-Soon and says things like, “ Don’t look at other men” or “ Don’t talk to other men,” it was gross. But Jin-Heon is supposed to be a good guy. Her ex-boyfriend is written to be a creep, so his possessiveness fits the asshole-ness of his character. During their more tender moments, Sam-Soon and Jin-Heon rather sweet together.īut there are so many control issues that I wanted Sam-Soon to just live, without listening to everyone who was pressuring her to marry. There are some enjoyable elements in this series. Aside from Daniel Henney, who played a Korean-American doctor, most of the men had unfortunate haircuts. I didn’t expect the production value to be as impressive as Hyun Bin’s most recent series, “ Memories of the Alhambra.” But I think it was the men’s hairstyles that had me chortling. Like “ Boys Over Flowers,” “My Lovely Sam-Soon” (also known as “My Name is Kim Sam-Soon”) looks and feels very dated. It’s the perfect lie, he says, because they’ll never become a real couple, since he’s repulsed by her appearance and she finds him to be a spoiled dilettante. And to get his mother off his back, he convinces Sam-Soon to sign a relationship contract, where they will pretend to be dating. We all know what’s going to happen next, right? Jin-Heon hires Sam-Soon to become his pastry chef.
He is constantly berated by his chaebol mother for not yet being married (even though he’s only in his mid-20s) and for refusing to work at her hotel empire. He is a restaurateur who hasn’t gotten over her, despite his claims otherwise. She wants to change her name to Kim Hee-Jin.Ĭoincidentally, Hee-Jin is the name of Hyun Jin-Heon’s long-lost girlfriend. She falls apart and places part of the blame on (of all things) her name, which she hates. Her life goes into turmoil when she discovers that her long-time boyfriend has cheated on her throughout their relationship. Overweight by Korea’s standards (actress Kim Sun-Ah famously gained 15 pounds in an attempt to appear fat), Kim Sam-Soon is a 29-year-old baker. ↑ Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.