Discovery of Romance (Love): Of men…and bunnies

And why are men and bunnies similiar? Both are ridiculously cute in Discovery. (heh) It’s only 2eps, and I’ve totally fallen for Eric‘s smoldering gazes — Jung Yu-mi must have resolves of steel to withstand them! And of course, the super duper cute Netherlands dwarf bunny…awwwrrr. People says women are attracted to guys with dogs; well, what about guys with bunnies that can fit into their coat pockets?

Main cast:

• Eric Moon (from Spy Myung-wol) as Kang Tae-ha. Chaebol of a construction company, previous boyfriend’s of Yoo-reum. He still loves her after the breakup, and doesn’t hesistate to tell her in her face that he misses her and wants her back when they reunite years later. (swoons) Unfortunately, his ex doesn’t seem to reciprocate the feelings.
• Jung Yu-mi (from Reply 1994 – cameo role) as Han Yoo-reum. Tae-ha’s ex, and she dumps him in the past cos she feels shortchanged in their relationship. (Though in a flashback, she pleaded with him to take her back right after the breakup) Post-breakup, Yoo-reum thinks she has found the “key” to a “successful relationship” — by always maintaining control over the guy. So that’s what she does with her current boyfriend, Ha-jin. She does artisan carpentry with her bestie, Sol.
• Sung-joon (from I Need Romance 3) as Nam Ha-jin. Yoo-reum’s current boyfriend and a plastic surgeon. It was love at first sight for him when he first met Yoo-reum in a group date. In their relationship, Yoo-reum obviously twirls him around her little finger. However, Ha-jin seems to have a secret that is related to a girl with a scar on her arm — which he finally finds.
• Yoon Jin-yi (from Gentleman’s Dignity) as Ahn Ah-rim. A regular juice delivery girl to Ha-jin’s clinic, she is the mysterious girl-with-arm-scar which Ha-jin has been searching high and low for.
• Yoon Hyun-min (from Witch’s Romance) as Do Joon-ho. Yoo-reum’s housemate, together with Sol. He is also Ha-jin’s colleague and another fellow surgeon in the clinic.
• Kim Seul-gil (from Flower Boy Next Door) as Yoon-sol. Yoo-reum’s bestie + housemate. She is also the co-owner of their artisan carpentry business Summer and Pine (derived from their names). (i find it a really beautiful image) Anyway, Sol is constantly failing (miserably) in relationships. I bet she will end up with Joon-ho (who probably already likes her, though he refuses to admit it).

Synopsis:

Again, Dramabeans has the full recaps.

We open to interviews with our 2 leads, Yoo-reum and Tae-ha, where they describe how they feel about relationships in general and their past together. Tae-ha obviously still remembers Yoo-reum fondly…but his ex girlfriend shudders when she thinks of him. The scene then cuts from Yoo-reum’s bad memories of Tae-ha to sweeter memories of how she met Ha-jin, and their first kiss together after their first group date. (yeah, they are on 10x ff speed)

Back to the present, Ha-jin is preparing to propose to Yoo-reum on her birthday…but he muz first attend the last of the blind dates his mum set up for him — a condition she insists if he wants to settle down with Yoo-reum. Yoo-reum gets to know about the blind date and rushes to the hotel to confront Ha-jin. In her haste to sneak up to Ha-jin’s table to spy on his conversation, she plonks herself down opposite her ex without realisation. Tae-ha gets a shock too when he sees Yoo-reum sitting opposite, but he recovers from it and plays along, “acting” the role of a jilted boyfriend when Yoo-reum tries (too late) to hide her yelp of disovery at Tae-ha’s existance. However, since both of them are directly behind Ha-jin, the stalkee knows he has been followed by his stalker girlfriend. 😛 In her haste to leave, Yoo-reum accidentally swops phones with Tae-ha.

Tae-ha makes arrangements to return phones the following evening, but Yoo-reum gets herself dead drunk prior to the meetup. Cos earlier in the day, she meets with Ha-jin’s mother to confront her about the blind date setup…and gets nagged at to wed Ha-jin already. Yoo-reum wants to, but she is totally penniless…and prefers to get her carpentry business on track first before she marries Ha-jin. Thus, the drinking binge. Anyway, she picks up a bunny in her drunken state (i’m dead serious…cute bunny was juz hopping around at the place where Yoo-reum throws up), and ends up in Tae-ha’s house…cos she needs to use the loo. (well, methinks Tae-ha drives her to his house on purpose…i’m sure there are public loos) While bathing dirty fluffy white bunny, both she and Tae-ha ends up very wet…and Yoo-reum wakes up semi-naked in Tae-ha’s bed (with Tae-ha) the next day.

Yoo-reum’s scattered brain excuses get busted when Ha-jin calls the morning after to apologise for the blind date incident (plus, he wanna meet her to propose on her birthday). When he confronts Yoo-reum about where she has been the whole night, she shamefacedly admits that she has ended up sleeping at her ex’s house. However, when Ha-jin gets upset, Yoo-reum turns the table against him and huffs that he doesn’t trust her. And thus, she begins a week-long cold war against Ha-jin, returning his gifts, her couple ring, their photos…and using poor Joon-ho as the go-between. When she knows that Ha-jin is more or less broken down enough, she turns up at his house and cleans up his depression induced mess as a makeup gesture.

Meanwhile, Tae-ha still can’t forget Yoo-reum and we get some flashback to when they were happy together. They met on a train to Jinju and fell in love at first sight. They spent 3 happy years together…but fought for the next 2 years cos Tae-ha was then struggling in his family’s construction business, choosing to work from bottoms-up instead of juz taking over as Management. Yoo-reum, however, felt neglected…and felt that Tae-ha only wanted her for the sex. They broke up on the same train ride to Jinju after a 5-year relationship.

And since Tae-ha can’t approach Yoo-reum without a good excuse, he decides to use her fledging (and flagging) company to design the woodworks for a new bar he is building. Sol is ecstatic about the huge business…but Yoo-reum, not so.

Review

I’d watch Discovery juz for Eric. (=^^=) (rawr)

Though even if he isn’t there, there’s so much other good things going on in the show. Firstly, the presentation. Yeah, we are used to the usual flashbacks, flash-forwards…but having a series of candid interviews with an unseen interviewer throughout a show is something new. Or at least, I haven’t seen it before. And not only are the interviews limited to Yoo-reum/Tae-ha, but everyone gets their fair share of spotlight…even the man on the street. Thanks to this refreshing mode of delivery, Discovery has a quasi-documentary feel to it. We get to see how the two (or three, if you count the second male lead) important players in show feel about romance, relationships; and then we have the views of people related to them — their mutual friends, Sol and Joon-ho. And also how the general public see modern relationships — there’s a street poll kinda interview with a cab driver, who gives his opinions on how the “younger generation” cheapens the ideas of love and sex; only to have his daughter saunter past him out of a love motel with her boyfriend. (teehee)

Secondly, I love the characters. True to any romcoms, we have characters that are quirky and bordering on eccentric at times. Yoo-reum, although she claims to have “matured”, remains the girl she was a decade ago. She is still impulsive, feisty, and has a tendency to jump (sometimes) to the wrong conclusions. Tae-ha too, hasn’t changed. The qualities that Yoo-reum dislikes in the later half of her ex-relationship, are the same qualities which she fell in love with. Mainly, Tae-ha is rock solid steadfast (and i’m not referring to his bod, btw…). He reminds me a little of geeky Cha Jung-woo in Cunning Single Lady. Both tend to be a little tunnelled vision when it comes to work AND relationship, and are unable to multi-task/ juggle love with work at the same time. Thus, I fully sympathise with Yoo-reum when she claims to feel left out…but I can also understand how guys like Tae-ha/Jung-woo operate. When they commit, it’s usually 200%; meaning no time for anything else. On the other hand, Ha-jin (and Joon-ho) are the modern new age guys — both possess the ability to empathise closely with women (a good trait as plastic surgeons), both have a knack to immediately suss out what Yoo-reum wants but doesn’t say.

Lastly, I like that Discovery doesn’t dawdle on its storyline. Already in 2eps, we are given the main couple’s history — how they met, fell in love and subsequently broke up. This is so unlike another similar airing show, Secret Hotel, which also deals with re-unification of ex-es. The latter is sooo… measly in giving out information (not sure whether it has to do with its “mystery” theme, but it’s annoying). In addition, right up in ep1 of Discovery, we are told upfront that the ex-boyfriend still likes Yoo-reum, and will not stop at anything to win her back. The new boyfriend too, is not one to sit on his arse and watch. He has the intention to propose to Yoo-reum, and will speed up in ep3 once he senses the Tae-ha threat looming in the near horizon. At least the ball is clearly in Yoo-reum’s court and we are in the thick of action. Thus, no need to wiffle-waffle waiting around for somebody, anybody to DO something and get the ball rolling. (again, totally unlike Secret…where the main couple are still suppressing their feelings towards each other. *yawns*)