ALL ABOUT EVE

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Producer : Jin Suk Lee, Chul Soo Han / Writer : Ji Hyun Park, Soo Yeon Oh /
Starring : Dong Gun Jang, Chae Rim, Jae Suk Han, So Yeon Kim

Character Sketch

The story of two women, Sun Mi Jin (Chae Rim) and Young Mi Huh (So Yeon Kim), striving towards the goal of becoming a news broadcastor.
Dong Gun Jang plays the prince-like figure Hyung Chul Yoon that changes both women's lives...

Hyung Chul is a character with closed heart due to a painful childhood. His father married his mother for money and abandoned her for another woman. His mother, who truely loved his father, spent all her lifetime waiting for his father to return. He is the son of a broadcasting corporation owner, and upon finishing his studies at London, England, he returns to Korea to start his career as a chief of news broadcasting department -- his relationship with three other main characters develops here...

Sun Mi is a bright girl who brings smiles on everyone's face... except Young Mi who is out to destroy her with jealousy...
Sun Mi constantly gets into trouble and even loses her love due to Young Mi and her plots...
Even though she knows the "real" Young Mi, no one else does.. so she cannot defend herself when she is blamed or is put to trouble...
To the scarred Sun Mi, her "prince" appears... Hyung Chul who is always on her side no matter what...

Young Mi is an ambitious, jealous character who goes out of her way to get everything she wants.
She has had a dark childhood with a runaway mother and a drunk father -- early in life, she acquired the ability to do anything to get what she wanted. A character with twisted personality... But even to such a cold and cruel character, weakness exists -- Woo Jin's all-forgiving love from the beginning to the end touches on her guilt and morals...

Woo Jin (Jae Suk Han) is a "nice guy". He is pure and innocent -- thus initially falls for Young Mi's flirtations...
He only thinks of Sun Mi as a "sister", and so unintentionally hurts her by choosing Young Mi over her. Although he finds out the real character of Young Mi later on, he loves her inspite of that and tries to cure her wounds and evil-desires with love...

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Synopsis

Sun Mi meets Hyung Chul (who has been studying abroad for a few years) in London while studying English for a short time.
The two meet in a car accident, and become good friends during Sun Mi's short stay in London.
Sun Mi loves Woo Jin who has been like a brother since she was a child. However, Young Mi (So Yeon Kim) brutally takes away Sun Mi's love...
When Hyung Chul returns from London, he becomes like a guardian angel to Sun Mi, always being there for her at times of sadness and trouble...
Hyung Chul, who did not believe in love because of a sad childhood finds himself gradually falling in love with the bright and innocent Sun Mi who continues to face in the direction of Woo Jin.
One day, Hyung Chul becomes the chief director of the broadcasting department Sun Mi and Young Mi works in.
Originally Young Mi's goal was to become the Nation's Top News Broadcastor. Seeing Hyung Chul(the future owner of the company), and realizing Hyung Chul's love for Sun Mi, Young Mi's goal in life changes.
She is going to do anything to make Hyung Chul love her!
Although she loves Woo Jin, love is not worth much to her compared to living a successful and luxurious high-class life, and Hyung Chul's the one to give her the chance!
However, in spite of Young Mi's constant appeals to attract him, Hyung Chul remains faithful to Sun Mi's love...
Will Sun Mi truely come to accept Hyung Chul's love...? Will she finally stop the endless competition...?

[yeohlee06]

STORY

A comedic and romantic drama of two women, Jin Sun-Mi (Chae Rim) and Huh Young-Mi (Kim So Yeon) from different backgrounds who aspire to be successful news anchors at station MBS. Their different outlooks in life entwine in a competition for: love, men, career, and happiness. Ultimately, both realize that despite their antagonism, each has similarly admired the other for her strengths of beauty and intelligence as well as defects in character through shared life experiences in their studies and careers.

CHARACTERS

Jang Dong Gun: Yen Hyong-chul

Hyong-chul is a gentlemanly, intelligent, and emotionally cautious son of a failed marriage, which leaves him a scarred childhood of painful memories. Heir to MBS, he befriends Sun-Mi at London and subconsciously falls in love with her. Upon his return to Seoul as Director at MBS, their relationship developed further into true love where the experienced senior Hyong-chul mentored Sun-Mi to maturity.

Although a Prince-like figure of Hyong-chul’s stature with all the physical and mental qualities that a woman would wish for is considered unrealistic, the character’s personality and perspectives on love, friendship, and business acumen are by no means unattainable for a person experiencing firsthand the effects of his parent’s turmoil in a wealthy environment.

In a way, his comfort and understanding of Sun-Mi during her mishaps show the patient and caring side of Hyong-chul which is different from the capable and calculative person that Sun-Mi read in the magazine article at the hospital: Who is the real you? Jang Dong Gun’s portrayal of Hyong-chul is a tall and suave man a woman dreams of in life.

Chae Rim: Jin Sun-Mi

Sun-Mi grows up under a loving and supportive single father in a middle class neighborhood. She possesses a genuine innocence, charming smile, and easygoing personality which appeals to many. Her unrequited love for childhood friend, Woo-Jin produces much anguish and heartache; as well as causing breaks between her and Hyong-chul. What makes Sun-Mi so likable is that her trials and tribulations are instances that are not only humorous but also identify the weaknesses of her imperfections including not very sharp intellectually but quite sensitive and emotionally attractive. Chae Rim is a cute and lovable Sun-Mi who could cry so well, though at times the purity of her existence is questionable.

Han Jae Suk: Kim Woo-Jin

Woo-Jin is the son of a widow who works as a photographer alongside both his lover and friend, Young-Mi and Sun-Mi. His devotion to Young-Mi makes him give up much in his life for a woman who he knows is psychologically unbalanced, yet he remains by her side out of love. Woo-Jin borders on pathetically stabbed by Cupid too deep in the heart, as he is so blinded by love that he would not accept living a life without Young-Mi. He appears to have no capacity of clarity in mind to look at the situation between Young-Mi and him as over. Han Jae Suk played a fool well enough.

Kim So Yeon: Huh Young-Mi

From a gangster boyfriend to Woo-Jin to Hyong-chul, the quest for Young-Mi has always been to rid the haunting of a poor and sad childhood to strive for a better life at any cost, irrespective of the methods used to achieve her goals. Cold and ambitious, Young-Mi epitomizes the femme-fatale persona who utilizes her assets of brain and beauties to attract, manipulate, and immobilize her prey. Young-Mi often displays multifaceted countenances to complement her various schematic pretenses to achieve her goals, mostly on Sun-Mi out of jealousy. The underlying reason or excuse for her actions was that her abandonment at six by her mother with an abusive and alcoholic father left her an unhappy childhood.

To an extend, past experiences of an individual influence the character, personality, qualities, and perceptions that one may eventually adopt as a collective set of attributes which makes one whole. However, one could not point to a single episode or periodic event in a person’s life and use as a reflective explanation of justification for actions and behaviors which continuously off-put others and endanger lives: Young-Mi caused Ju-Hee to be in a car accident to get rid of her for the nine o’clock news spot. I would conclude that the composition of this individual’s nature is the explanation. Kim So Yeon is extremely convincing as a villain.

Park Chul: Kim Sun-Dal

Sun-Dal is a seasoned news anchor, and close friend and confidante of Hyong-chul. He has always loved Ju-Hee, whom he eventually married.

Kim Jung Eun: Yu Ju-Hee

Ju-Hee is a news anchor and grew up with Hyong-chul. They remain close friends and she likes him, but he chooses a friendship relationship with her, as Sun-Mi is his true love.

[yeohlee06]

OVERALL

The two couples Hyong-chul and Sun-Mi, Woo-Jin and Young-Mi have a common bond of being in non-traditional families where not both parents are present. The household or marriage is broken via death, divorce, or abandonment. They all grew up as a single child with her or his experiences from youth to adult influenced heavily by either a mother or father, but not both; except for Hyong-chul whose father’s infidelity and deceased mother’s absorption in love produced a son who does not like either’s attitude towards love, thus his resolution to marry someone whom he truly adores. It is an interesting touch that the family foundation is a focal point to bring out the characters to the audience, as non-nuclear families appear to be a norm in industrialist modern society.

As for the love which overshadows other aspects of the story, one could learn many things about love from this drama. The pace is slow for the first five episodes, thereafter it picks up. There are many romantic scenes between Hyong-chul and Sun-Mi with unforgettable dialogue. The music is also lively, upbeat, and appealing to listen. Recommended for first time viewers of Korean dramas and if you are the patient Shakespeare type, then you will probably like All About Eve (20-VCD version review).

There is known to be two versions of the All About Eve Korean TV series. The short one has 20 VCDs with cut scenes possibly to compensate for the very slow pace for foreign audiences and is the version of most Asian countries. One may find that the storyline does not weave as well due to the missing scenes, but the essence of the love story remains intact and you are freed from boredom.

;D

[ZaZa]

some pics from all about eve drama

[glow=red,2,300]sun mi and hyung chul[/glow]

[glow=red,2,300]young mi and woo jin[/glow]