I’m pretty sure that this show was made specifically so older, married ladies like myself can feel reassured that even if their life (and marriage) completely goes to crap, they still have a chance of landing the popular, handsome, younger guy. However, I still had a lot of fun watching it, so I guess I should just applaud how well they gauged their target audience and try to look the other way. I actually started watching this show because I was looking for something else with Choi Si Won in it after King of Dramas. He had so many laugh-out-loud scenes in that series that I was curious if his other work was like that too. Apparently yes.
Choi Si Won plays Sung Min Woo, an over-the-top, hammy actor that keeps getting cast even though he’s really bad, because his fans only care about how his kiss-scenes look. He contends that he doesn’t actually have time to work on his lines, because his manager keeps setting up so many fan meetings. His manager contends that without the fans, no director would waste their time trying to get him to look good, because his acting is horrible. Either way, judging by the screaming fan girls wherever he goes, right now Min Woo doesn’t have much to worry about.
Chae Rim plays Yoon Gae Hwa, an unemployed single mother who’s trying to get extra work as a house keeper. Her last employer didn’t actually pay her for her work, and she had to beg her ex-husband to take their daughter back for a while, because she couldn’t pay rent. She desperately wants any kind of work, and promises a housekeeping agency she’s happy to take their tough jobs or problem clients– whatever they can send her. They give her a no-questions, hush-hush upscale private client who wants absolute discretion and privacy. The agency told her no one would be there while she’s cleaning, but Min Woo comes home early, surprising her. She thinks he’s an intruder, and beats him up with the vacuum attachment.
Once he’s finally convinced her he lives there, she scorches the shirt he’s supposed to wear to a fan meeting because she’s interrupted by an urgent call from her daughter. Min Woo’s manager finds out, and she’s pretty much immediately fired. Not daunted, she goes to a new interview for interning at a production company. She lets slip that she’s met Min Woo, and the director tells her if she can bring him in as the lead for their new musical, they’ll give her a job. She needs the work, but sadly she has as much chance of convincing him to star in the musical as she does at getting her old apartment back.
She’s stubbornly staking out Min Woo’s apartment (trying to decide how she can convince him) when he gets a small child dropped on him by an ex-girlfriend, along with a note claiming it’s his. By the time he realizes what’s happened, his ex has completely disappeared. He has no idea what to do with such a small girl-child– totally not one of his areas of expertise–and whether the kid is actually his or not, if the media gets wind of this, he’ll be in scandal-city. Since his attempt to anonymously turn the child into the police as lost totally fails, he ends up needing someone to take care of her without alerting the press. Gae Hwa half-blackmails him, half-helps him out, and she & Min Woo strike up an unlikely partnership. She’ll babysit the little girl while they look for his ex, and he’ll cooperate with the production company about the musical, so she can finally get a job and make some money to get her own daughter back.
A feel-good family show at heart, this series starts with the two main characters completely isolated, and then slowly transitions into what it means to have people around you to rely on for help and support. It also shows how when Min Woo allows himself to care for those around him, he slowly starts to grow up and become a better, more centered, person himself. Gae Hwa in contrast, let her first husband completely dominate her life, and slowly learns to take control of her own life for herself and her daughter–and Min Woo’s daughter too. Even if that means bullying Min Woo around a bit sometimes.
This show completely embraces the idea of “A Comedy of Errors” which means it’s often slapstickey and cheesey, but at the same time, it’s a very uplifting and family-affirming show. The writers have also found tons places for Choi Si Won eye-candy moments as well; they find all kinds of reasons in this show for him to take his shirt off. Those looking for fanservice will not be disappointed. All in all, this show makes no excuses for being a silly, comedic romp, targeted toward the older female audience, but also catching the younger female audience by flashing lots of Choi Si Won’s skin. Even when I saw exactly what they were doing, I couldn’t be offended because the show is outrageously funny. And lets face it, Choi Si Won is just down-right charismatic. Totally worth the watch, even though it is firmly, unabashedly in the guilty-pleasure, fluff category.
Please support the Korean cast and crew by watching Oh! My Lady at official sites. You can find it here:
Oh! My Lady aired in Korea on SBS.
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