The Love Rectangle
Delightful Girl Choon Hyang is the first Korean Series Romantic Comedy by the amazing team of The Hong Sisters and was broadcast on the KBS channel in 2005.
The plot is loosely based on a Korean Folk Tale in which the faithful wife is forced to remarry a corrupt bureaucrat.
Two high schoolers, Mong Ryong and Choon Hyang, are forced to "marry" to save their family's reputations when they accidentally fall asleep together. The two barely tolerate each other at first, but over time, feelings grow. Byun Hak-Do, a rich, handsome and successful talent agent falls in love with Choon Hyang and blackmails her into leaving Mong Ryong. This results in a long separation for our couple. Will they ever find happiness?
The series contains examples of:
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Episode 13. Awwww.
- Bad Ass Bureaucrat: Mong Ryong describes himself as a "Prosecutor who fights". He spin-kicks in a double-breasted suit, and who doesn't love that!
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Mong Ryong and Chun Hyang, who when prodded to act lovey dovey to each other feel terribly uneasy about it ("It's so cheesy!")
- Cannot Spit It Out: Mong Ryong who, as a high schooler, never tells Choon Hyang that he loves her.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Mong Ryong, when Choon Hyang leaves him for Hak Do.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Averted. Choon Hyang abandons Hak Do while waiting for the plane to Japan to take off, and goes into hiding in Korea.
- Lampshade Hanging: A Hong sisters staple. After the Time Skip, Mong Ryong comments to Choon Hyang, "Boy, time flew by as if you were in some TV drama."
- Love Makes You Evil: Hak Do.
- Mobstacle Course: Happens a couple of times.
- Orbital Shot: Used several times in the series.
- Real Men Hate Affection: Mong Ryong and Ji Hyuk bond with a back tap, instead of a hug.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Throughout both time arcs, Mong Ryong almost always wears something pink. He's still manly.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self: Although the series doesn't specify the amount of time that passes during the Time Skip, Mong Ryong has metamorphosed from a high school delinquent into a District Attorney / Prosecutor in Seoul. Ji Hyuk, who lacked focus as a teen, is now a wildly successful actor / model. Choon Hyang is hiding in plain sight, creating distinct jewelry under her own name.
- Romantic False Lead: Hong Chae Rin.
- Roof Hopping: This happens during the 'saeguk' episode endings.
- Shout-Out:
- Episode 16, tearful moment on the beach, with the love theme from Winter Sonata in the background. Winter Sonata was a runaway hit in South Korea in 2000.
- In the same episode is a homage to Full House, a 2004 Korean Drama.
- Split Screen: Used frequently to show simultaneous events involving different characters.
- Terms of Endangerment: Hak Do becomes so obsessed with Choon Hyang that he threatens to destroy her true love unless she goes to him.
- Time Skip: "A Few Years Later" in Episode 14 catches us up with the character's lives.
- Tsundere: Chun Hyang is very dere to everyone but her husband, to whom she is almost invariably tsun.
- Wire Fu: During the 'saeguk' portions of the episodes.
- Woman Scorned: Hong Chae Rin, Mong Ryong's previous girlfriend, who rejected him but did an about-face when he started dating Choon Hyang.
