Soulmate

Get ready for a big-ass review on the drama Soulmate. I’m not sure if I can even collect my feelings on this drama to write a cohesive review so I’m going to do something different and put all my thoughts into subheadings and write this review more as a spur of points rather than my usual calculated paragraphs.

Okay, Soulmate is an MBC “sitcom” made by director No Do Chul known for his previous sitcom “Hello Franceska” (which is also damn good) but rather than focusing on family issues this sitcom focuses on love and the “dating game” between contemporary couples. The drama was only 12* hours and a sequel named Soulmate 2 was planned but ultimately dropped probably due to the low ratings and lack of interest in the original series.

Get ready for a really TL;DR review

NOTES: This drama doesn’t have 12 episodes, I’d prefer to call it 12 hours because it really has 22 episodes because after episodes 1 and 2 the runtime for each episode was shortened to 30 minutes each alternating between the viewpoints of Soo Kyung and Dong Wook but they were compiled into one hour episodes for downloading. Just don’t mind about any of that if you don’t care/ get it because you’ll probably be too engrossed in the drama for it to matter anyway.

Main cast: Lee Soo Kyung, Shin Dong Wook, Sa Gang, Choi Phillip, Otani Ryohei, Jang Mi ae, Jung Hwan, Kim Mi Jin
Genre: romance, drama, comedy
Episodes: 22
Broadcast period: 2006-Mar-13 to 2006-Jun-05
RANDOM The series premiered on my birthday :D /RANDOM

Synopsis:
Soo Kyung has been with her boyfriend for 5 years and is determined that he is “the one” but after his sudden proposal on a train she feels conflicted rather than happy. Dong Wook is a playboy who believes that the one who loves less is always as an advantage and has perfected his moves in the game of love.

Two people who have never seen each other, and who live on the opposite sides of the world from each other live and love in their own way, but from some point on they start to move towards the same dream and feel the same physiological feelings. Two people who have met by fate in a world full of mixed up fates. Now, the most amazing things, which no one could have ever thought of, start to unfold between the two. (partly from d-wiki)

I also love polaroids (ahem ALEX)

My Thoughts
At first I was apprehensive about starting this drama because it was billed as a sitcom and even though Hello Franceska is indeed good my image of “sitcom” is still unbearable laugh tracks, one dimensional characters and forceful humour. You’ve probably already sensed me heading in this direction but Soulmate is far from any of those characteristics, Soulmate has a very engaging plot, fully fleshed out characters, some of the best humour in Kdrama (sitcom or not), and thankfully – NO laugh track. I can safely say that Soulmate has become one of my most favourite Kdramas ever, if not, it’s DEFINITELY in the top 3 depending on the street (random FOTC reference for the day).

I actually started watching Soulmate a few months ago and finished watching 8 episodes within a period of 1~2 weeks but put off watching the final 4 episodes because I’ve heard that the ending of this drama was crap but unlike the majority of people around I liked the ending. Also, episode 8 was kind of boring and killed half my love for the series only for it to be revived into full action after episodes 9 and 10 but more on that later.

CHARACTERS: Yes, I’m going through with the sub-heading idea for Soulmate, it’s much easier for me to express my muddled thoughts this way and it’ll most likely be easier for you to understand.

Ramble about characters from this point onwards!

Soo Kyung is an everyday woman who works at (I’m not sure myself) but a spell-check person for newspapers and has been with her boyfriend for five years. She believes that a successful relationship needs time to be nurtured but feels conflicted when he suddenly proposes. Despite the title of this drama she is not too keen on the idea of Soulmates and believes that they are just a concept people make up in an attempt to live more comfortably.

Dong Wook is a music coordinator and playboy who no-one dares to follow, he’s played his game for so long that he’s perfected it to a tee. While he doesn’t really “love” Yu Jin he’s content enough to date her for the moment that is until he is determined that he has actually found a love that makes his heart tremble – Soo Kyung.

Phillip is Soo Kyung’s five year boyfriend and fiancee, he really loves his girlfriend as is always thinking of her but one day he is targeted by his English teacher and starts falling for her calculated moves and finds his feelings for Soo Kyung faltering (DIE PHILLIP!).

Yu Jin is an innocent girl who has been raised up within a proper and rich family, she works with Soo Kyung and Mi Jin. She attends a matseon and the man that meets all her requirements is Dong Wook, at first she falls for his smooth moves but later on finds herself falling for him too (falling REAL hard) and is determined that he is her soulmate.

Min Ae is an English teacher and notorious playgirl able to string any guy on. She’s perfected all her techniques and with them she starts to date Ryohei, she also starts to find one of her students (Phillip) cute and also starts to work her moves on him.

Ryohei is a Japanese model and is best friends with Dong Wook and Jung Hwan. He meets Min Ae, instantly falls for her, Ryohei is understanding of Min Ae and her many boyfriends but he thinks that they are soulmates.

Mi Jin is Soo Kyung and Yu jin’s supervisor at work. She’s a woman who loves a vulgar man who won’t stop talking (like herself) and finds her perfect match in Jung Hwan whose feelings differ greatly from hers. What she lacks in looks she makes up for in commitment and eccentricity.

Jung Hwan is Ryo and Dong Wook’s best friend and by far the most unsuccessful in terms of meeting women due to his annoying and straight-forward personality. He like Soo Kyung but is later followed (and stalked) by Mi jin but hey, they end up together as well :D

They aren’t the main characters but I do have to mention my favourites Ju Hee and Ju Ho who are introduced in hour 8.

Ju Hee and Ju Ho – voted best looking couple in primary school

Ju Hee is Yu Jin and Min Ae’s childhood friend and is actually the creator of all the techniques and the dating diary that they use. She’s the original girl who Min Ae drew inspiration from and she’s like just as cool as Min Ae, a stupid character (unlike Min Ae) who only has good looks going for her but I found her so endearing and her final scene with Ryohei was awesome albeit a little corny. Still, she’s so fantalong (now if you watched Soulmate you’d get that joke wouldn’t you?). Then there’s Ju Ho, Soo Kyung’s brother who is narcistic, confident and “actor”. I love him mostly because pretty much all of his dialogue is taken from a drama and I recognised a few, particularly lines from MiSa and Il Mare. I still love his “Do you want to eat with me or do you want to kiss me, do you want to eat with me or do you want to sleep with me, do you want to eat with me or do you want to… die with me!?”

As mentioned before, despite the short length of the series the main characters are all well-developed and most of the characters are well acted. I say most because Ryohei can’t act at all, he’s stiff and has like one face but lols, his smile attack killed me too. By the end of this series I liked most if not all of the main and supporting cast and the only person I hate is Phillip but I guess everyone’s emotions are mutual in this department. Yes, I still want to punch his guts out, especially when he wanted to come back to Soo Kyung, what a spineless prick. Strangely though, I don’t hate Min Ae despite her being the one to seduce him, I really like her character – especially when she’s with Ryohei or Yu Jin + Ju Hee. So maybe Phillip is that character we’re supposed to hate and if that’s the cas, bravo to the producers.

As for the extended cast, most of them come off as over-exagerated especially in hour 12 when everyone finds out that Soo Kyung was the reason for Yu Jin and Dong Wook’s break-up, there’s effect but does EVERYONE in the building have to look at her, whisper, point fingers and proceed to stare at her again? And the whole deal with the ballerinas and Dong Wook was pretty annoying, especially that lady that could not dance OR act. Funny but unneccesary.

Phillip is an a–hole

STORYLINE: The theme of soulmates and finding your other half all seems a little too fairytale but once again I was proven wrong, Soulmate turns everyone into a romanticist again. Truthfully, I like these Soulmate stories like Il Mare or even Serendipity but I always find them a tad too superficial, ironically though, our soulmate couple don’t believe in “soulmates”, that is, until they meet (<3).

Around episode 8 things sort of lost the plot and introducing the new idea of Dong Wook reading Soo Kyung’s mind seemed like a gimmick to me but boy I was blown away by the excellence of episodes 9 and 10 and how well this “mind reading” was incorporated into the storyline.

By the time that the soulmates meet I really am convinced that they are soulmates because the stories each of them had were so perfect and fitted so well together. What I thought was a tiny bit unbelievable was both of them almost leaving behind everything to be together, as much as I would have liked it to happen I think the outcome of not meeting each other and letting fate decide another day if they were destined was much more believable. But I have to agree with the majority of people, while it was a good wrap-up of the series I didn’t like te corniness of the last hour. It was much more predictable and less like Soulmate was for the majority of its episodes. I mean they didn’t even bump into each other in Japan!!!! (fangirl rage will not be added, you won’t be spoiled)

kekeke, “YOU ALWAYS FORGET MY NAME WHEN YOU’RE DRUNK”

MUSIC: I think music is the area that I was most blown away by, honestly, I don’t know many dramas with a brilliant soundtrack but still, Soulmate is the pinnacle of music used in a good way. I used to think that Coffee Prince used music in the best possible way but it still has a lot to learn from this series. Director No has such a skillful ear for music so I guess it means that our resident music coordinator also has a knack for choosing the right tunes.

A very large selection of music, and I mean LARGE – like 10 songs per episode (minimum), ranging from english, korean, french and even japanese songs are used and not just as some flimsy back ground music either. These songs are used TO THE MAX, far from distracting the songs heighten the intensity of each of the scenes, I say this because I still get goosebumps listening to C’mon Through by Lasse Lindh, I still feel giddy listening to Play Our Love’s Theme Again by Toki Asako and I still get queasy feelings listening to Oh My Love by John Lennon. The only miniscule problem I have is that C’mon through was overused, I love that song but listening to it 30 seconds for 12 episodes is a little too much.

Head to dramabeans for a full list of the songs used in the drama, it’s honestly too much to list here

EDITING: Never have I seen a drama that plays around with flashbacks, dream sequences, foreshadowing and chronology like Soulmate does. I usually don’t care about editing but even for me, the editing used in Soulmate was much appreciated and you’d appreciate it too if you see it. Chronology is the huge plus for me, as you know the stories alternate between Dong Wook and Soo Kyung and they don’t actually MEET until like episode 8 but you’d never know how parallel their stories are if it wasn’t for the playful storytelling.

Episodes 01-07 were basically like this for their interaction

Meeting! Awesome scene yet again!

They’re soulmates I tell ya

AWESOME SCENES: Using all of the factors I’ve already rambled on about above I will tell you that Soulmate has some of the most heartwrenching, romantic and funny scenes ever, all in one series. The break up scene between Phillip and Soo Kyung was one I was waiting for so that she could go to Dong Wook but I would have never thought that I would cry that much (I cried bucketloads), it was seriously one of the most painful scenes in a drama ever. All those 30 second clips of our Soulmate couple leading up to their encounter gives me goosebumps and every single one is still prominent in my head. And you can’t possibly forget, Yu Jin and Dong Wook’s first night together, I’m not going to spoil anything. My favourite scene would have to be Mi Jin and Jung Hwan chasing each other though, gut-wrenching in a different way to the breakup scene but very enjoyable.

RAWRR – impending catfight!

COUPLES AND PAIRINGS: Yes, this warrants its own little section knowing me, kekeke, this series gave a kick to even a well seasoned (well, as I like to say) rom-com watcher like myself. There are so many possible pairings for this show and all of them are suprisingly likeable. In fact I like every single pairing (that came true or not) except for Phillip and Minae, not so that he coul go back to Soo Kyung but because Phillip should die a lonely old man, yes, he deserves no partner. I liked every pairing so much that I myself was conflicted between the pairings and the final outcome.

Best pairing? Our soulmates of course!

HUMOUR: And then when you don’t care about romance or music or editing or drama or magnificent scenes STILL watch this drama for some lol-inducing comedy. So Soulmate is successful as what it’s “meant” to be – a sitcom but really, dramas are more funny than sitcoms actually so let’s just call it a comedy drama. Every episode has it’s share of funny and it’s not just toilet humour either, it’s witty, fresh and ingenious humour that takes a bit of concentration but it’s well worth it! The subbers also did a good job of translation notes since Yu Jin literally speaks in puns sometimes.

It’s been compared to Sex and the City and that’s understandable, some of the humour is pretty adult and contains some sexual inuendo but it’s not really objectionable. There are no sex scenes nor real “intimate” scenes either, waking up after you-know-what and making out is all you’re going to get so if you’re mature enough to accept that this’d be fine for you.

ILU Mi Jin

Fangirl’s dream come true?

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Now that I’ve finished rambling I’ll just finish off quickly. Soulmate made me cry, laugh, roll around, gasp and sometimes all in one episode. Reccomended to EVERYONE, nobody should miss this gem of a series.

Final Judgment
10 out of 10, is it not obvious by the end of this really leangthy review, it’s not perfect but my list of strengths outweighs the list of weaknesses by a mile. How I wish that there was a second season, well it seems that there’s a little, little, little ounce of hope left so let’s be optimistic! MBC, you are doing yourselves a disservice by not making a second season. Soulmate is a very under-appreciated drama and it’s a shame because Soulmate is such a jem of a series, it’s kicks Full House, Goong and all those other dramas asses with ease.

Go watch Soulmate, RIGHT NOW. Have you watched it yet?

Thanks to soulmate!!