Name: Personal Taste
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Starring:
Jeon Jin Ho
Architectural Design
Due to one lie his perfect life goes wrong making him Gae In’s roommate.
Hobies of tidying places and ironing, having a poker face for a
specialty. A character who can notice/tell a woman’s feelings combined
with having a polished image but rough personality
Park Gae In
Furniture Designer (Founder and CEO of the furniture brand “Moon”|Door )
One who has no steps and is constantly making mistakes and apologizing
as well as getting hurt due to love. However a character that is always
bright, determined through her actions and has an innocent spirit. park
Gae In dreams of having a gay friend who has the same past (relationship
problems) as her due to these painful relationship.
Han Chang Ryul
Architectural Design Office Chief
Gae In’s ex-boyfriend. One who doesn’t fall short in the aspect of
appearance, education (school), family background and wealth, having
nothing missing and a perfect holder of qualities. Work and love
conflicts with Jin Ho but also talking about the truth. A character you
cannot hate even if they are broken down.
Kim In Hee
Art Museum Curator
Having been Gae In ‘s friend for 10 years but a character that betrays
her friend for love and pusher herself to get married to Chang Ryul as
if she is the center of attention, with a snobby (materialistic)
personality.
First Thoughts:
When I first saw this drama would be airing I thought it could be one of two things, an offensive mess with stereotypes going left and right for the sake of comedy, or a smart drama that uses many of the Korean drama tropes but twists to create something a little different from the usual fair. I’m glad it was the second one.
Summary:
When a naive girl, Kai In meets Jin Ho on a bus, their encounter leads to instant dislike. After parting ways in hope of never seeing each other again, the two continue to run into each other. When Kai In gets the largest blow of her life (her best friend, In Hee, and her boyfriend, Chang Ryul, are getting married) she causes a scene and breaks up the wedding. Kai In is then left in trouble, she needs In Hee’s rent money in order to pay the mortgage she took on her father’s house Sang Go Jae. Jin Ho is not doing any better, his architectural firm keeps losing projects to Chang Ryul and he needs to land the next project in order to get out of debt.
When the next project is named with Sang Go Jae being the concept, Jin Ho rushes to get there only to find Kai In is the owner. Thinking he’s there to rent the room Kai In is uncertain, but her friend Young Sun convinces her to take the deposit since through some humorous previous encounter, she knows he’s gay.
My Thoughts:
What made this drama great was the acting, and not the trendy appearance. I walked away from this drama liking most of the characters and even characters that were somewhat one dimensional were played in such a way that they were easily enjoyable. After huge success with his drama” Boys Over Flowers" and "City Hunter", Lee Min Ho was smart to wait and pick a character that would be completely different compared to his past. Son Ye Jin as Kai In, while playing the usual naïve girl, was enjoyable to watch and while I’m nothing like Kai In for the most part I definitely felt she could win over female audiences in way that most female actors could not. Probably one of the few times where I really wanted to see more of the Super Rich Bitch, In Hee was actually a joy to watch and it was probably because she moved her face so subtlety to portray jealousy, fear, and hurt under her haughty exterior. Chang Ryul was probably the weak link of the quadrangle, but his back story gave him depth normally not afforded the second banana.
The plot started out slow, but quickly picked up pace as it moves on. There were plenty of AWW moments between the leads from him taking care of her through her menstrual cramps to her dressing up like a boy and pretending to be his boyfriend. The use of the gay plot line was helped by actually having a gay character that was smart and caring, and also in the fact that Jin Ho never changed his personality when he was accused of being gay. The plotline of the secret of Sang Go Jae at first seemed like extra but became essential later on and tied the entire story together in the end.
Overall:
This would be one of the best comedy romance drama that I have watched so far. The pacing was good filled with many memorable moments, but the dramatic elements were poignant and hit at the right moments throughout the series. When the show ended I didn’t want more and I didn’t want it to just end already so I could say I was finished. This drama is definitely a good watch for me.
There is, however, a catch. As you open the door to any floor you may
choose a man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go
back down except to exit the building.
