Daemang @ Great Ambition

I've been hunting for this drama far and wide (even Singapore and Kuala Lumpur) for years....after my obsession with Jo Hyun Jae starts. Alas, the only set available then were without english subtitles... Yeah, at that stage I would even buy an original set which would cost me a lot like Jumong...haha but then last month chajatta! and I think it cost around $30-40 only....but I hesitate not because I don't wanna see it anymore but because I had so many dramas to watch!!!! and rewatching Family Outing and Running Man doesn't help reducing the number either...nor new interesting drama keeps airing every month to add to now three hard discs. But last week, while waiting for my mom 1 hour massage; roaming around the shops at The Mall, I couldn't resist anymore and had to buy it...

Oh yeah, you would think that with my obsession with Jo Hyun Jae, he would be the lead characters in this drama... haha no, he's just one of the supporting characters. My interest was piqued to watch this drama cause I read he attracts attention from this drama even in the few scenes he was in...with his good look and charismatics aura. Well, no wonder...he's the most good looking namja in this drama! (Sorry Jang Hyuk fans)...just like how Bae Soo Bin attract attention in Sea God, Jumong and Painter of The Wind.


Well anyway, the story starteed with a woman roaming the woods about to give birth and she stumbled upon a hunter. After she gave birth, he couldn't just leave her there, so he brought her to an abandoned village and there he helped her to get the house she had chosen in order. He's getting attached to her and the baby but she get another idea, she didn't want her son to be just another runaway-slave baby, so while he was hunting she brought her baby to the father, a successful merchant in the city. That bastard said to his wife he would deal with this problem and told her to go back to sleep but the kind wife said she's willing to raise the baby as her own -for she was barren - if the girl was to disappear for good. When she stepped out of the house - minus the baby - she confronted by the hunter who was hurt by her defection, tossed her her belongings and walked away....

Several years later, the child grew up to be Park Jae Young (Jang Hyuk) and as it turns out the merchant had secretly adopted another son beforehand Park Si Young (Han Jae Suk). Jae Young was a warm-hearted person and befriended many low-born commoners while Si Young is what we could in today's world a psychopath - someone without feelings and empathy. Anyway, Jae Young falls for Yoon Ye Jin (Lee Yo Won) since she tended to his broken arms when they were kids, not knowing at first that she's someone out of his reach, of noble-higher-class status.


When he ran away from home, abandoning even his own name after his greedy father and heartless brother manipulations that results to his friends death, his path crossed again with Choi Dong Hee (Son Ye Jin), a daughter of another merchant who masquerade as a man to move freely and through her prodding and her father wisdom, he finds a will to live again and get involved with other people. (I kinda predicted she would fall or him... but the way they end her story and him kinda left me unsatisfied. Haha I was hoping that Si Young got to married Ye Jin and Jae Young falls in love with Dong Hee too, but remain loyal to Ye Jin but in the end Ye Jin died and the living have to go on living right?) ANYWAY, through some chance encountered and these people Jae Young was involved with the politics and helps the handsome-can't-be-missed-Crown Prince (Jo Hyun Jae).

In that time, his brother also encountered Ye Jin and might be because of the cold shoulder she gave him, and she of higher class, he was intrigued by her and wants to possess her eventhough he knows she only loves Jae Young. Ye Jin knows about his 'illness' or lack of feelings and for Jae Young sake wants to cure him... haha! like how? even the modern medicine with all the available drugs cannot cure that kind of person methinks... Oka y maybe I'm a bit bias against Lee Yo Won, she's beautiful and all, but she's like a doll - so lifeless (that's why she so perfect as the zombie-Yi-Kyung in 49 Days).

Oh yeah young Jang Geun Suk whom I almost didn't recognize and Jo In Sung cameo in this drama too... I'm trying to rack up my brain though who/where I've seen Jae Young birth's mother before...


Now on my hunting list is The King and I, please...please...can someone subbed it....

Personal Taste

Park Gae In (Son Ye Jin) just got dumped by her boyfriend, HAN Chang Ryul (Kim Ji Suk) who's getting married to her backstabbing-mean-bitch-bestfriend/housemate Kim In Hee (Wang Ji Hye). As if she wasn't hurt enough, her other bestfriend not only try to take advantage of her when she was drunk but also mortgage her father's house for a loan (I don't really understand how they can legally do this when it's not their own property... is it really possible in ROK?)

With limited financial resources- her furniture design was not selling- she had to rent out one of the rooms in the house. And Jeon Jin Ho (Lee Min Ho) came knocking. Jin Ho was in a competitonal bid to design a big construction project and he learned that the project's owner would prefer Park Shul Han to be the designer but since he rejected halfway through the project...it's now open to bid. Park Chul Han is the mostly absent father of Gae In and it was told that the house she currently live in was an unfinished 'prototype' of the design of the art gallery. The house was 'forbidden' to outsiders (huh? I see people coming and going through the front door and some were not even invited in) so Jin Ho option to study the design of the house was by being a boarder. Gae In would not even entertain the idea of having a male housemate (she's very conservative) but because from her previous encounters with Jin Ho she assumed he was gay.... and that wrong assumption leads to several comical situation.

I do understand how Gae In could fall for the perfect but albeit cold Jin Ho, but why does he fall for her? yea...yeah I know... I always questioning why the hero fall for the heroine while it's easy to comprehend why the heroine fall for the hero (hell yeah, if I'm the observer could "fall" for him, then it's really logical that the heroine fall for him right? So is it because even though she was hurt before but she still hadn't install various protective software around her heart; she still so trusting, understanding and forgiving (Pbabo!).

Then there is other female characters; I don't understand how they chased after and cling to a guy whom they know are not into them. Their love alone is strong, big enough for the two of them? Puhleeez... I wish that Jin Ho would show more disgust to the calculative and manipulative In Hee rather than just giving her the cold shoulder... So as not breed more ambitious and materialistic bitches out there ^^

Do I like this drama? yeah...but I don't see the chemistry between the two leads (there's more chemistry for their two bestfriend, too bad Young Sun is already married). though the kissing scene was sizzling. Is it because it's Son Ye Jin that the kiss was not as chaste as usually were in kdramas? do I nomu-nomu like it and will rewatch anytime soon? Nah... for me a really good drama was when I would want to rewatch it someday and got me addicted to watch another drama ASAP.

p/s: I do like the feeling of the house; the privacy it gave but not really the open design...