Smile Again

Smile Again

Pronounced:
seu-ma-il-eo-ge-in
Starring:
Kim Hee-Seon (Sad Love Song; Perfect Lady), Lee Dong-Geon (Lovers in Paris, Sweet 18), Yoon Se-Ah (Lovers in Prague), Lee Jin-Wook (Alone in Love)
Directed by:
Hong Seong-Chang (Perfect Lady; New Human Market)
Produced by:
Kim Geon-Geun
Written by:
Yoon Seong-Hee (We Are Dating Now; Shooting Star; Magic)
Dates Airing:
May 17, 2006 – July 6, 2006
Time Airing:
Wednesday & Thursday 9:55 PM
Episodes:
16
Genre:
Romance
Official Website:
[Korean]
Related links:
Soompi Thread

Synopsis
Dan-Hee (Kim Hee-Seon) is a softball player who grew up without a mother, but she is strong and optimistic, as well as caring and loyal. She was once wounded by Ha-Jin (Lee Dong-Geon), who used her back when they were in high school. However, they meet again in their 20s and Ha-Jin tries to befriend her again, thus throwing Dan-Hee into another round of emotional turmoil. Meanwhile, in order to gain wealth and status, Ha-Jin strikes up a friendship with the rich Jae-Myeong (Lee Jin-Wook), who was a baseball star in high school but was forced to give up his dreams due to an injury.  However, Jae-Myeong turns out to be in love with Dan-Hee. To complicate matters, Yu-Kyeong (Yoon Se-Ah), who once blackmailed Ha-Jin, continues to use her desperate measures to hold on to him.

Review
The best and worst thing about this drama is the cast. Kim Hee-Seon is truly one of the most recognized and most admired faces in Korean entertainment and she looks absolutely flawless on screen. The rest of the cast, especially Lee Dong-Geon, are just beautiful to gaze at. But this isn’t exactly a magazine shoot and their acting shortcomings are hard to ignore, and evetually you might end up wondering if they have ever taken acting lessons.
Kim appears as if she’s wearing invisible earphones and merely reciting what she hears over the earpiece as she stares blankly ahead, moving her head and arms every now and then. Yoon, on the other hand, is overly dramatic and looks as if she’s trying to figure out if her character should be evil or good and by the end of the drama, that is still unclear.  The two male leads are dashing at first, but soon their charms disappear as well. Lee has shown acting potential in the past and hopefully this won’t typecast him as just another pretty face.
But I suppose we can’t blame it all on them, since the script is one of the messiest plots you’ll ever encounter.  At first it seems to be about softball, then it becomes an insider’s story on perfume making, but then it changes to a semi-murder mystery, and then it focuses on this real evil person but at the end it’s about a love story and a mother’s redemption? Watch it if you love to stare blankly at pretty people, but don’t expect the acting or the script to entertain you too much.
Rating:
5

Credits:
Edited by moogles
Graphic by: blank!