Spring Day

Spring Day

Pronounced:
bom-nal
Starring:
Go Hyeon-Jeong, Ji Jin-Hee, Jo In-Seong, Han Go-Eun
Directed by:
Kim Hong-Jae (What Happened in Bali; Teacher on Island Village)
Produced by:
Kim Jong-Hak (Age of Innocence; Sunlight Pouring)
Written by:
Kim Kyu-Wan (Piano; Tell Me You Love Me)
Dates Airing:
January 8, 2005 – March 13, 2005
Time Airing:
Saturdays & Sundays 9:45 PM (Korea)
Episodes:
20
Genre:
Melodrama
Official Website:
[Korean]
Related links:
Soompi Forum Thread
DVD available at YesAsia

Synopsis
Loosely based on the Japanese novel/drama ‘Heaven’s Coins’, the story of ‘Spring Day’ is about a pair of brothers fighting for the affection of one woman.
Go Hyeon-Jeong (Sand Glass), in her first acting role since her hiatus from the entertainment world 10 years ago, plays Jeong-Eun, who was abandoned by her parents and grew up under the care of a small town physician. Jeong-Eun spends her days without any goals. Although she is not mute, a traumatic event early on in life caused her to stop talking. As a teenager she was once given piano lessons by a visiting medical intern Go Eun-Ho (Ji Jin-Hee: Dae Jang Geum; Love Letter, etc), who is the son of a doctor.
Eun-Ho, now a doctor himself, appears bright and happy on the outside, but he is full of loneliness and longs for his mother. When he was still a child, Eun-Ho’s mother suddenly left and a new mother as well as a half-brother showed up. To please his father Eun-Ho became a doctor and spent a decade practicing medicine. Finally, he takes a break and leaves Seoul. On a mission to find his mother, he returns to the town where Jeong-Eun lives and almost immediately, he opens up Jeong-Eun’s heart to the point that she utters her first word in years.
Eun-Ho leaves to see his mother, promising Jeong-Eun that he will return; however Eun-Ho meets with an accident and wakes up with no memories. Jeong-Eun then goes to Seoul and tends to Eun-Ho. There at the hospital, she meets Eun-Ho’s half-brother Eun-Seop, played by Jo In-Seong (What happened in Bali, Shooting Star, etc.). Eun-Seop is supposed to be a medical prodigy and he works hard to please his father, but he is terrified of blood and suffers from various phobias. He is at first puzzled by Jeong-Eun, the woman from the countryside, but soon falls deeply in love with her.
Meanwhile Min-Jeong (Han Go-Eun: Lawyers; More Beautiful Than Flower, etc.), who grew up as Eun-Ho’s neighbor, returns after studying abroad and still finds herself in love with Eun-Ho, her childhood crush. The story gets more complicated as Eun-Ho awakes from his coma and with no memories of his life prior to the accident, he is no longer the same thoughtful Eun-Ho, but Jeong-Eun is determined to help him through this tough time even though she is slowly humored and touched by Eun-Seop’s childish and awkward attempts at declaring his love for her…

Review
I have very mixed feelings about this drama. On one hand I highly recommend it because there are some truly hilarious moments from Jo In-Seong, coupled with some very touching lines of redeeming love, forgiveness of oneself, and displays of complex nuances that define a sibling relationship within a highly dysfunctional family. However, I also found the pace of the drama extremely slow, to the point of utter boredom after the first 8 episodes. Though I admire Ji Jin-Hee greatly, his role as the noble-turned-lost-soul reminds me greatly of his role in ‘Love Letter’, which was just as boring.
I was at first impressed with Go Hyeon-Jeong’s screen presence after such a long absence from acting and like everyone else, I was glad to see her back. However, she is not a good fit as Jeong-Eun. First of all, she is too mature-looking to be playing someone younger than Eun-Ho. Second, she could really do without the ahjoomma (older woman) wardrobe. Her scenes opposite Eun-Seop remind me more of a mother-son relationship than potential lovers. And though I agree that she has a beautiful way of delivering her lines, she is over-dramatic and too careful in here.
Jo In-Seong’s character is too unreal to be taken seriously, but the actor is too charming and funny to ruin anything, and Eun-Seop’s comical ways actually add a lot to the otherwise mundane script. Han Go-Eun, who plays the third wheel in the Eun-Ho/Jeong-Eun relationship, doesn’t really offer much of a threat to anyone because all one notices is how bad her acting is compared to the rest of the cast. I have thus far only enjoyed her performance in the drama ‘More Beautiful Than Flower’ because she seems to stumble on her lines everywhere else. Overall, I would not recommend ‘Spring Day’ to people looking for a satisfying love story, but for fans of Jo In-Seong, I think it’s definitely worth checking out.
Rating:
7

Did You Know?
Go Hyeon-Jeong was Miss Korea in 1989. She became an instant favorite among audiences in the early 90s, especially with her starring role in ‘Sand Glass’, which was one of Korea’s best and most-viewed drama ever in history. When she retired from the entertainment world in 1995 after marrying into one of Korea’s top families (Sam Seong Group) and subsequently moving to America, she was often remembered as a legendary Korean beauty. When she finally returned to Korea after her divorce in 2003, many embraced her back immediately. ‘Spring Day’ became a top anticipated drama in recent times, with fans awaiting the return of their ‘Sand Glass’ beauty.

Credits:
Graphic by: phear.
Edited by: moogles