Broadcast Period: January 4, 2012 to February 23, 2012
Screenwriter: Park Yeon Sun (also wrote White Christmas in
2011 and Four Gold Chasers in 2007)
Starring Lee Dong Woo and Lee Si Young
I started watching this only because I needed something to
fill the time in between new episodes of Rooftop Prince, but after the first
few deceivingly humorous episodes, I was hooked and decided to watch all the
way to the end. Well, the fun ended and soon it became apparent that this was
more of a mystery drama than anything else.
THE FACTS:
Dong Woo as Park Moo Yul. Moo Yul is a successful
professional baseball player for the Red Dreamers. He doesn’t have many friends
and trusts very few people. Being a celebrity Moo Yul is used to hate mail but
one day he receives a picture of himself, with his eyes scratched out. Strange
“accidents” being happening around him and it’s decided that he needs a body
guard.
Lee Si Young as Yoo Eun Jae. Eun Jae is a young woman who
works for a small personal security company. She lives with her father and
brother and they are all huge Blue Seagull fans. Of course, this means that
they hate the Red Dreamers, especially Moo Yul, the star player. After getting
caught on camera harassing Moo Yul, Eun Jae has to take the body guard position
to save her job and smother the rumors.
THE REVIEW:
Moo Yul is rich, handsome, and knows that he is the best
player on his team. He doesn’t have many people in his life that he can trust
except his long time friends Jin Dong Soo(played by Oh Man Suk) and his wife Oh
Soo Young (Played by Hwang Sun Hee).
Now, the story itself wasn’t bad, but since this show was
touted as a romantic comedy, I was really disappointed when the mystery and
misunderstandings smothered those two aspects.
At first there were some really great slap-stick moments
that had me giggling at my computer. Moo Yul and Eun Jae competitive and that
led to an ill-fitting red dress and jog that turned into a marathon, but that
was all in the first few episodes.
The Stalker was actually the best character of the drama.
Smart, inventive and unpredictable. This wasn’t your average stalking and that,
I think, is what really kept me watching. The Stalker didn’t go directly at Moo
Yul but came up with other ways to try and force him to either quit or be force
out of the professional baseball league. The way that The Stalker went about
harassing Moo Yul was really entertaining, I never really knew what was going
to happen next. Even with the subpar romance, I was pleased that Yeon Sun wrote
this invisible character so well.
I was going along with the show, praising it for it
originality and fresh ideas when Yeon Sun-sshi ruined it by using a cliché plot
device. Moo Yul’s ex-girlfriend, Kang Jong –Hee (played but SNSD’s Jessica)
pops up out of the blue. I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes when she
appeared on screen. I have to admit that I didn’t do any recon on this show
before I started watching. I just knew that Lee Dong Woo was starring and that
was enough for me to give the show a chance ^.^
The leads, of course, fall in love like any other rom-com,
but there was a lack of butterfly moments and toothache inducing speeches between
Dong Woo and Si Young. The writers seemed to forget about developing their
romance in favor of keeping us interested in what ploy the stalker was going to
use next. I could understand why they ended up liking each other but all the
same, my heart didn’t understand what my mind did. Maybe the chemistry was off,
because shows with much thinner story lines, left me feeling more satisfied at
the end than Wild Romance. It could be that Dong Woo and Si Young didn’t kiss
until the last episode AND it was awkward or, maybe it was because I stubbornly
wanted to see what I was expecting from this drama.
Okay, enough with the bad. There were plenty of things done
well within the show. The first was that Si Young portrays a trained body guard,
and in the instances where she did fight, the writers didn’t have Dong Woo come
running to her rescue because she could take care of herself. So, hooray for
girl power! The second is the show pushed some boundaries with the interaction
between Dong Woo and Si Young that made me believe the ‘Wild’ part of the
title. Lastly, something could be said in favor of a drama that's not syrupy sweet, I just won't be the one to say it.
There were two secondary couples to this show which was new
as well. The first was already married and the second was, in KDrama fashion,
brought together through their interaction and concern for the main couple. The
second couple was cutely inept at relationships, especially with the opposite
sex. They provided the cute moments when the times got tough for Dong Woo and
Si Young. Their nerdy attempts at love and the emotional manipulations of the
stalker made this show worth watching after episode 6 or so. Those things are
what made me keep watching even when the funny was gone and the romance was
sparse.
Some of the devices used were cliché such as an old lover
showing up to show our leads what they really mean to each other, but overall
the show was done rather well. I would recommend watching this just for the
envelope pushing alone. As long as you don’t mind some Romance Lite this was an
enjoyable show.
Out of five hearts I give this show a solid 3. I won't watch it again, but it was good for what is was.
Starring : Ken Theeradeth Wonpuapan as Ran
