My Fair Lady (TV series)

For the 2009 drama series with Yoon Eun Hye, see My Fair Lady (2009 TV series).

My Fair Lady
Genre	Drama
Starring	Kim Hee-sun Sohn Chang-min Park Han-byul Koh Soo
Country of origin	South Korea
Language(s)	Korean
No. of episodes	16
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	SBS
Original run	August 13, 2003 – October 12, 2003
Chronology
Preceded by	Fairy and Swindler
Followed by	Punch
External links
Website

Korean name
Hangul	요조숙녀
Hanja	窈窕淑女
Revised Romanization	Yojo Sungnyeo
McCune–Reischauer	Yojo Sungnyǒ

My Fair Lady (요조숙녀), also known as Yojo Lady or The Perfect Girl, is a South Korean television drama produced and first broadcast by SBS in 2003. Yojo Lady has a total of 16 episodes in this series, and is a remake of the Japanese drama series Yamatonadeshiko (Fuji Television, 2000).^[1]

Synopsis

The show began with Min Kyung, a fresh high school graduate. She worked in a liquor restaurant to pay off her father's gambling debt. However, Min Kyung borrowed some money and ran away, hoping to find a rich man as her spouse.

Min Kyung was seen working as a stewardess at Korean Airlines three years later. She was known for being materialistic, especially for the men she chose. During this time, she frequently had blind dates with two or three men at a time, many of whom were her co-workers.

Min Kyung fell in love with Young Ho on one blind date. Min Kyung mistook Young Ho for a member of the Yacht Club, an association that only allows the richest people in South Korea to join.

Young Ho is the son of a poor family that made a living selling rice cakes, and worked to pay off debts left behind by his late stepfather. In the blind date Young Ho fell in love with Min Kyung, because she looked exactly like his dead girlfriend. Min Kyung later learnt about his background and returned to Dongku, her old boyfriend. Dongku made a wedding proposal during this interim.

In the course of time, Min Kyung realised that happiness does not necessarily come in money, and eventually returned to Young Ho. This results in jealousy and hatred in Dongku, who is unable to overcome feelings on seeing Min Kyung and Young Ho dating.

A jealous Dongku wanted to lay his hands on Young Ho upon learning that Young Ho wanted to be employed in his father's company (who was working as a boss with another partner). Dongku took his revenge by beating up Young Ho in a carpark, as an "agreement" to receive a job in the company. Young Ho later encountered more difficulties from Dongku before he worked as a low-profile worker upon attaining a job.

Dongku's father, whose partner is a co-boss of the electronics company, is the illegitimate father of Young Ho, so Young Ho was conceived out of wedlock. (The drama never showed Young Ho realised that the co-boss (Dongku's father's working partner) is his biological father.)

Young Ho's father observed his diligence and decided to give Young Ho a chance to prove his worth in comparison with Dongku. Young Ho's father announced that there would be a fair competition from the two men to prove their worth and decide the heir to the company.

As a rival of Young Ho, Dongku feared that his capability was inferior to that of Young Ho's. Furthermore, Dongku was jealous for having Min Kyung being engaged with Young Ho. To discredit Young Ho as best he could, he used unfair methods through forgery involving bank accounts, as a cover-up to deceive Young Ho's father.

Young Ho's father discovered the fraud done by Dongku and his father. He contacted Dongku's father, and condemned him. Young Ho's father also threatened to help Young Ho and proclaim him as heir unanimously if Dongku and his father continued with their unfair deeds.

That same night, Young Ho's father met Min Kyung's father. Dongku's father, who was drunk, knocked down the duo as they were talking to each other and crossing the road. Dongku was seen rushing and persuaded his father to escape while he called for an ambulance.

The duo were sent to the hospital. Young Ho's father was seriously injured and was in a coma. A respirator was used to assist with his respiration. Min Kyung's father sustained relatively lighter injuries.

Dongku used this opportunity to gain advantage over Young Ho in the competition to become the heir, with his father's help. Young Ho, on the other hand, was having a hard time struggling to compete against Dongku and his acts of sabotage.

Young Ho's father was seen waking up when Min Kyung came to visit him. He could not talk, but was conscious of the environment around him. Later, he instructed Min Kyung to lend Young Ho a helping hand by recruiting him into the company. Friends and relatives who later visited him thought that he was in a coma, but was in fact conscious. Later, he was sent away to a countryside villa to rest. As he was transported into the ambulance, he feigned a coma as Dongku was at his side. This was to allow him to surprise Dongku and his father when he struck at the last moment, and to expose their atrocities.

Young Ho's father was injured in the accident and subsequently used a wheelchair, needing Min Kyung's help for mobility during her occasional and secretive visits. During these visits, Young Ho's father would give instructions to Min Kyung on helping Young Ho. In one occasion, Min Kyung looked rather disappointed when she learnt that chances of Young Ho's father being able to walk again were very slim.

The day came when the heir of the company would be declared. Young Ho, who was working hard to put in his final efforts of the competition, felt hopeless as he foresaw the fact that Dongku's father would declare Dongku as heir. Young Ho's father, on the other hand, waited in his car for the opportunity to expose Dongku's father's atrocities.

Dongku's father was talking with his client over the phone when Young Ho's father walked in. Shocked, Dongku's father quickly hung up the phone, as Young Ho's father confidently talked about the events leading to the drunken accident. Young Ho's father showed a tape that recorded a conversation concerning the usage of fraud to discredit Young Ho. Using the hit-and-run accident as an excuse, he told Dongku's father to resign from the company at the heir declaration meeting, on the same day at six o'clock, or else his plot would be exposed and he would then be handed over to the police.

Young Ho was shocked when he saw his father at the meeting. Young Ho was declared to be the heir of the company and both Dongku and his father announced their resignations.

Young Ho instead wished to fulfill his long-time dream of becoming an astronomer and announced his intention of resigning as boss in order to become a full-time astronomer, after working for a few months. With the consent of his father, Young Ho took up astronomy at a space observation centre in Australia. He later married Min Kyung, and was seen swearing their wedding vows in front of a Christian priest.

Cast

• Kim Hee-sun - Ha Min Kyung
• Ko Soo - Shin Young Ho
• Park Han-byul - Su Yeon
• Son Chang-Min - Mun Dongku
• Kwon Hae-Hyo
• Shin Jeong-hwan
• Park Ju-mi
• Kim Jeong-nan
• Lee Soon-jae - Mun Dae-cha (Young-ho's illegitimate biological father)
• Seowoo Eunsook - Oh Nam Sook (Young Ho's mother)
• Yim Hyun-Sik - Ha Yeon-ku (Min Kyung's father)
• Jung Wook - Moon Dae Pyeong (Dong Kyu's's father)
• Jung Jae Soon - Baek Seol Hwa (Dong Kyu's mother)

References

1. ^ Dong-Hoo Lee Cultural Strategies of Remakes: The Case of Yojolady, 13th JAMCO Online International Symposium, 2004

External links

• SBS 드라마스페셜 요조숙녀 (Korean), official website
• Drama "My Fair Lady", SBS Global
• Cineseoul profile