High Kick!

Infobox Television
show_name = High Kick!


caption = The cast of High Kick!
genre = Situation comedy
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runtime = 30 minutes
creator = Chorokbaem Media
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producer = Kim Byeong-ook
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starring = Lee Soon-jae
Nah Moon-hee
Jeong Jun-ha
Lee Min-yong
Park Hae-mi
Shin Ji
Kim Hye-seong
Jeong Il-woo
Seo Min-Jeong
Kim Bum
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country = KOR
location =
language = Korean
network = MBC
first_aired = November 6, 2006
last_aired = July 13, 2007
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website = http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/ent/highkick/
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"High Kick!" ( _ko. 거침없이 하이킥; "Geochimeopsi Haikik / Kŏch'imŏpsi Haik'ik", literal translation "High Kick without Hesitation", "Unstoppable High Kick", or "Smooth High Kick") is a popular South Korean situation comedy revolving around the life of the Lee family, taking place in Seoul of the same time as the broadcast (Winter, 2006 - Summer, 2007). The title of the show "High Kick!" has several implications, one of which is the oft-depicted high kicks of Yoon-ho, one of the main characters. It was aired in South Korea from Monday to Friday. Due to its popularity, the show filmed more episodes than was planned. Many of the characters starred in commercials and advertisements in Korea.

Major Characters

Most characters use the actor's real name (with the exception of surnames).;Lee Soon-jae ( _ko. 이순재, Lee Soon-jae): The head of the Lee family, he works alongside his daughter-in-law at his Korean medicine hospital. Being the oldest in the family, he can be harsh and strict to his family members, and thinks only for himself. He always kicks or hits them; typical scenes are those in which he hits them in the head with a spoon during meals or kicks his oldest son Joon-ha's bottom when he farts. In several episodes, he chases other family members and even tries to hit them with a baseball bat. Due to this aggressive behavior, Soon-jae is often seen as the dictator of the Lee household and no one opposes what he says. In some episodes, other members complain in front of him, but always without success. He falls in love with another woman but she moves to the US. He sends a letter to her, but misidentifies the address so it is sent to an African-American who apparently lived next door. He is obsessed with porn videos, and becomes nicknamed as "Porn Soon-jae" ( _ko. 야동 순재). In episode 20, his family catches him watching porn, after which he runs away from home and wanders around the entire country for a week. At the end of the show, he resigns his hospital and leaves everything to be handled by Hae-mi (Episode 164). According to the last episode (Episode 167), which features the sequel of the main episodes from the point where a year has passed, after his resignation he visits Africa for medical support against his own will, and then after his returen home he successively sleeps for 2 whole weeks, even in the last scene of the show.;Nah Moon-hee ( _ko. 나문희, Nah Moon-hee): Soon-jae's wife, she is incredibly strong and has an enormous appetite, which she passes on to Joon-ha. Despite her age, she does all of the cooking and cleaning, and looks after Joon (Min-yong's baby). Since Soon-jae and Hae-Mi often berate and insult her, she often has daydreams of them suffering. Like Min-Yong, she is annoyed by Hae-mi, and would do anything to embarrass her. She is a bit greedy and even merciless at times. Moon-hee is best friends with Gae-Sung Dek, and visits her often in prison.;Lee Joon-ha ( _ko. 이준하, Jeong Jun-ha): A son of Soon-jae and Mun-hee. A huge strong man with an enormous appetite, nicknamed as the "Lord of Eating". Laid off from the company he was working, he is spending his time at home as an unsuccessful investor and depends on the income of his wife, who is the leading doctor at his father's hospital. His effort to find a job constitutes some of the episodes, but most of the time he ends up losing it because of his incapability or bad luck. At home, he often appears sleeping with a loud snore, eating, or watching TV, and gets despised by his father. He has a big appitite and great strength, which are inherited from his mother and enjoy big meals by themselves. Soon Jae calls Mun-hee and Jun-ha as "The Fatty Mother and Son" (뚱땡이 모자).He also has a bad habit of making loud farts all the time. Always runs away from Soon-jae if in deep trouble. Though he does not have much authority among the family, he deeply loves his wife and often becomes the only one to understand his son Yoon-ho's feelings. Later he goes back to work in a consulting firm with a high successes this time. Yet, he still remains the rather lazy father at home. In some episodes, drunk Joon-ha behaves like an unstoppable beast, yelling for food, and in general no one but Hea-mi can control him in such state. Soon-jae calls Joon-ha in several nicknames: Hulk, King Kong, animal, pig, boar, bear, gorilla and monster . These nicknames are bases on Joon-ha's characterastics such as laziness, stupidity, great strengh and appitite.;Lee Min-yong ( _ko. 이민용, Choi Min-yong): A late-born son of Soon-jae and Mun-hee, and works as a P. E. teacher at an high-school where his nephews attend. Min-yong is the opposite of Joon-ha in many terms. Min-yong is a slim man with straight hair, less lazy, more handsome, and has a job, but has the nasty attitude of Soon-jae, while Joon-ha is more like Mun-hee; a plump man with curly hair, very lazy, dumb looking, overweighed, and does not have a job, but not nasty like Min-yong. Came back to his parents house after a short-lived marriage with Shin Ji, he lives in a remodeled storeroom in the upstairs, which is connected with the main house with a firemen's pole. Though Min-yong can be kind, at school he is unpopular with students for his strict disciplines; normally shown with him giving physical punishment like Soon-jae and carrying a club with him all the time. Min-yong gets in many silly quarrels with Hae-mi and would do anything to embarrass her in public. Though divorced, he cannot completely break up with Shin Ji because of their baby and the lingering feelings for each other. Min-yong dates Seo Min-jeong, a fellow school teacher, but his close relationship with the ex-wife hurts her. Later Shin Ji tries to accept that Min-yong loves Min-jeong when the two engage to get married. In one episode showing the family in 10 years later, 2017, Min-yong appeared calling his wife but the figure of the wife was not made clear (Episode 119). He becomes the first one to find dead body of Kang Yoo-mi's father outside her house (Episode 131). Later on, he and Min-Jeong breaks off because of Shinji's lingering love for Min-yong and Min-Jeong's opposing family. At the end of the show, Min-yong and Shinji seem to have gotten closer. ;Park Hae-mi ( _ko. 박해미, Park Hae-mi) :The wife of Lee Joon-ha. A doctor that works with Lee Soon-jae. Hae-mi was in love with another man before her marriage. Accepting Joon-ha's proposal was to rival the lover who had dumped her, which Joon-ha finds out in one of the episodes. She gave financial support to Soon-jae's hospital when it was near the brink of closing down, and much more popular than Soon-jae as a doctor. She loves opera and singing and known for her catch phrase, "Okay!". Often relied on for her good advice, but Min-yong and Mun-hee are very annoyed by them. She also does not approve of Shin Ji, and her battle against these three is one of the typical topics of the show. Affectionate mother but often seems to favor Min-ho over her younger son Yoon-ho. Yet sometimes her affection toward her younger son is shown as well, such as in the episode of the Mother's day (Episode 123) or the last episode, in which she becomes the only one supporting his idea of taking a year off from the high-school for traveling the country. She is also good friends with Kang Yoo-mi's mother but never seems to learn that she and her husband get killed in the hands of mobsters. A few episodes of Hae-mi being drunk are shown; in one of them Min-yong attempts to take pictures of her being drunk and release them to the public (Episode 98), and in another, Min-ho catches her dancing and singing with a strange witch-like voice and gets scared (Episode 148).;Lee Min-ho ( _ko. 이민호, Kim Hye-seong) :The eldest son of Lee Joon-ha and Park Hae-mi. Being very bright, but physically small and soft, he is often portrayed as a "mama's boy," and always quarreling with his younger brother Yoon-ho, who is in the same class at the school. An easy target to bully due to his weak appearance, while Yoon-ho would simply fight back no matter the odds. The contrast between the two brothers is one of the main themes of the show. At school he sits in the very front of the classroom along with Kim Bum, who has been best friends with him for a long time, and they embrace each other in a sign of friendship, which makes Yoon-ho think they are in gay love. The brothers can be in a collaborative relationship, however, such as when they manipulate Soon-jae's weak knowledge of electronics to get him to buy a new computer (Episode 25), or when they try to bring annoyed Mun-hee back home with his father (Episode 36; the "Sam-puja" [the three of the father and sons] parodying sentai genre even has its theme song, "Sam-puja song"). He also becomes the boyfriend of Kang Yoo-mi, but has to suffer many separations due to her mysterious disappearances, including their final farewell when she leaves them for good after killing the murderer of her parents (Episode 152). He also figures out Yoo-mi is 21 before she leaves, but says he doesn't care if she's 21 or not the brightest in her class. In the sequel broadcasted in the last episode, Min-ho spends the summer vacation at Jeju-do with his parents and Bum, and glimpses Yoo-mi there. This also becomes the last time he sees Bum before his departure to the US.;Lee Yoon-ho ( _ko. 이윤호, Jeong Il-woo) :The youngest son of Lee Joon-ha and Park Hae-mi. He is a tall, strong, and handsome boy known for his high kick. He also narrates the story of the show. He is also a motorcycle mania. He is very popular among the girls in his school, though his grade is low and he sometimes demonstrates his utter ignorance. As one episode disclosed, Yoon-ho was as bright as Min-ho in his childhood, but after riding on the back of motorcycle of a friend of Joon-ha's, he became completely absorbed in fighting and motorcycles; Joon-ha is blamed by Hae-mi for Yoon-ho's bad grades and delinquent behavior. As the odd one out in the family, Yoon-ho is often misunderstood and sometimes blamed for things he did not do. In school, Yoon-ho sits in the very back corner, dozing off or reading comic books. He is even seen missing out classes, often hanging out in the rooftop, sleeping or listening to music. But he has a secret crush on his teacher, Min-jeong, who is always trying to get him out of trouble, and often displays his kindness to her, which is in usual masked by his unfriendliness. When he learns Min-jeong and Min-yong are engaged, he pleads with her not to get married. In the last episode (Episode 167), he appears taking a year off from school and traveling on motrorcyle the whole country. In the very end of the show, he miraculously meets his teacher Min-jeong, who resigned the school and disappeared from Seoul without any greetings the year before. ;Shin Ji a. k. a. Shin Bong Hee ( _ko. 신지, Shin Ji) :The ex-wife of Lee Min-yong and the mother of Jun. Loves music, and is trying to get a job at a music industry, singing CF songs and taking auditions for musicals. She asked for a divorce from Min-yong, wishing to study abroad in Moscow, but came back to Korea in short time. Min-yong and her take turns in taking care of Jun, though Jun seems to be in the Lee household most of the time presumable due to Shin Ji's busy schedule. She still has feelings for her ex-husband and same as him, she hates Hae-mi as they both competed against each other since before her marriage. Roommate of Seo Min-jeong. It is revealed that Shin Ji was friends with Min-jeong since high school though things were different back then. Shin Ji had her two front teeth sticking out from her mouth like a rabbit and Min-jeong was just plain fat and ate more than normally. Shin Ji later went through an operation to rid of the horrid teeth. Her well-known phrase is "Sang you!" though it is supposed to be "thank you." She later decides to change her name to Shin Bong Yi after receiving public pressure from the police and many people as a police detective claimed that he and her are a couple in the Internet. Near the end of the show, she can not face the engagement of Min-yong and Min-jeong and decides to move to Russia again, but being in a miserable state ends up in a traffic accident. Min-yong separates with Min-jeong for bringing Shin Ji back. In the final episode relating the stories during the year after the main story, it is disclosed that Min-yong and Shin Ji is keeping a good relationship and he even proposed her again, but she refused saying she wants to wait till he truly loves her again.;Seo Min-jeong ( _ko. 서민정, Seo Min-jeong) :An English teacher at the high-school that Lee Min-yong teaches at, and the homeroom teacher of Min-ho, Yoon-ho, Bum, Chan Seong and Seung Hyun. She rented the apartment that Min-yong and Shin JI used to live in, and lives there with Shin Ji after her return from the short and unsuccessful attempt to study in Moscow. She always seems to end up with accidents mostly due to her clumsiness. She usually, trips, falls, or sometimes in one episode ran into a stopped car because she was offered a ride. She is very shy and if embarrassed she becomes very aggressive. She has no control over her students due to her natural friendliness and a helpless lack of discipline. She has a deep crush on Min-yong and the two become a couple, although Min-jeong is often hurt by Min-yong's lack of romance and his close, friendly relationship with his ex-wife. On episode 117, she described Min-yong as combination by the appreaance of Brad Pitt and the clothing style of Leonardo DiCaprio. Later Min-yong's love towards Min-jeong grows and they get engaged. Shin Ji asks Min-yong what he would do if Min-jeong's parents do not accept this wedding and he replies then they will marry on their own. Her parents object at first then accept. However, in the near end of the show, she and Min-yong decide to break up for the sake of Shin Ji, who still has clinging feelings for Min-yong. Following the break up, Min-jeong resigns the school much to Yoon-ho's sorrow and moves to the country to work in an all-girls middle school.;Kim Bum ( _ko. 김범, Kim Bum) :Lee Min-ho's best friend and appears staying at Lee's house all the time, even wishing to become the proper member of the family. The two boys are very close and care for each other. They are often embracing each other or riding a bike together like lovers. Usually, Yun-ho deosn't like them hanging out together and think they are acting like a married couple. Bum once has a huge crush on Yoo-mi, Min-ho's girlfriend, but later comes to despise her after finding out she was just making use of him. In another episode, Bum meets his match in the Lee household, Chan-seong, but later come to not care about it as both are frequent visitors. Bum does anything he wishes in the Lee household from eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with them, sleeping in anyone's room and even taking showers and bubble baths occasionally. He even goes as far as sleeping for a night or two. In one episode, it is disclosed that he has brought loads of his own stuff to the Lee's house, from videos to even his own clothes. Bum's house is rarely portrayed in the show, but according to Bum's mother, who also became a frequent visitor, their house is described as very quiet and boring as no-one actually talks or does very much. Bum also owns a puppy that he and Min-ho name 'Bum-min' but wanted to called it Min-bum. Soon-jae describes the dog as a 'shitty dog' after Bum asked if Bum-min could have his own house in the Lee household (Episode 132). According to the sequel, Bum moves away to the US in the summer of 2008, much to the Lee family's surprise as he was like a member of the family. Sadly, Mun-hee is the only one to say farewell to Bum as the other family members were either off work or away (Soon-jae working in Africa, Hae-mi busy with work at hospital, Yoon-ho away travelling around the country etc.);Kang Yoo-mi ( _ko. 강유미, Park Min-young) :Lee Min-ho's girlfriend. Very pretty but extremely poor at studies, always getting lowest scores at school. She is also secretly three years older than her schoolmates, but only Kim Bum and Lee Min-yong, her homeroom teacher who doesn't care about that so much, know it. She is usually seen being punished by Min-yong for her misbehavior such as combing her hair in class. She has lied to Min-ho many times about what talents she has, but they keep a good relationship. However, her natural ability as a runner was disclosed in one episode, while running away from Min-yong, and she represented the high-school at a running competition. Soon-jae always calls Yoo-mi, "Soo-mi" by mistake, which upsets her. Later in the show she has to escape the city as mobsters are on the way looking for her, and disappears from the screen. During the last several shows, she is once shown getting on a car at night, which explodes as soon as she turns the engine on, leading many watchers to think she died. However, at the last show, she is also shown luxuriously cruising on a yacht in Jeju-do.

Minor Characters

;Gaeseong-daek ( _ko. 개성댁, Lee Su-na) :Nah Mun-hee's best friend. Currently jailed in prison for murdering her sister. Escaped from prison and fled to Mun-hee's house many times but each time Soon-jae turned her in. Currently planning another escape to revenge Soon-jae. One time when she was sent back to prison after being caught by the police, she broke out again with a message written on the walls of her cell saying that she won't let him get away. ;Hwang Chan-seong ( _ko. 황찬성, Hwang Chan-seong) :A classmate of Min-ho and Yoon-ho. He was first friend of Yoon-ho's class rival, Seung-hyun, and conflicted with Yoon-ho, but in the later episodes, he gets saved by Yoon-ho from being beaten up by gang-like guys from a different school and decides to abandon his friend and one-sidedly be the best friend of Yoon-ho. Since then he comes over to the Lee household and well-favored by nearly everyone there for his talents in rapping and housework. Yoon-ho does not seem to think of him as a friend but Chan-seong never seems to care. In several episodes, either Yoon-ho or Min-ho "burrow" his stuff when he's around. In the later episodes, Chan-Seong dates Nurse Yoo, a staff member in Soon-jae's hospital, though does not know they are being stalked by another staff member, Park, who also has an obvious crush on Nurse Yoo but always makes a fool out of himself in front of her. In the last episode of the show, Chan-seong has become a leader of a boy band and a celebrity at a young age (the actual Hwang Chan-seong is a member of a boy band).;Yum Seung-hyun ( _ko. 염승현, Yum Seung-hyun) :Another classmate of Min-ho and Yoon-ho and the rival of Yoon-ho. In the later episodes, he even competes with Yoon-ho for Seo Min-jeong's attention. Could be considered a "gang-like" kid in their school due to his awful and show-off type attitude. He run away from a few kids from another school who were threatening to beat them up, leaving his friend Chan-seong alone, who was barely saved by Yoon-ho, and this made him lose the friendship of Chan-seong. He is last seen fainting from exhaustion from a punishment given by Min-yong for going to the cinema during school hours.;Jun ( _ko. 준, 고채민, Go Chae-Min) :Min-yong and Shin Ji's infant child. At the very beginning of the show, the grown-up Jun appears as an astronaut. Can be seen in nearly every episode in a few scenes but never does anything apart from sleeping or just crying. In one episode where Min-ho was supposed to look after Jun but gets distracted by Bum watching porn videos, Jun is seen missing and mysteriously ending up at Shin Ji's house. In a later episode, Joon-ha playfully asks Jun for help in which stock to buy. When Joon-ha finds out Jun was right, he consults Jun in which stock to buy every time. Later, Joon-ha realizes he was just overreacting for it was just a coincidence.;Na Hae-mi ( _ko. 나해미, Na Hye-mi) : A classmate of Yoo-mi, transferred from a different school in the later episodes (starting from Episode 116). She chases Yoon-ho around, publicly broadcasts herself as Yoon-ho's girlfriend, lies to him for drawing his attention, and deeply annoys him. Like Yoo-mi, she does not do very well at school. They have a very frosty relationship and even fight at school and the Lee's household. She too is last seen enduring a punishment with Seung-hyun at the end of the show, but refuses to go out with Seung-hyun when he asked her out before he fainted.;Nurse Yoo and Nurse Park:Two staff members who work at Soon-jae's hospital and act as his secretaries somewhat. Yoo is shown to be younger than Park and nothing much is portrayed about her except working at the reception desk. Her other side is revealed when she dates Chan-seong where she drives a flashy car, goes to night clubs and such. Park is a weak man due to his bad luck striking him all the time. He has a crush on Yoo but never shows it apart from Soon-jae, who tries to get Yoo to notice Park more but often leads to failure as he is either too nervous or untalented. According to the sequel Nurse Yoo quits the hospital and becomes a talent while Park is still there, his feelings clinging to her until his eyes fall on a woman who comes to take an interview for the post replacing Nurse Yoo. ;Yoo-mi's parents:Yoo-mi's father is largely portrayed as a somewhat mysterious man with a hidden agenda and never smiles plus always in a hurry while her mother is a cheerful and rather loud woman. The family suddenly prepares to move away to a unknown destination but comes back not knowing that they'd be hunted down again by a unknown gang. Yoo-mi's father eventually dies, apparently shot in the chest and found by Min-yong on one stormy night. The corpse however is nowhere to be found soon after. It is revealed that Yoo-mi's father worked as an agent for North Korea but changed sides, which led him to being hunted by his former comrades, who later killed him. They pretend to be the family's protectors after this, though thanks to Yoon-ho, Yoo-mi and Min-yong find out they came to kill her family. Despite this, they were too late to save Yoo-mi's mother who is then killed off-screen by the gang leader.

The Lee Club

The Lee club was founded by Soon-jae in the Episode 101 to straighten the order of the family. The men of the family have to wear a black uniform with the designated number on the back of their jumpers depending on the order during the weekends. For example, Soon-jae's uniform would have the huge number "1" on the back. The numbering system follows the order of age in principal. Soon-jae, being the oldest is Lee #1, Joon-ha being Lee #2 and so on (this does not apply to Bum, who is older than Yoon-ho). Every member of the club except Soon-jae and Bum hate having to wear the uniform during the whole weekend for they are laughing stock of their friends and public. Yet it seems difficult for them to refuse Soon-jae's order: One time, Min-yong rips his uniform on purpose but he gets threatened to be kicked out of the house if he does not mend it.

Gradually towards the ending of the show, the number of episodes related to the club decreased, but the members were occasionally seen wearing the uniform such as in the episode 157.

# Soon-jae (leader)
# Joon-ha
# Min-yong
# Min-ho
# Yoon-ho
# Kim Bum (becomes the member in Episode 106)

References

* [http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/ent/highkick/ _ko. MBC 일일시트콤 거침없이 하이킥] ko icon, iMBC.com. Last accessed 8, 14, 2007. All episodes are available (subscription required).
* [http://content.mbc.co.kr/english/drama/06/1670514_25448.html Drama "High Kick!"] , MBC - Global Media. Last accessed 7, 17, 2008. The plot and cast base on the settings at the beginning of the show and differ in many points from what it turned out to be.