KDrama to MISS: Playful Kiss (2010)

Playful Kiss (2010) 

Grade: C (formerly A-)

16 Episodes

Clumsy, less than intelligent, yet warm and sweet high school girl Oh Ha Ni has a crush on the smart, arrogant, and cold Baek Seung Jo. An earthquake destroys her and her father's new house, and the father's childhood friend offers to take them in. That childhood friend is none other than Seung Jo's father! Ha Ni is now living at her crush's house. Will Ha Ni manage to win over Seung Jo with her consistent interference in his life and plucky determination? Or will another girl, who is basically the female version of Seung Jo - highly intelligent, athletic, driven to success - steal him away? How will Bong Joon Gu handle seeing Ha Ni - his crush of four years - throw herself at the seemingly indifferent Seung Jo again and again? And what will Seung Jo's mother have to say about all of it?

*UPDATE (12/13/2020): I cannot believe what I saw in this drama the first time around! Seung-jo is an egotistical nightmare, whose constant belittling of the blindly devoted Ha Ni sets them up for an extremely unhealthy, toxic, parent-child relationship dynamic. It's a pattern I've noticed in Japanese anime and manga, where the "benevolent" yet distant male lead patiently endures the female lead's clumsiness, stupidity, and overall obnoxious presence in exchange for her near-worship of his good looks, intellect, and general know-how. A GOOD kdrama will show character development and a softening of whoever was rough in the first place; that development, despite covering nearly 5 times the average "time span" which kdramas cover, was almost nonexistent in this show. There were a few cute moments, but it really dragged, and the unhealthy dynamic between the leads was too much to stomach. I even had "second male lead syndrome," which has only happened one other time in the dozens of kdramas I've watched! Do yourself a favor and skip this one.*

*Definitely one of my top 5 favorite dramas. It's a little annoying how Ha Ni keeps going back to Seung Jo despite all his verbal abuse, but the rest of the drama's quality makes up for it.*

Special note: There is an extra episode on YouTube as a series of 7 webisodes – type “Playful Kiss special edition,” also known as “Naughty Kiss.”