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A young man and his mother’s search for happiness leads them to Korea. Carl Laker (Ji Chang Wook), whose Korean name is Dong Hae, comes to Korea with his mother, Anna Laker (Do Ji Won), to compete in a short track speed skating competition as a representative of the United States. Anna is a Korean American adoptee who met a Korean man named James while he was studying in New York.
He promised to come back for Anna but never did and never knew that Anna became pregnant with his child. Anna also has the mental capacity of a 9-year-old, the result of a near drowning during a severe storm. When Carl came to Korea to compete, he also wanted to use the trip to see his Korean girlfriend, Sae Hwa (Park Jung Ah), whom he intended to marry, and to search for his birth father. But Sae Hwa tells Carl that she has no intention of marrying him because of his mother.
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When Anna wants to stay in Korea to find James, Carl and Anna move into the home of Lee Bong Yi (Oh Ji Eun), an aspiring chef, and her kind family. Will Carl and Anna be able to find the happiness they seek with the help of Bong Yi and her family? “Smile, Dong Hae” is a 2010 South Korean drama series directed by Kim Myung Wook.
Smile Dong Hae Korean Drama Synopsis
He promised to come back for Anna but never did and never knew that Anna became pregnant with his child. Anna also has the mental capacity of a 9-year-old, the result of a near drowning during a severe storm. When Carl came to Korea to compete, he also wanted to use the trip to see his Korean girlfriend, Sae Hwa (Park Jung Ah), whom he intended to marry, and to search for his birth father. But Sae Hwa tells Carl that she has no intention of marrying him because of his mother. When Anna wants to stay in Korea to find James, Carl and Anna move into the home of Lee Bong Yi (Oh Ji Eun), an aspiring chef, and her kind family. Will Carl and Anna be able to find the happiness they seek with the help of Bong Yi and her family?
“Smile, Dong Hae” is a 2010 South Korean drama series directed by Kim Myung Wook.
This show is LONG. I only watched this because of Ji Chang Wook, and because our local tv station was airing it at dinner time.
I complained a lot as I was watching it, but somehow, the show did not want to let me go. Genre: Family, romance, MAKJANG!
Synopsis: Carl Laker ( Ji Chang Wook), also known as Donghae, is a Korean who grew up in the USA under the care of his mentally-challenged mother, Anna Laker ( Do Ji Won). He comes to Korea as a member of the American short track speed skating team to take part in the competition and also to wed his TV announcer girlfriend Yoon Saewa ( Park Jung Ah). However, Saewa disdains him because of his poor family background and his autistic mother.
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She therefore dumps Donghae for Kim Do Jin ( Lee Jang Woo), a rich heir to Camellia Hotel instead. Donghae’s career as an athlete comes to an abrupt end when he gets involved in an accident while trying to save Saewa. Donghae and Anna meet Lee Bongyi ( Oh Ji Eun), a kind-hearted hotel chef who help them settle down in Korea as Donghae begins his search for his father and roots. Comments: I’m honestly not a fan of 1) Makjang, and 2) LONG weekend family dramas that never seem to end. And this show just had to be a combination of both. Double “eww”, and a small “yay” for Ji Chang Wook and Lee Jang Woo.
Smile Dong Hae Korean Drama Cast
Up till now, I still don’t quite understand how this drama managed to achieve sky-high ratings in Korea back in 2010, and it even succeeded in propelling Ji Chang Wook and Lee Jang Woo from rookie to leading men status. But I’ve never agreed with the taste of Korean audiences anyway. The story essentially can be broken down into 4 parts: 1.
Carl Laker coming back to Korea but gets ditched by his girlfriend Saehwa and hurts his leg. Carl Laker’s journey in becoming a chef and locating the whereabouts of his father, James (or Kim Joon).
By now, people also started to call him by his Korean name, Donghae. Donghae learning about the identity of his grandparents, who coincidentally, are the parents of Kim Joon’s wife (aka Kim Do Jin’s mother), who is actually adopted. This makes Donghae the rightful heir to Camellia Hotel instead of Do Jin (since he’s not related to the old couple by blood), so the two end up fighting for ownership of the hotel. As you can see, the countless birth secrets link everyone in the show to one another somehow, so you get a very messy relationship chart. Granted that such unrealistic story lines are not uncommon, I can turn a blind eye to it, but what really frustrated me were the slow pace and repetitiveness of the story. The flow of the story often begins with Person A witnessing an event and relates said event to Person B, who then relates the same incident to Person Cand this chain continues until everyone knows and someone decides to give another kind of response, then the story inches forward a bit. Also, many of the characters had this annoying habit of saying “할말이 있어(I have something to tell you)” when they have something important to say, only to get interrupted before he/she can say anything, so the story gets prolonged since it will take quite a while for said character to broach the topic again.
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The level of acting by the cast was also less than stellar. I have seen some of the cast members in other shows previously, and they CAN act, but somehow most of them seemed to be under-performing here. I won’t say that they were stony, but their acting just did not touch my heart. Maybe the director was not skilled enough to bring out the best of his stars, or maybe because many of the young cast still lacked acting experience back then, but I was quite disappointed since I know Ji Chang Wook and Lee Jang Woo are capable of doing much better. The show was not entirely bad though as there were cute and comedic moments here and there. I initially liked the cute romance between the main couple, but somehow their chemistry seemed to fizzle out as the story went on.
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The show also made me care enough for the characters to want to know how matters will get resolved for them, and yell at them for being stupid. Verdict: Heart-warming with light-hearted moments.
Good as dinner-time entertainment, but probably not worth your time otherwise. Too many unrealistic plot developments, but compelling enough to make you curious about the ending. I may like Ji Chang Wook, but I probably wouldn’t want to spend days watching this online.
Overall: 5/10 Enjoyment level: 5.5/10.
Directed by, Screenplay by. Airing dates: 2010//05/13 159 episodes - MonFri 20:25 The drama is about Donghae's journey of finding love and building a family in Korea, his home country that only gave him hurt and painful memories. The mother of Karl Laker (Korean name Donghae) was a single mom and an adoptee from Korea.
He has lived hard to protect his intellectually stunted mom. Now they're back in Korea, the country that abandoned them. Donghae has come to marry his girlfriend but he is again betrayed. In the course of events, he finds his biological father and also new love. Be strong and Smile Again Like a dandelion surviving the freezing winter inside a well, the characters hold on to their dreams and hope amid tribulations. One hard working family trips over a rocky outcropping and abruptly falls to the bottom, but the love between family members enable them to rise again. Pure, innocent love is a thing of the past in this modern day.
The drama seeks to give light to the fading true meaning of love and marriage and the associated responsibility. The young couple marries quickly and divorces quickly. The elderly couple weathers their lives together. The middle-aged couple struggles to work out their marriage. And one woman does not forget her one true love of the past.
It is their warm story, at times comical and serious, of love and marriage. Read and leave comments Comment Policy - Stay on topic and do not spam.
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Dong Hae was raised in America by his beautiful but unmarried and mentally deficient mother, Anna Laker, who was adopted there. He goes to Korea for a short-track skating competition and brings his mother along in secret, arranging for her to be picked up at the airport by his girlfriend, Yoon Sae Wa, an ambitious TV announcer who harbours a secret disdain for Anna's disability. Dong Hae meets Bong Yi, a poor assistant chef, when Sae Wa prioritizes her job and sends her to meet Anna instead. After Sae Wa later betrays him, Dong Hae begins to search for his father, creating a new family and finding new romance along the way. Rewatch Value 6.0 Well I did it.I managed to finish it! It did take me a couple months. Story: Even though it has familiar themes such as hotel setting, rivalry for power, baking, birth secret, jealous ex gf you want to punch etc.
The writer did a great job of keeping each episode well paced, which made me want to keep watching. The ending is wrapped in a nicely neat bow for those who care;)The last 20 episodes felt dragged out though, that's pretty much the only critique for the story. Acting/Characters: The acting was spot on for all the characters. Well except Lee Jang Woo who I can't seem to like in anything. It doesn't help that his character is a spoiled whiny chaebol who blames everyone else for all his 'problems.'
The actress who played Saewa was really great with her character because I cringed every time her character came on, probably the most annoying character I've seen in a drama ever (and I've seen a lot!). My favorite characters were Sae Young & Tae Hoon Oppa(Alex).
They were too funny and cute! As for the lead couple most of the time I felt like they had more of a cute chemistry meant for friends. I really like the lead actress though (saw her in King of Dramas first, really different characters). I forgot to mention the actress who played the mentally handicapped mother Anna. Excellent acting although her character got annoying towards the end as well.
Music: Not a lot of it, and not memorable either. It's to be expected though cause most daily dramas don't incorporate music. Carrier manuals downloads. Rewatch: It's rewatchable but I don't know when I'll have the time to sit through all those episodes again. I also don't care to watch all the annoying characters again so there's that. Overall Smile, Dong Hae is worth a watch if you like family themed shows with a happy ending.
It is possible to finish.if you dare!
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