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Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Risa Watanabe... Kyoko Saito... Yui Kobayashi....Miyuki Watanabe.... Nene Shida.... if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the right place(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!

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Sunday, September 9, 2018

Korean drama "Your House Helper": episodes one and two recap




 Air Dates: July 4th to August 29, 2018 on KBS 2, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10:00 pm
Two half hour shows run back to back, episode ratings were 4.5 and 4.6%

Main Cast: 

Bona(Kim Ji-Yeon) as Im Da-Young.... struggling intern who is heavily in debt
Ha Seok-Jin as Kim Ji-Woon.... the perfect house cleaner and a bit of a mystery
Ko Won-Hee as Yoon Sang-A.... jewelry designer and part time model who is also in debt
Seo Eun-A as Han So-Mi.... owner of a nail salon that's not doing well
Jeon Soo-Jin as Kang Hye-Joo.... good friend of the above three females
Jo Hee Bong as Go Tae-Soo.... owner of a small bar and Ji-Woon's boss
Yun Ju-Sang as Jang.... old man who is Da-Young's neighbor
Lee Ji-Hoon as Kwon Jin-Kook.... friend of Sang-A's ex boyfriend and could be her next one
Jung Suk-Young as Jo.... the team leader at Da-Young's office
Lee Min-Young as An Jin-Hong.... older worker at Da-Youg's office and future mentor

 Huge cast as there's another five or so minor characters we see every show. There's so many dramas out there it's so hard to choose which one(s) to watch. Didn't hear one thing about this show but it looked interesting plus I liked Bona so much in the "Girls Generation" series so thought I'd give this unknown one a try.
 Finally a wise choice as through eight episodes have hit the jackpot as I'm enjoying this drama immensely. So far there's been zero action or excitement but the characters are all down to earth people and ones you'd see in your daily life, Was going to write these first two posts after viewing the first four shows but enjoyed them so much watched the next four instead of writing.
 For the first two recaps will do it in a slightly different style. Usually go in order of the events from the first minute to the last one. However there was very little interaction between the characters until the fifth episode so instead will talk about the three main characters individually and just a small amount about the others, one minor character becomes a bigger one in that fifth show. At the top will have some sort of video from the pair of shows, today's is the final scene from episode two.




 The main heroine in this show is Im Da-Young played by Bona though think someone else may have more screen time then her. Da-Young is a struggling 23 year old office worker who is currently working as an intern at the PAM Ad Agency. Struggling because she is heavily in debt as you can see by two of the above screenshots, as an intern her salary is $1,500 per month. However she owns a house and has many other bills to pay off or ones that she wishes she could pay off.
 Da-Young's father had died a few years, after his death she had inherited the house from him but the monthly bills are proving to be too much. But more than just the house when Da-Young's father passed away he also left her his debts, all of the other assets he left his daughter are gone so she's in a quandary on what to do to survive. One hope for Da-Young is that she'll be hired as a regular worker at her agency, her boss seems to like her work but there's no money in the budget to hire her full time.




 Da-Young's best friend is Hye-Joo who I'll introduce very briefly later on. Hye-Joo suggested that she take on some tenants, the house is way too big just for one person. With the tenants Da-Young should be able to pay her the bills along with whittling down her father's debts. Da-Young was unsure about that but there were really no other options for her so she advertised that she was seeking two roommates. There's one other problem with Da-Young which is that she's a bit of a slob, it's unbelievable how one person can have a house such a mess.
 She realizes she'll need to clean up her act and very soon. That's because a pair of prospective roommates came by to look a the house which when clean is a very impressive place. However when the pair checked out Da-Young's house they couldn't stay more than a few minutes as it was such a mess. A mess is certainly the term then for Da-Young's life, she's starting to get a bit down about things and thinks there may no way out of her predicament. Across the street from Da-Young's house there was someone who observed the pair running away in horror from the mess who is the second major character.




 His name is Kim Ji-Woon who is a professional house cleaner. And a very excellent one at that as he's high in demand from so many housewives who rave about him on the internet. As Ji-Woon says his fees aren't cheap but he's well worth hiring as the job he can do to your residence is second to none. It's not just the superb cleaning Ji-Woon does but he can rearrange and make a place look brand new plus he has one other talent.
 That's for being able to observe his client's lives and suggest what they need to do to get their ship in order. But Ji-Woon does his suggestions in a very sly way yet he doesn't come off as a preaching sort of person which also really impresses his clients. You wonder why he's working as a house cleaner then and that fact will come out later on. In the synopsis it said Ji-Woon at one time had been an office worker, no mention of that through eight episodes but sure at one point it'll become an important part of the show.




 That bottom screenshot is from the rooftop of Jang who is one of Ji-Woon's clients, he comes in weekly to clean the old man's place. The residence is right across the street from Da-Young's house and Ji-Woon has been noticing her uncleanliness, he did give her his business card once but she can't afford to hire someone like him. Mentioned at the top there was no interaction between the major characters in the first four episodes but now and again Ji-Woon does come in contact with Da-Young and will end off the post with one of the meetings.
 The name of Ji-Woon's boss is Tae-Soo, he seems to be in his late forties. He owns an upscale bar, on the second floor is where the office for the cleaning company is and Tae-Soo acts as the middleman between Ji-Woon and the clients. Ji-Woon also lives on the second floor or at least it appears he does, we've never seen him anywhere else but the office or a client's house. Ji-Woon is also a rather quiet person, for now all we know of him is that he's so passionate about cleaning houses.




 The third major character is Yoon Sang-A played by Won-Hee. Don't know if you've noticed but have already done two posts for her as she's the most attractive woman I've seen in years and soon she may become my #1. We saw quite a bit of Sang-A in the first episode but she didn't appear in the second show though episodes three through six she had the most screen time. Sang-A is another struggling 23 year old gal though she makes everyone think she's doing very well.
 Sang-A is a jewelry designer or at least that's what we're led to believe and it's also what she tells everyone she meets. The only jewelry Sang-A designs is putting necklaces and bracelets together for shops or mail order companies, her salary is only about $1,800 a month so she's living well beyond her means as she loved expensive items and she definitely dresses to impress.




 Those above screenshots were from a fashion show Sang-A attended that was put on by her friend Tae-Hee. Sang-A wasn't scheduled to take a stroll on the catwalk but a model had called in sick and she was persuaded to take her place. Looked like Sang-A has had experience as a model and wonder why she isn't doing that now as she certainly has the looks for it.
 As mentioned Sang-A is living beyond her means but luckily for her she has a place to stay for free. That's at her boyfriend's house who is in NYC for business, she just has to take care of the house and his dog, we've rarely seen the boyfriend in the first eight shows but his name is Yong-Joon. Had a feeling that things weren't going so well between the couple from this episode and soon it appears there may be a breakup but won't spoil what's going to happen yet.



 There's three other minor characters who will be playing an important part in the story. Didn't take any screenshots of her though did after these two shows, they're of So-Mi. Like our other two major female characters she's 23 years old, So-Mi owns a nail salon shop which isn't doing too well. Can't give too much info on her yet as she was only on screen for a few minutes in these first two shows but her character is the one that will become a major one beginning in the fifth episode.
 The top screenshot is of An who works at Da-Young's office. She has just returned recently from Germany and is by far the best advertising person at the company. She's also a person we didn't see too often in these first few shows but she does have a storyline starting up in the sixth episode which will really impact Da-Young's career.
 The last person to introduce is Hye-Joo who does appear quite often on screen. She knows
Da-Young, Sang-A and So-Mi quite well though we don't know why yet but she did say she attended school with Da-Young. Though Hye-Joo appears in many scenes her character doesn't seem too important to the story yet and she works in a shop selling fashion accessories.




 Will end off with this short bit. At Da-Young's office the returning An had secured a major account for them, the staff went out to celebrate but didn't invite Da-Young along. She stayed in the office working and was getting really down as her co-workers were out having fun while she was stuck at a computer. However they did call her up and invited her to join them which Da-Young did. She was the hit of the party but things ended up like they usually do at the office with Da-Young having to do small things for everyone.
 The mini party broke up and Da-Young started heading home. She was crossing a bridge over the Han River when she noticed a Life Line phone, that's a phone that connects you to the suicide hotline. Da-Young picked it up and began spilling her guts about her less than terrific life with tears slowly rolling down her cheek. But when you make a call to the hotline the police are notified, while still on the phone a cruiser pulled up.
 At the same time Ji-Woon came pedaling across the bridge and noticed Da-Young. She also saw him and was about to scream at him when two officers grabbed her. Da-Young wanted to tell Ji-Woon off for reporting her for putting out trash on the wrong day, it wasn't him though at the time Da-Young didn't know that. The policemen though Da-Young was suicidal so they put her in their cruiser and whisked her away which finally brings us to the end of this recap for the first two episodes.




 Bit longer than I expected but do prefer doing this format that describes the characters than just going in order of events. These first two episodes were so enjoyable and it seems like every show tends to be a bit better than the next one or at least that's been the case for the first eight episodes. Post following this one is the recap for the third and fourth episodes, hopefully it'll be shorter than this one.





























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