The third drama I've ever watched was Full House 풀하우스. For other fans of Asian dramas, this is probably the first drama they've ever watched. Full House features actress Song Hye Kyo and actor Jung Ji Hoon, more commonly known as Rain (비). The chemistry between both of them skyrocketed the drama into popularity, including winning a Best Couple Award in the 2004 KBS Drama Awards. Anyone who has seen the drama would agree too.
Han Jieun (Song Hye Kyo) is a cheerful young girl who loses her house built by her late father thanks to her two friends. Jieun's two friends trick her into believing she won a free vacation to China. While on her trip in China, she meets a famous actor named Lee Youngjae (Rain). When Jieun returns to Korea, she finds out her house has been bought by Youngjae. Jieun begins to work as Youngjae's maid in order to buy her house back from him. However, she slowly gets entangled with his personal life. When Youngjae continues to fail to win over his first love Kang Hyewon (Han Eun Jung), he asks Jieun to set up a fake marriage with him. Jieun reluctantly agrees to a fake marriage contract with him in order to gain her house back as quickly as possible. Their constant bickering eventually shifts into both of them caring for one another. Their marriage contract begins to strain even further when Youngjae's friend Yoo Minhyuk (Kim Sung Soo), whom Hyewon has feelings for, is attracted to Jieun and Hyewon begins to feel jealous of Jieun, wanting Youngjae to come back to her.
As far as plot goes with the characters, Full House is the first drama I've seen whose characters fill the typical stereotype for a modern Korean drama. The guy is rich, famous, attracts a lot of women, but has a cold personality. He meets a down-to-earth girl with a bright personality. The guy's friend is also another rich, famous, good-looking guy with a kinder personality who falls in love with the nice girl. The last girl was originally interested in the nice guy but changes her mind when she finds out the other guy was interested in her, then hates the nice girl for being the love interest of both guys. It's possible that the overall story didn't feel "overused" since it was one of the first of its kind. Nevertheless, the interactions between Youngjae and Jieun are absolutely hilarious. They both care much about each other despite a frequent amount of arguing between them. I also liked how the story revolves around the big house made the drama very interesting to watch. The house seen in the drama is an actual private-owned vacation house located near Sammok Harbor. After Full House, the house is now a tourist site for fans of the drama series to visit.
The soundtrack for Full House is pretty amazing compared to most dramas. The three most notable songs are "Oon Myung 운명", "I Think I" and "Geu Deh Ji Geum 그대지금". The first is the ending song which is fairly upbeat as a drama track. The last two are ballad tracks that are played a lot during the sad scenes. Although it doesn't count as an OST track, the drama made the "Three Bears" song. Anyone who finished watching this drama is able to sing most if not all of the lyrics to this children's song.
The other most interesting thing from this drama is that it features a scene where Jieun plays Go-Stop 고스톱 with Youngjae's family members. It was this very scene that got me interested in the card game. Based on the context of the scene, I learned Go-Stop is similar to the Chinese tile game, Mahjong. It's a game that is played for fun with family members, but is easily an addicting gambling game. After seeing this in Full House, I eventually got my hands on a deck of Go-Stop cards and learned. Not just learned, I've gotten pretty good at playing Go-Stop too. I highly recommend watching Full House, as it is recognized as one of the main contributions for the Hallyu Wave. If you haven't already seen it, go watch it and don't stop until you finish it.
