The eleventh drama I watched is called I'm Sorry, I Love You 미안하다, 사랑한다. The actors and actresses in this drama were completely new to me, none of them have appeared in any of the previous ten dramas I watched. What compelled me to watch this drama was the title alone. When has the words 'Sorry' and 'I love you' ever been put together? It may have been due to my lack of life experience at the time I watched this drama. Nevertheless, the drama brings out exactly how powerful those very words actually mean.
The drama is about Cha Moohyuk (So Ji Sub) who was abandoned by his parents and brought to Australia by a foster family. His foster parents mistreat him, causing him to run away. Moohyuk wanders the streets, cheating tourists out of their money. Song Eunchae (Im Su Jung) who is a fashion coordinator for Choi Yune. Yune is not only Eunchae's childhood friend but also a famous Korean singer. Yune is in Australia for a photoshoot with actress Kang Minjoo. Although Eunchae has feelings for Yune, Yune is interested in Minjoo, who is also good friends with Eunchae. While in Australia, Eunchae's belongings are stolen. Eunchae bumps into Moohyuk who decides to help her out. With nowhere else to go, she is forced to spend the night with Moohyuk on the docks. When Eunchae woke up, she finds out that Moohyuk found her belongings with the same group of street bandits that run with Moohyuk. With her returned belongings, Eunchae makes her way back to Korea. The story really begins when several weeks later, Moohyuk attends his ex-girlfriend's wedding. Moohyuk ends up taking two bullets to the head during an assassination attempt on his ex-girlfriend's husband. The doctor saves him, but is only able to surgically remove one of the bullets. The other bullet is lodged too deep within his head. Moohyuk is slowly dying and has only about one year left to live. His ex-girlfriend gives him a large sum of money and tells him to go back to Korea to search for his birth parents. While in Korea, he finds out his birth mother is Oh Deul Hee, a famous actress who is also Choi Yune's mother. Moohyuk is angry at how miserable his life was compared to the happy and comforting life that both of them have. He vows to take revenge and ruin their lives. However, Moohyuk realizes he's slowly falling in love with Eunchae.
So Ji Sub does an absolutely amazing job with his role. Some say that he was raised single-handedly by his own mother and was able to portray Moohyuk's emotions from his own experiences. It is very clear throughout the drama that Moohyuk carries a tough guy image but still has a heart like a young boy. Credit should also go to Im Su Jung for her role as Eunchae, a bright and cute girl who doesn't have any dreams of her own because she follows around Yune but changes after meeting Moohyuk. One of the most interesting concepts of this drama that make it so different from any other drama I've watched was the amount of time Moohyuk had left to live. After taking two bullets to the head, everyone including Moohyuk, would have expected to die on the spot. However, he manages to evade death and live for just one more year. At that point, one should ask himself, "What would you do if you only had only one more year left to live?". For Moohyuk, he started out wanting revenge and wanting to vent out the frustrations from having such a sad life growing up. After meeting Eunchae, Moohyuk realizes that he doesn't have to live this way. It's just really tragic that after he's found a reason to become a better person, Moohyuk is going to die soon. He can't do anything else for her for that reason. Moohyuk realizes he needs to let her go soon so that Eunchae would not be hurt anymore after he dies. The second half of the drama is about Moohyuk coming to terms with his birth mother's abandoning of him. Moohyuk learns that there was more to exactly what happened to him than what he assumed. One of the saddest scenes was when Moohyuk asks her for a home-cooked meal which ultimately became the first and last time he would have a meal cooked by his mother. In hindsight, this scene is more emotional now than when I watched it the first time. I watched this drama while still in high school and obviously did not quite understand how special a meal cooked by your own mother is until I've spent a lot of time away from home during college and graduate school. The emotions must have been multiplied further when you remember that Moohyuk's remaining already is winding down.
The soundtrack isn't too bad either in my opinion. One of my favorite songs is the ending theme "Back to First Time 처음 그대로". The same song also has a ballad version. However, Park Hyo Shin's "Snow Flower 눈의 꽃" is by far one of the best songs featured. The lyrics are well written and of course, one can't deny the vocal talent of Park Hyo Shin either.
This drama also brought out one of my favorite quotes from Korean dramas. Early in the first episode, Minjoo asks Eunchae to help her break up with another man by having Eunchae pose as a reporter uncovering a scandal. Later, an annoyed Eunchae tells Minjoo to stop asking her such favors anymore. Minjoo turns to her and asks, "What's love to you? To me, love's just a game...like Starcraft." While the quote does not affect the storyline in any way, I found it to be amusing. After all, Starcraft is a very important in Korean culture. The ending to this drama is absolutely amazing. As previously mentioned, the drama centers around the limited amount of time that Moohyuk has left to live. Normally it's assumed that someone dies for a "surprising reason" in typical Korean melodramas. However, in this case, we already know Moohyuk will die at the end due to the way the story is initially set up. Moohyuk dies with some charismatic flair as delivers his last words to Eunchae "I'm sorry, I love you." in an epic motorcycle scene. While I won't spoil any other details that lead up to this moment nor the true ending to the drama, that alone should give you a taste of how amazing this drama is. In a way, this drama is a unique story while it carries the typical melodrama elements. For any Korean drama fan, this is one to definitely watch.
