Cinderella Man 신데렐라맨 is the nineteenth drama I've ever seen. My initial interest in the drama was the casting list. I had seen Kwon Sang Woo from Stairway to Heaven, Im Yoon Ah from You Are My Destiny and Han Eun Jung from Full House. All three of those dramas were ones I enjoyed very much and felt excited at this idea of all three actors/actresses coming together for a drama. It seemed important to watch Cinderella Man, especially as a SNSD fan.
Cinderella Man tells the story of the fashion industry. Oh Daesan (Kwon Sang Woo) is an orphan who lived alone for years and grew up in an orphanage. Daesan meets Seo Yoojin (Im Yoon Ah) who is an aspiring fashion designer from a famous fashion school in Paris. She returns to Korea when her father passes away. In order to take care of her mother, Yoojin takes over her father's clothing shop, Eastern, located at the Great East Gate market. However, the shop is full of debt and Yoojin is in need of help. Yoojin's father had helped Daesan in the past and treated him like a son. Daesan feels indebted to help Yoojin in any way he can. While trying to make a sale at a club but somehow getting into a fight, Daesan meets Lee Joonhee (Kwon Sang Woo) who looks exactly like himself. Joonhee is the heir to Sopia Apparel, the biggest fashion company in Korea. However, his health is very frail and in need to go to Paris for a heart operation. He asks Daesan to pose as him for a month so that Joonhee can leave undetected. In order to quickly find some money to help Yoojin, Daesan has no choice but to accept. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to continue double lives when Joonhee's stepbrother Lee Jaemin (Song Chang Ui) and Jang Seeun (Han Eun Jung) enter the picture, as well as Yoojin beginning to work at Sopia Apparel in order to fulfill her dreams as a fashion designer.
This drama was the second time I've seen Kwon Sang Woo as the main lead. It was a pleasant surprise to see him play Daesan, who's a carefree street merchant but also play the role of Joonhee, who is an arrogant businessman. Seeing Kwon Sang Woo in a business suit reminded me very much of his role in Stairway to Heaven. Cinderella Man revolves around the Great East Gate street market. I found the story to be very unique, showcasing the reality of the fashion industry. Sopia Apparel shows how fashion designers make a living designing new outfits behind a prestigious company. The merchants at the Great East Gate market represent those trying to get by and make a living, even if it means creating fake copies of popular designs. Yoojin is a prideful girl who does not wish to participate in the affairs of those at the market, but is burdened with accepting the reality that she needs money to get by. She also learns that the people at the Great East Gate market are not terrible people either, even if their jobs are not ideal. As with any television series or movies that features identical twins, I was highly impressed with the computer graphics used to film the interactions between Joonhee and Daesan. It is pretty obvious that Kwon Sang Woo does not actually have a twin. However, I cannot differentiate if they truly used only computer graphics or that they found a really good stunt double.
My favorite song from Cinderella Man is Davichi's "My Man". It was a surprise actually, since I've listened and liked the song before I watched the drama. Adding to that list is T-ara's "Good Person 좋은 사람" and Ok Joo Hyun's "Can't Tell You I Love You 사랑한단 말 못해". The first is ballad with very powerful vocals that truly showcase T-ara's singing talents. The last is midtempo ballad that's very typical of a Korean drama soundtrack. The song is well sung, which is no surprise because Ok Joo Hyun was known as the main vocals during her days in the girl group Fin.K.L.
For me, the weirdest part of this drama was the large age gap between the two leads, Kwon Sang Woo and YoonA. Kwon Sang Woo is about 14 years older than YoonA. That alone should explain every scene between Daesan and Yoojin. If you take a closer look at all the intimate scenes, I realized that they only hug. In fact, there is only one kiss scene for the whole drama. It's quite obvious that it would be too awkward to include any other scenes intended to show the love between the two characters. Regardless, I still think that both Kwon Sang Woo and YoonA worked well together. Cinderella Man is YoonA's second drama as a main lead and you can easily see the improvement in her acting ability since You Are My Destiny. Cinderella Man is a very good and enjoyable drama to watch. I would definitely recommend watching it.
