High Kick Through the Roof 지붕 뚫고 하이킥 is the twenty-eighth drama I've watched. High Kick Through the Roof is the sequel to the first Unstoppable High Kick, although the two stories are completely unrelated. It's also the second daily drama and my first sitcom drama. I decided to watch this drama when I noticed many of my new favorite celebrities were featured in this drama. That list includes: Shin Se Kyung, Yoo In Na, Lee Kwang Soo, Hwang Jung Eum and Beast's Lee Ki Kwang. That list doesn't even include the several actors and actresses that made guest appearances on High Kick Through the Roof. Many of the actors and actresses in this drama rose to fame after starring in High Kick Through the Roof. I felt that it would be nice to watch this drama and see where a number of my newest favorite actors and actresses started from.
Shin Sekyung and her younger sister, Shin Shinae (Seo Shin Ae) grew up in the mountains. After debt collectors chase after their father, both sisters hop onto the back of a truck that's headed towards to Seoul. However, their father could not reach the truck in time and the sisters have no choice but to leave first. The three of them make a promise to reunite at Namsam Tower. After waiting for a whole night, both sisters are becoming desperate to find a place to live and find food to eat. Sekyung meets Julien Kang at a restaurant when Shinae passes out while Sekyung is desperately trying to ask the owner for food. The kind-hearted Julien takes both sisters back to his place, offering them food and shelter. Later, Sekyung runs into Lee Jihoon (Choi Daniel) on the subway. Sekyung and Jihoon first met when Sekyung mistakenly accused Jihoon for stealing her money and again while working at a gas station. Sekyung searches for Jihoon after losing her shoe while chasing after Shinae. Sekyung finds his house, but is mistaken by his father, as the new housekeeper when the previous housekeeper left after winning the lottery. Jihoon's father, Lee Soonjae, is the president of a food company. After Soonjae listens to Sekyung and Shinae's story, he takes pity on them and invites them to stay at his house and work as a housekeeper. So as Sekyung and Shinae wait to find their father, they begin to live with the Lee family, which includes President Lee, his son Jihoon, his daughter Hyunkyung (Oh Hyun Kyung), his son-in-law Jung Bosuk, his grandson Joonhyuk (Yoon Shi Yoon) and his granddaughter Haeri (Jin Ji Hee).
The unique aspect of High Kick Through the Roof is that all the names of the characters are essentially the same name used by the actors and actresses themselves in real life. I found it pretty helpful when learning the names of the characters. Of course, the amount of time needed to learn all the names was already shortened because I already knew several of the actors and actresses in this drama. I was a fan of Yoo In Na from watching Secret Garden and a fan of Lee Kwang Soo from watching City Hunter and the variety show Running Man. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see that their characters were a couple in High Kick Through the Roof. Both of their characters were very similar to the ones I knew them for. In retrospect, I can see how they were casted for their later dramas. Julien Kang was another one of my favorite characters in High Kick Through the Roof. He is fluent in English, Korean and to my surprise, French as well. I thought his usage of English and Korean was very entertaining. Also, since he was fluent in both, I didn't worry about cringing over a really bad accent. My favorite scenes with Julien are the ones where he interacts with Kwangsoo. However, there were a couple characters I found to be annoying. The father Bosuk was pretty funny at first, for the way he gets scolded all the time by his father-in-law for his stupidity. However, after many episodes, it started to get annoying how Bosuk doesn't try and improve himself, even blaming Sekyung for undermining him. Haeri also began to get pretty annoying. Haeri is repeatedly loud and bad mannered, contrasting Shinae. I couldn't help but enjoy the scenes were she realizes that despite much mistreatment, Shinae is her best friend. Despite the annoyance, credit should be due to the actor and actress because that's who their characters were. Among the 126 episodes in High Kick Through the Roof, the 78th episode is my favorite. Bo Suk learns a technique for Mook Jji Bba, which is a Korean variant to Rock, Paper, Scissors. He goes around arrogantly beating everyone, until Sekyung teaches Shinae a counterattack for the technique. I liked this episode the most because of this game. I learned how to play this variant from a friend, but I never knew the depth of strategies involved with this game.
The soundtrack for High Kick Through the Roof includes the opening theme "High Kick Through the Roof 지붕뚫고 하이킥" and the ending theme "You Are My Girl". One of my most favorite songs on the soundtrack is "The Road to Me 내게 오는 길". Originally sung by Sung Si Kyung, it was a song that Joonhyuk sung to Sekyung at a noraebang, fairly late in the series. Aside from these three songs, I felt that the instrumental track, "Beautiful Love", was also nice to listen to.
It's difficult to write a review about High Kick Through the Roof without discussing the controversial ending to the 126 episode drama. High Kick Through the Roof was known as a sitcom with some drama elements. This style of drama was new to me and refreshingly interesting. As the drama progressed, I thought that despite all the drama twists, a happy ending would occur. If not, I assumed everything would be concluded enough to be satisfied with the story. Instead, High Kick Through the Roof turned from a funny sitcom into concluding as a melodrama that makes dramas such as Winter Sonata and Stairway to Heaven look like sitcoms. In fact, the ending draws even more questions regarding what happens to each character. I would have to say High Kick Through the Roof has the worst ending out of all the dramas I've ever watched. If the drama was a sad melodrama from the start, my opinion of the ending would be that it was beautiful and unexpected. I browsed through forums after the finale to see other's opinions and found out many fans reacted the same way I did. I would recommend being cautious on deciding whether or not to watch High Kick Through the Roof. The drama is overall fun and enjoyable to watch but the ending is terrible enough that caution.
