I originally watched Ireland (2004) way back in 2006 and had forgotten a lot about it in the ensuing years, so when I saw that Viki.com had recently added it to their roster of Asian dramas (Link Here) I decided to plunge in and watch this classic again, to see if my memories of it had held up accurately over the years. I found I had forgotten a lot of the plot details and the characters' idiosyncrasies in the interim (understandable, since I have now watched 882 Korean dramas at last count!), so in many ways it was a fascinating re-watch for me. Especially since the four main actors in it, Hyun Bin (Secret Garden, Crash Landing On You), Lee Na Young (Romance Is A Bonus Book, Ruler Of Your Own World), Kim Min Jung (Man To Man, Gapdong), Kim Min Joon (Damo, Insoon Is Pretty) were still in the early years of their acting careers when they made Ireland, yet they all gave exceptional performances, even when the script by In Jung Ok (Beating Heart, Ruler Of Your Own World) could sometimes have been better. Overall I did enjoy the drama much more the second time around, just like I did with a repeat watch, after many years, of the classic drama Stained Glass, that came out the same year as Ireland. The dramas hadn't changed, it was I who had changed in the interim! I found I had more sympathy for characters I didn't think I liked too much the first time around.

 

When you look at the story critically there is only one character out of the four main characters who is truly, consistently NICE, KIND, SACRIFICIAL, and NOBLE, and that is the character played by handsome, insanely talented Hyun Bin. Technically he was supposed to be second male lead in this drama but from the beginning he stood out to me as the first male lead. I kept saying out loud as I watched it, "He's totally AWESOME in this role!" (I must have really annoyed my son in the next room with my repetitive exclamations!). Now, don't call me unfairly biased, because I've always loved him, and I have watched every drama and film he's ever made over two decades' time. He really WAS totally awesome in this drama. (I found myself wondering why we couldn't clone his character and give a copy to every woman on the planet. He truly had no faults as a character! Even when people hurt him he never retaliated). I was so impressed with Binnie's performance here and he was only 22 years old when he made this drama (as I write this in early 2023 he is now 40). I am unlike the typical run-of-the-mill, fly-by-night Korean drama fan today: I LIKE to delve into a beloved actor's past and watch his older works, not just his new projects. To me that indicates a TRUE fan.

The Story:

A pretty, young Korean medical student named Georgia, Korean name Lee Joong Ah (Lee Na Young), lives in Northern Ireland with her loving American adoptive parents, who had adopted her when she was a tiny girl in Korea, and a brother named Peter. Peter loves her and watches over her, and often plays her favorite song Danny Boy on the various stringed musical instruments he owns. She enjoys hearing him sing the song as well. Overall she has a nice, quiet, and productive life, working toward her medical degree, as her adoptive parents run a farm, but she still studies the Korean language in her spare time in the hope of someday visiting her mother country (and perhaps finding her birth mother as well).

Then one tragic day, as she rides her bicycle from school to her home in the country, she sees her parents and brother together on the road when suddenly cars drive up, stop, and several men jump out, shouting, "ARE YOU IRA?" and they start shooting them! As they lay bloody on the ground in front of Joong Ah she freezes in shock, watching her loved ones dying in front of her eyes, and then the murderers confront her too. "Are you the terrorists' friend, Asian? Are you IRA, too?" She replies no, with tears in her eyes, saying she doesn't know them, and they let her go! (I thought that was rather dumb of the assassins - she could be a witness against them later in court!). Her brother's dead eyes continue to haunt her for a long time to come, and an Irish coin that had fallen out of his pocket after his death, which had landed near her feet, becomes a beloved keepsake.

After this tragedy Joong Ah is admitted to a psychiatric hospital for awhile and given drugs to calm her down and help her recover mentally from shock. However, she is obviously forever changed, scarred. After finishing her degree she leaves the land where her loved ones were murdered and hops a flight to South Korea, hoping that discovering her mother land -- and perhaps her biological mother -- will help heal her heart and mind.

The First Encounter On The Plane From Ireland To Korea (Video Clip)

On the plane she is seated next to a professional bodyguard named Kang Guk (Hyun Bin) who is watching over his rather rascally industrialist boss named President Park (Song Seung Hwan), who is drunk on the flight and rudely copping feels on the stewardesses. Kang Guk is obviously mistreated by this essentially mob boss fellow, and because he is often hit and abused by this man, Kang Guk has great empathy and compassion for people who are suffering. He can sense that something is "off" about this fellow Korean sitting next to him on the plane. She behaves and speaks erratically, seems to be filled with self-loathing, and he tries to calm her down, with little success. "I am a nasty person!" she warns him, but he doesn't take heed. "I like people who are hurting," he tells her.

Once they land in Seoul they separate, but fate continues to bring them together in odd ways. The hotel Joong Ah stays at is owned by Kang Guk's industrialist mob boss. Kang Guk is obviously intrigued by Joong Ah more and more every time he runs into her, and when she says to him, "I killed my family, stay away from me!" he is even more intrigued. In turn, Joong Ah becomes more intrigued with Kang Guk: his innate kindness and compassion can't help but warm her heart toward him. They often meet up in public to chat and one time in a rare humorous moment Joong Ah defiantly steps into wet cement on the street and makes permanent impressions of her feet on the sidewalk. (This little spot will continue to factor into their lives at later times in the story).

 

Then one night on the streets of Seoul Joong Ah and Kang Guk spy each other on the opposite side of an intersection. Joong Ah ignores the 'Don't Walk' signal and runs right into the middle of the intersection! (Where's that proverbial white truck? lol). Then she notices a man who has done the same thing, a tall handsome fellow with long hair (Kim Min Joon), and when a coin drops out of his pocket (reminiscent of Joong Ah's Ireland memory of her dead brother) she stares at it and then at him, just in the nick of time to shove him out of the way of oncoming traffic, thereby saving his life. When the signal light changes Kang Guk runs to meet Joong Ah, and the tall fellow's obvious girlfriend (Kim Min Jung) runs to meet him. As the two couples separate from one another, and start walking toward opposite sides of the street, both Joong Ah and the tall fellow turn their heads and glance back at each other. Again, and again, and again. The audience can tell this strange street encounter will prove to be an important moment for all their lives in future.

 

A year time jump returns us to our four main characters. Joong Ah and Kang Guk are now married. Kang Guk still works as a bodyguard and Joong Ah drives a school bus because she doesn't trust herself to work as a doctor quite yet. One day she has an accident with the bus and goes into the hospital to be checked out. While there she happens to see the tall, long-haired fellow whose life she had saved on the street a year earlier. He suddenly starts choking on candy and falls to the floor, seemingly unconscious. Joong Ah runs to him and practices CPR on him; the candy becomes dislodged from his throat and he revives. Once again Joong Ah has saved this man's life!

What An Interesting Friendship Foursome!
Si Yeon, Joong Ah, Kang Guk, Jae Bok
Will it be able to last?

He remembers her, and introduces himself, asking her how she has been since their street encounter. She finally discovers his name, Lee Jae Bok, and that he is a skyscraper window washer by trade. Turns out the accident she had had driving her bus had affected Jae Bok's girlfriend, named Han Si Yeon, who is an actress in risque films. Eventually Joong Ah becomes friends with both Jae Bok and Si Yeon, whom she apologizes to for the bus accident. Kang Guk meets them both too eventually, and they all become friends, but at first Kang Guk and Si Yeon do not recognize the mutual attraction Joong Ah and Jae Bok have for one another. At various times Joong Ah and Jae Bok try to break those emotional ties with one another but they aren't too successful. Fate keeps throwing them together, sometimes in very inconvenient ways.

 

Jae Bok moves in with Si Yeon's family, headed up by her mother (played so delightfully well by veteran actress Youn Yuh Jung, the first Korean actress to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 2020's film Minari), because he's often broke, since his salary as a window washer isn't enough to live on, and he has trouble getting along with his own mother Kim Boo Ja (Lee Whee Hyang, from Stairway To Heaven - her character here in Ireland is SO much nicer!) and his step-father Han Sang Man (Kim In Tae). He does sometimes get offended by Si Yeon's work in risque films --- but she makes a lot more money than he does, so he can't complain too much! He finds it hard to break away from this family and their easygoing lifestyle; they are the kind of people who are always nice to him, and who don't bother him or Si Yeon much at all as they engage in their romantic relationship while in the home. He does a lot of the housework and cooking in lieu of rent, while Si Yeon's rather large family choose to be lazy and watch endless hours of Korean dramas at night while laying on the floor together. (Hilarious! I would have liked to have joined them! LOL!).

Kang Guk has the bright idea to appear on a popular television show that seeks to reunite adopted Korean children with their biological Korean mothers. He wants to surprise his wife Joong Ah and finally find her birth mother for her. Except a shock is in the store for all of them. Jae Bok's own mother Kim Boo Ja had given up her tiny daughter for adoption when she fell on hard times. When she watches the show and sees Joong Ah's photograph and papers she is shocked. She had called the child Jung Ah, not Joong Ah, but the names are close enough, and the picture shown looks so similar to the child she gave up for adoption. Jae Bok's mother Boo Ja becomes convinced Joong Ah is her own daughter. If true this would mean that both Joong Ah and Jae Bok, who have been secretly attracted to each other from the moment they met on that street encounter, would be biological brother and sister!

This would doom their secret feelings for one another from ever becoming physical in nature. (I was like: GOOD!). How can Boo Ja find out for sure if Joong Ah is really the child she gave up for adoption so many years earlier? When will she be able to meet her in person and talk to her? Would she agree to a DNA test?

As time marches on each of our principal characters all grow as people, while sometimes digressing too, back into some old self-destructive patterns. Si Yeon gets a chance to be in a legitimate film instead of another risque one, a dream she has always had. However, she can no longer support her family and Jae Bok in the way they have been accustomed to living. They have to sell their house and move into a more cramped condominium. Jae Bok is helped by Kang Guk to get an office job but it's while he's doing that job that Kang Guk finally realizes who the "other man" who has captured his wife Joong Ah's heart is, and that he's probably his wife's biological brother! He feels betrayed but once again does not lash out. Amazing! Instead he goes to talk to his godfather, played so nicely by one of my top favorite veteran actors, Kim Chang Won (My Love From Another Star, film Postman From Heaven). The man gives Kang Guk excellent, wise advice to help him rise above the situation. Meanwhile, Joong Ah finally goes to work in a medical clinic as a doctor, for a nice husband and wife physician team, played with humor by Lee Dae Yeon and Lim Ye Jin. Joong Ah is finally able to concentrate on other things besides her own family tragedy and love life. It's good for her but she still has moments of selfishness that are not fair to her husband Kang Guk. Sometimes I really wanted to slap her, but I could never hate her. Anybody who watched their family obliterated before their eyes would be damaged permanently. They deserve pity, not hate.

No end spoilers in this review; if you're interested in this classic drama portrayed by this excellent cast then check it out. Just be prepared to become majorly addicted to the story ... and to never think of the song Danny Boy in the same way ever again. I wouldn't recommend the drama to anyone under the age of seventeen, however. It's really for more mature audiences. The OST and the cinematography are very pretty, although it was originally filmed in 780 by 420 instead of 1080p like K-dramas are today. Maybe someday someone in Korea will remaster it so that it can fill in most widescreen television sets more fully. Enjoy, and fans of Hyun Bin can drink him in with their eyes when he was only 22 years old. His fellow actor Kim Min Joon is no slouch in the looks department, either. Dreamy! Both men had great chemistry together as friends in the drama, despite each man loving the same woman.

Hyun Bin and Kim Min Joon
Reunited in 2009 in Friend, Our Legend Korean Drama

 
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