Ah, I just have to THINK about this K-Drama and I get warm fuzzies in my heart! The story is so haunting, the cast so attractive and sincere, the music soundtrack by J Rabbit and others so beautiful and evocative, that I just melt thinking about Operation Proposal (2012). Sigh. Seung Ho Yoo, if I wiggle my nose like Samantha on Bewitched and through magic age you thirty years, would you marry me?  ;)

Operation Proposal is about facing our old regrets in life and transforming them into new possibilities. The series, written by famed scenarist Ji-ryun Yoon of Boys Over Flowers, was simply perfect. In fact in many ways I liked it even better than BOF.

FULL OST With Scenes

The Story: Twenty-something Baek Ho Kang (beautiful actor Seung Ho Yoo from the classic Korean film The Way Home, the film Blind with Kim Ha Neul, and the popular K-dramas Remember and I'm Not A Robot) has been best friends with Yi Seul Ham (outstandingly pretty actress Eun Bin Park, who also paired with Seung Ho in The Legend) for the past two decades, ever since grade school when they sat next to each other in class and discovered they had similar interests, including baseball.

Even though Baek Ho loves her faithfully, he is shy and has never mustered enough courage to tell Yi Seul his true feelings. Now, on Valentine's Day 2012, it proves too late for him. He races to Yi Seul's wedding as her "man of honor" and with heavy heart watches her marry another man, Jin Won Kwon (Hyun Jin Lee), who had been their sports coach and teacher when both were in high school together.

Full of regret, Baek Ho desperately wishes that he could have done things differently. He weeps when he finds an old letter of Yi Seul's that makes it clear she had liked him too. So many missed opportunities! Sitting on a child's swing, reliving his bittersweet memories, Baek Ho suddenly meets "The Conductor", Jin Woo Kim (Tae Hun Kim) - the spirit of a mystery man who can help fulfill Baek Ho's deepest wishes to turn back time and win Yi Seul away from the Coach. Able to control time, The Conductor gives Baek Ho a special magical elixir to drink that will send him back to high school for another chance to admit to Yi Seul that he loves her.

But will it be so easy that he can just blurt out the truth to her immediately, or will timing once again prove to be critical to his confession? Can he overcome the shyness that afflicted him for years, or will it simply re-appear time and time again because it's part of his basic character? Like the character of Ji Hyun in 49 Days, who initially thinks it will be a piece of cake to obtain 3 sincere tears from friends so that she can come out of a coma, here in Operation Proposal Baek Ho initially thinks his task to tell Yi Seul the truth of his feelings will be easy. But it is not to be the case. Fate continues to seem to conspire against him. He has to return to the present day numerous times, and be sympathetically sent back in time all over again by The Conductor, to try and tell Yi Seul the truth. Can he possibly change so many past mistakes with Yi Seul which led her to seek solace in someone else's arms?

 

Mutual friends of Yi Seul and Baek Ho from childhood include the beautiful Chae Ri Yoo (one of my favorite actresses Ye Won Kim from Flower Boy Ramen Shop and Who Are You?), quirky and short Joo Tae Nam (Young Seo Park) who is in love with Chae Ri, and Chan Wook Song (more than cutie-pie Kyung Pyo Go - Chicago Typewriter and Jealousy Incarnate) who takes a liking to a new girl to their group, the painfully shy and unassuming Jin Joo Jo (singer-actress Jin Joo Park). They all sense that Baek Ho and Yi Seul really belong together and do what they can to encourage them to go with their feelings. Will we ever see Baek Ho and Yi Seul pledge themselves to one another? And will we ever uncover the identity of the mysterious Conductor?  

Operation Proposal = addictive gem! Yet another Korean drama with profound lessons for people who are up to learning something deep about life and love and themselves, instead of simply wanting to be "entertained" with sex and gore and violence and foul language, which floods the typical revolting diet of American TV shows and films today. Operation Proposal proves that a high quality romantic drama series can be made without any of that crass American-style garbage, just sweetness and love and spirituality. Thank God! 

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