Robber aka Bandit SBS (2008) 16 Episodes Romantic Comedy, Grade:
A Korean Drama Review by Jill, USA
~~~~~~~~~~
I
didn't even realize until relatively recently that the
leading couple of my top favorite Korean drama of all
time, Chuno
(2010), Jang Hyuk and Lee Da Hae, had been in a
previous drama together called Robber aka Bandit
(2008), and when I did discover it there was no way on
earth I was NOT going to find this obscure, mostly
forgotten K-drama, and watch it. I'm so glad I did
because I loved it and laughed uproariously
through much of the story. These two thespians simply
have the best chemistry together! Jang Hyuk is Wild
and Lee Da Hae is Wise and Wary. What a combo!
Full GORGEOUS
OST with Scenes
To be sure, there were some standard
K-drama cliches and tropes here, but in other ways
this romantic comedy deliberately changed previous
formulas that we've seen too often in the genre. For
instance, although our leading guy pretends to be
wealthy, he is in fact poor and deeply in debt, so
right away that typical rich chaebol - poor girl story
line is avoided. In this story it's the lead
woman character who has carefully and wisely saved her
money over the years, and it's the man who seeks to
take advantage of her at first to gain access to it,
to pay off his ever increasing debts. In the beginning
he's nothing more than a scoundrel, albeit a charming
one, but an entire life change is about to take place
in him, and it's downright delicious to watch that
process unfold. I really cannot see anyone in the
Korean entertainment industry capable of playing this
role better than Jang Hyuk. He made the role his own.
Another way this
K-drama is different is in the fact that the
mother-in-law character of Lee Da Hae's character,
played well by veteran actress Kim Hae Sook (all the 4
Seasons' K-dramas, and The
Suspicious Housekeeper) is tremendously
supportive and caring of her daughter-in-law. How
refreshing that was to watch! No bitchiness at all.
The Story:
After graduating from high
school, Jin Dal Rae (Lee Da Hae, My Girl,
Miss
Ripley, Chuno,The
Good Witch) begins working at a local bank.
There, she meets Jang Tae Oh (Jung Gyu Woon, God's
Gift: 14 Days), a mountain climber, and she
follows him to Seoul after a whirlwind romance, where they
quickly get married. Dal Rae becomes pregnant, but before
the baby is born, Tae Oh is killed in a freak accident in
the mountains. Dal Rae moves in with her supportive and
understanding mother-in-law named Lee Soon Seom (Kim Hae
Sook), and together the two women raise her daughter,
sweet little Yoo Jin (Kim Hwan Hee).
Several years pass, and
Soon Seom herself encourages Dal Rae to move on
emotionally, even setting her up on blind dates. During
one such date, Dal Rae meets the elderly and wealthy
Chairman Kim, who isn't really looking for a young wife,
but searching for a prospective spouse for his socially
inept son Kim Jin Goo (Kim Jung Tae, Oh! My
Venus), an office manager. Chairman Kim is
impressed with Dal Rae's kindness and integrity, and is
determined that she will become his daughter-in-law. Jin
Goo and Dal Rae are thrown together a few times but it
simply doesn't go well between them. (I had a feeling
the character had major Aspergers' Syndrome going on).
While usually the audience feels attracted to the 2nd
Male Lead Character in K-dramas, here we are rather
repulsed by the man. At first. He does grow on you a bit
more during the series, but his strange character
development took a bit of getting used to for me!
Look at that bowl haircut, is that
2008, or what? ;)
Meanwhile, Dal Rae also
encounters the handsome but mysterious Kwon Oh Joon (Jang
Hyuk, Thank
You, Chuno,
Beautiful
Mind) in a restaurant but she is instantly on
her guard with him. Oh Joon was once a boxer, but he quit
because he didn't want to mess up his handsome face, which
would impede his gigolo ways. Since then, he has been
masquerading as a fund manager,
but in reality he is a con
artist who lives off lonely, gullible women by
scamming them. He is often helped by a rather bumbling,
inept friend of his own, the scatter-brained Kim Man Doo (Hong Kyung In).
While at first the audience
thinks Oh Joon is just out for himself, it turns out the
truth of his economic situation has wider implications
than we, the audience, understand. His sister Kwon Oh Sook
(Yoon Yoo Sun, She
Was Pretty) is married to an abusive husband,
and Oh Joon has been paying off her debts, but he
soon grows desperate, with the loan sharks hounding him
and threatening to kill him unless he pays up. Now. When
he meets Dal Rae he is off the charts desperate for
immediate cash. Will she pick up on that side of him, or
be fooled like all the other women he's taken advantage of
over the years?
Over-hearing that Dal
Rae has been saving to start her own business, and has
about $30,000 saved up, she becomes his next target.
However, as he gets to know her and her family, Oh Joon
finds himself falling in love for real for the very
first time. With Dal Rae,.and her sweet little daughter
who takes a shine to him (and he to her), will he be
able to turn his life around from his con man persona,
to become an actual family man with heart and empathy
for others?
My Favorite Scene
A miracle is about to
take place in his soul. A fool will become, not a felon,
but a financial and family winner, now that he finds
people worth living and sacrificing for.
Since in Chuno, Jang Hyuk and Lee Da Hae
didn't even have that many scenes together during the
bulk of the series (even though their characters were in
love for years) it was so much fun and so refreshing to
see them have great romantic scenes together in this
earlier series. The kiss scenes were many and quite
varied, some serious and some comical, like this one.
These two actors
were also paired together a third time in IRIS 2,
but since I only care about the original IRIS
I only got through about two episodes of the sequel before
quitting, despite the lure of seeing these two together
again. The writing simply HAS to be there for any show,
and it was all over the place in IRIS 2. No
consistency. So to me, it's Robber and Chuno that are the not-to-be-missed series which
pair these two thespians together, shows both in the A
to A+ categories. Enjoy both dramas!
