Beautiful Days (2001)

Lee Byung Hun is the main attraction here and the reason I watched this. He is wonderful at romance with his little nuances, gestures, and looks. In my opinion he is the best looking Korean actor, so it's hard not to enjoy him in this romance. There are some wonderful, passionate moments, but at other times, the love scenes are laughingly corny.

The story starts with a murder and a dysfunctional family including 2 stepbrothers in love with the same woman. It moves along at an interesting pace until about the last quarter where it turns into a weepy melodrama and screeches to an agonizing halt for about 5 episodes more.

Choi Ji Woo is undoubtedly beautiful, but here she is robotic. A decade ago she was paired with the leading heartthrobs, including Japanese Takenouchi Yataka. She did a decent job acting in Winter Sonata and Stairway to Heaven, my favorite melodramas. But here she was wooden and talked so S-L-O-W-L-Y that you could walk out of the room and come back in and she would still be on the same sentence. She played the kindhearted love interest of the two brothers, so she tried to act soothingly. However, her dialogue sounded monotone, cooing like a mourning dove.

The music was quite good, but the repetitiveness over 24 episodes made it irritating. Also, the drama was a bit long for my taste. You will enjoy it if you want to see Byung in a romance. But to see Mr. Korean James Bond with the full depth of his acting abilities, watch instead Iris, Masquerade, I Saw the Devil. or Iris for action. His best romance is All In (one of my favorites) and the very sexy movie, Addicted.

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