Blabber Blabbing Blabs: Into The Sunlight

OMG…I can’t believe I was able to dig Into The Sunlight (MBC, 16 episodes) starring Cha Tae Hyun, Kim Hyun Joo, Jang Hyuk and Kim Ha Neul. It’s a drama from 1999!

My little summary:
Kang In Ha (Cha Tae Hyun) and Han Myung Ha (Jang Hyuk) are brothers but separated due their parents’ divorce but they are unaware of each other’s existence. In Ha stayed with his businessman father in a rich and luxurious environment. His father remarried and he has a stepsister who he tends to ignore. On the other hand, Myung Ha grew up in a poor environment with his mother being a night club singer and he uses his fists to solve matters frequently but he’s still a kind person. Lee Yeon Hee (Kim Hyun Joo) is Myung Ha’s neighbor and she is a parentless girl living with her aunt and uncle. Then there is Jung Soo Bin (Kim Ha Neul) who is an illegitimate daughter of a rich businessman happens to be Yeon Hee’s best friend since high school.

In Ha and Myung Ha hate each other’s guts at first but once In Ha knows that Myung Ha is his younger brother, he tries hard to make Myung Ha accept him with Myung Ha ignoring him. In Ha is attracted to Yeon Hee from their first encounter but since he’s rich and she’s poor, opposing parents come to the picture. Myung Ha and Soo Bin also love each other but he’s poor and she’s rich, so another pair of opposing parents comes to the picture as well. One more problem for all of them is that In Ha and Soo Bin have a marriage that is arranged by their parents even though they don’t have feelings for each other. Basically, it’s about how these 4 characters struggle for life and love.

Cast:

Cha Tae Hyun as Kang In Ha

Jang Hyuk as Han Myung Ha

Kim Hyun Joo as Lee Yeon Hee

Kim Ha Neul as Jung Soo Bin

My comments:
The star-studded cast attracted me to watch this as I was curious to see how they were 8 years ago. It’s hard to imagine Cha Tae Hyun as a playboy and being serious and Jang Hyuk really looked like a mix of Jung Woo Sung and Jo In Sung back then. Both ladies didn’t change much. The music played in the drama is very 90s but I must praise the props for this drama, it was very chic! I don’t remember if long coats were fashionable back then but it sure doesn’t suit both guys as it made them look short.

Since it’s an old drama so the pace is slower and it dragged a little bit here and there but overall, I didn’t find it boring. It’s not stuff that I haven’t seen before but what I find amazing is that I find all 4 major characters likeable and they had my sympathy as none of them is evil. You know most of the time, the second female or male character or even both tend to do annoying things because of L-O-V-E but not in this case. Their acting back then was not spectacular but it was passable and effective. Frankly speaking, I didn’t feel the love between both couples is as deep as they claimed to be. But at the end, I’m touched that the brothers are getting along well and I was hoping for a better closure for Jang Hyuk and Kim Ha Neul’s characters. The ending was rushed as there were a lot of unresolved matters left unexplained.

Observation # 1 => watching this drama reminds me that I haven’t seen real smoking scenes since All In…

Observation # 2 => I spotted Song Il Gook in the drama as a gangster working for Jang Hyuk and he had like 3 dialogues!