"Happy Together" is an old Korean drama and significant in the sense that it was launched just before the successful spread of widely popular Hallyu (Korean cultural) wave and included a touching story with star dubbed cast (most of them got stardom later).
I've got the name of this K- drama series as nerd fan of cute sassiness of Jun Ji Hyun aka Gianna Jun (who got new star award award for this drama in 1999 and the name of this series also came to spotlight at the end of 2013 for her highly anticipated comeback to small screen after 14 years through "My Love From the Stars") . Then I found this drama after searching for a while to have a look (as I finished checking all of her IMDb enlisted released works so far, why it would be left: p ).
Although it was quite a slow drama (so I watched so many scenes at 1.5x/2x speed comfortably), some brutal fighting and bad joke were irrelevant in my opinion, entrance and departure of some additional characters were a bit indistinct- overall that drama was emotionally attaching and memorable in some points especially focusing on complex but affectionate relationship among siblings who had tragic childhood and detachment from each other for a long time.
Now Character review: Lee Byung- hun as Tae-poong was not that handsome at first glance as the mobster from "A Bittersweet Life" or even the king from "Masquerade" (:p) and a seemingly hot tempered guy ,but the whole plot actually rotated around him showing his true desire of reuniting the siblings- his comedy, craziness and his touching song "Tears" ( from that I've come to know- he's a good singer obviously!) matched with the plot well. Then Kim Ha- Neul as Su-Ha was so refreshing and adorable that it was hard to believe that she would become an awful professional con lady later ( in the movie "Too beautiful to lie" !) .Then Song –Seung also performed the hardcore but passionate character of Seo Ji-Suk quite sincerely ( just to mention- I didn't like his exposure at "Obsessed" movie at all ). Sassy Jun Ji-Hyun as the youngest sibling Yoon-Joo was also so cute and her priority in the drama at that teen-age exceeded my expectation (^_^) . Her secret devotion to his big brother and sweet sibling- relationship between them were catching, even her sickness made me worried! (that's the engaging characteristic of K-Drama that is more flourished now :) ) .And voilà, even before "My Sassy Girl" Cha Tae- Hyun ( as thug Ha Shin-yeob) had affectionate love towards " the girl" (Jun) :p. The other characters ( Moon-joo & his thug husband Pil-Do especially ,then Chan- joo, Chae- rim, child actor,Peppermint etc ) were also well done . So overall natural acting of all the actors & actresses was captivating and warming.
When family bond is strong and no misunderstanding or communication gap exist, then we can be "happy together" by co-operating each other to overcome hurdles of life. Above all, this was the motto of this drama, that's why despite being slowly developed & old- fashioned, it was sometimes quite touching and memorable. So if you adore family based melodrama, either you watch it for star dubbed cast or merely for enjoying a heart-warming Korean family drama, you won't regret –that's my personal view! :)
