8.4 /10 1 Votes
7.8/10 IMDb Original language(s) Korean Final episode date 1 March 2005 | 4.4/5 DramaFever Country of origin South Korea First episode date 3 January 2005 Number of episodes 17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Also known as Delightful Girl Choon-hyang
Sassy Girl: Chun-hyang Written by Hong Jung-eun
Hong Mi-ran Directed by Jeon Ki-sang
Ji Byung-hyun Starring Han Chae-young
Jae Hee
Uhm Tae-woong
Park Si-eun Genres Korean drama, Drama, Comedy, Romantic comedy Networks Korean Broadcasting System, KBS2 Cast Han Chae‑young, Jae Hee, Uhm Tae‑woong, Park Si‑hoo, Ahn Suk‑hwan Similar Ad Genius Lee Tae‑baek, Resurrection, Sweet 18, Hong Gil‑dong, Daring Women | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sassy Girl Chun-hyang (Hangul: 쾌걸 춘향; RR: Koegeol Chunhyang; lit. Delightful Girl Chun-hyang) is a 2005 South Korean television series starring Han Chae-young, Jae Hee, Uhm Tae-woong and Park Si-eun. It aired on KBS2 from January 3 to March 1, 2005 on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 for 17 episodes.
Contents
A modern retelling of the classic Korean folktale Chunhyangjeon ("Tale of Chunhyang"), the romantic comedy series was called "fusion-style" for, among others, mixing rap with pansori in the background music.
This is the first Korean drama written by Hong Jung-eun and Hong Mi-ran (collectively called the Hong Sisters), and remains the highest-rated in their filmography, with a peak viewership rating of 32.2%.
Synopsis
Lee Mong-ryong, son of a decorated chief of police, is transferred from Seoul to a high school in Namwon, North Jeolla Province, due to his constant fighting. He accidentally bumps into Sung Chun-hyang, shoots embarrassing photos of her and ends up swapping her cell phone with his. As a result, they are constantly in touch with each other and find out they attend the same school. Mong-ryong constantly bullies Chun-hyang and eventually makes her fall sick due to his prank. Feeling guilty, he visits her, only to mistakenly drink a whole bottle of wine, assuming it is juice. He later falls asleep on the only bed in the house, which is the one Chun-hyang is sleeping in. Thus, they spend the night with each other. Nothing sexual occurs, but thanks to their best friends, who knew what happened, the information is accidentally announced over the school intercom. In order to save their families' and the school's reputation, they are forced to marry each other. They eventually agree to marry each other after Mong-ryong's crush, Hong Chae-rin rejects him. After being dumped by her boyfriend, Chae-rin discovers Mong-ryong's marriage and tries to win him back out of jealousy. There is also the problem of Byun Hak-do, an extremely successful talent agency director who falls in love with Chun-hyang.
In order to help him get into the prestigious college Chae-rin is studying in, Chun-hyang helps Mong-ryong in his studies. They are both accepted, but after Chun-hyang's mother got cheated of a large sum of money, Chun-hyang was not able to attend college; however, she does not reveal this and lies to her in-laws, telling them she will meet them in Seoul, not revealing that her mother is actually on the run. When Mong-ryong finally does find Chun-hyang, he tries again and again to reveal his feelings for her, while unearthing her feelings for him by moving into her new location. When he finally confesses outright, she rejects him, claiming she never loved him, because of Chae-rin's harsh statement that Mong-ryong merely pities her and wished only to pay her back.
When the two finally do confess to each other, there is still one more problem. Byun Hak-do, being rich, handsome and successful, assumes he could have any woman in the world, but when Chun-hyang rejects him, he attempts to win her through blackmail. Several days before the real wedding between Mong-ryong and Chun-hyang, Mong-ryong witnesses a woman being sexually assaulted and attempts to save her. He chases the assailants but the woman was in on the scheme and immediately accuses him as the assailant when an actor employed by Byun arrives on the scene. Mong-ryong escapes but becomes a criminal on the run. Byun Hak-do carries an edited video of the security camera, putting Mong-ryong in a bad light, and threatens Chun-hyang that unless she goes to him, he will expose the video to the world. Chun-hyang agrees and so Mong-ryong is freed, but now, Chun-hyang pretends to want to divorce him immediately to keep her end of the bargain. When the divorce is complete, she goes to Byun and the two of them prepare to travel to Japan, but at the last minute, she runs off and hides from both Byun and Mong-ryong.
Several years pass and Mong-ryong is now a famous prosecutor, a district attorney in Seoul. Chun-hyang has been hiding in Busan and now owns an accessories factory. Byun has just returned from Japan and people assume that his "fiancee" is still there as well. At the wedding of Mong-ryong's and Chun-hyang's two best friends, Bang Ji-hyuk and Han Dan-hee, Chun-hyang sneaks in to drop off a present, and as she leaves, Byun sees her. In a rush to leave, she accidentally scrapes the car next to her, which is incidentally Mong-ryong's car. The two start a heated argument over the phone. Chun-hyang's assistant, Kim Dong-soo, ends up meeting Mong-ryong to pay for the damages to his car. Several crooks who have been trailing Mong-ryong assume Dong-soo is an informant and kidnap him. After Mong-ryong and the police rescue him, Dong-soo leaves with Chun-hyang. Mong-ryong is informed that the wedding picture from high school that Mong-ryong and Chun-hyang took was among the documents Dong-soo had. He suddenly realizes that Chun-hyang was Dong-soo's boss and was not with Byun all this time. He eventually finds Chun-hyang again who spurns him as she is still worried about Byun's threats.
In the meantime Mong-ryong starts investigating Byun's company. Byun's partner who has mafia ties tries to stop him from doing so by threatening to reveal the doctored video tape. Finally, Byun realizes that there are just some things in the world that he can't have, and finally releases the full unedited version of the tape so that everyone can see Mong-ryong's true intentions and allows Chun-hyang to go back to Mong-ryong. In a rage of having his plans ruined, the thug kidnaps Chun-hyang. With Byun's cooperation, Mong-ryong saves Chun-hyang and arrests the thugs.
Mong-ryong proposes to Chun-hyang again, and the two remarry and live happily ever after.
Cast
Awards
Ratings
Source: TNS Media Korea
International broadcast
It aired in Taiwan on GTV beginning June 4, 2005.
It aired in the Philippines on the GMA Network in September 2005. This Tagalog dubbed version was re-aired on GMA Life TV from March 13 to May 7, 2014, and again from September 22, 2014 to November 14, 2014.
It aired in Japan on cable channel KNTV from December 24, 2005 to February 18, 2006 under the title Sassy Girl Haruka (快傑春香), followed by re-airings on MXTV and satellite channel So-net in 2006.
It aired in Thailand on Channel 3 in early 2008.
Trivia
Han Chae-young and Jae Hee made cameo appearances in the final episode of My Girl (2006), another series by director Jeon Ki-sang and writers Hong Sisters.
Remake
An Indonesian remake titled Cinta Remaja aired from 2006 to 2007.