[Drama Review] 'My Sassy Girl' - Episodes 17-20

AKP STAFF

Jungshin, Joo Won, Oh Yeon Seo, Shim Hyung Tak, Kim Yoon Hye

Okay, just gonna let it out here, first thing. Does ANYONE ELSE low-key ship Princess Hyemyung with Prince Dalhan?!?!

The biggest factor that has me sort of being okay with the princess and the prince getting together, is that the drama is still not quite convincing me of Princess Hyemyung (played by Oh Yeon Seo) and Gyeonwoo (played by Joo Won)'s budding love. Up until now, yes, they've had some fateful encounters, and they're definitely at the 'some' stage. But now that the Qing dynasty prince has come to steal the princess away, more than anything, it feels as if Hyemyung and Gyeonwoo have been brought together, due to the circumstances, rather than slowly progressing into lovers over time. This is more evident in Hyemyung, whose greatest trouble is that she is deeply sorrowed by the prospect of leaving her country, her father the King, her grandmother, her son the little prince, and the opportunity to one day see her mother again. (Btw, did the mother become forgotten for a little bit in this week's episodes, or what?)

All in all, in my opinion, what's driving Princess Hyemyung to cling to Gyeonwoo with her heart so desperately in this current situation is her desire to find some method or foothold to stay in Joseon, more so than her love for Gyeonwoo. If she convinces herself that she loves Gyeonwoo, then she'll have a more concrete reason to try to persuade others around her that she should not be married off to prince Dalhan, no?�

But check out Gyeonwoo's mom's awesome trick here:

There's the table,

And then she whips up her skirts,�

And BAM! Table's gone!

Back to all seriousness. One scene that had me satisfied was when Princess Hyemyung called out royal guard chief Kang Joon Young (played by CNBLUE's Jungshin) to leave the little prince in his care. The princess's guarded face and tone as she asked the guard chief to protect the little prince, much like how he serves as a protector for the King and the princess herself, was more than enough to draw a firm 'X' in terms of any romantic developments between Hyemyung and Kang Joon Young. It's a refresher from all of the non-answered questions in the rest of the story, is it not?�

The little prince was SO MATURE in this scene!!

Plot-wise, although the scene-by-scene progression of each development is slow and dry in a lot of senses, it is getting by. There's Da Yeon's master plan involving her powerful father to make Gyeonwoo her husband, while Gyeonwoo and Kang Joon Young team up to uncover the hidden, illegal imports from the Qing Dynasty hidden under the wedding gifts for Princess Hyemyung. The search for the secrets behind Hyemyung's mother continues very slowly, but many definite clues lead us to believe that the mysterious, smiling man Choon Poong (played by Shim Hyung Tak) knows all there is to know about the missing former queen...

No romance for you royal guard man, so sorry.�

Some topics to look forward to in the upcoming episodes is what Gyeonwoo said to prince Dalhan that evening (like in the screen shot below), before going to seek out princess Hyemyung and landing that first kiss. Most likely, Gyeonwoo manned up and told Dalhan that he loves the princess, and so unfortunately, no matter how nice Dalhan is and how hard he's worked to get the princess and the royal family to accept him and how his dreams of having a Joseon woman for a wife just like his own mother will be crushed, he cannot be with Princess Hyemyung. (/Heartbroken/.) Also, the continuous dreams that Gyeonwoo has been having, plus his parents' odd behavior upon noticing Gyeonwoo's sleep troubles, will very likely play a big role in popping us viewers with a fun little surprise-not-surprise at the end of the story here. Those of you who've seen the original 2001 'My Sassy Girl' movie probably guessed this too, right? Gyeonwoo and Hyemyung were fated from the very start, since they were young, and there's a story there that we'll have to wait til the end to find out!�

So, are you willing to stick around for it, and what all will happen to the rest of the story?�