Jang Bo-ri is Here!

Jang Bo-ri is Here!
Promotional poster
Also known as	'Come! Jang Bo-ri'
Genre	Romance Family Comedy Drama
Written by	Kim Soon-ok
Directed by	Baek Ho-min
Starring	Oh Yeon-seo Kim Ji-hoon Lee Yoo-ri Oh Chang-seok
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language(s)	Korean
No. of episodes	52
Production company(s)	Jidam Inc. (formerly Yein E&M)
Distributor	MBC
Release
Original network	MBC
Picture format	HD
Original release	April 5 (2014-04-05) – October 12, 2014 (2014-10-12)
External links
Website
Jang Bo-ri is Here! at Jidam Inc.

Jang Bo-ri is Here! (Hangul: 왔다! 장보리; RR: Wattda! Jang Bo-ri) is a 2014 South Korean weekend television drama series broadcast by MBC starring Oh Yeon-seo, Kim Ji-hoon, Lee Yoo-ri and Oh Chang-seok.^[1] It premiered on April 5, 2014, airing every Saturday and Sunday at 20:40 for 52 episodes.^[2] It won Drama of the Year at the 2014 MBC Drama Awards

Synopsis

The events center around a renowned Hanbok-making house called Bi Sool Chae. The Master Artisan of Bi Sool Chae, Kim Soo-Mi, focuses on preserving the traditions of Hanbok-making, including hand-dyeing and hand-sewing each garment.

The Master Artisan lives with her two married sons in her traditional Korean estate. Her two daughters-in-law have been her apprentices for a long time. When the time comes for the Artisan to choose her successor, the fierce competition between the two daughters-in-law results in tragedies that reverberate for decades afterwards.

Cast

Main characters

• Oh Yeon-seo as Jang Bo-ri (formerly Jang Eun-bi)
  • Yoo Eun-mi as young Bo-ri

Daughter and only child of Bi Sool Chae’s second son (Soo-bong) and his wife (In-hwa), Eun-bi is a kind-hearted girl with artistic talent. She is much-loved by her father, grandmother, aunt and uncle. She loves her mother very much, but is hurt because her mother spends too much time making hanbok instead of with her.

When she is eight years old, Eun-bi gets into her mother’s car and falls asleep in the back seat. Her mother, unaware that Eun-bi is in the back seat, pursues her sister-in-law Ok-soo in her car during a rainy night, and causes an accident which claims the life of her brother-in-law. After this accident, a frightened Eun-bi runs away, and her mother, not knowing she was there in the first place, drives off without her.

While wandering the streets, she is subsequently hit by a truck that is driven by Do Hye-ok. Afraid that she will be prosecuted for hitting Eun-bi, Hye-ok takes an unconscious Eun-bi to a nearby inn. When Eun-bi wakes, she has lost her memory, and believes Hye-ok is her real mother, and her daughter Min-jung is her older sister. When a policeman questions her about the accident, Hye-ok is forced to pretend Eun-bi is her child. Since Eun-bi no longer remembers her own name, Hye-ok names her Bo-ri, which means “barley,” because she was eating barley mixed rice at that moment.

Hye-ok does not send Bo-ri to school beyond Junior High, and puts her to work in her small restaurant in a rural town called Jang-heung, where Bo-ri continues to work for the next twenty years. Although mistreated by Hye-ok, who abuses her and treats her like a slave compared to her real daughter Min-jung, she remains affectionate and devoted to Hye-ok, believing her to be her real mother.

Bo-ri’s compassion is further demonstrated by her selfless love for Min-jung’s abandoned baby Bi-dan, who she believes is a foundling. Bi-dan was born premature and suffered hearing loss as a result. Bo-ri works tirelessly to earn enough money to pay for surgery to restore Bi-dan’s hearing. She also never tells anyone that Bi-dan is not her biological daughter, even though many look down on her for having a baby as a single woman.

At some point, Bo-ri fatefully encounters her aunt, Ok-soo, the widow of Bi Sool Chae’s oldest son who perished in that car accident. Although her aunt does not recognize her, she teaches Bo-ri the art of making hanbok, for which Bo-ri has a natural talent. Through her hanbok-making skills, Bo-ri ends up encountering her family members again.

• Kim Ji-hoon as Lee Jae-hwa
  • Jung Yun-seok as young Jae-hwa

A childhood friend of Eun-bi, and nephew of Eun-bi’s aunt Ok-soo. His mother died suddenly in a car accident when he was about 10 years old. He was also forced to accept a new stepmother, a brother (Jae-hee), and a baby sister very soon afterwards, as his father quickly marries his mistress of many years.

Instead of working at his father’s company, Jae-hwa becomes a prosecutor and ends up in Jang-heung where he meets Bo-ri. At first he has an antagonistic relationship with Bo-ri, but he later falls in love with her, accepting her and Bi-Dan with open arms.

• Lee Yoo-ri as Yeon Min-jung
  • Shin Soo-yeon as young Min-jung

Extremely bitter about being raised by a poor single mother, Min-jung feels entitled to a better life with wealth and status, which she ruthlessly pursues.

Her first meeting with Eun-bi was at the first Hanbok competition for Bi Sool Chae’s successor in which she served as a model for Ok-soo’s hanbok. Her win-at-any-cost attitude is demonstrated when she deliberately rips Eun-bi’s hanbok right before the competition.

After Eun-bi comes to live with her and her mother and becomes Bo-ri, Min-jung purposefully copies Bo-ri’s drawing, an evocative image of Bi Sool Chae's dye yard, and wins an art contest and a college scholarship sponsored by Bi Sool Chae. To further gain sympathy, she lies that she is an orphan, and forbids her mother from contacting her, or ever revealing their relationship. She eventually brown-noses her way into becoming adopted by Soo-bong and In-hwa, Eun-bi’s real parents who still miss their lost daughter. Min-jung discovers that their lost daughter is in fact Bo-ri, who lived with her as her sister when they were young. She deliberately hides this from the Bi Sool Chae family, preventing them from finding Eun-bi, and effectively stealing Eun-bi’s life.

While in college, she pursues a relationship with Moon Ji-sang, who was the son of a wealthy businessman. When she learns that Ji-sang’s father lost all his money, she cruelly dumps him. She then discovers that she is six months pregnant, and the doctor informs her that it is too late to terminate the pregnancy. After desperately hiding her pregnancy from her new parents, she secretly travels to her real mother’s house in Jang-Heung and gives birth to a premature daughter, whom she promptly abandons. Although she told her mother to bring the baby to an orphanage, the baby is named Bi-dan (“Silk”) and raised by Bo-ri as her own.

Lee Jae-hee eventually falls in love with Min-jung and proposes marriage. Becoming the wife of a wealthy heir is Min-jung’s dream come true. But as she is realizing her dreams, her past crimes continue to haunt her: stealing Eun-bi’s life, abandoning her mother, abandoning her secret baby, and betraying Moon Ji-sang.

• Oh Chang-seok as Lee Jae-hee
  • Jo Hyun-do as young Jae-hee

Lee is Jae-hwa’s half-brother whose mother was their father’s mistress for many years. Although as a child he was friendly with Jae-hwa, due to a misunderstanding, as an adult he envies Jae-hwa for being a potential threat to inheriting their father’s business, and his inferiority complex causes him to behave in unscrupulous ways. He falls in love with Min-jung, and gets his company to sponsor her study abroad in the US. He eventually marries Min-jung, even as he is warned of her treacherous nature by her former boyfriend, Moon Ji-sang, who was once his trusted assistant. When he finally realizes who Min-Jung truly is, he is horrified that he let himself trust her.

Supporting characters

• Kim Yong-rim as Park Soo-mi

Park is the Master Artisan of renowned Hanbok house Bi Sool Chae. She is wealthy, respected, and her services are sought after for restoring royal garments and dressing the First Lady of Korea. She insists on preserving the traditional art of hanbok-making, painstakingly hand-dyeing and hand-sewing each garment. She has an incredible eye for detail, and is able to recognize the seamstress with one look of the garment.

She appreciates her older daughter-in-law Ok-soo, for constructing her hanboks with love and compassion for the wearer. Although her younger daughter-in-law In-hwa is a talented seamstress and designer, she recognizes that In-hwa has greed and malice in her heart, which is also reflected in the hanboks that she makes.

• Kim Hye-ok as In-hwa

Once a very poor child, In-hwa stole a Bi Sool Chae hanbok in order to dress her mother’s corpse at her funeral. The Master Artisan of Bi Sool Chae beat her for the theft, but allowed her to keep the hanbok. She told In-hwa that the hanbok was paid for with her beating, and that it is good that her mother was not going to the afterlife in stolen clothing.

In-hwa becomes enamored with the art of hanbok-making, and manipulates Soo-bong into marrying her by piercing the gas line under his bedroom floor with her sewing scissors, and causing him to nearly suffocate to death. After she saves his life, he feels compelled to marry her.

When the Master Artisan says she will choose her successor, In-hwa becomes obsessed with being chosen, and ignores Eun-bi even more. While In-hwa is a very talented designer and seamstress, the Master Artisan has always favored the older daughter-in-law, Ok-soo, for her kind and loving nature, which was reflected in her sewing style. In addition, the Master Artisan suspects In-hwa of deliberately damaging the gas line and endangering Soo-bong’s life after she discovers the sewing scissors that were broken when piercing the gas line.

In her desperation to be selected as the successor, In-hwa steals and burns a hanbok that Ok-soo was making. To win the competition, she relentlessly pursues a one-of-a-kind embroidery piece that was designed for Korean royalty. When she learns that Ok-soo obtained the embroidery, she chases Ok-soo and her husband Hee-bong in her car during a rainy night, and causes an accident in which Hee-bong dies and Eun-bi is lost. However, she lies and says that she was not at the scene of the accident. The Master Artisan and her husband believe her.

When Ok-soo leaves Bi Sool Chae in her grief, In-hwa becomes the Head Seamstress of Bi Sool Chae. But she continues to butt heads with the Master Artisan, who insists on preserving tradition, while In-hwa has a more modern attitude, and wants to incorporate machine-sewing and mass manufacturing and make a lot more money.

When she encounters Do Bo-ri as an adult, who is really her daughter Eun-bi, she fails to recognize her. In fact, she considers Bo-ri vulgar and rude, and insults her for having a child out of wedlock.

She has a great deal in common with Min-jung, her adopted daughter, in their single-minded pursuit of a “better” life, and willingness to resort to treachery in order to achieve their goals.

• Yang Mi-kyung as Song Ok-soo

Song is the eldest daughter-in-law to the Master Artisan and widow to Heebong. She has a kind and forgiving attitude, which is shown in her sewing style. When the competition for Head Seamstress was announced, she had originally planned to let In-hwa win, but discovered In-Hwa's true nature before the final test of the competition.

When she gets her hands on the Yongbo needed to win the contest, In-Hwa had chased her down and causes them to get in an accident where her husband Hee-bong dies and Eun-bi is lost. She believes that she had saw In-Hwa's car at the scene of the accident, but no one believes her. She then leaves Bi Seul Chae out of grief and ends up in JeungHueng for the next 15 years.

She doesn't recognize Bo-Ri when she meets her after all these years. Bo-Ri had then asked her to teach her the art of Hanbok making.

After another five years, she comes back to Bi Seul Chae with the intent to expose In-Hwa's lies and to prove that Bo-Ri is Eun-bi.

• Ahn Nae-sang as Jang Soo-bong

Jang is In-Hwa's husband and Bo-Ri's father.

• Han Jin-hee as Lee Dong-hoo

Lee is the father of Jae-Hwa, Jae-Hee, and Ga-eul. He is very protective of Ga-eul.

• Geum Bo-ra as Lee Hwa-yeon

Lee Hwa-yeon is the former mistress and wife of Lee Dong-Hoo and the mother of Jae-hee and Ga-eul. She wants the best for Jae-hee.

• Woo Hee-jin as Lee Jung-ran
• Han Seung-yeon as Lee Ga-eul
• Jang Won-jong as Jang Hee-bong (cameo)
• Hwang Young-hee as Do Hye-ok
• Geonil as Kang Yoo-chun
• Choi Dae-chul as Kang Nae-chun
• Jeon In-chul as Park Jong-ha
• Kim Ji-young as Do Bi-dan
• Sung Hyuk as Moon Ji-sang

Moon Ji-sang lived together with his college girlfriend Min-jung. When his father lost his wealth, Min-jung cruelly dumped him. After discovering that she is pregnant, he tries to rekindle their relationship, promising to take care of her and their child no matter what. Min-jung gets him arrested as a stalker, and the shock of his arrest contributes to his father’s death, whose funeral Ji-sang cannot attend due to his imprisonment. He also later learns that Min-jung abandoned their baby in an orphanage.

Devastated by what Min-jung did to him, he becomes vengeful. He eventually becomes a trusted assistant to Lee Jae-hee and witnesses his romance with Min-jung. After getting into conflicts with Min-jung, Jae-hee fires him, but he is rehired as Jae-hee's father's assistant. Despite his earnest warnings about Min-jung’s treacherous nature, Lee Jae-hee marries her anyway.

Ji-sang later meets Bi-dan and discovers that she is his daughter. He becomes grateful to Bo-ri for raising her with a lot of love.

Awards and nominations

See also

• List of South Korean dramas

References

External links

• Jang Bo-ri is Here! official MBC website (Korean)
• Jang Bo-ri is Here! at HanCinema