Remake: Full House

Back to the world of remakes! This time it will be about one country's adaptations of the same story.

Synopsis:

Due to forcible circumstances, a girl has to move into the same house with an idol star that she shared a love-hate relationship with ever since they first met and so the troubles begin.

Main Cast: 


Bi/Rain                               Song Hye Kyo                     Kim Sung Soo                      Han Eun Jeong
No Min Woo                         Hwang Jung Eum                Park Ki Woong                    Yoo Seol Ah



Characters:



Similarities: Both of them are idol stars, the type of male leads that always get what they want, arrogant, self centered and *insert your usual Korean rom-com male lead's character*

Differences: Lee Tae Ik's character is more arrogant, he's a perfectionist who cares about the little details and don't want people to get into his little circle while Lee Young Jae isn't very haughty with his surroundings. Also, Tae Ik has something to fight for. Therefore, he tries everything he can to accomplish his goal while Young Jae is free minded somehow.






Similarities: They're both tough, they're not the type of female leads who let the male lead control their lives and step on them. They fight for what they want even if they can be a little too sensitive sometimes.

Differences: Han Ji Eun is more reckless and hot tempered especially with Young Jae, while Jang Man Ok tries her best not to get on the bad side of Tae Ik. Also, Man Ok is a busybody who tries to help every one of her surroundings even if she has to sacrifice herself whereas Ji Eun doesn't have too many surroundings to care about.



Similarities: They're the type of kind second male leads who are always there for the female lead, until they fall in love with her and... Well, you know how it goes.

Differences: They're very dissimilar. As a matter of fact, Kang Hwi has the feel of a main lead and takes a large amount of the storyline with his past stories and everything plus he's also an idol, while Min Hyuk is a businessman. Furthermore, Kang Hwi's relationship with Jang Man Ok and Lee Tae Ik is much deeper than Yu Min Hyuk's relationship with Han Ji Eun and Lee Young Jae. 




Similarities: Your usual second female leads in Korean Dramas romantic comedies so you can tell that they're not very nice.

Differences: Jin Se Ryung was much meaner than Kang Hye Won; she always does everything she can just to get what she wants. In addition, Se Ryung is in the entertainment industry like Tae Ik and Kang Hwi while Hye Won is a stylist.



I have mixed feelings about the 2004 hit drama that reached the whole world and even my country. Maybe if I watched it on television at that time or when I first became addicted, I am sure I would've thought of it otherwise. However, I saw this drama after watching too many romantic comedies and I felt like this one isn't that original compared to them since it's based on the classic Kdrama triangle and love-hate relationship between the protagonists.

No matter how much I liked the main actors, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the repetitive fights, which took over the whole story for me, there were some exaggerated sadness scenes and many illogical quarrels, which made the whole concept dull somehow. Of course, there were a respectable amount of entertaining events but the drama became dragging even though the writers managed to get back on track at the last few episodes. Needless to say, I skipped a lot parts to finish this drama because it was going in circles most of the time, plus: there weren't a lot of events beside the main leads over-dramatic fights.

In case you were wondering, no, I am not Rain's anti-fan. Actually I like him and Song Hye Kyo is in fact one of my favorite Korean actresses. However, I wasn't very impressed with their characters.

This is a classic, don't get me wrong, I am not a hater but I've seen much better romantic comedies which deserve 40% ratings but maybe because this came out when this genre was rarely present in South Korea which explains the huge success.





When I first heard about this, I thought "Full House's remake? I didn't really enjoy that drama, thanks, but no thanks, I will pass" but then I figured that it may be good and make it up for the old one. Therefore, I decided to watch it, extra credits to No Min Woo and Park Ki Woong who were one of the main reasons I started this.

It's hard to call this drama a remake. I can hardly see anything in common with the 2004 version. It's true that it has the same title, the male leads are in the entertainment industry, there is a house called "Full House", a love-hate relationship between the main leads and a triangle but that's about it. Everything else is dissimilar; even the story's feel is very different.

That being said, I enjoyed this version better. It's not like this one had depth or anything, not at all! But it had some interesting side stories like the second male lead's family and everything about his career. Furthermore, the female lead has an interesting background herself, which made things a bit more interesting than the first version that was nearly exempt of any side stories, and the ones it had were very annoying and boring.

It's also true that this version was full of cliches and the chemistry between the main leads isn't that great but it was more pleasant than the first version, probably because the writers didn't focus the spotlight on the main leads only but tried to extend to more characters.

In addition, this version felt more like an idol drama more than the 2004 version. With Kpop, fangirls, concerts, scandals, press, bands, songwriters and everything that gives the feeling of an idol drama while the first version can hardly be considered an idol drama but then again, there were too many differences between the two versions to the point where you will wonder: "Are these two dramas related at all?"


I think this is refreshing, watching a remake and having no assumptions about what will happen because it's too different from the first version and events are nothing alike. Perhaps remakes should be done this way from now on or maybe not? After all, what's the meaning of the word "remake" if it's nothing like the original?


To Summarize :

Drama	Strength Points	Weak Points
Full House	The living-together concept Some entertainment moments Acceptable chemistry	Too many unnecessary quarrels between the main leads. The drama went in circles at some points.
Full House Take 2	The idol drama concept Good sidestories Satisfying second male lead portrayal. Great cinematography	Full of cliches Average chemistry