After managing to see probably some 15-20 South Korean feature films produced between 1999 to 2005, I took the recommendation of the kind staff at my local Korean grocery store to check out the more popular TV series. Starring the rather lovely Song Hye-kyo, playing an internet novelist and the curiously monikered Rain as a wildly popular young movie star, on the one hand it's a good example of the quirky mix of slapstick comedy interspersed with rather sobering moments of heartbreak and frustration experienced by the characters. The surprising fact is that the first episode follows a similar plot line to House of Sand and Fog, which certainly wasn't a comedy and was absolutely full of despair. Girl inherits lovely house on the coast from parents, struggles financially, circumstances lead to her losing most of her possessions and having her home sold off underneath her feet, new owner has little sympathy at first. That's fortunately where the comparison ends! Plenty of moments of Song Hye-kyo screwing her face up in disgust by some awkward thing she's said or done, and Rain (wearing his rather strange low cut male-cleavage shirts) glancing into the ether whilst biting his lip do eventually lead to a building relationship between a very odd couple. Words can not describe how huge a hit this series was in much of Asia, so from even from this not so Asian reviewer, Full House holds a charming appeal.
