I always wondered why the City Hall struck a cord with me, and discovering that the screen writer was Kim Eun Sook explained it all. I mentioned her already in my posts she's the genius behind the dramas Secret Garden and A Gentleman's Dignity. I've noticed that she is often greatly critiqued for her dramas with many people focusing solely on the things they don't like, but I enjoy her lighthearted and fun approach in dramas. Also, she tends to demonstrate a certain element in her characters where they are grown ups who still have childish antics in many ways. Let's face it, we all grow older, but parts of us still remain silly. I think she captures the essence of such things really well. Furthermore, it's a fictional world people. How close to reality does it really have to be? Now, that's out of the way, on to the review.
Now what do I love about City Hall? Let's start with the characters. We have the lovable and friendly Shin Mi Rae (Kim Sun Ah of My Lovely Kim Sam Soon fame) as the female lead. She is an employee at the rural city hall of Inju. She is well known to those around her and enjoys her days helping out around town doing every odd job that you can imagine. She has the role of the thankless heroine down to a tee. Then we have the charismatic, enigmatic and every other kind of 'ic' Jo Gook (Cha Seung Won- his name alone highlights why I love this drama, hehe, Dokko Jin-ah). He is the big city slinger who is sent to Inju by the kingmaker in the political world BB (Choi Il Hwa), the man you go to if you want to be anything in the political arena. Jo Gook assumes the position of Deputy Mayor and as it goes in K-dramaland, proximity to each other leads to hilarious interactions, misunderstandings and emotional exchanges that give us the ultimate journey of two leads falling in love.
Their particular tale begins with the Miss. Baendaengi [ben, dang, gi] pageant. What is it exactly? A beauty pageant where the mascot is a fish of some sort. Amm, ok. So they are really pushing the rural themes here aren't they? Anyway, Mi Rae is in dire financial straits since her ex-boyfriend has left her with a mountain of debt. She convinces Jo Gook to allow her to enter the pageant, which is a hilarious process in and of itself, but her success in the pageant eventually leads to the next step of this tale and her eventually running for Mayor of Inju.
Their particular tale begins with the Miss. Baendaengi [ben, dang, gi] pageant. What is it exactly? A beauty pageant where the mascot is a fish of some sort. Amm, ok. So they are really pushing the rural themes here aren't they? Anyway, Mi Rae is in dire financial straits since her ex-boyfriend has left her with a mountain of debt. She convinces Jo Gook to allow her to enter the pageant, which is a hilarious process in and of itself, but her success in the pageant eventually leads to the next step of this tale and her eventually running for Mayor of Inju.
This drama looks at the down right dirty world of politics and elections, but from a humourous side. That is not to say that there isn't seriousness in what is being discussed or in the situations that the characters face, it is just that the childish antics of these adults allows you to brush those tensions away just enough to continue laughing. Cha Seung Won is great at being the suave, clean cut perfect man, who is an absolute comic underneath. And then Kim Sun Ah has her own particular brand of saucy that is transmitted to any character she plays. The combination of these two is sizzling and not only do they have great romantic chemistry, but they seem to feed off of each other comically, leading to a very well executed storyline. The beautiful OST only aided in developing the overall feel of the drama.
The entire city of Inju seems filled with its own band of nuts, who are all caught up in this political game of power and control. Most amazing is that while showing these dirty deeds, the drama gets you to just shake your head and go- "What a bunch of idiot!" Even more fascinating is the ability of this drama to pull tears out of you. Of course, it's primarily a rom-com, but have you ever known a K-drama not to have melo in it? I mean really. Melo is the K-drama trademark. I just loved the city of Inju and the people I met there.
If I have one fault with this drama, it is a fault that is shared with so many K-dramas which is the multiple women scenario. Jo Gook throughout the majority of this drama has a fiance and no matter how much we as an audience understand and recognise that it is just a political pairing with no love between them, I never can get quite settled with the notion of a lead actress essentially dating an engaged man, or a married man in some cases. It is just a bothersome scenario for me no matter the circumstances. I let go of such issues in sageuk dramas because the fact of the matter is, in that time period polygamy was the "it" thing. But, while I can kind of accept it in a sageuk, in a modern drama it just rubs me the wrong way.
Despite my issues with the fiance, watching Jo Gook and Mi Rae goading each other on was the highlight of this drama. And it kept me in my excited and happy zone from beginning to end, so I try not to let that bother me too much. This drama therefore gets 4.5 stars on the Bel scale.
According to Bel: It's a city of wonder and amusement. Welcome to the City Hall.
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