Super Rookie

Also known as 신입사원 and New Employee, the first time I saw an episode of this series is when I went to Hong Kong and being unable to understand Cantonese I did not take the series very seriously. I finally revisited this series when I stumbled onto it on the world wide web. The other reason why I wanted to watch this series is because of Eric Mun from Shinhwa (a Korean singing group), and no not because I like him from the band, I just know that he was starring as the main male lead in Super Rookie. So when I had my semi-break period in between end of Autumn and Winter semesters I watched it.

Synopsis: Kang Ho is a 30-year-old man without any job. He rarely holds onto any job and often skip from one job to another for scraps of money. One day due to a high-school friend's reunion he was utterly humiliated for being unemployed among all the high-earning buddies (along with a friend of his), he decided he would take a chance in applying for a job at LK Corporation (a supposed biggest and most prestigious company in Korea) with this friend. Through a computer error and luck he was employed by the company even though he has the wrong qualifications. The series go through his trial and tribulation of making it into the big corporate world with his wit, luck and sheer determination. The series delves deeper into the other characters' difficulties as well, we have Bong-Sam who is a successful LK employee who came from a sad background but ruthless in his way of working, Mi-Ok who is always tormented by her boss, Sung-Tae who graduated from the prestigious Seoul University but still unable to find work, even Kang-Ho's dad who is unemployed and always get oppressed by his wife (Kang-Ho's mom) and Kang-Ho himself.

Casts: Eric Mun as Kang Ho, Han Ga-In as Lee Mi-Ok, Oh Ji-Ho as Park Bong-Sam and Lee So-Yeon as Soo Hyun-Ah.

Review: What can I say? I am in love with this drama, it doesn't have the too much cluttered feeling and excessive use of flashback, which Korean dramas seem to have most of the time (well at least the ones that I watched anyways). It also speaks on so many level regarding trying to make it into a large corporation solely on your ability and experience not qualifications, it might not speak too much about western countries but it does reflect a lot on Asian countries. Not only that the series delves deeper into the different difficulties people have to deal with regarding employment, social humiliations, oppression and life itself. The series speaks to many different levels of dynamics and societies, insights into these people were also done on a personal level, allowing us the viewers to understand each characters, not just Kang-Ho's trial and tribulations. On another note, Eric Mun in this series is just adorable as the slightly cocky, innocent and brave man trying to find his way into the world. Even though his character is always comical he doesn't give out the feeling that it was too overdone and exaggerated. The plot was always a surprise and edited very well, each episode wasn't left hanging too much but it always makes you beg for more (as in my case). I enjoy this series tremendously and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys feel-good dramas.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Post Script: I just absolutely fell in love with Eric Mun now, he's adorable XD



Post Post Script: There's also a sequel to this called Super Rookie: Secret Agent. Though I'm not too sure on the details since the pictures don't really appeal to me. Apparently it's based around the same concept of the character landing a prestigious job as a high-class secret agent through error in the employing process (correct me if I'm wrong, I wasn't too sure) and Eric Mun also comes back as the lead character, the story is completely different to the prequel, the sequel is based upon the same concept as the prequel but the story and characters are completely different. Also in this drama Eric Mun will be donning cropped hair because of the requirements of the character. (boohoo he cut off his gorgeous long locks TT__TT)