In a story about reunited lovers, two childhood friends who are also each other’s first love meet again after being apart for many years. Will this mark a new beginning for their story? Or, is it too late to make up for the lost time?
To keep things interesting, we also have another two players, each with a crush on one of our leads, along with our heroine’s problematic relationship with her father.
Bunny S. watches Motel California on Viki
Opening Week Ratings: 
Motel California Opening Week Story
“You dream of me every night, don’t you?”
Our story begins on New Year’s Eve just a few hours before we reach the year 2013. It is a day to celebrate with family or friends. Yet our heroine, Ji Kang-hee (Lee Se-young), is packing up to take the bus to Seoul. We aren’t given much context. But we learn that Kang-hee’s mother comes from a mixed-race background. So, Kang-hee looks a bit different, with colored eyes, fair hair, and freckles, making her the subject of the villagers’ gossip.
The villagers are one thing. Yet there is also the issue of Kang-hee having communication problems with her dad Ji Chun-pil (Choi Min-soo) who is also the owner of our titular Motel California. We can see Chun-pil genuinely cares for Kang-hee and wants her to stay with him. But this father-daughter duo doesn’t get along well and their disputes run deep that Kang-hee deems herself a mistake in her father’s life.
Chun-pil isn’t the only one sad about Kang-hee’s departure, though. There is also Cheon Yeon-soo (Na In-woo), Kang-hee’s best friend since childhood who has a crush on her and whose feelings seem to be reciprocated by Kang-hee, given how she keeps trying to talk him into joining her and attending college in Seoul. But no matter how much Yeon-soo wants to be with Kang-hee, going to Seoul is beyond his means.
“Can someone with prejudices really evaluate ability without bias?”
10 years pass after Kang-hee and Yeon-soo say their goodbyes. Yeon-soo still lives in their hometown, working as a veterinarian, and receiving many offers to set him up with a nice woman. However, he turns them down in favor of this spectacular lady he has in Seoul. Unlike his past full-figured body, Yeon-soo lost all this weight and even took off his nerdy glasses. Something that will come to bite him later since Kang-hee was firm about Yeon-soo not losing weight or taking off his glasses. But that is a story for another day.
동글 몸매🙆♂️ + 토실 볼살🩵
강희만을 바라보는 인간 곰돌이 진짜 있음🐻첫사랑 리모델링 로맨스 드라마#모텔캘리포니아
1월 10일(금) 밤 9시 50분 첫 방송🏩#이세영 #나인우#최민수 #김태형 #최희진#mbcdrama #MBC금토드라마 #MBC pic.twitter.com/acFvdgVync— MBC DRAMA (@mbcdrama_pre) December 17, 2024
Meanwhile, Kang-hee is now an interior designer. But the thing is: she got blacklisted and now works for a nasty boss on a construction site. Luckily, Kang-hee meets someone who recognizes her talent and helps her secure an internship at a major company. On her first time there, people look down on Kang-hee despite her skills just because she graduated from an unknown university. Not that Kang-hee lets people walk over her. Putting on her smoky makeup, a.k.a her combat attire, Kang-hee shows them what she is made of.
Meeting her first client, Kang-hee makes a good impression on them and pulls an all-nighter to put a design together. But Kang-hee’s boss mocks her design and fires her, calling her an inescapably B-grade designer. That man is insufferable, to say the least. Satisfyingly enough, Kang-hee teaches him a lesson before packing her belongings, including the designs, and leaving.
꼬질해도 귀여워…(♡˙︶˙♡)
고향 떠나 생고생하는 강희's 서울살이💦첫사랑 리모델링 로맨스 드라마#모텔캘리포니아
1월 10일(금) 밤 9시 50분 첫 방송🏩#이세영 #나인우#최민수 #김태형 #최희진#mbcdrama #MBC금토드라마 #MBC pic.twitter.com/dNy8IyChjT— MBC DRAMA (@mbcdrama_pre) December 19, 2024
“If you eat the first snow ten times, you will be with your first love.”
Whenever she is down in the dumps, imagining Yeon-soo in front of her helps Kang-hee gain strength to fight for another day. Unbeknownst to her, Yeon-soo heads to Seoul every chance he gets, hoping he might run into Kang-hee. On the day she was meeting the client, Yeon-soo came across Kang-hee but missed her before they could meet.
As luck would have it, the old friends finally get to meet, but sadly, it is at Yeon-soo’s grandfather’s funeral. Hearing the news, Kang-hee returns to the town for the first time since she left. And her visit becomes the talk of the town. Spotting her, Yeon-soo wraps Kang-hee in a tight hug. But ironically, she can’t recognize him now that Yeon-soo lost weight.
We thought Kang-hee would stay in the village for a bit, especially since she was fired from her job. But Kang-hee leaves as abruptly as she showed up after getting into a fight with a mean guy who used to bully her since they were children. It is also worth noting that Yeon-soo stepped up for Kang-hee, and punched the mean guy, marking his first fistfight ever.
“There is a man claiming ownership of me. I want to get away from that man.”
Awaiting Kang-hee in Seoul is a pleasant surprise, though the process leading to it was quite embarrassing. Having recognized Kang-hee’s talent, the client from before, Geum Seok-kyeong (Kim Tae-hyeong), chose her design over the one from her nasty boss and also hired her to work on another project. (The nasty boss begged Kang-hee to return to the company, offering her a fancy title, yet Kang-hee turned him down and took on the project as a freelancer. Way to go, girl!)
With things sorted out at work, Kang-hee can now catch a lucky break, especially since she put in too much effort and held out for long to get this chance. But there is one minor problem troubling her. As it so happens, both Kang-hee and Chun-pil share the same birthday, which coincides with Christmas Day. Something Chun-pil is thrilled about and Kang-hee is exasperated about. Every year since she left, Chun-pil books a hotel suite for the two of them to celebrate their joint birthday, much to Kang-hee’s dismay.
Kang-hee is sick of it. But Chun-pil won’t stop until Kang-hee gets a boyfriend. Cue: Kang-hee asking Seok-kyeong (who, unbeknownst to Kang-hee, has a crush on her) to pretend to be her boyfriend and help her shake off that “guy” who claims ownership of her. Except, the one waiting for Kang-hee in the hotel suite this time isn’t Chun-pil but Yeon-soo, who looks appalled to see Kang-hee with another man.
As we end this week, we get a flashback of Yeon-soo looking for Kang-hee all over Seoul since Chun-pil refused to tell him Kang-hee’s address. With only the little piece of intel that Yeon-soo works at a convenience store, Yeon-soo visited every convenience store out there until he came across Kang-hee. However, Kang-hee was having such a tough day that she told Yeon-soo not to come see her again. (That is not right!) As it so happens, Seok-kyeong was also present, though we don’t know yet if any of the three remember meeting back then.
Motel California Opening Week Musings
That was a good start. Having flashbacks from childhood and high school days sprinkled throughout the episodes makes the story more engaging, keeping us curious while also giving us interesting parallels and contrasts to the present day. A 20-year-old Kang-hee was full of passion when she first came to Seoul, but the world has been harsh to her. Hopefully, she will shine again after getting that precious chance to show the world her unique designs.
I also like how pure-hearted Yeon-soo is, lending a hand to everyone around him, including strangers. In a quick sequence, we see Yeon-seo help a stranger secure a shelter for some test dogs she managed to free but didn’t know what to do with. No wonder said stranger, Fellow Veterinarian Yoon Nan-woo (Choi Hee-jin), fell for Yeon-seo at first sight and asked around if he had a girlfriend.
It is evident how Yeon-soo is still in love with Kang-hee but lacks the courage to act on his feelings. When he finally mustered up the courage to make a move on Kang-hee, things ended up getting more complicated with Seok-kyeong entering the picture and Yeon-soo mistaking him for Kang-hee’s boyfriend.
We can see that Kang-hee has feelings for Yeon-soo as well, given the scene where she imagined getting married to him and how shocked she was to see him in the hotel suite. But Kang-hee has always prioritized her dreams and future over her feelings. So, I am curious to see how she will react. Will Kang-hee correct the misunderstanding? Or, will she leave things as they stand?
강희X연수 10년 만의 재결합, 그리고 결혼식까지 직행?!👀#모텔캘리포니아
금토 밤 9시 50분 방송🏩#이세영 #나인우#최민수 #김태형 #최희진#mbcdrama #MBC금토드라마 #MBC #MotelCalifornia pic.twitter.com/wPffa7Fcgf— MBC DRAMA (@mbcdrama_pre) January 11, 2025
The story looks promising and there are many plotlines to look forward to, like our leads’ past, the reason Kang-hee’s mother left, and Kang-hee’s reconciliation with her father. Not to mention the upcoming love quartet that hopefully won’t get too messy. Keep it up, show!
Motel California streams on Viki every Friday and Saturday!
Photos and Videos: MBC Drama
Leave a Reply