In 2012, the middle-aged F4 from Kim Eun Sook penned series, A Gentleman’s Dignity, swept the hearts of K-Drama fans with their engrossing love stories.
From the production team that brought Secret Garden, City Hall and Lovers in Paris; an addictive, relationship contemplating rom-com drama in a Sex and the City male version vibe happened in A Gentleman’s Dignity.
- Main Cast: Jang Dong Gun | Kim Ha Neul | Kim Min Jong | Lee Jong Hyun | Yoon Se Ah | Yoon Jin Yi | Kim Jung Nan | Kim Su Ro |
- Romance/Addictive Meter:
- Overall Rating:
- Rewatch Value:
- Dramas of Similar Vibe: Hospital Playlist | Welcome To Waikiki |
- Originally Published on my blog in September 2012
A Gentleman’s Dignity Peak Points
Four Engaging Love Couples
A Gentleman’s Dignity’s cast achieved a chemistry that was able to sustain and balance four love stories tied by love and friendship. At first, viewers can go for the couple they can most relate to. However, vouching for the whole set is inevitable. It was laid unpretentiously, realistically and mirthfully.
Banking on its strength, it notched a superb narrative by creating real-life events as natural as it can be to its projected imaginary world setting. Effectively suiting up to their roles, the four love pairings did a great job in sustaining the thriving mood of the series.
Kim Do Jin and So Yi Seo
The smooth womanizer who vowed not to be married because he can’t love only one woman in his life met his match alongside two declarations of love that were not meant for him. Do-jin is a textbook example of an alpha-playboy who can assess when he needed to be a knight-in-a-shining-armor, and when he can disregard someone because she already stepped on his mark as a man. The one-sided love that eventually became two-sided was a fetching tale and a reminder that love just happens, and it will change you and your life overnight.
Choi Yoon and Im Me Ah Ri
The you-and-me-against-my-brother-who-is-your-best-friend love affair was worth the wait when they eventually claimed what was rightfully theirs. It was a long ride and if not for Me Ah Ri’s persistent and lovable bratty princess attitude, the patience paid off. What made their tandem charming was her non-restrained “i-love-you-you-belong-to-me” attitude which eventually warmed the cold widow.
Lee Jung Rok and Park Min Sook
This husband-and-wife provided ample zest with their story. The playboy-of-them-all who occasionally hides his wedding ring when there’s a hot girl in a meter radius causes big-time laughter whenever he faces his wife in a My-Wife-is-a-Gangster mode. Jung-rok is the stimulus of most of the laughter in this drama and how his friends would cover up for his womanizing was so fun to watch. I would have wished for more of their marriage cute quarrels but I deem they have the most out of their screen time to be remembered well.
Im Tae San and Hong Se Ra
Tae San was your typical good boy playboy. He plays around but he knows when to stop. He is ever-reliable, nice and protective. His relationship with a woman who was afraid of settling down and their love fights along the way presented what most middle-aged relationships are… leading to marriage or forever single life. Their love pairing solidified the main love plot, in fact, the characters they played were the tying knot of the drama.
Polished and Entertaining Love Narrative
From a woman’s perspective, I never thought I would enjoy this so much and I felt that even if Jang Dong Gun was the main attraction among the boys, having them all together was the strongest point of the drama. All four of them were a big pile of mirth and love.
They say life begins at 40, and these men who were friends since high school rocked it. Having their own stable life, they have to balance personal, family and relationship issues while maintaining the best bromance ever.
The conflicts mainly focused on their finding and keeping love. Do-jin and Yi-soo depicted how sweet a one-sided love can be when it becomes two-sided. Yoon and Me Ah Ri defied friendship and age to prove they deserve each other. Tae San and Se Ra had a rough ride before they finally realized they belong to each other. Jung Rok and Min Sook defeated jealousies and discovered that you sometimes have to lose love so that you can find it again.
Humbling and Realistic Writing
Triumphantly realistic, the series is characterized by unpretentious romance stories that have been made believable by their flaws. An urban set drama should be supported by pragmatic events. Scenarios that can happen to anyone and problems that can be solved by perceptible answers.
Armed with those elements, the series banked on its strength. Thus, inducing an engrossing following for the audience who genuinely felt the intention to present the facets of relationships. Regardless of being sensible or not; whether it could be mentally tormenting or emotionally liberating.
Featuring four faces of real relationships, viewers can relate to the love pairings. Every episode is wrapped with comical notes and witty situations. The writing also invested effort to make each character own his glorious moment.
Additionally, the series brims with thought-provoking lines about relationship apprehensions. It relays realistic key points to why love can never be used as leverage to marriage. Because “love” itself is the soul of a life-long commitment.
A Gentleman’s Dignity Series Musings
The quirky and engaging cast and the quaint story made me a groupie member of the best middle-aged-smexy men who graced the K-Dramaland.
A Gentleman’s Dignity narrates the story of men in their 40’s who grew up as friends since high school and nurtured their friendship thereafter. The morning breakfast forums, the constant cover-ups to survive the feisty wife, the one-sided love, the mischievous-May-December-love-affair, the now-we-break-up-tomorrow-we’ll-get-back relationship, the opening hilarious anecdotes, the sweetest heart-wrenching love declarations and love-believe-me’s, and the hilariously endearing bromance were some of the reasons why it gave me a K-Drama fan girl life-affirming moment when I first saw it.
Every episode is a humor and wit overload. Each character can stand alone and has his own spotlight moment. All throughout there was never a dull moment. It was exceptionally comic when the four main leads do their antics and so heartfelt when the scenes require them to tap on their emotions.
The 20 hours I spent with this drama was definitely worth it.
The story and the characters have such reverberating resonance that might make you reflect on how you’ve been dealing with your own relationship and commitment issues. Admirably, A Gentleman’s Dignity is a reminder of how vulnerable and how defiant you can become because of love failures.
Notable Drama Quotes
“If you’re not going to sleep with me, don’t flirt.”
“You do not bait a fish that was already caught.”
“You forgot a man, with another man.”
“All break-ups done for another person do not make sense to the person who loved more.”
“By nature, a man’s first love is always beautiful.”
“Do you know what words a man can’t say after ‘iloveyou’? ‘I’m sorry.'”
“Why don’t you let your emotions lead you? Or the alcohol lead you… or let me lead you?”
“Do you know how it feels to have someone yesterday and then “you wish you have her” the next day?”
Photos: SBS
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