Shopping King Louie

Shopping King Louie of definitely one of the best Korean drama of the year, so far. Effectively candyfloss, this drama was the best pick-me-up I could find in between all the school related stress. Plus, I'll try any romantic-comedy with cute cohabitation antics. Anything.

NOTE: Light spoilers.

Not long after playing crafty swindler Jung-do in Police Unit 38, Seo In-guk returned to the wonderful universe of drama as Kang Ji-sung, better known as Louie, a rich boy who lives in a French mansion. He has a butler to attend to attend to his every need, more clothes than he could ever wear, and a shopping addiction he can fuel at any time. Sounds good? Well, not really, since all that's left of Louie's family is his Grandmother, who treasures him but is very superstitious. She believes Louie will die like his parents did if he lives near her - therefore, he's isolated in France, and honestly he's very restricted in the freedoms he has so he can be kept as safe as possible at all times. When Louie's Grandmother faints, though, she has a change of heart and decides she needs Louie near her until she dies. Hence, he is flown to Korea to become the next CEO of the family company.

  Then disaster strikes. Louie's car is hit by a truck as he's driving from the airport. It bursts into flames, and he dies. Or does he? Let's rewind a little.

  Go Bok-shil is a girl who has lived in the mountains her entire life. Her parents died in a landslide when she was young, and she has supported her Grandmother and young brother Bok-nam ever since. After Bok-nam grows curious about the city and Bok-shil's Grandmother dies, she travels to Seoul to find Bok-nam and give him the bad news. There, she finds Louie. In Bok-nam's clothes. With no memories. When he supposedly died the previous night. She takes him in with hope that his lost memories are the key to finding her brother, and the two try to find their footing in a completely unfamiliar place where all they have is each other.

Now, the first episode was a little odd, but once Louie and Bok-shil met the drama became a quick favourite of mine. The relationship makes the show what it is. As much as I liked the story and the side characters, the drama was at it's bets when the two of them were together. One thing I loved about Shopping King Louie was that it strayed from the typical Korean romantic-comedy format, in which the characters will meet and an attraction will grow slowly but obstacles will constantly keep them apart. In Shopping King Louie, it's not that difficult. Louie and Bok-shil trust each other from day one, and their romance was never the central conflict of the show. Rather, I think Shopping King Louie's moral is that the world sucks, and it always will, but things will be far better if you have someone you can rely on unconditionally. Regardless of the murderous or plain conniving villains that pop up here and there, Shopping King Louie is a sugary treat with a few life-lessons added in - such as, keep your credit card where your shopaholic roommate can never, ever find it.

  Although I say this, I have many compliments for the writer. Her romantic-comedy wasn't simple; on the contrary, it was very complex and mystery-filled, with an adorable romance and chock-full of quirky and endearing characters who somehow become one weird family. I like how she evidently considered the entire story, and dotted clues towards the truth about Louie's amnesia and Bok-nam's disappearance everywhere, even leading the audience astray, before finally making the reveal. In addition, I enjoyed how this writer took tropes you see in Korean drama all the time and gave them a fresh twist. For instance, rich-man poor-woman romances are always in abundance (Secret Garden, Fated to Love You, Heirs and most recently, Cinderella and the Four Knights are just a handful of examples), and whilst Shopping King Louie was undoubtedly one of those, Louie had none of the makings of a typical rich man. He's known nothing but money his entire life, and so he is frivolous with it, but he's desperately to change - he isn't selfish, rather if he could, he would give Bok-shil everything he owns, and he has a child-like innocence that is just irresistible. He can't survive without money, but he's keen to learn how. Shopping King Louie was almost flawlessly crafted, and wonderfully unique. 

  As usual, Seo In-guk is fantastic, and he gave Louie a batch of brilliant facial expressions to go with his playful and sometimes plain stupid character. I still marvel over how Seo In-guk can make each and every one of his characters distinctly different when they all share the same face. Whilst this is my first time seeing Nam Ji-hyun, I found her equally charming as the golden-hearted Bok-shil. There are a fair number of other noteworthy performances - Bok-shil and Louie's unemployed neighbour In-sung (I particularly liked this performance, since I've only ever seen Oh Dae-hwan play villains), Louie's trusty sidekick Butler Kim, and Bok-shil's grumpy boss and admirer Cha Joong-won who proves that Yoon Sang-hyun will always choose the most unconventional roles. 

In short, Shopping King Louie was pleasantly surprising - it proved deeper and sweeter than I first imagined, but then again, it was my fault for doubting Seo In-guk would pick a good project. I'm by looking out for anything this writer produces in the future. Hopefully it'll be just as warm and satisfying.