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 High Kick! |
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 Synopsis |
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| Lee Yoon-ho(Jeong Il-woo), a motorcycle mania who engages in many fights at school and is known for his high kick, and Lee Min-ho(Kim Hye-seong) who enjoys spending time on scale models and web blogs, are brothers born a year apart but attending the same class at school. These two portray completely opposite Korean teenage characters in a comical way. And of course, there’s the rest of the family. Their father(Jeong Joon-ha), a full-time stock investor since being laid-off from work, nevertheless optimistic and reckless; their mother(Park Hae-mi), an oriental medicine doctor and always overly confident; their grandfather(Lee Soon-jae), who loves money more than anything in the world; their grandmother(Nah Mun-hee), who is always defeated by her daughter-in-law in ongoing status quarrels, are some of them. Their uncle Lee Min-yong(Choi Min-yong) is a 27-year-old single dad. After going through a premature marriage and early divorce, he enjoys his life back in the dating scene with his half-single and half-married status, while continuing to encounter emotionally-involved moments with his ex-wife Shin Ji(Shin Ji) at times. Smooth High Kick! is a situation comedy, which portrays the everyday lives of the main characters colliding with each other in a comical way. However, at a certain point, the surprising mysteries of their seemingly-normal surrounding characters begin to unravel one by one. |
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Lee Soon-jae/age 70, Owner
of an oriental medicine clinic - Lee Soon-jae
A conservative
and patriarchal father.
Due to his shallow character, he is easy to upset,
but also easy to console with the simplest compliments. Money is so important to
him that it is the sole measuring stick of all values. He has absolute belief in
worldly standards. (For instance, such belief as Seoul National University is
the best no matter what.)
He is always yelling at his two sons as both of
them do not live up to his standards, and he has a hot temper with his kick
preceding his words when enraged. Although he seems to be holding full authority
of the household, he is inevitably weak to his daughter-in-law as she was the
one to re-establish business of his failing oriental medicine clinic. His
favoritism towards his grandson Min-ho with the good grades is too
obvious.
He has a friend who bullies him and even tries to take money from
him that he’s waiting for the right time to strike back while polishing his
nunchaku skills.
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Nah Mun-hee/age 68,
Housewife - Na Moon-hee
Used to be a maid at Soon-jae’s house
before marrying him.
Just as she thought her life would finally become easier
after marrying off her two sons, her first daughter-in-law came to live with her
asking her for help raising the kids, and her second daughter-in-law left her a
baby grandson upon divorce.
Although she is usually chatty and complaining,
she is totally overpowered by her first daughter-in-law. Every once in a while
she becomes overly cranky that the whole family is surprised.
Just like her
older son Joon-ha, she is physically very strong and has an enormous appetite.
She gets along well the most with him.
She enjoys spending time talking
behind her daughter-in-law’s back with Mrs. Kaesung-daek, an old lady who lives
nearby. However, one day, as Mrs. Kaesung-daek suddenly disappears, the
never-ending mystery begins.
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Lee Joon-ha/age 43,
Full-time stock investor - Jung Jun-ha
After being laid off
from a stock company, he becomes a full-time investor at home, but continues to
lose money instead of making any.
With his optimistic nature, he often clings
onto matters with low odds and is easily taken advantage by his friends.
His
physical and sexual energy is excessive, and he is also impulsive that he
usually reacts upon the slightest nudge from his wife, Hae-mi. He has a huge
appetite, but also suffers from severe constipation to the verge of even crying
on the toilet. He is not such a sensitive character and has a temper that he
doesn’t get along too well with Soon-jae, but does with Mun-hee. He has a crush
on a nurse at Soon-jae’s clinic, and one day it becomes much more serious that
the whole family is turned upside down. He has a bad habit of running away from
home after causing trouble.
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Park Hae-mi/age 45, Oriental
medicine doctor - Park Hae-mee
She’s a smart and tough woman
with a Superwoman complex.
She firmly believes that she is a competent and
well-respected doctor and a lovable wife with the perfect marriage. She is also
a great mom who knows what’s best for her kids, and an adored daughter-in-law.
In fact, she is not satisfied with anything unless everyone else thinks so,
too.
It will be fair to say that she has the actual authority in the family
since she is the only one who can confidently assert her opinions in front of
her father-in-law, whom everyone else is afraid of.
She is always
self-centered(even when given instructions by her parents-in-law, she goes on
accepting it after giving herself an “OK” as a final say) and always tries to
lecture those around her(even when complying to others’ demands, she tells them
“that’s not what I think, so try reconsidering later.”) She is very expressive
and her speech and behavior is exaggerated like you would see in a play.
She
is slightly manic-depressive and displays the behaviors listed above when her
mood is cheerful. However, when she’s down, she is overwhelmed by her emotions
and sometimes cries alone while performing acupuncture on herself. As for her
stand on her incompetent husband Joon-ha(He’s younger and she married him as she
fell in love first), she is unable to admit that her marriage is not perfect
mostly due to her self-pride, but actually, her marriage is quite happy as she
doesn’t mind Joon-ha’s strong sexual appetite.
She has a habit of singing
chorus whenever someone else sings at a
karaoke.
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Lee Min-ho /age 17,
High-school freshman - Kim Hye-seong
A straight-A student
who’s physically weak but witty.
His good grades are not the result of his
consistent efforts, but of the smarts he was born with. His future goals include
attending medical school just like his mother and grandfather wishes him to,
which is an instance that demonstrates his realist nature and desire for
stability rather than being adventurous or challenging.
He’s smart and full
of ideas, taking part in the family’s countless schemes and tricks. That is why
he is often consulted by other family members when someone plans something
behind another one’s back. He knows most secrets of other family members and is
favored by his grandfather. He tries not to irritate his strong younger brother
Yoon-ho, but does get beat up by him at times. He envies Yoon-ho’s popularity
among girls and dreams of having such popularity, but regrets that girls aren’t
too crazy about his less distinctive features. Although he’s not too bad from an
objective point of view, he feels inferior to Yoon-ho in terms of his height,
body, or appearance, and wishes to be able to boast of stories about girlfriends
like Yoon-ho someday.
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Lee Yoon-ho /age 16,
High-school freshman - Jeong Il-woo
He’s a macho-style guy
pumping testosterone, with a muscular body and strong punch. He is also fond of
sports and is a motorcycle mania. To be more precise, he is pretty much obsessed
with the need to appear tough and strong at all times.
He attends the same
class as his older brother Min-ho because of his rapid physical growth, and
ignores the fact that Min-ho is an older brother to him. At home, he’s a
trouble-maker unlike at school. He’s not good at explaining matters as his
reasoning skills falls short, understanding circumstances takes time as he’s
slow-witted, and his grades are pathetic due to his unintelligence. People
around him are often startled by his extreme ignorance.
He is aware of the
fact that his brain doesn’t match up to his appearance and stressed out about
it.
He dreams of becoming a rich and famous ultimate fighting champion and
actually believes he’ll eventually be able to marry actress Moon Geun-young if
he does. (Her poster hangs on the wall beside his bed and even his computer
wallpaper is her picture.)
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Lee Min-yong /age 27,
High-school PE teacher - Choi Min-yong
He was a late-born
child when Soon-jae was in his mid-40s, and is currently a PE teacher at the
school Yoon-ho and Min-ho attends.
Even with the disapproval of his family,
upon graduating college, he married Shin Ji who was his girlfriend throughout
college. But they get divorced within two years. As she insisted on going to
study abroad to Russia, he had no choice but to come back into his parent’s
house. He relies on his mother for raising his baby son and lives in the attic
trying to avoid his raged father as much as possible. Whenever in trouble, he
usually tries to get something out of his mother who’s much easier to deal
with.
He’s sensitive but lazy, and humorous but cynical, which contributes to
his sarcastic manner.
However, he does have a good-natured personality that
he eventually ends up complying with others’ demands. Although he goes through
various romantic relationships, he’s not able to fully detach himself from Shin
Ji as he continues to get emotionally involved with her. Their relationship gets
complicated because of the intervention of his family
members.
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Shin Ji/age 26, TV
commercial song singer - Shin Ji
TV commercial song
singer.
She’s not big enough to have worked on famous commercials on network
television yet, but is at the level of having her commercials on cable
television.
She’s fickle and doesn’t have the street smarts. Her parents live
in the US. She married Min-yong after a couple years of dating in college, but
suddenly discovers her calling in music composition one day and decides to go
study abroad. She argues with Min-yong over this, which becomes the cause for
their divorce, and she eventually leaves for Moscow. However, as her plans don’t
work out too well there, she comes back and sneaks around Min-yong’s house for
her son. When his parents find out, she asks for their forgiveness and is
granted visits.
However, with Soon-jae insisting on her and Min-yong’s
remarriage, her emotionally unresolved feelings, her new boyfriend, and a
three-cornered relationship with Min-yong and her roommate Min-jeong, make her
situation ever more complicated.
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Seo Min-jeong/age 27,
Yoon-ho and Min-ho’s homeroom teacher - Suh Min-jung
She
becomes an English teacher and homeroom teacher for Yoon-ho and Min-ho at the
school Min-yong also teaches. Although she is a sweet girl, she’s unfortunate as
she always gets involved with the wrong men or keeps getting herself into minor
accidents.
As too many of her mistakes and unfortunate moments are exposed,
she is regarded as more of a big sister rather than a teacher to her students.
For instance, her students aren’t afraid of her to the point where a student
would grab her arm and not let go when she tries to enforce physical punishment.
However, when they find out about a man who mistreats her, the whole class would
get angry like she was their own sister.
She’s high-school friends with Shin
Ji and shares an apartment with her.
She falls in love with Min-yong while
trying to help Shin Ji and Min-yong get back
together.
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Kim Beom/age 16, Friend of
Min-ho and Yoon-ho - Kim Beom
He’s a grandson of Soon-jae’s
friend and is friends with Yoon-ho and Min-ho. He has been entering Soon-jae’s
house as it were his own since he was little. He bursts in heading straight to
the refrigerator for snacks (Actually, he has a habit of bringing plain loafs of
bread and grabbing stuff to eat it with from the refrigerator.) and often sleeps
anywhere in the house. He’s close with both Yoon-ho and Min-ho. He’s an
unpredictable and strange character as he would do things such as crying during
a meal because he bites on his own tongue, counting the number of his teeth with
his tongue, or eating hamburgers with soy-sauce on
it.
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Kang Yoo-mi/age 17, Girl
living next-door - Park Min-young
She’s a next door neighbor
and the daughter of Hae-mi’s friend.
She’s very pretty that Min-ho falls in
love with her at first sight.
She’s usually a nice girl but has frequent mood
swings.
Reading her emotions is difficult.
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