EPISODE 5 July 04, 2008

"Hindi mo ba ako gustong maging boyfriend? Pwes ikaw gusto kitang maging girlfriend. Oo Samsoon. Kaya magmula ngayon, girlfriend na kita"

--- Cyrus Ruiz

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
"Don't you want me to be your boyfriend? I want you to be my girlfriend. Yes Samsoon. From now on you'll be my girlfriend."

--- Cyrus Ruiz

+75 points for the first meeting of Samsoon and Mrs. Ruiz
The original scene was funny but it was on the slapstick side. Na Sajang together with Hyun Sook barges in Jin Hun's apartment, beats Jin Hun for ruining his own blind date yesterday, and almost had a heart attack when she finally noticed an almost naked chubby woman inside his son's apartment. She shoved Jin Hun inside the bathroom. As she beats him continuously off-screen we were left laughing with Sam Soon and Hyun Sook's sign language. When everyone calmed down, Na Sajang found out that the woman was Sam Soon. And the sequence ended with Na Sajang misunderstanding everything.


Our version was a lot calmer and I like it. It wouldn't look good seeing Carmi Martin beating Mark Anthony Fernandez.
At the onset of the scene, Samsoon introduced herself to Mrs. Ruiz, thus creating the misunderstanding part earlier in the sequence. I find it funny when Samsoon said, "Good morning po*. Mommy mo?" ("Good morning. Is she your mother?" "안녕하십니까. 혹시 너의 어머니예요?") (*po is a level of formality used in the Philippines, somehow similar to the korean endings -yo and -imnida). I also like how they remedied the impossible-to-be-almost-naked-Samsoon-thanks-to-the-fat-suit by letting her wear the top of Cyrus' pajamas.


-5 points for the too nice Cyrus
Seems like Cyrus is being too nice in this episode. Nothing wrong with that but I kinda miss the overly-arrogant Jin Hun, in this episode at least. Hopefully he'll go back to a more arrogant Cyrus on the next episodes.

-100 points for taking Piggy home
I wonder why they let Samsoon take Piggy home? I was almost yelling "Put that down! Put that down!" to Samsoon while watching. In the original, Sam Sook has quite a big role in Sam Soon and Jin Hun's life. And it's funny that no matter how many times Jin Hun attempts to get rid of the piggy stuffed toy (or return it to Sam Soon), Sam Sook never lands in Sam Soon's house. I wonder what are their plans for our local Piggy.

+500 points for the wonderful twist of the return to the restaurant scene
At first I was not happy that Samsoon and Cyrus did not go to work together. Why did Samsoon have to go home first? I thought they will completely ignore the funny moment when they finally return to work. I was wrong.
Although I missed a few more bickering and a little discussion about Mijiwang* (*Mijiwang is a Korean movie about an arrogant guy who thinks of himself as a Prince. Mijiwang can be roughly translated as 'Lunatic Prince'. And Sam Soon likes to associate Jin Hun with Mijiwang) and Jin Hun taking Sam Soon's seat in the bus while going to work together, I was still given the funny moment of their return to the restaurant.


In the original, Sam Soon asked Jin Hun to come in 5 minutes after her, so as not to create any speculations among the employees. When she came in, she was reprimanded by Chef Hyun Moo for being late. Jin Hun, who obviously did not comply with Sam Soon's request, entered the restaurant. In a voice audible enough for everyone to hear, he told Hyun Moo not to be too harsh on Sam Soon since she was only late because they spent the night together. And right there and then, Sam Soon became the female employees' Public Enemy No. 1.



I love how they created a new approach to this sequence. It made me laugh.
After Samsoon was reprimanded for being late, Cyrus entered the picture. Since Samsoon asked Cynthia, "Boss Cyrus is already here?", he answered her back with a question, "Yes, I'm here. Why are you asking? Don't tell me you missed me already?". He then returned Samsoon's earring, that apparently, she left at his place. After hearing what Cyrus said, all the female employees became furious to our Samsoon.
The funniest part for me were the non-existent scenes in the original. Samsoon tried explaining her side to her co-workers but she ended up making the situation looks/sounds worst, thanks to her poor word choices.
And when Cynthia directly told Cyrus, "You don't have a taste!", I feel kinda off. Why are they showing disrespect to their boss? But before I can organize my thoughts on this part, Samsoon cluelessly blurted out, "You don't have a taste!" too. I ended up laughing so hard.

+150 for the entire welcome party scene
Before I can pull myself together, I was greeted by another familiar funny moment, "Hee Jin's" welcome party.




There's one thing that I really hate though, Samsoon's manners when she was introduced by Chef Dina. She went "on-stage" with strips of food hanging from her mouth. Isn't showing her devouring on food every now and then not yet enough? If you'll be introduced to your new co-workers, you wouldn't behave this way, right? I hope they will stop doing this to Samsoon. -50 points deducted!
Anyway, the dream dance sequence was executed well, eliciting as much laughter as the original's, but then again, it's something that could look better without the fat suit - and less lipstick.
Back to reality, we were entertained with a familiar funny dance step that we see on every gap. Seems like the local Samsoon dances better than her stiff-as-stone Korean counterpart. Both of them were funny though.

+10 points for the Halla Mountain clue
I just have to say this. I was so happy when they gave an early clue (through Cyrus' picture) about the presence of Halla Mountain sequence in ASKSS. I'll be looking forward to this episode.

-5 points for mentioning Harvey
When Cryus ask Samsoon if she still have contact with her ex-boyfriend, she answered, "Harvey? Not anymore." I hope she did not mention the name anymore and just gave an answer right away. Given that our Cyrus is more sensitive than Jin Hun, he could have made an association with Harvey easier on latter episodes. But of course it's too early to tell. I'll just wait, i guess.

+15 points for keeping the mood
I like how Mark, once again, captured Jin Hun's casual and blunt proposal to be Sam Soon's boyfriend. This time, minus the rice on his face.



"Hindi mo ba ako gustong maging boyfriend? Pwes ikaw gusto kitang maging girlfriend. Oo Samsoon. Kaya magmula ngayon, girlfriend na kita" ("Don't you want me to be your boyfriend? I want you to be my girlfriend. Yes Samsoon. From now on you'll be my girlfriend.")

And that question leaves Samsoon and us hanging... and that concludes ASKSS' first week.

RATINGS: 35.5% vs My Girl 20.3%
(ratings courtesy of: Les Samsoon of RVMM)