Golden Pouch- Half Way Review

Korean Daily: Golden Pouch (황금주머니)
Total Episodes: 120
Aired: November 2016
Leads: Kim Ji Han & Ryu Hyo Young

Quick Plot Overview Episode 1-60:

Suffering from amnesia after being hit by a car, our hero, Han Suk Hoon was forced to resign from his job as a top surgeon not only because he had suffered severe damage to his right hand but also because he has been accused of a medical malpractice that led to a patience’s death. Knowing full well that as an extremely careful person there is no way he could’ve done something to endanger a patience’s life, Suk Hoon nonetheless could not remember anything to defend himself and there is no one that would believe him…except our heroine. A TV producer who had several unfortunate run-ins with our hero before his accident, Geum Sul Hwa has gotten to know Suk Hoon well enough after following him around for a medical documentary to know that Suk Hoon’s perfectionist personality and deep concern for his patients would never allow him to make such a careless mistake.

Despite their past conflicts with one another, Sul Hwa finds herself becoming Suk Hoon’s biggest champion and is overjoyed for his sake when he tells her that he has found his long lost family…until she goes home one day to find her mother happily introducing Suk Hoon as her son.

Harboring a deep pain after losing their own son years ago, Sul Hwa’s parents simply doesn’t have the heart to tell Suk Hoon the truth when he mistakenly believes them to be the parents he had so desperately wanted to find. Reluctant to deceive Suk Hoon but finding herself softening the more she sees Suk Hoon blooming under her family’s love, Sul Hwa starts to hope that Suk Hoon would never find out the truth.

Growing more fearful of Suk Hoon finding out their lie the more she and her whole family come to care for him, Sul Hwa’s worst fear happened when Suk Hoon’s ex-fiancee (female second lead who had ditched our hero after his car accident and pretended to not know him) reveals the truth hoping that would force Suk Hoon to come back to her.

Understandably devastated to find out that the wonderful family he thought he had reclaimed was never his, our hero turns back to his previous cold self and remained unmoved even when a tearful Sul Hwa begs him to come home.

Filled with dread that the man they have come to love as their own son would never forgive them, Sul Hwa parents can only wait and hope for what seems like an impossible miracle. Widening their eyes collectively in shock when Suk Hoon suddenly shows up to protect Mama Geum from being slapped by his ex fiancee’s mother, everyone in the Geum family are overjoyed as Suk Hoon proclaims himself as Mama Geum’s oldest son.

Happy that Suk Hoon has decided to stay, Sul Hwa tries to shake off the tinge of sadness that comes with the knowledge that she has to treat Suk Hoon from this point on as her real brother and bury her growing feelings for him. Unaware of Sul Hwa’s inner conflict, our hero is busy trying to figure out this strange sense of animosity towards the seemingly perfect rich boy that has been chasing after Sul Hwa and his increasing tendency to freeze up whenever our heroine gets close.

Ninja’s Thoughts

We are already half way through this show so it is probably safe to declare that of the K-dailies I have watched, Golden Pouch would rank as one of the best. Dailies usually mean a large cast with A LOT of secondary story lines but Golden Pouch has managed to make its plot feel more like a 50 episode family drama that spends most of its time on the two leads’ story. That’s not to say Golden Pouch doesn’t have secondary character plot lines, but compare to your typical K-dailies where one would have to suffer through tons of boring scenes or even entire episodes, Gold Pouch has done an amazing job at keeping the focus on the main leads.

Now, we do have a couple annoying villains but I generally find them tolerable especially since the writer has done such an outstanding job at portraying the flawed yet utterly heart warming love in the Geum family.

Anyhow, short of the writer suddenly going crazy on me and destroy the show I would highly recommend Golden Pouch to anyone who either likes or wants to try a K-daily.

 

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