Watching Full House Korean drama, 20 years later, is a 16-hour experience (split up into three to four days) filled with delightful disappointments. I often catch myself mocking the script, criticizing its ludicrous love square and the unsettling, unrequited love conundrums it presents. Yet, paradoxically, I find myself rooting for the two leads, giddy over their infallible chemistry, and wondering why they never hit it off in real life.
Full House stars Song Hye Kyo and Rain, who, at 22 and 23, were at their prime (they were so cute and fresh!). The two were among the actors who made Korean entertainment a sensation in Southeast Asia and the West, during the early inception of the Hallyu wave. After the drama, Song would inherently be hailed as the most beautiful Korean woman for at least two consecutive years and the most sought-after leading lady, with every drama becoming hit after hit. In 2017, she married actor Song Joong Ki, but the couple divorced less than two years later. Song Hye Kyo top-billed the revenge drama The Glory in 2022 and received positive reviews for her performance.
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Meanwhile, with his sexy moves, outstanding vocals, and unbeatable charisma, Rain continued producing numerous hit songs that topped charts not only in South Korea but also worldwide. He would also lead Park Chan-Wook’s 2006 quirky rom-com, I’m a Cyborg, but that’s ok. He eventually made it to Hollywood, becoming part of 2008’s Speed Racer alongside Emile Hirsh, Christina Ricci, and Susan Sarandon, among other top-billed stars. He remains active in the Korean entertainment industry while prioritizing his family life with his wife, Kim Tae-hee, and their two children.

Nineteen years ago, when there was limited broadband and no recorded DVDs and online streaming for Korean dramas, I would try to catch up with the Tagalog-dubbed version of the Full House Korean drama on the GMA-7 network. I was in my fourth year of high school then, and I had an extracurricular activity that limited my updates on the drama. Nonetheless, I always managed to update with the storyline as it was easy to follow. The drama also started my huge crush on Rain, who might have been my first Korean crush ever, especially since I didn’t get to research the names of some of the cuties from the comedy sitcom Nonstop at that time.
The Full House Korean Drama Trope
Full House is a Korean drama of the enemies turned lovers and characters who hate each other but are forced to live together trope. It’s about a single orphaned woman named Ji-eun (Song Hye Kyo) who writes love stories online for a living. Her life was peaceful, and she enjoyed staying at the house her late father left her.

The series starts off ridiculously. Out of desperation, Ji-Eun’s two best friends convince her to take a break and tour China so that they can steal her house’s title and sell it along with all her belongings. After returning home, Ji-eun was shocked to find that her house was no longer hers. It had been sold to a top actor in Korea named Yeong-jae (Rain), whom she had already met in China.
Young-jae eventually lets Ji-eun stay at his new home after learning she was scammed, and his agent didn’t verify the owner. He also let her stay under the condition that she become his helper. That’s a crazy idea about how the leads crossed paths again (after meeting in China) and developed feelings for one another.
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Recycled Scenes Throughout the Drama
The drama then continues to unfold like a rollercoaster, featuring several nonsensical scenes depicting the ongoing conflicts between the two protagonists. It’s either Yeong-Jae drags Ji-eun out of the house, or Ji-eun leaves on her own. Yeong-Jae often promises to take her out for dinner but repeatedly stands her up due to his best friend, Hye-won, whom he has unrequited feelings for. These three scenarios are recycled throughout the series, attempting to stretch the story to fill the drama’s 16-episode contract with KBS2.

Another aspect that might be frustrating is the unreasonable love square that the writers included without any apparent thought once again. It was somewhat understandable for the three old friends—Yeong-jae, Hye-won (Han Da-gam), and Min Hyuk (Kim Sung-su). Yeong-jae loves Hye-won, but she loves Min Hyuk. However, when Ji-Eun enters the picture, things get more complicated. Yeong-jae marries Ji-Eun to make Hye-won jealous. Additionally, it’s unfortunate that Min Hyuk dismisses Hye-won’s feelings, yet among all the girls in Seoul, he unexpectedly falls for his friend’s contractual wife. He capriciously courts Ji-eun despite being unaware that her marriage with Yeong-jae is not based on love.
Everything in the drama feels shallow and foolish, salvaged further by the whole love square. As a 30-something woman who has dived deep into the rabbit hole of cinema and dug through the woods of art films, I saw through the second-ratedness of the Full House script, but I still indulged in it.

Full House Korean Drama: An Undying Charm
Despite the script’s absurdity, Full House Korean drama’s comedic elements, enhanced by solid direction and acting, managed to keep my attention. I felt a strong disdain for the two side characters, Hye-won and Min-hyuk. In contrast, I found myself delighted by the two leads, who exhibited an infectious sense of joy and excitement. The producers owe much of this to the charm and intense chemistry between Song Hye Kyo and Rain. Their performances effectively mask the fact that the protagonists’ relationship would be toxic if the story were set in real life.
Full House is a standout project that showcases the playful charm unique to Korean romantic comedies, which is difficult for others to replicate (see the original My Sassy Girl film versus its Hollywood remake). Some of the drama’s funniest and most heartwarming scenes were those with Ji-eun visiting Jae’s parents and the once trendy “Kom se ma-ri ga” or “Three Bears” scenes. These were more than enough for me to disregard how unstrategic, lazy, and nonsensical the script was.
Many Korean dramas of this generation have definitely stepped up, saying goodbye to subpar rom-com plots and digging deeper into social commentaries or shocking plot twists. However, as shallow as Full House is, its natural comedic approach and the intense chemistry of its leads add to its eminence. It remains a classic, transcending its lackluster script and original 4:3 aspect ratio (devoid of a remaster).
Watch Full House Korean drama on Netflix.
NeP-C Ledesma is a millennial writer and entrepreneur full of curiosity about our abstract world. She devours Psychology, food, Philosophy, and prefer cats as her all-time company. Pop Culture is her kryptonite.