Female power
SEOUL, South Korea – She doesn’t let men push her around, is overweight, can’t dance well, and talks openly about constipation.
That’s why South Korea is falling in love with Kim Sam-soon.
The new TV soap opera “My Name is Kim Sam-soon” has rocketed to the top of the ratings since its premiere last month. Its popularity is driven by an audience of 30-something women who see the gutsy Kim as South Korea’s “Bridget Jones” – a woman who speaks her mind and is fed up with societal pressure to marry and settle down while also living up to conventional stereotypes of beauty.
The show soared to 41.7 percent viewership across South Korea one recent Thursday evening and is the highest-rated soap opera this year.
TNS Media Korea, which compiles TV ratings, said women in their 30s are the largest group of viewers.
“The lines that Kim Sam-soon speaks in the drama – they go straight to my heart,” said Shin Hye-sun, 36, an office worker in Seoul.
“Normally, other dramas depict women of that age glamorously, but this drama shows normal people as they are,” said Kim Jin-hee, a 25-year-old jewelry designer.
South Korea’s traditional Confucian society has been going through a sea change in recent years, fueled by an infusion of outside influences shaking up the traditional male-dominated culture with women asserting themselves personally and professionally.
The National Statistical Office said in a report that the marriage rate has declined drastically, with more people also choosing to wed later. In 2004, the average age for women tying the knot was 27.5 years old, up 4.9 years from 1972.
Half of South Korean women work, up more than 10 percent since 1970. The number of female breadwinners also has more than tripled, with 19.5 percent of households headed by women. Nearly 80 percent of women attend college, a 14.7 percent increase since 2000.
Kim is a restaurant pastry chef who got the job after working hard to save money and study cooking in France. She has a crush on her handsome, rich boss but refuses to pander to him – instead making him get on his knees in a recent episode to beg for her to return to her job after she resigns in anger over having to deal with him.
She punctuates her frank speech with slang, and the name Sam-soon rings of countryside backwardness to Korean ears. She’s even shown urinating in public and loudly passing gas.
Producers on the show’s Web site say Kim is an “average 29-year-old” and note that polls show a majority of Korean women think they’re fat.
“We present the Sam-soons of this world with romance,” the producers write. “We hope the Sam-soons become as strong as Kim Sam-soon in the drama.
“Even if life deceives you, even if love makes you cry, become stronger and not worse.”
The show isn’t totally devoid of eye candy. American actor Daniel Henney, whose mother is ethnic Korean, has acquired national heartthrob status through his portrayal of a doctor, and his English dialogue is shown with Korean subtitles.
Some are skeptical the show actually breaks new ground in its portrayal of women.
Kim Hoon-Soon, a media studies professor at Ewha Womans University, notes Kim Sam-soon ultimately seeks to get a man and raise her social status.
The actress who plays Kim – Kim Suna, well-known for previous comedic roles, who gained 15 pounds for the part – sees the show as a beacon of hope for mature women who sympathize with their earthy heroine.
“I don’t consider myself or Sam-soon an old maid,” she said in a recent interview with film magazine Cine 21. “It’s society that casts them that way.”