scottishlass | [kdrama] Hello My Teacher

I have just finished the Korean drama Hello My Teacher aka Biscuit Teacher & Star Candy.

summary:
Na Bo-ri (Gong Hyo Jin) is a 24 year old woman who has passed her teacher's certificate with the lowest grades and all she can become is homeroom teacher. She applies to several schools, but the one school she really wants to teach at is her old school from which she was expelled. Her art teacher Ji Hyun Woo (Kim Da Hyun) is still there and she still has a huge crush on him. But in order to teach at her old school the principal who incidentally is the older sister of said art teacher, makes her sign a contract to essentially babysit Park Tae-In (Gong Yoo) who is the step-son of the Principal. Tae-In is a troublemaker whose father (a famous medical doctor) thinks he needs to be locked away in a psychiatric ward. Na Bo-ri has to keep him in line as a last effort before the 19 year old will be locked away for good.

Bo-ri does her best to get to know her students and soon they trust her and call her in emergencies. She is more than a homeroom teacher to her students and they participate in her pursuit of love with art teacher Ji Hyun Woo. All would be perfect if not for Tae-In who stumbles from one trouble to the next and from which she has him to get out of. Bo-ri spends more and more time with him and mutual respect and friendship blooms. Tae-In realizes that he is in love with her but as she is about to marry his uncle, he also knows a high schooler has no chance with her. But a night before her impending wedding she realizes that it isn't Ji Hyun Woo she is in love with and even though she doesn't tell Jae-In she breaks up with Hyun Woo.
She looses her job and Tae-In not knowing she is in love with him, gets expelled from school (his parents find him and Bo-ri asleep in each other's arms - totally innocent but still) and he runs away. A year passes where bo-ri picks up her life and teaches at cram school while Uyun Woo studies to take over the school as principal and Jae-In tries to forget (unsuccessfully) Bo-ri ...

At first I thought they were channeling Gokusen, GTO and Nobuta wo produce, but after the first few eps it found its own rhythm, esp. with the budding love triangle between Bo-ri, Tae-in and Hyun Woo.
I loved the slowly blossoming love of Tae-In, and how Bo-ri realizes that she isn't the high school girl anymore with the crush on her teacher, but that she in turn has fallen for a 19 year old kid.
Additionally, I loved the fact that TPTB decided to go for the uncommon pairing of teacher and high schooler, even though they made them marry 7 years after they got together (when Tae-In not only graduated high school, went to college and army).

acting:
Gong Yoo rocks. I already liked him as idiotic ruffian in My Tutor Friend with Kwon Sang-Doo and in S'Diary and She's On Duty as Kim Seon-ah love interests. He plays the out of control youth as well as the maturing man who falls for his teacher very well.

Gong Hyo Jin is cute as Bo-ri. She already showed great acting abilities in Memento Mori, Volcano High and Sang-doo. She and Gong Yoo have a very good chemistry that sizzles on screen.

The whole series is 16 eps long and it is fun to watch, if only for Gong Yoo and Gong Hyo Jin's interaction as Tae-In and Bo-ri. They really make a good screen couple and they are believable as older woman/young guy couple.

pics from the movie: