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It's not bad falling in love to a tango!
Scent of a Woman is a Korean Series centered on Lee Yeon Jae, a low-level employee at a travel agency who is told she has six months to live. Her love interests include Dr Chae Eun Suk, an oncologist who was her first love 20 years before, and Kang Ji Wook, a bored corporate son who is put in charge of her division. Add to the mix Lim Se Jyung, the spoiled, rich daughter who is engaged to Ji Wook as a corporate merger between their fathers' companies.
When Yeon Jae finds out about the terminal cancer, she decides to create a bucket list of twenty things she wanted to accomplish before she dies. She quits her job, determine to fulfill as many as possible. Some are easy ("Make my mom smile every day."); some are a little less so ("Go on a date with Jun Su (a Korean pop idol)"). In the course of this, she meets up with Ji Wook in Okinawa. He is first attracted to her free spirit as a stark contrast to his own shuttered heart, but eventually they learn to take care of each other.
The 16-episode series premiered in July 2011 on South Korea's SBS Network.
This series provides examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Ji Wook and Se Jyung
- Bad Boss: Yeon Jae's supervisor No Sung Sik
- Beleaguered Assistant: Yeon Jae, almost to Butt Monkey status, doing menial jobs for her co-workers and being harrassed by the boss.
- The Cameo: Junsu, from the KPop group JYJ/DBSK, makes an appearance at a fan meeting.
- Car Fu: Ji Wook uses his red sportscar as a shield for Yeon Jae.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Se Jyung, who can't stand Ji Wook with anyone else, even though she's not in love with him.
- Cool Car: Ji Wook's red cabriolet.
- Dance of Romance: The tango! Yeon Jae dances with both of her suitors.
- Drowning My Sorrows:
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Namsam Tower shows up in Episode 14.
- Engrish: A conversation in English between South Korean and Japanese characters.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Yeon Jae calms and shortens her unruly tresses after quitting Line Tours.
- Final Love Duet: "Us Again" by Lee Sora is sung by the official couple at a noraebang.
- Five Stages of Grief: Yeon Jae goes through all of them during the story arc.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Se Jyung sues Yeon Jae for $100,000, even though there was no proof of wrong-doing, just to make Yeon Jae squirm.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack:
- When Yeon Jae touches Ji Wook's chest during a tango lesson.
- When Yeon Jae enters the arbitration room during the lawsuit.
- When Dr Suk sees Yeon Jae for the first time at the double date in Episode 8.
- Heroic BSOD: Dr Choi Eun Suk, after one of his cancer patients dies.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Ji Wook's assistant, Park Sang Woo.
- Karaoke Box: Yeon Jae's boss Sun Sik takes the team out to a noraebang.
- Ill Girl: Hee Joo, suffering from liver cancer, who becomes the Dead Little Sister in Episode 14.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Yeon Jae
- K Pop: MBLAQ and Junsu both sing the series' main theme songs.
- Like You Were Dying: Yeon Jae creates her bucket list and begins doing all the things she's wanted to do.
- The Long List: When Yeon Jae quits, she tells off her boss.
- Love Triangle: Ji Wook → Yeon Jae ← Eun Suk
- Mating Dance: The tango for Ji Wook.
- Moral Dissonance: Yeon Jae's best friend Hye Won, who flies into a rage and declares their 20-year friendship is over, when she thinks Yeon Jae slept with the almost-engaged Ji Wook, but ends up marrying when she discovers she's pregnant.
- Motorcycle on the Coast Road: Played with, in that Yeon Jae always wanted to tour the coast, but on a bicycle. Ji Wook obliges.
- The Piano Player: Mr. Wilson and his (un)lucky ring.
- Rant-Inducing Slight: Every time the least little thing doesn't go according to Se Kyung's plan, along with a face slap...
- Rich Bitch: Lim Se Kyung
- Shout-Out:
- Cast Away: Yeon Jae has a dream of being stuck on an island with a red-faced volleyball that morphs into a man.
- Scent of a Woman: The Al Pacino version is broadcast on Ji Wook's TV, leading him to mimic the tango scene.
- Ji Wook watches Pretty Woman for inspiration to taking Yeon Jae out on a date.
- Shower Scene: Ji Wook, with and without clothes.
- Source Music: "Tango por Una Cabeza" is used for any tango scene, real or imagined.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Yeon Jae calls her boss an S.O.B. and throws her resignation literally into his face. And when offered her job back, she declines.
- There Is Only One Bed: Ji Wook and Yeon Jae in Okinawa after escaping the Yakuza.
- Trilingual Dialogue: Korean, English and Japanese.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Eun Suk
- Vacation Episode