High Kick! (Drama - 2007) - 거침없이 하이킥! (Geo-chim-eobs-i Ha-i-kik!)

167 episodes

Alternative titles : "Highkick", "Nonstop High Kick", "Unhindered Highkick"

Synopsis

Lee Yoon-ho(Jeong Il-woo), a motorcycle mania who engages in many fights at school and is known for his high kick, and Lee Min-ho(Kim Hye-seong) who enjoys spending time on scale models and web blogs, are brothers born a year apart but attending the same class at school. These two portray completely opposite Korean teenage characters in a comical way. And of course, there’s the rest of the family. Their father(Jeong Joon-ha), a full-time stock investor since being laid-off from work, nevertheless optimistic and reckless; their mother(Park Hae-mi), an oriental medicine doctor and always overly confident; their grandfather(Lee Soon-jae), who loves money more than anything in the world; their grandmother(Nah Mun-hee), who is always defeated by her daughter-in-law in ongoing status quarrels, are some of them. Their uncle Lee Min-yong(Choi Min-yong) is a 27-year-old single dad. After going through a premature marriage and early divorce, he enjoys his life back in the dating scene with his half-single and half-married status, while continuing to encounter emotionally-involved moments with his ex-wife Shin Ji(Shin Ji) at times. Smooth High Kick! is a situation comedy, which portrays the everyday lives of the main characters colliding with each other in a comical way. However, at a certain point, the surprising mysteries of their seemingly-normal surrounding characters begin to unravel one by one.

Cast

Lee Soon-jae/age 70, Owner of an oriental medicine clinic - Lee Soon-jae
A conservative and patriarchal father.
Due to his shallow character, he is easy to upset, but also easy to console with the simplest compliments. Money is so important to him that it is the sole measuring stick of all values. He has absolute belief in worldly standards. (For instance, such belief as Seoul National University is the best no matter what.)
He is always yelling at his two sons as both of them do not live up to his standards, and he has a hot temper with his kick preceding his words when enraged. Although he seems to be holding full authority of the household, he is inevitably weak to his daughter-in-law as she was the one to re-establish business of his failing oriental medicine clinic. His favoritism towards his grandson Min-ho with the good grades is too obvious.
He has a friend who bullies him and even tries to take money from him that he’s waiting for the right time to strike back while polishing his nunchaku skills.

Nah Moon-hee/age 68, Housewife - Na Moon-hee
Used to be a maid at Soon-jae’s house before marrying him.
Just as she thought her life would finally become easier after marrying off her two sons, her first daughter-in-law came to live with her asking her for help raising the kids, and her second daughter-in-law left her a baby grandson upon divorce.
Although she is usually chatty and complaining, she is totally overpowered by her first daughter-in-law. Every once in a while she becomes overly cranky that the whole family is surprised.
Just like her older son Joon-ha, she is physically very strong and has an enormous appetite. She gets along well the most with him.
She enjoys spending time talking behind her daughter-in-law’s back with Mrs. Kaesung-daek, an old lady who lives nearby. However, one day, as Mrs. Kaesung-daek suddenly disappears, the never-ending mystery begins.

Lee Joon-ha/age 43, Full-time stock investor - Jung Jun-ha
After being laid off from a stock company, he becomes a full-time investor at home, but continues to lose money instead of making any.
With his optimistic nature, he often clings onto matters with low odds and is easily taken advantage by his friends.
His physical and sexual energy is excessive, and he is also impulsive that he usually reacts upon the slightest nudge from his wife, Hae-mi. He has a huge appetite, but also suffers from severe constipation to the verge of even crying on the toilet. He is not such a sensitive character and has a temper that he doesn’t get along too well with Soon-jae, but does with Mun-hee. He has a crush on a nurse at Soon-jae’s clinic, and one day it becomes much more serious that the whole family is turned upside down. He has a bad habit of running away from home after causing trouble.

Park Hae-mi/age 45, Oriental medicine doctor - Park Hae-mee
She’s a smart and tough woman with a Superwoman complex.
She firmly believes that she is a competent and well-respected doctor and a lovable wife with the perfect marriage. She is also a great mom who knows what’s best for her kids, and an adored daughter-in-law. In fact, she is not satisfied with anything unless everyone else thinks so, too.
It will be fair to say that she has the actual authority in the family since she is the only one who can confidently assert her opinions in front of her father-in-law, whom everyone else is afraid of.
She is always self-centered(even when given instructions by her parents-in-law, she goes on accepting it after giving herself an “OK” as a final say) and always tries to lecture those around her(even when complying to others’ demands, she tells them “that’s not what I think, so try reconsidering later.”) She is very expressive and her speech and behavior is exaggerated like you would see in a play.
She is slightly manic-depressive and displays the behaviors listed above when her mood is cheerful. However, when she’s down, she is overwhelmed by her emotions and sometimes cries alone while performing acupuncture on herself. As for her stand on her incompetent husband Joon-ha(He’s younger and she married him as she fell in love first), she is unable to admit that her marriage is not perfect mostly due to her self-pride, but actually, her marriage is quite happy as she doesn’t mind Joon-ha’s strong sexual appetite.
She has a habit of singing chorus whenever someone else sings at a karaoke.

Lee Min-ho /age 17, High-school freshman - Kim Hye-seong
A straight-A student who’s physically weak but witty.
His good grades are not the result of his consistent efforts, but of the smarts he was born with. His future goals include attending medical school just like his mother and grandfather wishes him to, which is an instance that demonstrates his realist nature and desire for stability rather than being adventurous or challenging.
He’s smart and full of ideas, taking part in the family’s countless schemes and tricks. That is why he is often consulted by other family members when someone plans something behind another one’s back. He knows most secrets of other family members and is favored by his grandfather. He tries not to irritate his strong younger brother Yoon-ho, but does get beat up by him at times. He envies Yoon-ho’s popularity among girls and dreams of having such popularity, but regrets that girls aren’t too crazy about his less distinctive features. Although he’s not too bad from an objective point of view, he feels inferior to Yoon-ho in terms of his height, body, or appearance, and wishes to be able to boast of stories about girlfriends like Yoon-ho someday.

Lee Yoon-ho /age 16, High-school freshman - Jeong Il-woo
He’s a macho-style guy pumping testosterone, with a muscular body and strong punch. He is also fond of sports and is a motorcycle mania. To be more precise, he is pretty much obsessed with the need to appear tough and strong at all times.
He attends the same class as his older brother Min-ho because of his rapid physical growth, and ignores the fact that Min-ho is an older brother to him. At home, he’s a trouble-maker unlike at school. He’s not good at explaining matters as his reasoning skills falls short, understanding circumstances takes time as he’s slow-witted, and his grades are pathetic due to his unintelligence. People around him are often startled by his extreme ignorance.
He is aware of the fact that his brain doesn’t match up to his appearance and stressed out about it.
He dreams of becoming a rich and famous ultimate fighting champion and actually believes he’ll eventually be able to marry actress Moon Geun-young if he does. (Her poster hangs on the wall beside his bed and even his computer wallpaper is her picture.)

Lee Min-yong /age 27, High-school PE teacher - Choi Min-yong
He was a late-born child when Soon-jae was in his mid-40s, and is currently a PE teacher at the school Yoon-ho and Min-ho attends.
Even with the disapproval of his family, upon graduating college, he married Shin Ji who was his girlfriend throughout college. But they get divorced within two years. As she insisted on going to study abroad to Russia, he had no choice but to come back into his parent’s house. He relies on his mother for raising his baby son and lives in the attic trying to avoid his raged father as much as possible. Whenever in trouble, he usually tries to get something out of his mother who’s much easier to deal with.
He’s sensitive but lazy, and humorous but cynical, which contributes to his sarcastic manner.
However, he does have a good-natured personality that he eventually ends up complying with others’ demands. Although he goes through various romantic relationships, he’s not able to fully detach himself from Shin Ji as he continues to get emotionally involved with her. Their relationship gets complicated because of the intervention of his family members.

Shin Ji/age 26, TV commercial song singer - Shin Ji
TV commercial song singer.
She’s not big enough to have worked on famous commercials on network television yet, but is at the level of having her commercials on cable television.
She’s fickle and doesn’t have the street smarts. Her parents live in the US. She married Min-yong after a couple years of dating in college, but suddenly discovers her calling in music composition one day and decides to go study abroad. She argues with Min-yong over this, which becomes the cause for their divorce, and she eventually leaves for Moscow. However, as her plans don’t work out too well there, she comes back and sneaks around Min-yong’s house for her son. When his parents find out, she asks for their forgiveness and is granted visits.
However, with Soon-jae insisting on her and Min-yong’s remarriage, her emotionally unresolved feelings, her new boyfriend, and a three-cornered relationship with Min-yong and her roommate Min-jeong, make her situation ever more complicated.

Seo Min-jeong/age 27, Yoon-ho and Min-ho’s homeroom teacher - Suh Min-jung
She becomes an English teacher and homeroom teacher for Yoon-ho and Min-ho at the school Min-yong also teaches. Although she is a sweet girl, she’s unfortunate as she always gets involved with the wrong men or keeps getting herself into minor accidents.
As too many of her mistakes and unfortunate moments are exposed, she is regarded as more of a big sister rather than a teacher to her students. For instance, her students aren’t afraid of her to the point where a student would grab her arm and not let go when she tries to enforce physical punishment. However, when they find out about a man who mistreats her, the whole class would get angry like she was their own sister.
She’s high-school friends with Shin Ji and shares an apartment with her.
She falls in love with Min-yong while trying to help Shin Ji and Min-yong get back together.

Kim Beom/age 16, Friend of Min-ho and Yoon-ho - Kim Beom
He’s a grandson of Soon-jae’s friend and is friends with Yoon-ho and Min-ho. He has been entering Soon-jae’s house as it were his own since he was little. He bursts in heading straight to the refrigerator for snacks (Actually, he has a habit of bringing plain loafs of bread and grabbing stuff to eat it with from the refrigerator.) and often sleeps anywhere in the house. He’s close with both Yoon-ho and Min-ho. He’s an unpredictable and strange character as he would do things such as crying during a meal because he bites on his own tongue, counting the number of his teeth with his tongue, or eating hamburgers with soy-sauce on it.

Kang Yoo-mi/age 17, Girl living next-door - Park Min-young
She’s a next door neighbor and the daughter of Hae-mi’s friend.
She’s very pretty that Min-ho falls in love with her at first sight.
She’s usually a nice girl but has frequent mood swings.
Reading her emotions is difficult.


Episode Guide

Episode 1
A hilarious family sitcom that will kick your boring days away in an instant!
「Smooth Highkick!」The first episode.
Soon-jae’s family decides to get their family picture taken to celebrate Joon-ee’s
100th day since birth. But of course things don’t turn out smoothly as they wish!
Joon-ee pees on one of them, Soon-jae and Mun-hee fight over the passenger
seat, Joon-ee’s parents Min-yong and Shin Ji is occupied quarrelling over their
own matter, and Mun-hee and Hae-mi get sensitive over Joon-ha’s hair.
Goodness! After all this, the picture is finally taken.
However, Soon-jae is not happy about where the picture is hung… and Joon-ha
even loses money selling his stock, which adds on to Soon-jae’s grumpy mood.

In the meantime, Min-jeong is excited to begin her teaching career as her first day
begins at Poong-pa High School. But things turn out to be rough from the beginning
because of a pair of weird brothers in her class.

Episode 2
Lee Yoon-ho, who only cares about his looks, tries to look cool this time riding on a
borrowed motorcycle. Min-ho wants to tell mom about it, but decides not to since he’
s afraid of Yoon-ho’s high kick.

Meanwhile, Min-yong tries to sneak into the house to get a look at Joon-ee, but is
busted by Soon-jae and has to run for his life. Mun-hee, feeling bad for Min-yong,
tries to bring him some food from home, but her arm gets disjointed in the act.

Eventually, the guys end up having to take care of Joon-ee, since Mun-hee can’t
move her arm. But will they be able to handle Joon-ee without any trouble?

Episode 3
Again, Soon-jae dozes off since there are not enough patients to see.
This is because most of the patients prefer Hae-mi.
And to top it off, Soon-jae makes a huge mistake of misdiagnosing a patient’s
condition.
Will he be able to restore his fallen reputation?

Meanwhile, Min-jeong becomes neighbors with Min-yong!
However, weird things keep happening at her new place…

Episode 4
Disturbed by Hae-mi and disrespected by Soon-jae all the time… Mun-hee wouldn’t
have been able to stand it if it weren’t for Mrs. Kaesung-daek. How wonderful it
feels to Mun-hee after chatting with Mrs. Kaesung-daek about all the stress she
gets from her daughter-in-law and her husband… Until one day…

And the appearance of Yoo-mi! The true hottie of the century!
Finally, has the time come for Min-ho’s love life to begin to bloom?

Episode 5
Joon-ha always tells Hae-mi not to worry, that he can take care of things. However,
in reality, there isn’t actually anything he has gotten done right.
Mun-hee can’t stand how Joon-ha is driven by Hae-mi, so she decides to act on
her own to settle matters regarding Min-yong.

Meanwhile, Min-ho pays a visit to Yoo-mi worried that Yoo-mi might fall for Yoon-
ho. But when he gets there, Yoo-mi is nowhere to be found, and he comes to face
her eerie father instead.

Epidose 6
Soon-jae is enraged with his sons and grandsons who always make trouble.
Min-yong sneaks into the house and tries living in the attic after letting Shin Ji have
the apartment, and Joon-ha makes another loss with his stocks.
That’s not all. Min-ho and Beom uses Soon-jae’s credit card to access a 19+
website, and Yoon-ho runs away after bumping into Soon-jae’s car with his
motorcycle.
Finally, the family members escape to the attic to get away from Soon-jae.
Will they be all right?

In the meantime, Shin Ji meets a handsome Russian guy practicing ballet in the next
classroom while she is studying at her music school in Moscow.

Episode 7
Mun-hee is so annoyed by Hae-mi who always acts like she knows best and tries
to lecture her. As Hae-mi makes her look bad even in front of her own friends, Mun-
hee whines about it to Soon-jae. But even Soon-jae says it is her fault and makes
Mun-hee cry.

Min-jeong decides to take firm measures against her students as they don’t take her
seriously. However, even as she raises her voice and uses physical punishment,
things just keep getting worse…

Episode 8
With the information that Bong-won Electronics stocks will fall sharply, Soon-jae
looks for Joon-ha to sell their shares, but Joon-ha is sitting on the toilet suffering
constipation... As Soon-jae takes the matter in his own hands, he rather ends up
buying 500 more shares of the stock.

Meanwhile, Min-yong gets Shin Ji’s Russia phone number from Min-jeong. As he
ponders whether he should call her or not, he walks into a restaurant and hears a
commercial song that reminds him of his memories with Shin Ji.

Episode 9
Hae-mi is always confident and the rest of the family members usually follow what
she says. But there is one family member who just can’t seem to agree with her, and
that’s Lee Min-yong! Min-yong ignores Hae-mi when she suggests the whole family
gather around to make dumplings together… and the heat is on between the two.

Min-ho is ecstatic about Yoo-mi’s invitation to her house to watch a DVD.
But for some reason, Beom tries to stop Min-ho from going to Yoo-mi’s house.

Episode 10
Mun-hee is surprised when Soon-jae tells her she has an upset stomach after
examining her, because she has never had an upset stomach before all her life.
Joon-ha is surprised, too, and he becomes worried about the changes in his mom.

Meanwhile, Shin Ji is back from Russia and she tries to sneak into the house to get
a look at her son Joon-ee.

Episode 11
A fire happens in the girl’s locker room. Fortunately, Min-ho and Beom is able to
rescue the girls in there in time, becoming heroes at school. But as time goes by,
things don’t go as they expected.

The toilet in the bathroom of Soon-jae’s house is clogged. Surprisingly, the person
responsible for it is Hae-mi, who always seems so perfect. Mun-hee is unable to
control her laughs when she finds out about this and tries to tell all the other family
members about it.

Episode 12
Min-ho and Yoon-ho are brothers with nothing in common. Even after watching the
same movie, while Yoon-ho can only blurt out incoherent adjectives, Min-ho is able
to logically explain the story of the movie.
One day, Yoon-ho gets into a fight in the neighborhood with other kids. As
punishment, he is grounded and even banned from using his cell phone and
computer, so he turns to Min-ho for help.

Meanwhile, Min-yong finds out that Shin Ji has come back to Korea. He asks Min-
jeong a favor to set him up to seem like he accidentally bumps into Shin Ji.

Episode 13
Mun-hee prepares eel for Min-yong, who seems to be exhausted lately. But
oblivious of her intentions, Joon-ha eats up all the eel and Mun-hee gets angry at
him. The two end up mad at each other and neither wants to apologize. It’s the rest
of the family that has to face the consequences.

Soon-jae scolds Min-yong to get the apartment back from Shin Ji. Min-yong, Shin
Ji, and Min-jeong each insist upon their own rights and say they should take the
matter to court.

Episode 14
Soon-jae, Mun-hee, Joon-ha, and Hae-mi decide to take a trip to Anmyeon-do
Island for Soon-jae and Mun-hee’s wedding anniversary. Mun-hee is excited and
begins planning things for the trip. However, Hae-mi keeps on changing her mind,
Joon-ha follows her opinions, and Soon-jae keeps the new changed plans from
Mun-hee, so the trip becomes a disaster from the beginning.

Meanwhile, Min-jeong is annoyed by her ex-boyfriend Seong-ho, who keeps on
charging his cyber money with Min-jeong’s cell phone number. What’s more, even
her students keep pulling pranks on her, making things even worse.


Episode 15
Soon-jae laughs at Mun-hee for learning how to send text messages saying she’s
wasting her time. But one day, Soon-jae receives a text message full of weird words
from a middle-school kid who came to see him once as a patient.


Hae-mi and Joon-ha pays a visit to Yoo-mi’s mom, who’s a friend of Hae-mi, on
their way home from a work-out. At the house, Joon-ha accidentally drops a
necklace in the hole of the wooden floor. But when Joon-ha tries to get it out, Yoo-
mi’s father frantically stops him.

Episode 16
Mun-hee feels bad for Min-yong as she watches him being ordered around by Shin-
ji to do small tasks, and tells Soon-jae about it. But when Soon-jae hears this, he
takes it as a big deal and is about go to Shin-ji himself, so Mun-hee calms him
down saying she’ll talk to her to leave Min-yong alone.

Hae-mi and Min-ho have the perfect mother-and-son relationship. But Hae-mi is in
shock when she finds out that her little baby boy Min-ho has a girlfriend and has
even kissed her.

Episode 17
Hae-mi is such a cool woman that she even promises Joon-ha that she’ll buy him a
new car if he loses weight. One day, Soon-jae and Hae-mi get into a small accident
on their way to a seminar. Soon-jae gets angry and tries to get the other driver to
cover for repair, but Hae-mi doesn’t think it’s a big deal and suggests they just let it
go.

Meanwhile, Min-yong is worried that Shin Ji is having a hard time finding herself a
job. Just around then, Min-yong’s school comes in need of a new alma mater song
and Min-yong casually recommends Shin Ji.

Episode 18
Soon-jae happens to have a chance to meet with his long-ago crush Kyeong-hwa.
He lies to Mun-hee that he’s just meeting some friends and leaves the house all
dressed up. But he is busted by Mun-hee on his way taking Kyeong-hwa home.

A rumor is spread around the school that Min-jeong is going out with Yoon-ho as
she rides Yoon-ho’s motorcycle with him one day to school. To top it off, another
rumor begins that Min-jeong is