Kim Tae-hee is best known for her roles in the dramas Stairway to Heaven (2003), Love Story in Harvard (2004), Iris (2009), My Princess (2011), and Yong-pal (2015). She really started to gain her popularity as an actress in 2009 and it peaked when she made her appearance on the action-medical drama Yong Pal in 2015, with co-artist Joo Won. Yong Pal is a drama that received some of the highest ratings in history since they had a lot of cast members who were very well-known, including Kim Tae-hee. If you’re curious about Kim Tae-hee’s appearance in Yong Pal, check out this article find out more!
Kim Tae-hee in Yong Pal
Yong Pal (용팔이) is a South Korean drama which featured many popular actors, such as Joo Won, Kim Tae-hee, Chae Jung-an, and Jo Hyun-jae. The drama is an action/medical/romance show, and was directed by Oh Jin-suk and written by Jang Hyuk-rin. Yong Pal originally was planned to have 16 episodes in total but due to the high ratings, it was extended by 2 more episodes. It aired on SBS from August 5 – October 1, 2015. The story of Yong Pal tells us about a life of the heiress, Han Yeo-jin (played by Kim Tae-hee), who had been in a coma for 3 years and finally recovered with the help of a talented surgeon named Kim Tae-hyun (played by Joo Won). In the story, Kim Tae-hyung has a younger sister who was ill and had to have surgery on her kidney. The treatment was very expensive and Kim Tae-hyung needed to earn more money to cover it, so he went looking for a situation where he could take on a private patient for a high fee. He used the name as Yong Pal when he acted as a surgeon for criminals who needed medical treatment but couldn’t go to a hospital. Meanwhile, the female lead role in Yong Pal is Kim Tae-hee, who played the character of Han Yeo-jin, who was forced into a coma by her brother, Han Do-joon (played by Jo Hyun-jae), leaving him free to be the one who ran their company. At this moment, Kim Tae-hyun desperately needed money for his sister’s kidney surgery and he met Han Yeo-jin, who said that she would give him the money if he helped her to escape after she woke up from coma. Han Yeo-jin woke up from her coma and secretly made an escape plan with Joo Won. The two bond during late night talks while working out the logistics of their plan. Han Do-joon decided to kill his sister by faking her suicide, but she made it out alive and Kim Tae-hyun ended up receiving a serious gunshot wound. Luckily, Kim Tae-hyun had trusted nurses and doctors who helped him fake the scene of Han Yeo-jin’s death. Kim Tae-hyun recovered for a while and both of them escaped to a church. In this scene, we can see that there’s a chemistry between Kim Tae-hyun and Han Yeo-jin as lovers. Over the course of the next several episodes their romance developed in between the action scenes. Everything become chaotic after Kim Tae-hyun was forced to return to the hospital, knowing Han Do-joon’s plan to keep the imposter Han Yeo-jin in the coma then suddenly dying. The real Han Yeo-jin went back to the hospital and she tried to protect Kim Tae-hyun by reclaiming her real name. During the imposter Han Yeo-jin’s funeral, she showed up and revealed herself in front of Kim Tae-hyun and intimidated Han Do-joon, who had committed such a crime in the past. Han Yeo-jin and Kim Tae-hyun end up marrying each other and Han Yeo-jin goes back to her previous position as the chairwoman of the company, but she has another plan to take revenge on everyone who was involved with putting her in the coma, including her brother Han Do-joon. Han Yeo-jin made arranged an accident to put Han Do-joon in a coma and placed him in the same room that she had been kept in. Kim Tae-hyun, who knew Han Yeo-jin’s dark revenge, pleaded with her to cancel her plans but she wasn’t happy with his decision. Things become more complicated as Han Yeo-jin and Kim Tae-hyun didn’t bond, and as the result, Kim Tae-hyun decided to leave and asked Han Yeo-jin to go with him but she rejected his offer. 6 months later, Kim Tae-hyun was living with his sister, who’s slowly recovering from her illness in a small village. He was still waiting for Han Yeo-jin to realize that she wanted to be with him, but it turned out Han Yeo-jin wasn’t in a good position, since Han Do-joon’s wife, Chae Young, had revenge for the death of her husband. Chae Young made a scene to take over Han Yeo-jn’s position as the chairwoman by slowly poisoning her. Han Yeo-jin ended up living her live with liver cancer, but she was unaware of it since the hospital didn’t reveal the result of the tests. Han Yeo-jin decided she wanted to leave the company and go back to Kim Tae-hyun, but she couldn’t do that because her condition had become so become unstable. Kim Tae-hyun finally found a way to break into her house and revealed what everyone did to her and reported the case to the police. In the final episode, Han Yeo-jin was rushed to the hospital and Kim Tae-hyun begged for Chief Lee, as the head surgeon, to save her life, but it failed. Kim Tae-hyun desperately tried to save Han Yeo-jin but in the end he has to say goodbye to his loved one. In the extended episodes, there was a scene in which Han Yeo-jin’s surgery was successful and when she awakened. Kim Tae-hyun asked her if she remembered him by saying “Do you know who I am?” and she answered, “Yong Pal”.
