You're the Best, Lee Soon-shin

Synopsis

Kim Jung-ae (Go Doo-shim) lovingly raised Lee Soon-shin (IU) as her own daughter after her husband brought the baby home, saying that he found her alone at a bus stop. Soon-shin is a member of the "880,000 won generation", college graduates who cannot find a job and work instead in low-paying temp jobs. She becomes targeted by a swindler who claims he is Shin Joon-ho, head of a talent agency. He targets her by saying he believes that she has the potential to become an actress. After quickly signing a contract, Soon-shin discovers that she has been conned and ends up being charged the amount of money Shin Joon-ho stole from her. Shortly after this, her father, Chang-hoon (Jung Dong-hwan) dies in a car accident. The suspect is unknown, and there are no witnesses. Meanwhile, Soon-shin begins working at Black Smith, the restaurant below the Gabi Entertainment office, in order to pay off her debt. After making a bet with actress, and ex-girlfriend, Choi Yeon-ah (Kim Yoon-seo), the real Joon-ho (Jo Jung-suk), over-confident and arrogant, is determined to transform Soon-shin into a star. However, Jung-ae does not support Soon-shin taking the offer after finding out that her late husband may have an affair with another woman, who later gave birth to Soon-shin. She later discovers that Soon-shin's birth mother is the famous actress Song Mi-ryung (Lee Mi-sook).

Middle daughter Lee Yoo-shin (Yoo In-na) has lived next door to Park Chan-woo (Go Joo-won) since childhood. Despite their constant squabbles, Chan-woo, now a dermatologist, still loves her confidence and prickly demeanor. Yoo-shin avoids thinking about marriage and childbirth, instead making success at work her main priority. When Joon-ho's younger sister Shin Yi-jung (Bae Geu-rin) develops a crush on Chan-woo, Yoo-shin realizes her true feelings for him.

Eldest daughter Lee Hye-shin (Son Tae-young) is beautiful and competent, but feels like a failure when her marriage ends. As a single mother, she has difficulties re-entering the workforce. She later meets Seo Jin-wook (Jung Woo), a neighborhood baker, who shows her consideration and gentleness and helps heal her wounds.

Meanwhile, Soon-shin has no idea that she was adopted. She continues to take acting lessons from Mi-ryung, which upsets her family. They have difficult understanding why Chang-hoon would be unfaithful. Watching Soon-shin do everything to realize her dream of becoming an actress, Joon-ho looks back on his career and finds himself changing as he discovers the true meaning of success. When Mi-ryung later discovers that Soon-shin is Chang-hoon's daughter, she immediately tries to destroy her career. Mi-ryung also informs her that she was merely a pawn in Joon-ho's bet, upsetting Soon-shin who decides to quit. Unwilling to admit his romantic feelings for her, but genuinely concerned for her welfare, Joon-ho is determined make Soon-shin return to acting, which she once said made her happy. After she rejoins Gabi Entertainment, Soon-shin also realizes that she likes Joon-ho and they begin dating.

After breaking off their mentoring relationship, Soon-shin eventually finds out that Mi-ryung is her birth mother. Despite facing difficulty with her family, she refuses to live with her. Soon-shin only agrees to stay at Mi-ryung's house to keep reporters away from them. Upset at Soon-shin's coldness, Mi-ryung tells Soon-shin that Chang-hoon is not her birth father, so she has no reason to go back to her adoptive family. Soon-shin keeps her paternity a secret from her family and lives with Mi-ryung while she and Joon-ho work on her acting debut.

Upon witnessing firsthand Mi-ryung's pitiful and lonely life, Soon-shin starts showing kindness to her birth mother. Mi-ryung values the relationship she's building with Soon-shin and is determined that nothing will ruin it. As Soon-shin overhears in a conversation that her father Chang-hoon died while saving Mi-ryung, she runs away and Jung-ae takes her home. Soon-shin tells Mi-ryung that if she wants her forgiveness, she must beg her family for it, and help find the suspect by coming forward as a witness. Mi-ryung refuses to do it, saying that fame is all she has. When Mi-ryung tells Shin Dong-hyuk, Joon-ho's father, to take his car's black box to the police since it recorded what happened the night of the accident. Both Mi-ryung and Soon-shin's careers are jeopardized after the news goes public.

Mi-ryung eventually tells the press the truth in order to take responsibility and retires from acting. The hit and run driver is arrested and jailed. As the drama closes, Mi-ryung is living a peaceful life in a remote area. After Mi-ryung watches Soon-shin's new stage play, she makes a tentative gesture of reconciliation by thanking her and calling her "Mom" for the first time. Hye-shin is dating Jin-wook with Woo-joo's blessing, Yoo-shin and Chan-woo are preparing for the birth of their first child, and Soon-shin films her first movie with Joon-ho. He is planning on proposing to her. Jung-ae narrates these last few minutes and says goodbye to her late husband. Upon their father's death, the three sisters have grown as individuals through enduring hardships as a family. They come to realize that the most precious things in life can be found within themselves, and happiness is a blessing that comes to the courageous few who have high self-esteem and take charge of their own lives.

Cast

Main

Lee Ji-eun as Lee Soon-shin

Soon-shin was named after the famous admiral Yi Sun-sin, a name given by her grandmother so that her mother would have a son. Her name also carries the connotation of believing in oneself in adversity. This, however, is an atypical name for a girl.

Soon-shin lives in the shadow of her better-looking, and smarter sisters. She gets poor grades, isn't very pretty, is short, and isn't particularly good at anything. She's not clever or tenacious. She can become overly emotional and is tender-hearted, frequently falling victim to scams, though her good nature means that she brushes off her older sister Yoo-shin's barbs with spunk and humor. When the show starts, Soon-shin is taking a few years off from college, on the pretext of looking for a job. In reality, she is still deciding what she wants to do with her life. When she starts acting, her bright personality and natural talent starts attracting positive attention from audiences and industry veterans.

Jo Jung-suk as Shin Joon-ho

Once a rising singer-songwriter, Joon-ho quit making music and set up his own talent agency, the now-thriving Gabi Entertainment, of which he is CEO. As the son of a famous dermatologist in Seoul, Joon-ho had a privileged childhood, but always felt pressured to become a doctor, like his father. In high school, he secretly formed a band, but was later found out by his father and sent to America. There, he majored in commercial music. On graduation, he came back to Korea and released an album, which was a moderate success. His music career caused him to sever ties with his father. At the time, his girlfriend was actress Choi Yeon-ah. The two had quickly fallen in love, but when the failure of his second album plunged him into a deep slump, they soon split up.

Joon-ho later recovered, setting up a management agency. He successfully debuted two hot idol bands in just a few years and started to emerge as rising star in show business. Joon-ho is suave, exacting, and serious, though he is sometimes awkward. In response to Yeon-ah's challenge, he will groom Soon-shin to become a star, though he begins to understand the real meaning of success through Soon-shin.

Go Doo-shim as Kim Jeong-ae

Supporting

Yoo In-na as Lee Yoo-shin

Soon-shin's second oldest sister is a marketing executive for an outdoor sportswear brand. She is quite capable, outspoken, and sharp, yet somewhat incapable and lazy at doing housework. She excels at everything – sports, arts, even dating, as well as yoga, her long-time passion. Her interest lies in nature and spirituality. She is a vegetarian and passionate environmental activist. She is also full of contradictions. She cannot bear to lose and does not tolerate being overlooked, but still preaches tolerance and healing whenever she has a chance. She feels that her parents always loved Hye-shin and Soon-shin more than her. "Hye-shin is the perfect daughter and Soon-shin is the youngest. Then what am I? Why was I born?" Yoo-shin has had these existential questions since she was a child. Her self-worth was defined when, at age nine, she and Soon-shin played with matches and set fire to the kitchen. Her mother ran into the fire and saved Soon-shin first, leaving Yoo-shin traumatized for life. She has resented Soon-shin ever since. But after learning that Soon-shin was conned by a swindler, she started to look after her. She begins to date Chan-woo, however with a contract that will control their actions. But as time passes, they find that they really love each other and later get married.

Son Tae-young as Lee Hye-shin

Soon-shin's eldest sister Hye-shin is beautiful, smart, elegant, and ladylike. She was always the most popular girl in school. Her life was a series of highlights and she was the apple of her parents' eyes. After graduating from a top university, she was on the fast track to a professional career at a multinational company. But she soon received a wedding proposal from a guy who has everything – prominent family, good looks, and wealth. Hye-shin has always lived up to the expectation to be the best, searching for the best answer in everything, even in marriage. But her marriage was not what she imagined it to be. Her fund manager husband looked down on her poor family, even though her parents had spent their entire retirement fund to give her a dream wedding. She followed her husband to Hong Kong, where she gave birth to a baby girl and spent seven years as a mother and housewife. Then one day she returned to Korea. Warm-hearted and upright, she sometimes finds it hard to express her own dilemmas to her family because of her responsibilities as the eldest daughter. She moves back in the family home with her daughter Woo-joo, lying to her family, saying that her husband has been transferred back to Seoul, when in fact they have divorced.

Viewership

In the ratings below, the highest rating for the show will in be red, and the lowest rating for the show will be in blue.

Title controversy

Global Youth League DN filed an injunction in Seoul Central District Court against broadcaster KBS for using the name "Lee Soon-shin" in the title of the drama. The injunction requested that the broadcast be halted immediately, that "Lee Soon-shin" be removed from the title, and that the character's name be changed. The group claimed that historical figure Lee Soon-shin (or Yi Sun-sin), an admiral famed for his victories against the Japanese Navy in the Imjin War during the Joseon period, is an official national symbol whose status will "deteriorate" when associated with the "weak and clumsy" protagonist that lead actress IU plays.

KBS and production company A Story said they have no plans of changing the title or character name. Instead, they altered the original drama poster where several cast members are sitting on a pile of 100 won coins that have an image of Admiral Yi, by digitally replacing the coins with a plain gold platform.