First Impressions: "Modern Farmer", Episode 1

The first episode of “Modern Farmer” certainly got off to an interesting start! Right away, we find the members of Excellent Souls happily rolling their drunken lead singer to their gig. Unique, huh?

After getting into some trouble on the way, the band manage reach their gig and their crowd of fans. As they began playing, I took a moment to thank the powers that be that Lee Hong Ki was cast as lead singer Lee Min Ki. His singing voice is one of my personal favorites!

However, we quickly learn that things did not go as planned.

Cut to seven years later, and we find a present-day Lee Min Ki singing alone on a stage for nearly empty festival. The four members of Excellent Souls are still in communication, but have more or less gone their separate ways. Lee Min Ki is still a struggling musician, Yoo Han Chul (Lee Shi Un) is an office intern, Han Ki Joon (Kwak Dong Yun) is trying to pass a government officer test, and Kang Hyuk (Park Min Woo) is a hospital intern.

We also find Lee Min Ki in some serious debt with loan sharks. Apparently a previous agency owner took off with his money. (Wow, that doesn’t sound familiar at all. *coughstardomcough*)

Agreeing to have the $100,000 to the loan sharks in three months, Lee Min Ki is released and they leave him.

Lee Min Ki soon gets a call that his grandmother has passed away. At the funeral, he finds out that she has left him 400,000 square feet of land. Enthusiastically assuming he can sell that land for even more than his debt, he approaches his grandmother’s altar and pretends to “cry his heart out” to her.

Unfortunately, once he gets to his grandmother’s land, which was a cabbage field, he finds out that he would only get about $2000 with how much lands sells for these days.

But! Once at his part-time job, he finds out that cabbage is expensive. Lee Min Ki now owns a cabbage field. Piecing two and two together, he excitedly researches how to farm it.

It’s just the first episode, and yet we find out that Yoo Han Chul has final-stage liver cancer. And nothing can be done about it.

In the wake of the devastating news, Yoo Han Chul is approached by Lee Min Ki who begs him to farm cabbages and get the band back together. However, Yoo Han Chul quickly rejects Lee Min Ki and leaves.

Lee Min Ki soon meets with Han Ki Joon and gives him the same proposal, and Han Ki Joon likes the idea. However, they get into a yelling match because of something Lee Min Ki says and the latter storms off.

But later that night, both Yoo Han Chul and Han Ki Joon come to Lee Min Ki’s house, having decided to accept.

Finally, after almost the entire episode, we see intern Kang Hyuk. After watching two women fight over him in the middle of the hospital, he tries to sneak away before getting caught by one of the lead doctors. After passive-aggressively talking his way out of trouble using his father (the head of the hospital) as weight, his father suddenly appears and ignores his son’s greetings.

Kang Hyuk spots Yoo Han Chul in the hospital, and after a short conversation finds out about the cabbage farming and reinstates himself back into the group.

About which Lee Min Ki is very, very upset.

All in all, I was very pleased with this episode and think this is going to be a really entertaining drama. I was originally drawn to it because of Lee Hong Ki and Park Min Woo (any Roommate fans out there?), but I am now looking forward to seeing how these characters grow.

Now for my three favorite scenes of Episode One!

1. Drunken Lee Min Ki getting launched off of a ramp.

I seriously love cheesy effects like this!

2. Han Ki Joon wanting to change the band name.

As a hardcore EXO-L, I was not one of those fans that got upset about the name issue, but instead found it really amusing. This particular scene simply had me grinning because it honestly felt like an example of Korean product placement in dramas. I just loved it!

3. Lee Min Ki trying to throttle Kang Hyuk while driving… or not driving.

I think this image speaks for itself.

If you have had the chance to watch it, what were your impressions of this episode? Discuss your thoughts below!

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