What's Up Fox

What's Up Fox?
Promotional poster for What's Up Fox?
Also known as	Foxy Lady Fox, What Are You Doing?
Genre	Drama Romantic Comedy
Format	Television drama
Written by	Kim Do-woo
Directed by	Kwon Seok-jang
Starring	Go Hyun-jung Chun Jung-myung
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language(s)	Korean
No. of episodes	16
Production
Producer(s)	Kim Nam-won
Location(s)	Korea
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	60 minutes on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 (KST)
Broadcast
Original channel	Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
Original run	20 September 2006 (2006-09-20) – 9 November 2006 (2006-11-09)
Chronology
Preceded by	Over the Rainbow
Followed by	90 Days, Time to Love
External links
Website

What's Up Fox? (Hangul: 여우야 뭐하니; RR: Yeo-u-ya Mwohani, also known as Foxy Lady) is a 2006 South Korean television series, starring Go Hyun-jung and Chun Jung-myung.^[1] It aired on MBC from September 20 to November 9, 2006 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 16 episodes. The romantic comedy explores age differences in relationships, in particular between a thirty-something woman and her best friend's brother who is nine years younger.^[2][3]

Plot

Go Byung-hee (Go Hyun-jung) is a 33-year-old woman working as a reporter for a third-rate magazine, but with the heart of a virginal 24-year-old girl. She frequently finds it hard to cope with the unexciting aspects of her life. She dreams of someday working for a company that she can be proud of, and of finding the man of her fantasies: someone her age who has a good educational background and is financially stable, who'll provide warm support when she needs it, and who'll go with her on a world tour in a campervan. One day, she gets into an accident with her friend Seung-hye's younger brother, Chul-soo (Chun Jung-myung), and begins to see him in a new light. Park Chul-soo is a 24-year-old high school graduate working as a mechanic at a car repair shop. Although Chul-soo does not seem to have much, he is filled with maturity and enjoys life by doing the things he loves: working as a mechanic and traveling. How many people actually find the love they dream of? Until they realize that true love is just around the corner, this couple continues to pursue this unique romantic relationship of "dating a friend's brother" and "dating my sister's friend."

Cast and characters

• Go Hyun-jung as Go Byung-hee

Reporter working for the magazine C'est Si Bon. Byung-hee is both timid and outgoing, but there are times when she can’t stand her own mediocrity. You don’t grow older for nothing, so she is as mature as a 33-year-old needs to be. Being frank and straightforward, she has no talent for hiding her thoughts, so she usually ends up tearing her hair out as soon as she turns around from a situation. She is typical timid and easily leaves everything to fate.

By nature, her heart always acts before her head, and she laughs and cries easily. Her actions are offbeat, and she loves the old-style coffee milk. She is still a young girl with dreams of fateful love, and a silly, outgoing lady who enjoys Jang Deok's songs. Then suddenly, she comes to her senses, and realizes she is now 33 years old. It seems only yesterday that she was 23. Where did all the years go? It’s not fair!

Right now, she is a sex columnist. She studies about sex techniques when she eats, when she walks, and even while dozing off in the subway. The questions ringing in her head are "how to satisfy my man?" or "how to excite my woman?" She imagines, explores and writes about the heights of pleasure that the creator has only granted to humans. Such lustful articles are carried in the magazine called C'est Si Bon. At the end of each article, the byline says "by the Editor" instead of a name. So she is a reporter without a name. She does have a name card, which clearly declares her to be reporter, but she has never really proudly given it to anyone. That's because C'est Si Bon isn't exactly a respectable magazine.

• Chun Jung-myung as Park Chul-soo

Mechanic at Ssing Ssing Auto Repair Shop. Although he doesn’t have much to his name, he is a proud, self-proclaimed outsider. Never swayed by the values of the established class, he is a guy with easy composure and slightly slanted views, and always lives by his own principles. He is mature for his age with a good heart but is on the wild side, and has a hot temper. Manly, stubborn, and direct, his thinking and values are different from other young men his age.

Thanks to his bold courage, he unintentionally became the legend of his high school. He did not go to university because he didn't feel the need for higher education. He doesn't care about social views, and he has no realistic plans for his future or marriage, for owning a house or getting a life insurance. He is satisfied with his present life, being able to do the things he likes such as fiddling with cars, traveling, reading and enjoying good wine. So through the eyes of the establishment, his life may seem to be that of a loser but actually he is one of those people living in "downshift," advocating life on the slow lane. Because of his handsome looks, he seems to shine even in his work clothes. Many women drivers fall for him, regardless of age, but he is not interested.

Being crazy about cars, he studied about automobiles at a technical school, and worked at a repair shop for a while after graduation. Then declaring that he wants to study English, he goes abroad. But taking language courses was just a pretext, and he gave up English studies just after a month. He spent the rest of the year backpacking. This drama starts with his return to Korea.

Having lived for 24 years following his own principles, he has a spirit that is mature enough to face anyone. However, even then, the innocence and incompleteness of youth can't help rising to the surface from time to time. Could that be the reason? He ends up giving his heart to Go Byung-hee, a woman who is nine years older.

• Jo Yeon-woo as Bae Hee-myung

Urologist who writes an advice column for C'est Si Bon as a medical expert. He is successful, sexy and humorous. He is the type of man all women fantasize about. He is intelligent, frank (at times to the point of being sleazy), spends a significant amount of energy caring for his appearance, confidently declares shopping as his hobby, and is very interested in cooking, working out, fashion, and leading a cultured life. To the woman he's interested in, he'll typically say, "I want to sleep with you" instead of "Let's get something to eat."

Writing for an "adult magazine for men" rather than simply a "men's magazine" (when the word "adult" is added, the magazine becomes off-limits to those under 18, and goes to the stands packaged in clear wrapping) is certainly a smear on his dignity as a person and to his hospital. But the publisher of C'est Si Bon is hometown friend and seonbae Hwang Yong-kil, who'd been hounding him to write the Urology Q&A column. So he decides to be generous and agrees to write the column for one year. As it turns out, the person in charge of the column is Go Byung-hee. When Miss Go brings him the Qs on Urology, he writes the As. He later finds out that Miss Go writes both the questions and answers for other advice sections but she can't do the same for Urology because she doesn’t know anything about the field.

What a wacky magazine, and a wacky lady! This woman, this Miss Go, the more you get to know her, the wackier she gets. She is old enough, but doesn't really seem to know much about worldly things, and seems quite innocent in many ways. She tries to act like an expert, but she can’t fool him. He can tell so much about a person just by looking at his or her bottom, and he soon finds out that she is still a virgin. To think that a 33-year-old woman is still a virgin in this day and age of the 21st century! He can't decide whether she should be commended or mocked. But either way, to be quite honest, he can't help being curious about her. So now that they've become acquainted, he teases her. Ah, the way she reacts to his question, "Do you wanna sleep with me, today?" Her kaleidoscopic expressions are a spectacle in themselves.

• Kim Eun-joo as Go Jun-hee

Byung-hee's younger sister who is a second-rate fashion model. Brimming with passion and talent, she has ambitions of succeeding as a model, then meeting a successful man and living in style. Unlike her older sister Byung-hee, she is confident, daring and strong-spirited. She is also self-centered, always knowing what she wants.

Her sister takes after their deceased father, but she takes after their mother. She graduated from a junior college majoring in Clothing & Textiles. Having good taste in fashion and make-up, she can maintain stylish and luxurious looks even with cheap clothes she buys at Dongdaemun Market. Sometimes, people tell her she looks very much like the former model "Kang Eun-mi" who received the spotlight for a very short time before retiring to get married. However, Kang died from a car accident some time ago. Jun-hee had participated in S Broadcasting's Supermodel Contest but failed to become one of the finalists. However, it provided her with an opportunity to join the fashion scene, and she has been working as a model for four years. The road to becoming a first-class model seems distant, and she intermittently walks down the runway whenever her agency calls her. Occasionally, she earns larger sums of money modeling for print advertisements of small- and medium-sized companies.

She is both talented and ambitious, but reality does not always go her way. Everyday models fresh from high school are pushing their way up, and she is not getting any younger, making her all the more anxious. Nevertheless, dreaming of the day when she will be counted among the top models walking the runway at a fashion show, she never neglects taking care of herself. Unlike her sister who never gains an ounce no matter how much she eats, Jun-hee gains weight even if she only drinks water. So she always has to stick to a severe diet. She works out at least two hours a day, and never skips her English class, preparing for the day when she will stand on the world stage. Wanting to be called an intellectual model, she reads diligently. When anyone asks her how many books she reads in a month, she answers without hesitation, "Eight books." They are all magazines, of course – magazines about fashion, women, movies and current affairs. It's funny, but she can't spend more than five minutes reading a book, but she can spend hours poring over the magazines. Current affairs is a difficult subject to tackle, but she tries to read the headlines at least. That helps a lot. She is well aware of her Byung-hee's weakness, that she has no experience with men. So when her sister has difficulties writing her column, she provides advice from her own experiences.

But she notices that Byung-hee seems to have changed recently. It seems that she is playing a queer tug-of-war game with Chul-soo. Oh, she knows Chul-soo quite well. It is a secret that no one knows, but she once asked him out in high school but he refused her flat. They have now become good friends, good enough to confide in each other. Hmmm... she thinks she better keep an eye on her sister and Chul-soo.

• Son Hyun-joo as Park Byung-gak

President of a luxury brand. Even though he is ignorant and crude, this man has a devoted heart that is truly a luxury item. He is short, fat and rough-looking. Bulldog is his nickname. He covers himself with luxury products befitting the president of a luxury brand but to no avail. Having a tough mouth and personality, he talks down on everyone, and swearing is his second nature. He never thinks twice about kicking anyone he doesn't like. He likes to make money and spend it, too. In other words, he is wasteful. There are also ugly rumors about him. From the standard criticism about being an ignorant rich man, to accusations that he used to be a criminal and a gangster, to claims that he spends thousands of dollars a night on drinking, that he slept with every model in town, and even that he killed his own wife. His wife died three years ago in Hawaii in a car accident, and the rumor has it that he ran her down because she was having an affair.

He is proud of being the president of a luxury brand, and enjoys famous designers and top models trying to get on good terms with him. He knows they talk behind his back, but since he is the one in control he couldn't care less. Nowadays, he is trying to listen to classical music, which he just can't understand, and is spending a fortune on decorating his study in an effort to make himself more dignified. He has a luxury penthouse, luxury furniture, luxury cars, luxury clothes and all the material things he desires, but he is always lonely. It has already been three years since his wife died, but he can't forget her. Thousands of dollars worth of dresses, shoes, handbags and jewelry that he presented to his wife still stand guard over her room. Then one day, he meets a woman who looks a lot like his wife. This woman dares to look straight into his eyes and stand up against him. She is Go Jun-hee, and he keeps seeing his wife in her. He wants to change her to look exactly like his wife, and play with her.

Extended cast

• Yoon Yeo-jeong as Choi Soon-nam (Byung-hee and Jun-hee's mother)
• Ahn Sun-young as Park Seung-hye (Chul-soo's sister)
• Park Byung-sun as Oh Pil-kyo (Soon-nam's real estate employee)
• Kwon Hae-hyo as Hwang Yong-kil (magazine publisher)
• Choi Yoon-jung as Jo Sung-ran
• Seo Young as Joo-hee
• Choi Woo-je as Sun-woo (Byung-hee's college friend)
• Seo Hye-jin as Jo Hyun-jung (Byung-hee's co-worker)
• Jung Ki-sung as Director Kim
• Kim Hak-chul as an auto repair shop owner
• Yoo Tae-woong as young Chul-soo

Episode Ratings

Source: TNS Media Korea

References

External links

• What's Up Fox? official MBC website (Korean)
• Foxy Lady at MBC Global Media
• Fox, What Are You Doing? at HanCinema