Truth be told, when I got enmeshed in this whole Kpop craziness, I was pretty much wrapped in a foggy haze of DBSK. I didn’t notice anything else — no other bands, no other singers, nothing. Then I was told about a few dramas that I needed to check out, but wasn’t quite sure if I was game. I mean, I can’t stand American soap operas, I loathe telenovelas. So I was more or less arguing with myself as to whether or not I should take up this endeavor.

Then I discovered Miss Ripley.

Miss Ripley tells the story of Jang Mi-Ri, a young woman fleeing a crude existence of desolate circumstances. She escapes Japan and the clutches of the brothel lifestyle and follows her feet back to her birthplace, South Korea. She finds herself continuously turned away from every job opportunity and propositioned by lecherous men who see a beautiful face and young body and consider it theirs for the taking. She literally stumbles into hotel CEO Jang Myung-Hoon’s life — a man who’s been disrespected and jilted by his ex-wife. He looks into Jang Mi-Ri’s eyes and sees a dying light in her that he wants to save.

With Mi-Ri’s history, she doesn’t have the qualifications for anything more than menial labor; however, if she can’t manage to find steady income, she’ll be deported back to the hell that was her life in Japan. This leads her to continuously sew herself into tragically unsavory tapestries of deception, including seducing Myung-Hoon, capturing the heart of young heir to a hospitality conglomerate, Yutaka, and forging credentials and stealing her friend’s blueprint designs.