I decided to watch this drama because of Moon Chae Won. I had liked her for so long as an actress and my love for her regained after watching Flower of Evil. But I realized except for Princess's Man, Painter of the Wind, Innocent Man, Flower of Evil, Brilliant Legacy, and some clips of her It's Okay Daddy's Girl and My Fair Lady; I haven't seen her other filmograohy. I decided to give Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter a go since Moon Chae Won wears hanbok in this drama, and I love seeing her in hanbok.
I rate the story only a 6.5. The positives of this show is that there is a plot twist that makes this drama interesting, and from the title of the show, the plot twist is not obvious. Seeing the title and short summary of the drama, people would think it's just about a fairy and the show's goal is only for the fairy to find out which of the two guys is her husband from years ago. However, as the story goes on, we discover that the dramas is also about friendship, acceptance, loyalty, and valuing yourself as much as about romance. The character of the professor, I didn't expect at first how his background gave so much twists to the story. An additional plus in the show is that the cute and lighthearted moments between the fairy and either of her two love interests, or the love interests with each other is good and enjoyable to watch. For the negatives however, there are some plotholes. I didn't understand why the fairy has to appear as an old woman to most people. Nor do I understand what kind of relationship should you have with the fairy for someone to see her young. The female professor for example, saw her as old at first then saw her young later (was it because she was getting to know the fairy more since the fairy is becoming more involved with her male professor friend?). I'm also confused as to why the villages in Gyeryong (Kim Geum's mom for example) didn't know the fairy and her fairy friends since it is such a small town and the fairy friends live in that town most of the time. And the most annoying thing is the lack of explanation for fairy's kids. How and why are they reborn as cat and worm/dragon (plus for the dragon/worm I didn't understand how the barista fairy said that all the powers of the world is in the egg of that dragon)? Do they die and live again for the hundreds of years their fairy mom waits for her husband? And last thing I'm wondering is what will happen to the fairy and the husband she chose after they got married? Is he coming back with her to the fairy world or is the fairy and her kids transforming into real humans to stay with him there (how weird is it that the young husband has a 20 year old looking daughter)? There's no rating for visual effects here, but I'm just gonna include it for the story's rating and gosh, the visual effects and CGI are just below average. I could have rated this show lower but since the plot twist of the drama as well as the morals plus lighthearted moments are really good (plus Moon Chae Won in hanbok is just so wonderful to see), so a 6.5 should be the fairest rating I can give to the story.
Actingwise, I give this drama an 8.5. Moon Chae Won as the fairy acted just good enough for her role. Her crying scenes are my most favorite of hers actingwise since she's really good in it. Her character of the fairy does not demand much of her acting skills though, thus despite being her usual good acting self, she doesn't come off as particularly impressive. But she's good enough and she embodied the character of the good hearted beautiful fairy well. Yoon Hyun Min is really impressive. For me at least, his character is the one that requires the most acting skills. His role of professor has such a complicated background and past, it's difficult to express the emotions of a character that had to overcome such difficult past. Fans of Yoon Hyun Min could really enjoy this drama if they want to focus on his acting instead of what happens to his character. Seo Ji Hoon is Kim Geum is also good, he was charming and was able to portray the character well. Rest of the cast is great. Surprised to see Ahn Kil Kang from Queen Seon Deok in here as a funny fairy. Due to his serious character in Queen Seon Deok which has remained in me for so long, it was really hard for me to imagine him in a comic role. But after watching him here and in Iljimae (which I just saw recently), I'm starting to think comedy might be one specialty of his.
The music is good but not particularly memorable, It doesn't affect much my enjoyability of the drama so an 8 should be a good rating.
5 for rewatch value. I don't think I'm gonna rewatch the drama again, but I might watch in the future some of my favorite scenes.
Overall a 6.5 rating for this drama.