2. My review after watching it again with my husband

I feel the need to write another review because of new things I have learnt about this drama after countless discussion with my husband who is not as experienced in Korean dramas as I am. Why do I have to emphasize this? Because with my 20 years of experience, I certainly have knowledge and expectations of How a story should go. However, knowledge can be your enemy and the emotions coming from desperate expectations while watching online may have clouded my judgement. I am in no doubt going back on my previous review. It was written for How I felt at that certain moment. I want to clarify new things about Do San and DM characters and relationship.

First, despite my disappoitment with the ending and story development, I never stop to question myself why an experienced writer must do ”dirty” to her main leads up to the point that majority of people did not support them when the drama was on air. I refuse to believe that the main story is that poor after two years of writing. So my husband with his novice experience helped me quite a lot.

His opinion on the drama is that it is not so bad and inspiring in some ways. All the characters are pitiful in their own ways. Dosan as a mainlead in the part before the timeskip is very real. This character If you notice you will meet a lot in your life. Dosan is most of the time struggling internally with his low self-esteem. Because he had suffered it so much before meeting DM, it becomes chronic and somehow hard to treat at the present. If things go well, He’s fine. But If things go wrong, his low self-esteem hits him badly that he loses himself in his violent acts.

He’s always in conflicts, thinking himself as a living buddhda while he is not and having nothing while he has everything. The fact that you feel having nothing while having everything is really pitiful. When he met DM, she was the first one who praised him for who he is. So she becomes everything to him: his trophy, his pride, his love. This explains why in the end the writer must let her to get married to him. Just like the big polls show about 70-80% supported HJP for DM, in real life, this percentage also applies. It is really hard for DS to find someone like DM in his life, someone who does not regret her decision to put love on him. Other girls after seeing his red flags may just leave.

Just like KSH said it would be good if HJP is with DM in the end, But it is better for DS and DM to be together. That is because HJP can live his life well without DM. He can always find someone he loves and loves him. But for a person with low self-esteem like DS, DM is his only chance. Why do I think so? Because we talk about some love stories of our families and friends that we have never understood why. We have a amazing friend who is excellent in everything she does. But her only weakness is in love life. She always chose the bad guy. Her first two loves went bad, But her husband now seems really strange. He may be kind to her, But he has low self-esteem that he is not likable at all. He talks like he knows everything. He went to another country to start a business But failed. He was divorced and didn’t have a house before getting married to her. But because she’s so good, now they can buy a big house together, still he shows his low self-esteem when others around him make him feel threatened. It’S very strange. The last time we met her, she looked tired and trapped in the big house far away from the city. This selfish guy had failed the driving test 4 times. But he forced her to buy a house no where near a bus station. I remember some other stories as well but time is limited.

DS is nicer because he has real talent and he does everything for DM. That is why he could be with her and we should not be feeling sad for JP anymore. All the symbolisms and parallelism may be true. They show DM and JP actually could be together, But the timing was not right. For a girl like DM, she would go with DS until the end, even though we can keep our doubt about whether their marriage will be happy or not. Living with a low self-esteem person may be a challenge.

While the writer gave DS everything in the end despite his questionale behavior? I think after all he is a nice guy. His low self-esteem had not been treated for so long, so he turned out like that. DM came to his life as a medicine and I guess the writer tried to direct our attention to this problem in our society. What if we notice and What if these people are given an opportunity to grow and love?

Of course, her choice for his repeated lying behavior and taking chance of the letter will not sit well with many viewers, even with me after writing this long long review, I sympathized with her choice though. This love story is boring and not fluttering for me. My husband also felt the kiss was too fast and he didn’t feel much, so I guess the feeling we experienced while watching is totally realistic. We may not see it like DS and DM feel.

After all, we believe that the writer must meet this Dosan in real life and she did not try to sugarcoat him at all. In drama, DS is successful and got married to DM, But in real life he may not be successful, given his persistent low self-esteem. Maybe as long as he has DM, she is his dream and esteem. We just need to accept this kind of relationship that totally happens in real life. We may not like it in a drama as it is not exciting, but thinking about everything this way has helped me to get over this drama after one month. Yes, I feel sorry for HJP, But I believe he will be happy after all.

My husband gave this drama 7. He didn’t have issues with DM DS relationship, But he was upset with the writer’s lazy writing when it comes to the technology part of the drama. It was poorly written that he felt insulted as an IT developer at some scenes. How come DS and other developers used Python for everything? The samsan tech guys in the boat, boasting about How successful they have become are so bad in his view. The writer didn’t let them to become respectable people, But guys getting rich by luck and showing off their possessions. She sent very wrong messages to the youth.

For him, DM and DS appeared to be pitiful, But IJ and JP were really pitiful characters. Everyone had to do something for DM and DS. That is why these two did not receive much love from viewers. The writer didn’t let DM to build up her all success but relied on the two men and her sister. Also the timeskip was too unrealistic. It was 2016. She just told DS to go to SF, and she can go there by herself. She had the money and a passport. Why did she have to say goodbye to him? Very poor writing.

1. My review after watching this drama on air

I first would like to thank the writer and director for creating a beautiful character like HJP. I think KSH did a great job portraying this character. I had never watched Suzy and NJH before, but I think they did a fine job, despite their being tired towards the end. The drama was shot beautifully and the music is soothing, but ambiguous.

The story started out great. Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about the first episode. The first four episodes were heartwarming and beautiful. All characters seem to be nice and funny. I thought we would have nice bromance and relationships.

However, things started to get worse, after DS realized that DM still liked the DS in the letters too much and JP told him he could never be a good CEO. DS since then turned into someone else, being obsessed with DM and JP. He started to lie more in order to stop JP and DM. His background medal story made his actions further questionable. More than anyone else, he understood how cheating took a toll on him, but he did another big cheating with the girl. His relationship with DM was too fast and she initiated many actions. One could say he was a victim here, but I am disappointed because he didn’t come out clean early by himself and compete with JP fairly.

I have several issues with this drama:

- DS thought he had nothing, but he in fact had so many things. The drama didn’t allow him to realize this in the end.

- the story should have focused on DM rather than the love triangle and how two men tried to help her. In this journey, when DM was with JP, she learnt facts and reality and developed well as a CEO. When she’s with DS, she’s just totally dependent on him, which is not healthy. We want a strong woman in lead and here we couldn’t get one in the end. That’s why I prefer DM and JP for a healthy and loving relationship. When she’s with DS, she always looked weak.

- DS as a male lead is very weak. I have watched Kdrama for 20 years and I have never seen anyone as lucky as DS. Other male leads faced constant challenges, but here the universe worked for him, since grandma’s eye problem, his dad’s job to Saha telling him about the ransom attack. In the meanwhile, JP was the one who got all the punches like a normal male lead, but in the end got nothing. All DS actions for DM were for her to recognize, but many ended up hurting her (lying about letters, making deal with Alex). In this sense, JP should be the one because he rather hurts himself than DM, like princes in fairy tales if you notice.

- The writer rewarded DS’ violent behavior with a kiss and a trip to Silicon Valley. DS was never sorry for his bad behaviors. He didn’t show any sympathy towards JP’s sad upbringing. It’s the same with DM.

- DM is strange girl. She took microphone from another person, wanted to fake being successful, always triggered her sister, and easily forgot everything after meeting DS. She’s not a role model if you look for one. She is just a lucky girl, who happened to have two geniuses helping her on the way.

- Saling without a map is a dangerous message. We need a context for this. And the smart city project is too unrealistic to apply this message. If you would like to learn about startup, maybe Strongest delivery man offers much better lessons.

- the family issues were not well addressed. Everything around DM seems superficial. Not good writing.

- SST boys and Saha are fun at some points, but they should not have taken screentimes from JP and IJ.

- True entrepreneurs: Grandma, JP, IJ and her dad.

Why am I upset about this drama?

JP has become one of my most beloved characters in the Kdrama land for his selflessness and fairness. Despite being in a desperate situation of getting DM a real DS, he refused his request to join Sandbox. This character has integrity, while DS doesn’t.

The most annoying thing is the writer refused to address the letters carefully and give JP a fair chance with DM. We read the letters, we knew they are beautiful and they connected two poor souls in the past. Even when we live in 2020, we still love handwriting love letters. We believe that the two soulmates would find each other in the end. Good boy will find his love and justice to his sacrifice. But here the writer didn’t let us to have that beautiful ending and force us a happy ending which we couldn’t relate to.

I couldn’t get myself to see the wedding photos and many scenes of ep 15 and ep 16, while seeing JP was the only one crying in the last episode. And people with questionable actions ended up having everything in the end. Luck is important but shouldn’t be everything like in this drama. The writer didn’t treat DS’ imposter syndrome before he got married. That’s why I am worried for DM.

In sum, I feel pity for such a strong start and what could have been one of the most beautiful stories ever. I really question at what point the writer agreed to give us such a problematic male lead and couple like in this drama and at the same time created a wonderful character like JP, whom many of us will love for a long time.