Let me start with the reasons I loved this show, I'll save the spoilers until the end.
Go Ah Ra as Ra Ra. I saw her Miss Hammurabi and loved her. She has a fresh appeal about her. Though Ra Ra's life went south pretty suddenly, she was always optimistic. Though I often felt she was taking advantage of Joon, I couldn't be mad at her - she was always open and up-front about what she was doing. Ra Ra changed everyone that she came into contact with for the better. Her effervescent personality in the face of adversity was a joy to watch.
Lee Jae Wook as Sun Woo Joon - this is really his first leading-man role, and I must say he was made for it. His personality was the opposite of Ra Ra's, but there was a magnetic pull between them. His acting is understated and believable, and when he cried, oh my!
Ye Ji Won as Jin Sook Kyung - as the owner of the beauty salon, she was quirky and a little strange, but so fun to watch.
I felt that the entire cast was excellent.
OST - Oh wow!! How they wove "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" through the entire series was brilliant. Playful one minute, soulful the next, heartbreaking in the next minute.
STORY - here's where things get difficult. Up through about episode 11, I would have rated this as a strong 10. The writing was excellent for each of the characters. Their actions and their conversations were so fun and heart-felt. The salon ladies were a hoot. Though Dr. Cha was a little creepy to me, his character made sense the more you got to see him. The friendships/crushes of the teenagers were fun and not too terribly irritating. I loved watching everyone change through Ra Ra's influence, and the fact that she was acting in a completely natural manner without any artifice was lovely. The budding relationship between Joon and Ra Ra was so special - she'd ask him to do something for her, he'd say "no" but then do it. All the things he did for her - I really felt that he loved her. The beginning scenes of each episode and the epilogues provide some additional clues as to what was going on. I love a storyline where the main characters have met in different scenarios over the years.
After about episode 11, I was wondering if a different writer took over. This went from being a light, fluffy love story (with quite a few laugh out loud moments) to melodrama pretty quickly. Here is one of my issues, if I know it's going to be a melodrama going in, I can prepare myself for angst and stress. I was going along, really enjoying this show when BAM! His nightmare mom, his even more nightmarish dad, breakups for no reason, lots of time spent apart, everyone is miserable, clingy ex-girlfriend shows up, and toss in an illness that he doesn't tell anyone about and it's a big old mess. I do have to give the writer credit for the scenes making fun of the "water in the face, paying off the girlfriend to leave her son alone" trope. This couple was apart more than they were together.
SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS!!!!
This is what is unforgivable for me - Joon goes to the US to "study", though he's really being treated for leukemia. Joon and Ra Ra still talk to one another on the phone. A few months go by and his mother shows up at Ra Ra's piano studio and tells her that Joon has died, and he left her a letter. So, we hear Joon's words to Ra Ra and go through her grief with her. FIVE YEAR TIME JUMP (I hate the time jumps in the best of times, but this was the worst!) Ra Ra is playing the song that she used to play to welcome him home and looks up, and there stands JOON. He says he didn't want to come back until he was well. She's a little bit mad but then forgives him pretty quickly. I had problems with this on many levels. First, what kind of mother would lie about her son being dead?!? And the fact that he left Ra Ra completely out of the loop, that's not love. All I could think of was, if I was Ra Ra, I'd be wishing that I'd been able to spend whatever time she had with him. When I got to the end of this show, I really felt like I'd been cheated, and I am NOT amused! So, strictly for this reason I had to lower my rating to a 7. I really wanted to go lower, I'm so mad, but the show was so good up to when it wasn't anymore.