Overall a very satisfying experinece

The Story:

It is basically a melodrama about two star crossed lovers. Basically, Dong Jin's mother and Woo Joo's father had an affair. Woo Joo's father left his family and married Dong Jin's mother. Upon's his death, he left the family home to Dong Jin's mother resulting in Woo Joo wanting the house back. She wants to approach Dong Jin to get the house back but believes that he is selfish just like his mother and seeks revenge by joining his company.

The Good:
- The acting. Every actor is excellent in this drama and they truly make you feel for their character even the evil stepmother near the end. Most of time, they will portray their emotions through their body language and eyes. The way they would just look at each other is just so noteworthy. A lot of the time they communicate less through words and more through the body language cause both Woo Joo and Dong Jin are quiet people who are dealing with their own emotional issues . I cannot fault anyone's acting in this so a solid 10/10
- The overall atmosphere / tone: Most of the characters in this drama are going through some emotional trauma and it communicated very well through the overall colour grading, the way they walk, the way they react to happy / sad news, the way some of the shots are so still and the stillness of some scenes.
-Realistic portrayal: Now, not everything in this drama is portrayed realistically but most of the things that happen are pretty realistic. Ex: How people develop a relationship, how people fall in love, how families usually influence one's decisions in life, etc
-The character development: The way the characters develop, their relationships change and the way they react to things depending on their personality was very good. Also, a few of them learn life lessons and some give them depending on their experience.
- Forgiveness: One of the biggest takeaways from the this drama is how important it is to forgive someone so you can lead a more happy/ healthy life.

The Bad:
- The pacing: This is more of a character heavy drama rather than a plot heavy drama so the pacing of the drama varies depending on what the emotional state of the characters. The beginning is really slow cause you are being introduced to the characters and their situations. Once I made it through midway of the first episode, I pretty much binged through the 6 -7 episodes and then the drama was pretty much dragging with the indecision of the characters and how you were basically waiting for the bomb to drop. Then, it somewhat picked up pace again only to slow down again till the end. There are shots / scenes which are drawn longer than necessary. I sometimes found myself wanting to skip them cause it was just dragging the story
- The ex-girlfriend: I feel like she was just added to the story for more drama and nothing else. I did not like her character nor felt sympathy towards her. She could not have been in this story and it would have changed nothing. A good thing is that she did not get more screen time.
- The cliche evil stepmom: When this drama was going for some realism, they went for the evil stepmom and her evil sidekick. They are no redeeming qualities to her until near the end. In a drama where most characters are realistic, she with her sidekick just seemed to be so out of place. Her motivations are never shown/ given. She is just who she is and we are supposed to accept it. She never has a moment where she explains her actions.
- The ending: For a drama that loves to drag out certain scenes, they pretty much gave a very rushed ending in the very last 1 -2 minutes. I personally would have liked some sort of epilogue, conversation, or something solid. It is a satisfying ending but not a perfect ending. Considering all that happened, I just wanted a few more minutes to wrap everything up.

So, overall 8.5 / 10. Give this one a try if you like slow paced star crossed romance, characters going through emotional trauma and excellent acting from everyone.

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