I got the impression that the love story thread was added as an after thought. To be convincing this love affair needed a lot more story time than what it got. The writers needed to show how these two became love birds right off the bat. Instead the male lead is like a stone wall, and she is for some reason desperately in love with him. They didn't give the viewer a reason to believe that these two would fall in love at the end.

It was entertaining enough for me to keep watching it - can thank the actors for that who were able to make this mediocre story into something reasonably entertaining.

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Loved the drama between the two sisters trying to make it in the big city all the way though. I thought the way the one sister changed from being innocent and doll-like to becoming more aggressive and materialistic was a some great writing. I also like seeing how they struggled in tough conditions and the one married sister had to let her parents look after her daughter until they could get enough money together to get a place. This put a lot of stress on the relationship and no each of them personally.

They could have had a much more feel good ending, but instead I felt like they were toting the communist line a little bit in exchange for a good ending - you know the evils of corruption will never pay off. It does drag at the end, you could probably skip a couple episodes here and there and still be okay.

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This was my first experience in K-drama. Not sure why I clicked on it while searching through Netflix, but glad I did.

I thought the writers did an excellent job of showing how relationships evolve and how they can fall apart when external forces play a role. Yes the behavior of the mother was exaggerated but that was needed in order to drive the story forward. You have to admit she makes a great villain, which most stories need to be entertaining.

The main character was not as well written as I would have liked, I am referring to how things in her life slowly began to overwhelm her to the point where she would do crazy things. If the writers had spend a little more time foreshadowing this aspect of her so the viewer had a better understanding of what she was going through then the story would have been perfect. But overall I really enjoyed the series.

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I almost turned this off after the first 15 minutes because I thought the acting was a little funky, but thankfully I continued to watch. I love how they portrayed the girls Japanese traits throughout the story such as always bowing, which was dangerous because it revealed that she was Japanese in a time just after the second world war. Japanese were despised in China for what they had done to the Chinese people and for good reason, and that hate was something this young girl would have to contend with. Sun Li, the actor who plays the Japanese girl does a great job, and made me a fan of her work.
Highly recommended.

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