Wondrously Unique Story with a Few Bumps at the Start
For me, this show was hard to get into at first because the female lead, Ko Moon Young, starts off as a grade A b*itch -- though there are reasons why, she starts off as being unrelentingly selfish, manipulative, and even obsessive over the male lead, Moon Gang Tae. However, this ends up a little forgiven as the show quickly picks up its stride and turns out to be about the healing power of human relationships, especially as it pertains to mental health.
This kdrama is famous for portraying mental health in a positive light and its easy to see why: psychological problems are treated semi-realistically and handled by the fictional psychiatric hospital staff in a respectful, therapeutic way. Underlying these character-driven stories is a fairy tale backdrop, where the individual stories end up being an allegory for the main story. It's a very clever and unique formula.
Ultimately, it is a great show, but for me personally, I think Ko Moon Young's character really took it down a few notches for me. In particular, I felt like the show sort of started her off as having some kind of diagnosable mental illness, but then pivoted to the source of her personality and her issues being trauma that she faced. For me, I think this revelation made it just a little more unforgivable to me that she acted so self-centered and immature in the beginning of the story.
This kdrama is famous for portraying mental health in a positive light and its easy to see why: psychological problems are treated semi-realistically and handled by the fictional psychiatric hospital staff in a respectful, therapeutic way. Underlying these character-driven stories is a fairy tale backdrop, where the individual stories end up being an allegory for the main story. It's a very clever and unique formula.
Ultimately, it is a great show, but for me personally, I think Ko Moon Young's character really took it down a few notches for me. In particular, I felt like the show sort of started her off as having some kind of diagnosable mental illness, but then pivoted to the source of her personality and her issues being trauma that she faced. For me, I think this revelation made it just a little more unforgivable to me that she acted so self-centered and immature in the beginning of the story.
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