This is such a Wattpad drama it gives me secondhand embarrassment... And yet I'm still watching because it's something different from the usual "grown adults pretending they hate each other for no reason and misunderstanding-driven love triangles" bullshit.
Finally finished this drama after abandoning it near the end a long time ago. I noticed it was on Netflix and thought, what the hell, better this than Record of Youth. My impressions are as follows:
Even Chinese directors would blush at the amount of emotionally manipulative JSDF propaganda in this show, but whatever, I don't watch romance for the political message. Overall, this is one of the better romantic jdramas out there; it has all the traditional strengths of the Japanese school of adult romance, like subtlety, yearning, emotional complexity, characters with their own personalities and problems, etc., and almost none of the weaknesses, by which I mean idiotic misunderstandings, multiple unnecessary overlapping love triangles that persist until the last episode, random personality changes, the leads acting like they don't care if they get together or not, etc. Thankfully, they had to cut all that shit out to make room for a bunch of extremely dry air force PR strategy subplots and office politics.
That said, the romance is almost too understated and I kinda wish there was more of it. It's not even a matter of insufficient screen time as much as glacially slow relationship development and a nonexistent emotional climax. But the ending was pretty satisfying. There *was* a time skip before our couple got their happy ending, but it made sense to me, so I didn't rage about it too much.
Both leads were likeable and their chemistry was realistic and convincing. Also this is probably the hottest Ayano Go has ever looked... or maybe that's just my fetish for lost, depressed and repressed office workers speaking.
This drama sounds pretty conventional/predictable, but that's exactly what I've been missing recently, so I'll give it a shot. Also, I watched the teasers available on Viki and I don't know if it's the post-production or what, but CBL and Puff Kuo could both pass for, like, 30-32. Wow! I need their beauty clinic's number.
I found the changes the show has made in adapting the source material so jarring I had to drop it after two episodes.
What I find most bothersome is that in the drama, Dou Zhao had a meaningful, indeed fateful, connection with Song Mo in her previous life, he DIED WITH HER—I can't believe they were pierced by the same arrow lmao, that's so cheesy!—and they were reincarnated together. That's total bullshit! What sold me on their romance in the novel was precisely the incidental origin of their relationship. We've all watched a hundred identical dramas about reincarnated lovers finding each other in every lifetime. What I want is a love story that blossoms between two worthy people who are each other's equal but live in completely different worlds until a chance meeting or coincidence brings them together, and the novel delivered exactly that. Dou Zhao had met Song Mo once in her previous life and had formed a complex impression of him but never paid him any mind because she had other problems to worry about.
And here we have a soothsayer monk telling them they're destined to be together, Song Mo dying to protect Dou Zhao, the arrow nonsense, Song Mo waking up from a dream he can't remember (which will no doubt start to come back to him in bits and pieces at some point and stimulate his interest in Dou Zhao, thus providing a convenient shortcut for their relationship development), etc. etc. etc. This is now a totally different story.
Separately from all that, the writing and direction are also just kinda bad. The editing, scene transitions and dialogue are all awkward like in a short-length webdrama.
I was really hoping this show would be good because while the novel sets up the story very well, it unravels in the second half in a way a TV adaptation could have corrected, but oh well.
The novel started out very good, but it dragged on too long and the leads became less likable after they got married because it felt like they started to go after people proactively instead of simply minding their own business and parrying they enemies’ attacks. I think the drama has a lot of potential as long as they are careful in adapting the latter half of the story.
Well, he didn't dislike her, which doesn't mean he's been secretly in love with her this whole time.
He was fond of her when they were children and chose to marry her instead of her sister when he learned she would be married off to a lecher otherwise, but nothing we've seen of their past suggests he ever went out of his way to "like" her, as in seriously consider her in a romantic light.
That's why the drama started with her abduction; that's what unsettled the status quo between the leads and triggered romantic development.
I was distracted during the childhood flashback scene and missed Baek Sa-eon's backstory. When his mother told him to eat up because her son likes fish, what did she mean? I assume her biological son died and Sa-eon is not related to her, but then whose son is he? Was he born out of wedlock and then adopted by the official wife or is he totally unrelated to his parents (by blood, I mean)?
The writing here is really excellent, so I have no idea what you're even talking about.
I thought the timeline changes were actually handled very well and were one of the strong points of the direction. The nonlinear narrative was an intentional choice and you weren't supposed to know exactly when everything was happening.
That said, it was obvious that the narrative *was* nonlinear. I guess people are mad because the show expects the viewer to process the content of the story and come up with their own inferences and interpretations instead of watching mindlessly?
Seriously, this drama is so much better than people here are saying lol. I think the problem is that a bunch of horny women tuned in to watch what they thought was going to be The Actor from Goblin in A Business Proposal 2.0 (two of horny women's favorite dramas for some reason) and got a quiet romantic melodrama about middle-aged freaks instead.
The psychological nuance and the dialogue are so good, Inji is super cool, Jeongwon is a pathetic loser (sexy!), and Seoyeon is a grade-A psycho. Everything is working for me.
This drama is so much better than the comment section here suggests. I'm loving it so far. The romance just works, and everyone is an insane person, which is fun.
the plotholes in ep 1 and 2 are pricking me😭?? in ep 1 he called someone and the person's name was saved as…
Obviously it was Seoyeon he had that conversation with, and when Inji called him he made a point of not saving her number and may have deleted his call history because he wanted nothing to do with her. These two plot points really aren't that confusing?
1 
Even Chinese directors would blush at the amount of emotionally manipulative JSDF propaganda in this show, but whatever, I don't watch romance for the political message. Overall, this is one of the better romantic jdramas out there; it has all the traditional strengths of the Japanese school of adult romance, like subtlety, yearning, emotional complexity, characters with their own personalities and problems, etc., and almost none of the weaknesses, by which I mean idiotic misunderstandings, multiple unnecessary overlapping love triangles that persist until the last episode, random personality changes, the leads acting like they don't care if they get together or not, etc. Thankfully, they had to cut all that shit out to make room for a bunch of extremely dry air force PR strategy subplots and office politics.
That said, the romance is almost too understated and I kinda wish there was more of it. It's not even a matter of insufficient screen time as much as glacially slow relationship development and a nonexistent emotional climax. But the ending was pretty satisfying. There *was* a time skip before our couple got their happy ending, but it made sense to me, so I didn't rage about it too much.
Both leads were likeable and their chemistry was realistic and convincing. Also this is probably the hottest Ayano Go has ever looked... or maybe that's just my fetish for lost, depressed and repressed office workers speaking.
Overall. I recommend.
What I find most bothersome is that in the drama, Dou Zhao had a meaningful, indeed fateful, connection with Song Mo in her previous life, he DIED WITH HER—I can't believe they were pierced by the same arrow lmao, that's so cheesy!—and they were reincarnated together. That's total bullshit! What sold me on their romance in the novel was precisely the incidental origin of their relationship. We've all watched a hundred identical dramas about reincarnated lovers finding each other in every lifetime. What I want is a love story that blossoms between two worthy people who are each other's equal but live in completely different worlds until a chance meeting or coincidence brings them together, and the novel delivered exactly that. Dou Zhao had met Song Mo once in her previous life and had formed a complex impression of him but never paid him any mind because she had other problems to worry about.
And here we have a soothsayer monk telling them they're destined to be together, Song Mo dying to protect Dou Zhao, the arrow nonsense, Song Mo waking up from a dream he can't remember (which will no doubt start to come back to him in bits and pieces at some point and stimulate his interest in Dou Zhao, thus providing a convenient shortcut for their relationship development), etc. etc. etc. This is now a totally different story.
Separately from all that, the writing and direction are also just kinda bad. The editing, scene transitions and dialogue are all awkward like in a short-length webdrama.
I was really hoping this show would be good because while the novel sets up the story very well, it unravels in the second half in a way a TV adaptation could have corrected, but oh well.
That's why the drama started with her abduction; that's what unsettled the status quo between the leads and triggered romantic development.
That said, it was obvious that the narrative *was* nonlinear. I guess people are mad because the show expects the viewer to process the content of the story and come up with their own inferences and interpretations instead of watching mindlessly?
The psychological nuance and the dialogue are so good, Inji is super cool, Jeongwon is a pathetic loser (sexy!), and Seoyeon is a grade-A psycho. Everything is working for me.