forestbee
Ontario
This review may contain spoilers
Bittersweet & Touching to the end
Wow…what a drama. It truly yanked on my heartstrings so many times, I am usually a “happy endings only” kdrama watcher but I couldn’t resist being drawn into this one, despite guessing it would not end well for the romantic relationship between Baek Yijin and Na Heedo.
The heartache and struggle they all go through to achieve their goals - be it love, success, helping family, supporting friends - it was all such a beautiful portrait of the transition between being a brand new young adult to the actual adult realities of responsibility, tragedy & incompatibility. Freedom and possibility are so exciting, so the crash down to earth when they had hard lessons and had to make sacrifices was just so hard to watch :’( I am only a bit younger than these characters, old enough to have watched 9/11 from a high school TV, all of us frozen in horror. The endless tragedy unfolding in the news for weeks and months after….I really felt Baek Yijin’s deep exhaustion and hopelessness. Nam Joo Hyuk did an amazing job.
I absolutely ADORED the relationship between Na Heedo and Ko Yurim, from beginning to end. It was the highlight of the show for me, even though I also loved Baek Yijin. Everyone’s growth as individuals was so real and satisfying, and I didn’t feel like the ending was out of place, despite it being very disappointing. Life is clearly as much full of nostalgia, regret, and moving through pain as it is about happiness and success.
The soundtrack was nice enough but not super memorable to me. The 90s aesthetic was perfect. I think the modern scenes were interesting since they actually showed COVID-era details with masks, but otherwise it was unnecessary and I found adult Heedo’s acting a little too subdued and depressing (and annoying, I guess she is that type of Mom). One of the most disappointing things about the ending was the daughter being SOOO invested in the story but decided not to read the last diary?? She just dropped it like that? I wanted her to be more disappointed, since she was like all the rest of us viewers, desperately rooting for Heedo and Yijin! At least admit that it was a crushing disappointment for us all! I’ll be moping about this drama for a while.
The heartache and struggle they all go through to achieve their goals - be it love, success, helping family, supporting friends - it was all such a beautiful portrait of the transition between being a brand new young adult to the actual adult realities of responsibility, tragedy & incompatibility. Freedom and possibility are so exciting, so the crash down to earth when they had hard lessons and had to make sacrifices was just so hard to watch :’( I am only a bit younger than these characters, old enough to have watched 9/11 from a high school TV, all of us frozen in horror. The endless tragedy unfolding in the news for weeks and months after….I really felt Baek Yijin’s deep exhaustion and hopelessness. Nam Joo Hyuk did an amazing job.
I absolutely ADORED the relationship between Na Heedo and Ko Yurim, from beginning to end. It was the highlight of the show for me, even though I also loved Baek Yijin. Everyone’s growth as individuals was so real and satisfying, and I didn’t feel like the ending was out of place, despite it being very disappointing. Life is clearly as much full of nostalgia, regret, and moving through pain as it is about happiness and success.
The soundtrack was nice enough but not super memorable to me. The 90s aesthetic was perfect. I think the modern scenes were interesting since they actually showed COVID-era details with masks, but otherwise it was unnecessary and I found adult Heedo’s acting a little too subdued and depressing (and annoying, I guess she is that type of Mom). One of the most disappointing things about the ending was the daughter being SOOO invested in the story but decided not to read the last diary?? She just dropped it like that? I wanted her to be more disappointed, since she was like all the rest of us viewers, desperately rooting for Heedo and Yijin! At least admit that it was a crushing disappointment for us all! I’ll be moping about this drama for a while.
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