Super Cute Main Couple makes the day

I really enjoyed this series. Watch it!

The Good:
- I love Chae Jong Hyeop, and have seen him in KDramas. He did a great job here, his acting being heartfelt and in a way innocent without being too sappy.
- Contrary to what some others have said, I also really loved the FL, Nikaido Fumi. I think that she was natural and engaging and did a great job.
- The FL was, in a word, classy. Her dress, makeup, expressions. So well done. Her smile was glorious.
- The story was cute, and even though I am not into fantasy dramas, I think the main hook and how the Korean ML fit into that, was a clever idea.
- Some very beautiful cinematography.

The Sub-Optimal:
- Yeah, the story had some holes in it. As another reviewer noted, the whole Ainu connection kinda fizzled. The way the relationship was saved kinda just came out of nowhere, which irked me. This was the reason I rated the series a 9 instead of a 10. It was just too cute to go below 9 :-)

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Super Cute without trauma (clearly marked spoiler)

I’d just like to second what some other reviewers have said (much more eloquently than I will): This is a light, trauma-free series that is a great respite from all the dark trauma-driven series out there. If you want to just relax and enjoy a bunch of people being super kind and understanding, watch this!

The Good
- Beautiful cast all around.
- Many couples getting together with no pointless blowups or breakups
- Loads of people in their social groups - all of who are kind and supportive
- The FL managed to be young, innocent, and cheerful without overdoing it and spoiling the role. And she has a gorgeous smile
:-)

Why not a 10?
I am tempted to give this series a 10. I didn’t for two reasons:
1) There were some of what I consider plot holes that I couldn’t help think about. (Spoiler) For example the FL’s big performance and her family was not there. This did not jive with her healthy and loving family dynamic. (End Spoiler)
2) I think they should have maybe squeezed it down by a couple of episodes, or given more time to two of the other couples, who seemed to get together all of a sudden which had me thinking, “Wait, what? How did that happen?”

So overall a 9 and highly recommend

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Too depressing for too long for the payoff at the end

The executive summary here is that there was too much sadness and trauma for too long for the final payoff. I don't like series that give you happy only in the last 10 minutes or some such. This series did that

Others have written excellent reviews, as usual, so I'll just put a few points out there to perhaps help folks decide if this is their cup of tea.

The Good
========
- The acting!

Ra Mi Ran is great as the mother, although the role was really annoying to watch.

The twins were, as everyone said, adorable.

Ahn Sun Jin was fantastic, We watched this series because of her, after seeing her in Hospital Playlist.

- The few, and unfortunately only a few, funny moments were done well.

The Not So Good
=============
- As noted, too sad for too long. We needed more of the happy times with Mi-Joo and Kong-Ho after the trauma was (mostly) resolved.

- Not enough Ms. Ahn! She is great and we did not see enough of her in this series.

- Something about Young-soon's mourning was just off. I can't place my finger on it, but that scene just did not work.

- The side characters were too over the top. For a very serious series, they may have wanted some comic relief , but it was often out of place.

Recommendation
==============
This is actually hard to recommend, which really bums me out. But if you are looking to being bummed for the great majority of the series, and need a big dose of sadness, this may be for you

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Great acting, interesting story - ending both brilliant and lacking (Spoilers marked)

This series was extremely well done. The acting, all around, was great. The couples were cute, and the chemistry, when the story allowed for it, was awesome. The main couple, the Kim’s IRL, were, of course, stunning. Wow! And when they were getting along, they were so cute! But it is another Asian drama with so much trauma and sadness. We eagerly watched each episode since it was so well done, but we kept hoping for some extended period of happiness.

I feel sorry for the actor portraying Sun Song (Park Sung Hoon) because he did a great job of making you hate his guts! Ha ha. Obviously great acting.

Honestly, other than feeling bad for the ML and a couple of other characters, I did not get too emotionally attached to parts of the story, perhaps because so many characters were so bad for so long. Well, and some plot holes/irrational decisions. But that is all too common in these dramas, so it’s hard to focus too much on that aspect of the series.

The ending had brilliant elements, different than we had seen before. I loved the last few minutes in particular! That part of the story will stick with me for sure.

(Spoilers Here)
But the was lacking in that the post-reunion happiness was just not long enough! They should have cut out on traumatic story line and given us an entire episode of marriage and happiness. Dang that would have been great, and would have greatly increased our satisfaction with this series. It would have perhaps elevated the rating from us to a 9… or maybe a 10???
(End Spoilers)

BTW, I have heard folks were not happy with the Mercedes product placement bonanza. LOL - I loved it! Beautiful cars, made me jealous although I’m really a BMW guy. :-) Product placement in general is something I love since it makes the show seam more real and relatable. I mean, I can’t relate to owning a US$ 100,000 Mercedes, but I can relate to seeing cars and other products I have seen IRL. Bring on the Product Placement!

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Pretty good but to much sullen male lead syndrome

Summary:
Pretty good show, but I am just tired of Male Leads that are sullen and moody for the whole show.

The Good:
- Overall good story
- Food and family focus was great
- Some good acting. Actually my favorite character by far was Han Meng played by Wang Pei-Han!

The Sub-Optimal
- The male lead, played by Gao Han-Yu, was just too sullen and cranky for 90% of the show. This is NOT a criticism of his acting, but of the writing of the character. It is just me, but that drug the series down too much.
- Love triangle. Tired of those also. They need to find other plot devices to (supposedly) keep our interest. FLs need to just shut down love triangle right from the get-go!

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Not great, but pretty good. I don't agree with the really bad ratings

TBH, my wife and I started this some months back and dropped it since it seamed very slow. And we were not sure about the acting. But we decided to give it another try and watched all the way through. Yes, it is a bit slow, but we still found it engaging and after a few episodes got into the story. There was a lot of voice overs that were quite philosophical and featured analogies with the weather, which I thought was very cool. The series tried quite hard to be thoughtful. Perhaps this is not come folks' cup of tea, but I liked it. The acting was good, I thought, from both the main and secondary couple, and the other characters as well.

As others have noted, it is NOT a RomCom, but is more serious and has quite a few sad parts. But it ends well.

Summary: It is not an Epic series, it is not a RomCom, but it is pretty good and I think worth a watch.

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Feel good romcom with more fun elements than trauma - watch it

Executive Summary
Lots of fun. Watch it!

There are some pretty bad reviews out there and obviously this is not everyone’s cup of tea. But I don’t get how this could be rated so low even if you prefer something different.

There is trauma that is needed to set up the whole story, but unlike in some Asian dramas it is, IMHO, just a setup, and the bulk of the story is the growing relationship and romance between the leads.

The main couple was so much fun, and despite their past traumas were actually pretty darn positive in their interactions and lives. Even when they were not getting along (in the beginning) it was more funny than mean-spirited.

I also like the secondary characters who all did a great job. The second couple was just as adorable as the main couple. Loved them, too!

I was tempted to give it a 10 since there was basically nothing that I did not like about this series, but I’ll try to hold back 10s for series that truly blow me away :-).

The Good
@ Very cute lead couple that played the parts well and had great chemistry and expressions, IMHO
@ Great secondary characters that also nailed their roles
@ More than the usual 10 minutes of happiness that all comes at the end. We have lots of nice happy wrap-up in the last couple of episodes
@ The male lead was fun, not just an unsocial, sullen guy, unlike lots of Asian dramas. Yay!
@ Interesting story setup
@ Very positive message and encouragement to wrap things up. Some might think it is a tad over the top, but hey, we need more positivity in our lives!

The Sub-Optimal
@ Really not much
@ Yeah, in some ways the bad stuff that was important setup was a bit over the top, but it didn’t really detract from the show

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Short and cute - worth your time

This series does not bring something new or special to the table. But it's really cute and the actors are beautiful. Especially Ms. Oh Yu Jin. I think she did a tremendous job and made the series worth a watch. I was surprised to find that she was True Beauty's FL's best friend in that series.


The Good:
- Ms Oh Yu Jin. Beautiful and an excellent actress
- But overload at the end. A couple who really love each other and show it.
- Simple story, which was the right length

The Sub-Optimal
- Nothing new here
- Acting generally good, but not great

So...
Don't expect to much. Enjoy a quick binge.

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Decent Show with Good Acting

No Spoilers, just some pros and cons.

Pros
===
The acting was very good. I would call out Kim Kyung-Chul for his portrayal of Sea In-Ho, the jerk husband. Of course we don’t like his character, but he did a truly superb job of navigating jerkiness and having regret. I would also call out Jo Adam for her role as Jeon So-Ra. It looks like she does not have a lot of acting experience, but the way she portrayed a cranky, domineering personality was quite subtle and skillful.

I liked the storyline and the message they were trying to communicate.

Everything that happened in the story was believable, even if unlikely.

Cons
===
Somehow the series did not draw my wife and I in as much as our favorite KDramas. Despite some touching scenes, we were not too emotionally invested in the characters.

The ending was O.K., and I think sent a nice message, but again we were sort of just, “Oh, it’s over. What will we watch next?” Rather than feeling like we would miss the story and characters. The story just sputtered to a halt. There a number of things they could have done to tie everything up to a greater extent.

So overall, not bad, but not great. So a 7 ranking.

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Stunning Lead Couple with Great Chemistry (Very light spoiler which is called out)

Spoiler Start
I think this is a 9 rating show on the merits, which is great. But I am going to give it a 10 because we got pretty much a whole episode of happy to wrap things up! They didn’t just give us happy for 15 minutes at the end like so many dramas. Thanks to the writers and director!
Spoiler End

What can you say about the lead couple. They are so cute and have such great chemistry. They both did an incredible job that made this drama work. I’ll watch anything with Kim Yoo Jung in it because she is so beautiful and has such an incredible smile. And, yeah, she is an awesome actor as well :-)

The story was fun and a bit different so I enjoyed it even thought fantasy is not really my thing.

My recommendation is watch it for sure!

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Cute, no trauma romance with a great start

Note this series is very short - not a bad thing in general.

I really enjoyed (on Viki) this short series. The premise (rekindled love) is not new, but the initial episode and its set up of the backstory was awesome. The first few minutes were very clever and fun! One of the most amusingly awkward setups ever :-)

The rest of the series was not that as good as the first 15 minutes, but still fun and enjoyable.

The acting was OK, but not great. I liked the FL lead the best. She is super cute and her acting was the most natural of the bunch, so kudos to Xiao Yu.

A couple of other reviews had likes and dislikes that I agree with, so I won't repeat them. Except for this one: I also would have rated this even higher, but some of the writing was iffy. A couple of scenes in particular I was thinking... nah... wouldn't happen.

My other negative is I was a bit disappointed with the ML's actions a couple of times. Pushing himself physically on the FL a bit too much when she was still not sure how she felt. And I also thought it was somewhat out of character.

Anyway, fun and enjoyable. Light and fluffy. Fun initial setup. Watch it!

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Nice, easy, low trauma watch with cute leads

I really enjoyed this series since it was easy to watch, mostly pleasant, and the leads were good. It does not break any new ground, and some criticisms in the reviews are spot on, but nonetheless I enjoyed the show. I really like the FL who did a really nice job playing the role from overly sweet (part of the plot), to in-your-face gamer and assertive woman, to geniunely sweet and empathetic. The ML, who drove me nuts in Put Your Head on My Shoulder (a series with one of the worst endings ever, although not the ML's fault) did a really good job here. I think the main couple did have good chemistry.

My main criticism is the loss of trust by the FL for the ML near the end of the show. Yeah, it was brought on by yet another failure to communicate, but still. That was annoying.

The OST was pretty good for a CDrama. I bought a few of the songs off of iTunes (U.S.) by searching for this: 以爱之名

Anyway, for a light, fluffy watch, it is worth it. It was a good antidote to my just having watched Forever and Ever which was too heavy and slow. (Except for Bail Lu, of course :-) ).

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Very slow but finished because of Bai Lu

As usual there are many epic and eloquent reviews out there already. I'd like to just add a very quick take.

Executive Summary: You should watch this only if you will be very into a literary, poetic story with a small stage feel.

The Good:
Bai Lu is awesome as usual. She is the reason I could finish this drama. She is beautiful and cute and her natural acting in an unnatural story is what made this worth the watch.
The cute/comedic moments were very well done and were a nice respite from the slow pace and bad vibes.

The Sub-Optimal
This story is the slowest, least intense drama I have managed to finish. Really too slow for me.
The secondary characters were not fleshed out well. A couple of the secondary female characters were very well done and acted (by Wang Yue Yi and Wang Rui Xin).

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