I watch this drama knowing it would be good, but it never crossed my mind that the story will totally blow my mind away. I love almost everything the drama has to offer; the mesmerizing leads, excellent written script, brilliant directing, beautiful cinematography, heart-wrenching soundtracks, deep and angsty storyline, mind-blowing on-screen chemistry, and most of all the moving and pure love story of the lead characters.

Park Shi Hoo and Moon Chae Won shine brilliantly in their award-winning performance as the star-crossed lovers. Who thought that they will be such a beautiful and unforgettable couple to watch? Park Shi Hoo portrayal as Kim Seung Yoo totally take my breath away. He left me in awe for his amazing portrayal of Seung Yoo: from a happy and full of life noble man with witty personality, he changed into a bitter and revengeful young man after his family was killed and later into a charismatic leader with big responsibility on his shoulder. This is no doubt the best performance Shi Hoo has to offer to date – he is the gem in this drama and his character is the drive that carried the drama forward. While Moon Chae Won is dazzling as Se Ryung. Who can hate this character when it is full of love, courage, honesty and justice? It’s actually painful to see her dilemma of wanting to protect the one that she loves in the expense of going against her beloved father. But I don’t know how she does this, but she remained innocent and noble right until the end. She never makes one single questionable action that can question her loyalty to his family and the man she loves. The rest of the cast also played all their characters excellently. Hong Soo Hyun as Princess Kyung Hye unexpectedly gives a very good performance as a bitter princess and both of the second male leads; Song Jong Ho and Lee Min Woo done their part to give the drama overall good performance. 8 of the drama’s main and supporting characters were nominated for acting awards and 3 of them ended up winning so you basically can know how this drama is backed up with unprecedented quality of good acting from all the actors involved.

The main reason that makes the drama special is the pure & innocent love story between Seung Yoo and Se Ryung. Honestly, I have watched tons of K-dramas love stories before but I have to say that this one is one of the very best ever written. It is so well developed right from the start; their sweet and beautiful courtship, misunderstanding, reunion, betrayal, and their heartbreaking sad fate and longing to each other is just painful and agonizing to watch. You can truly see why they fall in love and remain devoted to each other no matter how cruel the circumstances between their families. It is so well told and beautifully portrayed by both of the leads -- their exceptional and explosive chemistry is absolutely compelling with unparalleled eminence that for the first time in my life, I actually feel heartache watching a love story. No matter whether it is happy or sad scenes, watching the two of them just breaks my heart. Kudos to the writer for writing such a memorable love story, I’m expecting it to be good but I got more than what I asked for. There’re plenty of romantic unforgettable scenes between the two of them. I find myself watching them over and over again since they are beautifully shot; be it their first meeting, the date at the market and river, the horse ridings, the sudden confession, the hug scene in the shack, the kidnapping scene, the romantic scenes at the forest (honestly, the most romantic scene in Kdramas history ever ♥) nor the marriage scene in the hut (I can’t believe they pulled a Cold Mountain here XD). The two of them really look like they are deeply in love with each other just by the look in their eyes or how they touched -- it is just simply beautiful yet heartbreaking to watch at the same time.

- Childhood story: It is usual for period piece dramas to start the story from the leads’ childhood years. While it is important for us to understand the background story, I always find it is a struggle to finish the childhood parts. But here in this drama, it went straightly to their adult years which is a very refreshing and revitalizing change.

- Mortality aspect: It always annoyed me to no end how the bad guys in historical dramas always seemed to have 9 lives while the good guys always die just by one strike. And it also annoyed me how the good guys will never have the balls to kill the bad guys, which resulted with more blood spills because of the hesitation of the good guys to do what is right. But in this drama, you going to be surprised how there are no such elements making the storyline more justified and believable between the good and the evil people.

- Extreme actions: Usually in Kdramas, good guys have always known to have this reputation of not taking things to the extreme. They are known to always forgive, let go or given light punishment to the bad guys -- they basically are known for not taking things to the max. But the drama surprised me on how often the good guys took matters on their own hand. Seung Yoo startled me on how far he can go as far as kidnapping Se Ryung, shoot Soo Yang and Myun with arrows, murdered the bad guys one by one, go to the dangerous enemy den to save his friends and Se Ryung and etc... It’s nice to see that for once, good guys actually do all these kind of extreme things and gave good fights to the bad guys that actually satisfy the viewers.

- Promises: Another one aspect that extinguished this drama from its counterparts is the promises made between the characters. Usually in Kdramas, it is almost certain that once a character made promises, they almost never fulfilled it -- they either die or decided to break it. But in this drama, all the 3 promises that Seung Yoo made to Se Ryung, he fulfilled them; one by one. I was being skeptical at first, but the writer surprised me since Seung Yoo stick to his words right until the end.

- Blood aspect: It is known that Korean people have strong value and emphasis on their blood line. No matter how evil their fathers/relatives, just because they are related by blood, they will stand by them although they know it is wrong. In this drama, I love the fact that Se Ryung never attempt to go against his father nor decided to go against Seung Yoo. She just did what she thinks is right -- what her heart told her and remain loyal to both of them. She always asks her father repeatedly to repent while supporting Seung Yoo from the back at the same time. And I’m expecting that she going to choose one of them in the end but she never did. She also never ask Seung Yoo to choose her or her father or asking him to forgive her father’s sins but instead, she let him to choose what he wants to do without subjecting her opinion like what other Kdramas like to do.

- The ending: Korean historical piece are known to have bad and unsatisfactory ending. Hell, most of them have crappy endings to be honest. But this drama actually different and managed to give us a good and very satisfactory endings to all the characters. Most of people already predicted from the start how the story gonna end. Both of the main leads’ families are enemies to each other, no matter what happened in the end, there’s no way the story going to end happily since it is too tragic to begin with. For all the responsibilities that people put on Seung Yoo’s shoulder, it is almost certain that either him or Soo Yang will live, and of course luck doesn’t seemed to be on Seung Yoo’s side. But I was proven wrong! Ending Soo Yang’s life is seemed to be only a light punishment to him for all the sins that he has done. Leave him living his life seemed to be more cruel since he will never be happy and ridden with guilt for all the blood that he has spilled -- his only son died, his daughter left him, his wife hates him, he will forever feel afraid of the day someone going to take the throne away from him, and he also suffered from incurable disease and spending his life regretfully.

I will forever grateful for the clever and brilliant ending the writer has to offer. I come expecting they both will die in the end but the writer instead give us a very surprising happy ending and a justified one too. I never being so nervous in my life watching the last episode of a drama since I pray hard that the production team will give me a good and happy ending since I really feel attached to both of the main characters. Although I know it will probably end tragically right from the start, there’s a tiny little hope in my heart that wish it will end up differently. In the last episode, when Se Ryung figured out that she is pregnant, I know for sure that Seung Yoo will die since it is typical for a story to end one life with the gift of life to another. My expectation on how the drama going to end were in motion right until the last moments of the drama, however, the writers surprised me with a twist they have in store for the drama’s ending.

A great Korean drama will never be complete without an awesome OST. What the drama surely promised us is the heart-wrenching soundtracks. Queen of K-OST; Baek Ji Young provides us with the title track; ‘I’m Loving You Today’. Everytime the song is played at the background, my heart ache because of the song’s yearning and sad melody. While Seung Yoo theme song was sung by Park Wan Kyu which heart-breaking lyrics portray his longing for Se Ryung which he can no longer see. This drama great OSTs also provide an amazing duet between Ha Dong Kyun & Lee Jung which gives us a very powerful ballade that totally took me my storm when it is played in the drama -- who can overlook those powerful vocals which is full of passion and emotion? And Yoon Hwa Jae In provides us the theme song for Se Ryung character titled ‘Longing’ which was superbly sung by her to reflect the dilemma that Se Ryung is feeling inside. Overall, the soundtracks basically make the drama more alive and vivid -- it is simply exceptional in bringing the drama tragic atmosphere feel more real.

In the end, what hold the drama together are the strong value about life and death, doing what is right, fight for right reasons and remain true to your hearts. The drama got many other reasons to make it stay high in my list but the glorious ending makes it even more memorable. It’s no doubt this piece has become one of my very personal favorites. Seung Yoo once said that forgetting everything and living happily faraway with Se Ryung is only a dream for him. I’m glad in the end, he’s living in the dream life he yearned and desired.