The beauty of this show: Moon-soo is outwardly quiet and shy and Kang-doo loud and reckless. They look like two characters from completely different dramas that lost their way.. And yet, by the end, they are at such ease with each other.
The actor playing Kang-doo especially shines at having an outwardly aggressive personality but hiding a responsible and conscientious heart. He is a great physical actor and he's just electric (even with that extremely ugly haircut)
The actress playing Moon-soo holds her own as someone who has a hidden darkness, recklessness and stubbornness underneath her mousy exterior.
The one drawback to the show is that it's a little long, and all the PTSD flashbacks loose their impact over time. The first time it fills you with horror, but they go back to it again and again and it looses its emotional hold.
As with all the best shows - I wish I could have stayed with the characters longer, and I was really crossing my fingers that they would figure things out.
I grade on other criteria:
Complex Themes - 10
On corruption and passing blame, survivor's guilt, learning how to heal and forgive, on when it's good to be stubborn, when it's good to be sacrificing v. protecting yourself, family dysfunctions, poverty, and coping with illness, death and disability
Character Growth - 8
It's more that each episode reveals one more level/layer to the two characters. Both help each other slowly integrate their outer identity with their inner self.
Female Relationships/Friendships - 9
Moon-soo herself is a great character - someone who is using great willpower everyday to be responsible and keep her head down, yet having this really stubborn, dark more difficult streak underneath. Moon-soo has a really good, supportive female friendship (with someone who is disabled, and a creative, and just a cool character). Moon-soo's dysfunctional relationship with her mother is shown in all its complexity.
Cinematography/Production Values - 9
The mall collapse/construction site scenes were really well done, everything felt a bit grimy and lived in and worn down in a very realistic way. There were also interesting uses of light, music, and camera angles that gave a more 'film/movie' type feel.
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First half is worth it
I really thought this drama is going to be something different and special, and it was... until it wasn't. Others have gone into that, so I won't, but suffice to say, it went from a solid 9 in the first half to completely unwatchable for me in the last few episodes.The soundtrack became annoyingly repetitive as well.
As for the acting, I think it was great, nothing mind-blowing but nothing bad either. I don't get why some people disliked the female lead, I thought she did great with what she was given to work with.
Both characters had their annoying moments but ultimately it was the need for more and more drama that killed this series for me.
I also found the other characters plot lines quite boring, despite the characters themselves being interesting.
Overall I'd still recommend and praise the first part for its impact and execution, but I advise against wasting your time with the rest unless you don't mind the shortcomings.
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This review may contain spoilers
Where Survival Sounds Like Silence and Healing Doesn’t Ask for Applause
Just Between Lovers doesn’t beg for your attention — it quietly claims it. This isn’t a drama that flirts with high-stakes twists or big K-drama theatrics. It settles into you slowly, like grief itself, filling up the empty spaces you didn’t realize were there. From the first episode, it doesn’t feel like you’re watching characters; it feels like you’re being trusted with the intimate wreckage of people who’ve survived something they were never supposed to survive.Junho as Gang-doo is the rawest nerve I’ve seen onscreen in a while. He’s angry, but it’s not performative. He’s kind, but it’s clumsy. He’s hurting so visibly that I found myself tightening up with every sharp glance, every defensive outburst, because it always felt like he was two seconds from falling apart. Junho doesn’t soften Gang-doo — he reveals him, in layers that you peel back painfully, scene by scene.
Won Jin-ah’s Moon-soo? She’s equally masterful in her quiet endurance. Not the delicate flower type — she’s soft in the way worn sea glass is soft: all the rough edges sanded down by years of quiet storms. She’s not trying to be saved. She’s just trying to keep breathing, and her silences were some of the loudest, most painful moments of the show.
What made this drama linger wasn’t just the central romance — though that was beautifully, excruciatingly slow-burn. It was how it treated trauma — like this heavy, breathing thing that settles into your skin, shows up in your smallest reactions, and never truly leaves. The connection between Gang-doo and Moon-soo didn’t erase their pain. It just gave them someone else to carry it with. The show didn’t chase healing as an endpoint; it portrayed it as this messy, nonlinear process where just making it through the day can feel like a win.
Was it perfect? No. Some side plots skimmed the surface, a few pacing dips made it feel like the story was treading water, and the latter episodes occasionally sagged under the weight of repetition. But I didn’t care. Because the feeling stayed constant. Every episode felt like sitting in a quiet room with people learning how to breathe again.
I walked away from Just Between Lovers reminded that survival isn’t always the loud, triumphant narrative we love to celebrate. Sometimes it’s angry. Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes it’s a simple choice to get up in the morning. And for me, that was more powerful than any epic romance or glossy redemption arc. This wasn’t about being fixed. It was about being seen, broken pieces and all.
I didn’t just watch this drama. I sat with it. And it stayed.
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This review may contain spoilers
It was so hard to rate Just Between Lovers because there were characters and storylines that I absolutely loved and then ones that I could not have cared less about. I ultimately did give it a pretty high rating because the best parts of the show made it so worth watching. The main reason to watch this is Lee Jun-ho. The acting range that he has in this show is astounding. He perfectly captured the heartbreak, anger, charm, and recklessness of Gang-doo. Even without knowing his backstory, I immediately felt connected to this character. It really is Jun-ho’s show and no one else can really match his performance, but I did still like the female lead. The chemistry between the two of them was captivating and they really showed their emotions every time they looked at each other. Their characters and the romance was what kept me watching.
Going into this show, I thought it was going to be a lot more focused on healing and it was a bit of a disappointment that they barely go into that. The characters, especially the two leads, are deeply traumatized people. Highlighting the impact of trauma can be an important message but it didn’t seem like the characters got any kind of help and just were better. The show continued to dump more and more trauma onto Gang-doo’s character all the way until the very end of the show. It would’ve felt a lot less bleak if they didn’t add in all health issues at the end and instead just focused on him getting the help he needed and realizing how loved he really was. It was actually very hard to watch by the end because this kid could not catch a single break.
The second male lead was one of my least favorite parts of the show. He crossed a lot of boundaries and made it impossible to root for him. As her boss, it was very uncomfortable that he asked her out knowing she didn’t like him and then reacted poorly when she rejected him.
The side storyline with Ma-ri was also one of the weakest parts of the show and it was confusing why they were giving her relationship with Yoo-taek so much screen time. I had to skip most of their scenes. Moon-soo’s friend and her romance also felt really distasteful because of how they’d met.
Just Between Lovers brought attention to the real-life tragedy and addressed the importance of honoring those lost but also the emotional and physical scars that survivors and families have forever. There were so many characters that all had different connections to the event and it was interesting to see not only their own reactions but also how they all interacted with each other.
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An Emotional Rollercoaster
What the Heck! I’m sitting here in the dark sobbing my axx off! I went into this drama completely unaware of anything about it. I heard it was a good show about how all the characters are connected with their past and their present. And I recognized the lead female and was like okay, let’s do it….When I get ahold of the girl that recommended this show to me….. MANNNN This show put me through it! I was not prepared to be this invested into it, I was looking for a filler, something different and calm,, No. THE TEARS IVE CRIED!!!!!! But it was so dang good! This Story is heartbreaking and it will absolutely have you in a chokehold. This male lead makes you feel, he did such a wonderful job with his character. This was my first time watching a drama with him, He’s not your typical male lead. This guy works his azz off and tries so hard to keep everything together and to look out for everyone dear to him. He is grouchy, with a heart of gold, I was hook line and sinker for him. My heart absolutely broke for him and everything he has had to endure, but through it all he never broke or gave up. Our Female lead was another beautifully written character, you got to see inside the brokenness of the aftermath from the tragedy. You feel her pain and her family’s, all the families. Gosh the emotional is so raw and real. The Love ties are all so well played out and you can’t help but root for each relationship. The only reason I didn’t give this a 10 was because I just kinda felt like we needed more the ending with the tragedy was quickly over shadowed with Kang-Do and kinda just wrapped up too nicely. I was so busy feeling the grief and then the relief of the ending that once it ended I realized it was done too quickly and easily. I highly recommend it! But definitely be ready with the tissue!Was this review helpful to you?
The drama is not too long. All events are accumulated in one dose, which makes it difficult to break away from the screen. I myself admit that I watched this series in one go. No interruptions, no dissipation. My attention was focused only on the events played on the screen.
I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with this drama. She will surely become a friend of every girl.
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It's very different then any drama i recently watched, the psychological stuff is really well handled and feels real not like its tacked on in certain other dramas.
The romance takes a bit to take off but when it does it does a good job at lifting the heavyness of the trauma that some of the characters while not making it all peachy.
The cast and subcast do a good job of portraying the different sides of the coin of the tragedy when the drama starts and when it ends you may feel differently about some of its characters
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A well-constructed delight
This show's synopsis drew me in and it didn't disappoint. The story juggled some heavy themes whilst balancing with a degree of humour that didn't turn the show into a queasy mesh of comedy and grief-laden moments. I liked how the tragedy wasn't the actual focus, and that rather the story centred around how those who either survived or lost loved ones were forced to move on. Often with stories focusing on fatal incidents, it's the aftermath that is the most interesting. So it proved with this show.The two characters, Gang-Dun and Mun-Su were exceptionally well-written. Both characters are hurting but repressing it through very different ways of living. One is in a state of gradual self-destruction seeing life through nihilism while the other lives but without much hope and a lot of guilt. The show expertly navigates the issue of guilt of surviving a loved one, of feeling like you are cheating their memory whether you cope well or don't. I give this show a lot of credit for how it handled grief and guilt, showing how things like self-imposed isolation, alcohol abuse, seeking violence and self-harm were reactions to trauma.
I also really liked that while the mall's collapse wasn't the focal point of the show, it was the focal point of the lead characters. This is good storytelling. The music complemented the show's tunes throughout. I liked that as we delved more into the show, characters gave very nuanced and complex responses to situations, new relationships formed organically and felt authentic and meaningful. We were given time to care about characters and their attachments and bonds, given time to understand that these people were suffering.
There were only two things I didn't really like: Gang-Dun's sister, the doctor, struck me as oddly cold and indifferent. Whether that was by design or bad acting, she often came across as unsympathetic to what her brother was experiencing, bereft of even any gratitude or guilt that she lives well because he suffers greatly.
I also didn't like Mun-su's boss. He was unprofessional in his conduct towards her, his behaviour often creepy and inappropriate and she even called it out. I thought that was a really unnecessary angle the show didn't need, especially as it was clear from the first episode who the love story had to be about. This show was about Mun-Su and Gang-Dun healing together by finding each other, falling in love and letting go of their shared trauma.
Overall, I massively enjoyed this show.
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You should definitely give it a try. I'm sure of it, you are going to love it.
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Wow! Sweet and tender love story that caught me off-guard.
A moving K-drama about a young architect and a street urchin dealing with their grief and guilt after having been dug out of the rubble of a collapsed department store 10 years earlier. It is at times tinder and sweet; melancholy without being too maudlin. Except for the very end when things get wrapped up a little too neatly, this wonderful story explores love and loss from a variety perspectives, all of which feel very real. The cast is fantastic, starting with the two first-time leads. Won Jin Ah plays the young architect Ha Moon Soo, who has become adept at assuaging others pain and tamping down conflict while burying her own pain and anguish. Lee Jun Ho plays the street urchin Lee Kang Doo, haunted by his experience and forced to live by his wits while attempting to take care of a motley group of downtrodden friends. The supporting cast is terrific. I especially liked Yoon Se Ah as the madam Ma Ri and one of Korea's national treasures, Na Moon Hee, as Grandmother. Finally, this maybe the best OST ever. The music and lyrics supported the moods and dialog flawlessly. Great story, well told.Was this review helpful to you?
