Sniffling! I can't believe it's over ;__; Aaahh, this drama is just too good. It may be my favorite of all time. So many feels wrenched out of me! It never dropped its momentum or the feeling that I couldn't look away. And seriously one of the most beautiful, sad, soul-stirring final episodes I've seen. That ending! Joo Won and Park Ki Woong. Oh. Em. Gee. Their acting blows my socks off. Park Ki Woong makes iced coffee with floating ice creepy. Iced coffee. That is serious talent.
Spoilers and actress criticisms Mok Dan's fate... I felt neutral on it and yet was sad at the same time. It was pretty much expected since that second to last epi (way too much happy. Ominous sign). It was a little weird because the camera would focus on Kang To's tragic face and I'd tear up, then it would go to her pale face and I would dry up, and back and forth like so. To be a little fair to the actress, her character was pretty bland, she's very young and inexperienced, and she's surrounded by actors of amazing depth in both the rookies and veterans that make her look even worse. The entire cast was incredible and perfect...except her. I never believed that she really loved Kang To...or her father...or anybody. Or anything that came out of her mouth. My first suggestion to her would be to find another career path. That being doubtful, my second would be to throw herself into an "evil" role and maybe shake some of that stiffness off.
Spoilers for Dark Knight Rises ahead. Mhm. And romance crits. The only flaw this drama had (okay besides no one being able to shoot, a few holes, and inaccurate time period costumes. All forgivable in light of awesomeness) was the romance. Not only did the actress fail to convince me that she loved anyone, there was no chemistry between her and Joo Won (it had a very brother/sister feel), the female character was amiable but bland (besides the random fighting skills that appeared and disappeared), and I had a hard time buying that two people that had dramatic times when they were children are automatically in love. I really just didn't buy the love line at all. For the most part, it was typical action flick obligatory romance, and that was disappointing.
Now, I realize that this is from a manhwa so they probably didn't want to make huge changes, but I still think it would have perfect if it had had DKR twists. As a proud member of Team RaRa (the better actress, the way more interesting character, and there was more chemistry between them in two seconds than in an hour with Mok Dan), my daydream was that since Mok Dan survived when she was little, she was brought to the Japanese side and was working for them the whole time. There's her father, but he basically abandoned her and her soon-to-be-dead mother. Lots of opportunity for animosity from Mok Dan/Miranda. RaRa, on the other hand does a Catwoman, sees the error of her ways, and begins secretly fighting on the Korean side. Kang To feels more nostalgia/responsibility towards Mok Dan, starts guiltily falling for RaRa, things crop up the make him suspicious of Mok Dan, annngst, they'd have to add more epis. All that good stuff. ...I feel like I'm writing a fanfic. But that was my rant and my fantasy. Thank goodness the romance was a relatively small part of this otherwise beautiful drama.
I feel like I'm going to re-watch this several times over my lifetime. I also feel like The Bridal Mask production team needs to compensate me for about 10 boxes of tissues, several bottles of blood pressure meds, and my bill for ulcer treatments.
