Brogana Sunfrog

Hot & Cold female lead. The village people are intrusive with too much screen time

The two leads are great & thier dimples work over time, but I never warmed up to the small town residents They are annoying, intrusive & make excuses for each other's bad behavior. They also get way too much unnecessary screen time . Shin Min-a's character ran cold & hot & it was hard to like her at times. There were other times when she would start channeling her " My Girl Friend is Gumiho" & "Oh my Venus" characters, squealing like a teenager .Considering her age, It was a bit off & odd.
I think that this is my least fav role for her-at least the way she is written. Her character is alternately too pushy & too mushy at times. The last few episodes were boring; being taken up with tidying up all the town people's stories- I just didn't care for that at all.

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I don't give out a 10 score easily. well balanced drama. Female lead evolves

I probably have seen 3 or 4 dramas that I've deemed worthy of a perfect score, so this is one of the "elite"
I've watched this in 2018, then in 2020 & then again in 2025
Briefly :
Good story, good ending, good acting. I was really impressed with the good balance between drama, action, suspense, romance & light heartedness.
Sometimes it got a little too intense for me [I don't enjoy family drama & intense violence] And many episodes ended with intensity. The characters had interesting idiosyncrasies & there was good character, relationship & plot development & resolution. I almost want to say the this is the perfect drama, but there were some negatives.
For instance;
they overused/overplayed the song Eternal love. English is my first language, so I noticed that there were times when the song was playing and the sentiments of the scene were all wrong.
Also, on my 3 rewatch, I found the female lead's character to be dislikeable. it took me to almost half way through the series to warm up to her. Not sure why she only irritated me AFTER already seeing the series twice ! I can only speculate that after seeing alot more dramas , I had developed different preferences & became pickier in what the ideal female lead should be (?) I think that the writer's wrote her poorly in the first episodes but redeemed her character by having her mature & grow, becoming less selfish, etc.

It did seem that they left a bit of an opening for a sequel

**spoiler**
(I mean they they defeated the bad guys but not the next tier of bad guys that were puppeteering the whole movement so really, ARE they safe ?)

Rewatch a 4th time ? definitely !

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Ep. 1-8 yes ! Ep 8-12 No !

Leads did well, but the premise & the comedy got lost around Ep. 8. If I ever rewatch this I would stop at the end of episode 7- that's all the happy ending I need. Ep 8-12 are weighed down with maudlin, boring listless characters who do alot of soul searching. Yes, that stuff did tie things up nicely, but in ways that I don't need or care about. [DO I care about the side characters getting an in depth happy ending ? DO I care about 4 main characters getting closure with thier parents ?] This is not a drama that felt like it needed to get all sober & philosophical, sending a pointed message to the audience about mental health. That just made this a drama that seemed bipolar!

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Look A spleen & gushing blood ! If you've seen one surgery, you've seen them all: Yawn

This is a good drama but I have no idea how I talked myself into watching it as it's WAY outside my drama genre enjoyment zone. I really get bored with lengthy surgery scenes. Granted, some surgery scenes were interesting because of the character's interaction during the surgery, but much of the surgery shown was tedious. Surgeons always seem to end up with blood on their faces . There lot's of bloody gloved hands & organs shown which was just boring. [honestly, we know it's all fake so it's not even gross] .The ending was satisfactory & the main couple's relationship is resolved with warm fuzzies .Sadly, some plot points were not resolved & the "Appendix" extra episode that was at the end ( I watched from DVD) was unnecessary. It also had to do with a controversial topic which made it unappealing.

**Spoilers**
female lead never is told that the boyfriend that died was cheating on her. this was really frustrating. It's implied that the Casino Chairman will provide for the country hospital so that it won't have to shut down (because as it stands it will be shut down as soon as the chairman leaves the hospital)and you never see the chairman pass away from his lung cancer.

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Almost hits that sweet spot, but ending suffers from bad writing & editing

Warning: this drama was SO close to perfect.10* {especially for the acting!}, but it drops 2 points & gets a big angry "Boooo" for the way the writers ruined the ending.

On the bright side :
3 incredibly handsome men in One Drama!
Random fact: Female lead's sobbing was very unique
The rather sad premise/plot topic had me wondering how in the world it could end well, but, there are happy endings for most of the characters. ( though it felt a bit forced to have literally everyone's story tied up in a bow) And I really didn't need or care about what happens after the happy ending. That sort of stuff kinda deflates the happy ending .

There IS alot to love about this drama, but the last few episodes put a damper on by serving up inane content that seemed like just filler. .Plus, the female lead became all wiffely waffelly about being together with the male lead-after she just said :"don't leave me for one instance" -Huh !!?? she suddenly becomes wooden & stand offish. Made no sense.

Needs re editing!!

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Mild, fluffy drama with NO second lead syndrome

Mild, fluffy drama with NO second lead syndrome .
The mean characters are cruel but not scary & are redeemed by the end (which I take issue with ). One thing that really disappointed me though was how harshly mean a father was to his daughter. Second lead female was tediously moody, needy & weepy through out the whole drama. Main couple were sucked into the lying & "breaking up with you " (for your won good)trope which was annoying.
I found the female lead's character to be exhaustingly noble & painfully nice.
The OST is not great & there is slot of song repetition [needed more song variety]. I will rewatch it again because romantic dramas that are light on the drama are rare

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Dramas like this train you to read the end of the story first

let me convince you not to waste your time on this by saying that honestly & truly,
I really, REALLY loved the first 8 or so episodes & then I hated it. The romance was great, the actors totally sold it but then they had to throw in roadblocks that would repeatedly get resolved & then unresolved . Any warm fuzzies that were accumulated will be disintegrated as the pain just goes on & on & on. The people who are mean ratchet it up until this just became a nasty, sad mess. The happy ending is bland and leaves a sour taste . It's heartbreaking that something with so much promise leaves you drained & angry.

If you still aren't convinced that this should be avoided:

Spoilers:
the main couple "marry" & sleep together and then due to parental & other's objections they are not able to be together. The girl leaves so that she wouldn't break up the guy's family.(? !)They stay faithful to each other, but have no contact. She gives birth to a boy & 1-2 years later [!!!] reunite with the guy as his family finally accepts her. [because, like grandkids are the magic that fixes everything] .the secret of the bride story is revealed & all the other young people are happily paired off. You don't get any romance , much less a kiss from the main couple; nothing to reward you for sticking with this tedious drama. It's also implied that once you have a kid the romance is gone - which considering they have been parted for a few years makes you wonder if they simply are "over" each other, so....were they ever in love ?

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A glut of villains , violence & comedy imbalance. Cringeworthy irritating comedy.

Started out interesting but then got bogged down by the sheer number of people the Female lead was in conflict with. It's one thing to have you wondering who the evil behind the evil is, and it's quite another to have more than three "grade A" villain's! Super creepy/violent scenes trade off "comic" relief, which is more irritating than relieving [IE: gang members who turn into super fans of the demon-just cringy]. The romance between the lead's assistants got way to much screen time and again, and was also cringy. Episodes were either super violent or stupid sidekick filler. I was really puzzled why this drama didn't just pull me in & keep me in because it checked off all the right boxes of what I am interested in. Still, when they revealed the whole back story of the main couple-I was nonplussed as it was not compelling.
the last 3 episodes dragged, and the end, though happy. was anticlimactic-like the writers & actors were all just tired & ready to be done. Yes tidy endings for all characters, but kinda TMI & bland at that.


In the end it was a few things that made this a huge disappointment:
***Spoilers***
It just didn't work for me that in her past life the female lead worked in a tea house-which translated to prostitute (?)! was planning on committing suicide & then faked being Catholic in order to hope to change societies norms concerning rank. I just didn't see the nobility in that, nor the grand love, and certainly not any grand sacrifice. Which is what they were trying to sell us.
Also, a major blunder on the writer's part was having the female lead's parents die because of a deal with Demon (& ha ! he didn't even remember ? but then said he did but didn't mention it because it would complicate things ? All of the was unconvincing, but even more unconvincing was female lead's forgiveness of that due to her seeing that he "saved" her in her past life (uh, NO he didn't, he just accidently interrupted your suicide attempts) Another plot point in which we have to suspend disbelief is that the female lead's surrogate mother was trying to take down the female lead's parents & had a significant part in their deaths. OH the time skips. must every drama have them ? And having Demon just appear, with him being like :hey yeah I'm back why are you surprised ? not excited, not showing any emotion, so weird & unromantic. Then thier lives just go on with him STILL being a demon-you know the thing that appalled her when she actually saw him in action after he supposedly became a nice guy!? yeah, so he's immortal, goes around looking for bad people to punish and wow-that's actually pretty awful if you want a future with him (you hate his job & you're not immortal). I felt like they just kept him bipolar-I love cake- I take lives-I love my woman-I send souls to hell. If they were trying to get us to see him as some Batman/Robinhood righteous dude, they failed. This is no Tale of the Nine tailed, nor is it Healer.

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watched this online at: ondemandkorea for free & enjoyed it. I liked Exit 2019 & Hospital playlist as well as Oh my Ghost (& other dramas Jo Jung Suk was in) so was looking forward to this, but I didn't feel like the story did enough for his character. The whole movie just didn't have enough "meat on it's bones". I found his sister & mother to be unfunny unsympathetic leaches. It was hard to really grasp why his character garnered such a strong reaction that he lost his job. For non Koreans, it will be hard to discern where & what the main character is actually doing at the end of the movie. They set up the male lead but then left him hanging ,as if things were changed, or edited out. Jo Jung Suk is better than this movie, why isn't he given better (written) parts ?

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dated classic "Old school" drama with Kim Hyun-joong; good to look at but playing a jerk

This was one of the First 4 k-dramas I watched. I got to ep 10 or 11 & had became so disappointed in the story that I put it on hold. 3 years & alot more dramas later, I finished it and found that whatever attachment I previously had for the characters was severed. This is an "Old School" drama, with tentative melodramatic piano music for for much of the background. It's not bad, just dated. the style of filming & the situations is very dated as well. I think what really drew me in & got me attached was the acting & story potential. Well, honestly, it was Kim Hyun-joong ! I first saw him in Boys over Flowers & wished that he had been the lead instead I was thinking that Playful kiss would fulfill that. Sadly, I did not find his character here to be one that you can just forgive for being a jerk. When he smiles you forget everything else, but he does not smile much & there is NO reason for his jerky attitude or cold behavior. He's definitely not tsundre , just inexplicably cold. I wanted to like this so much, but then I had the same problem with Boys over Flowers : the lead is a jerk that I just can't accept & it ruins the story

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leads have no chemistry. Interesting medical "mysteries"

Let's just start with: It ends on a cliff hanger & after watching this I hunted down season 2 & it was not in any way as good as season 1
So;
I jumped into this without reading any reviews . 1st few episodes are unpleasantly dark with, everyone dying, trying to die or trying to kill someone. The tone picks up but there are alot of heartbreaking moments. It takes awhile for the characters to "jell" into a 'family' of sorts and for you to actually like or care about them. Eventually I did end up getting invested in the characters . The over arching story was not as interesting as the individual medical cases in the rural area, though there did seem to be ALOT of cases where the the mistreatment of women & thier low status/lack of rights was front & center. It would have been nice to have more diverse medical issues , but honestly, they were in a rural area, so that limited them greatly. The leads didn't really have much chemistry, but by the end you have expectations & right as everything seems to be resolved & calms down, they end the series on a cliff hanger (before you can get any relationship resolution or happy warm fuzzies).

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Avoids most tropes. Nice balance Some parts are worth skipping

I was pleasantly surprised that this avoided most drama tropes & every time I thought it was heading into heavy drama territory it evened out nicely, which was a relief as there were already enough sober issues that get dealt with. I never did figure out what the title refers to. The height difference between the leads was often weird .
Even though I rated it highly when I re watch it I will need to skip some parts in order to have the drama I want !
There were 4 things I absolutely hated.
spoilers:
1) Female lead's actions.
Female lead feels bad about herself so breaks up with guy because SHE feels guilty. And later they trick us by making it SEEM as if female lead says she's not going to leave but then changes her mind and does.
2) Time Skip.
I loathe time skips & this one is done oddly.
3) Male lead's sister's husband is probably gay (but in denial) it's a bit is he or isn't he for most the series & the couple start to get along really well & both seem happy & at that point-they divorce ! UGH!
4) Not watching some parts definitely make the drama better
This series is totally rewatchable until the female lead decides to leave for __________. so I personally will stop before that ( as what follows really crushes the warm fuzzies you have for the main couple.
here are my notes for future rewatching:

Ep. 13
stop 57:24
right after he says "is it all right" [with 5:29 left in the episode]
Ep 14 pick up at 17:17 with 46:02 left (when he is outside leaning against car)
stop at 19:25 (rings)
pick up at Ep 16 making eggs 28:37
stop 31:35 holding hands
pick 54:42 I feel lucky and thankful (feeding him) (with about 6:04 left ]

so future me:
stop before she leaves for overseas in the time skip & skip right up until they are dressed for thier wedding at the very end .

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