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I found myself quickly relating with Ko Gyeom, because much like this character, I’ve loved movies and TV shows since was about 5-6 years old. Also much like him, I vowed to watch every “Best Picture” winner ever made. I’ve come close except for the more recent films which I haven’t liked very much. Hence, more foray into K-dramas!

There may not be a genre of films and TV series that gets more appeal as well as flack than melodramas, or romantic dramas. When they are done well, they can be incredible. But, when they are done badly, they are so cliched and tiresome that you find yourself wishing you’d done something else with the time you’ve lost. In this genre, it’s the unique stories that stand out. For the bad ones, it follows a template that tends to be done to death.

Over the years, many people have grown to love movies. They can be a wonderful escape. However, too often, people get too caught up in them, wishing that their own lives were more like a movie’s. In short, people find themselves unable to sort reality from fiction.

So, why is the melodrama have such appeal? Perhaps because it provides a story with a universal theme as well as a universal desire: to love and be loved. Such is the central theme of this series as well. We have four wounded characters who are desperately trying to find love in all of the wrong places. Such is the illusion and delusion of filmmaking and movie stories. They always make you think that love and happiness lie with someone else.

Ko Gyeom is a young man whose only true connection is with his sickly, older brother Ko Jun. It’s obvious that he loves and admires his brother very much, after the two become orphaned when Gyeom is a young boy. Jun is much older than he is and views him as much as a parent as he does a sibling.

Kim Mu Bi is a young woman who grew up loving her father, who was a film actor. However, he constantly left her to go work on his film projects, and soon Mu Bi develops a tremendous resentment toward her father for always neglecting her, despite the fact that he obviously loves her. Too often, parents fail to realize that there is no substitute for their presence. “Things” cannot replace a parent. While Mu Bi still has her mother, her mother is cold and distant with her daughter. Too often being rejected and abandoned by those she loves most, Mu Bi vows not to allow anyone to get too close to her. Initially, she trusts Gyeom until he ends up leaving her unexpectedly and without explanation either.

Hong Si Jun is another young man who has a talent for composing music. Unfortunately, like so many people, he ends up trapped in the past at a time when he was happiest with his girlfriend, Son Jua, until at least she broke up with him. There is always a danger of living in the past as well as making someone else completely responsible for your happiness and well-being. He easily the most immature of the four. When Son Jua resurfaces years later asking for his help, he's cold and resentful towards her.

Finally, we have Son Jua, a young up-and-coming screenwriter who is anxious to get her script off the ground. Ironically, her script shares many of the same experiences that she had with Hong Si Jun. She, too, is much like Hong Si Jun in which she is caught up in the past. She makes the mistake of assuming that Hong Si Jun is over her.

The series is much about love, healing, and learning how to move on from past experiences. It’s easy to blame our parents for not giving us the things we feel we’re entitled to as children. Perhaps the biggest flaw in parenthood is trying to keep our children from seeing our flaws and faults. Parents are people too who often make mistakes. Children need to see and understand this. Children also need to realize that everyone is different and people are only capable of giving what they have. Quite often, those feelings are expressed in unexpected ways, which is why there is often disappointment in how those feelings are shared and expressed.

Perhaps the truest piece of wisdom comes from Hong Si Ju’s boss and he asks Hong Si Ju, “What do you think completes love?” Most people in the world would say, “Being with someone.” However, when Hong Si Ju is unable to think of anything, his boss says, “Love is already complete as is.” Of course, the path to such love is within each person, not in someone else.

The series is a fairly light one, that quite frankly, I wish had gone deeper. At only ten episodes, I would have loved to have seen it stretched to the usual sixteen. I wanted more of Gyeom and his brother as well as Mu Bi and her parents. I also found the relationship between Hong Su Ji and Son Jua more compelling and intriguing than the one between Gyeom and Mu Bi, probably because it felt more real and authentic. Two people stuck at different points in the past and trying to figure out if they can move on. Because each was each other’s first love, we can empathize with the possibility of them recapturing what they had in the past, but as we know, this too often leads to disappointment. The key to living any kind of a successful life is to learn how to be in the moment. The past can a wonderful stroll down memory lane as long we don’t get caught up in it, and only healing and forgiveness can help us let go of the past. There are two great scenes that speak to this: between Gyeom and his brother in a dream and between Mu Bi and her mother.

Performances in this series are fantastic. Choi Woo Shik is easily my favorite. He has a natural gift of facial expressions which he’s so adept at utilizing as an actor. So often, with those soulful eyes, he looks like a lost puppy. Not many actors or actresses are capable of pulling off such expressions as deftly as Choi Woo Shik.

Bo Young Park has been one of my favorites for a long time. However, acting across Choi Woo Shik, I realized that sometimes, she lacks the ability to act with her eyes, especially in scenes across from a romantic interest. If you look at many of the scenes between herself and Choi Woo Shik, it becomes all too apparent. Choi Woo Shik isn’t afraid to let himself feel and feel that connection. Bo Young Park can be too guarded sometimes.

Overall, this is a nice series. It’s enjoyable with one or more characters that you’re likely to relate to on some level.