ZXC

I don't think it can be classified as warm and cozy slice of life until you reach like the 3 last episodes. It's a bit slow and the ups and downs aren't as dramatic, but you should know upfront that the main characters have trouble with expressing their emotions honestly (due to unresolved individual traumas) and that is the main cause of all issues. It's like 30% of each of things you mentioned combined

If you were left wanting some more happiness for Ji Woong I recommend watching the actor in To.Jenny, which is only 2 eps long (basically it's a movie) and it's suuuuper cute.

I would've been perfectly okay with only a wedding photo! I think a scene may have been hard to pull off or expensive but a single photo is way cheaper for the production. Missed opportunity for sure

I continue to be cautiously optimistic! I hope the takeaway is "BDSM is something that can be super fun anf enjoyable if you're into it and practicing it safely with someone else who is also into it". I hope it's not too much to ask lol

Nevermind I saw other comments and realized this person just hates Yeon Soo lmfao

She has a steady job where she's the boss, what on earth are you talking about? She's not fresh out of college as an intern who just got an amazing opportunity.
She's settled down, not stuck.

Is it really a better work opportunity? More money does not equal a better opportunity. She is doing well enough that she was able to buy back her old house, and she did not have the best experience with the guy that offered the job. They do not have the same moral compass and she would be ALONE except for Woong in a country where she doesn't even know the language. She may have to put up with a lot of things she does not agree with just because she can't leave, and she may even end up resenting Woong because of it.

She made the right choice.

I'm more worried about the direction the movie is gonna take. I hope people don't finish the movie thinking 'oh man, BDSM sure is WRONG AND GROSS!'. I am rooting for it to show the fun and more mundane side of BDSM, cause after all many of the people who practice BDSM don't have a goddamn dungeon they just have some toys and rope and do it in their regular bedrooms lmfao

The ending even though it's happy and cute definitely feels pretty rushed. But overall it's a good show that it's better watched if you binge it instead of waiting weekly. Also, Park Jin Joo is so charismatic and funny, she's one of my favorite Korean actresses without a doubt. I'd LOVE to see her in a romantic comedy as the lead, I think she'd nail it.

He doesn't forgive her, right? Cause it is not unrealistic a person like that would suck until the end but if he forgave her I'm eating my hair

Haven't seen the final ep yet but I was feeling this would happen. They put Ji Woong through the gutter and he was only a second lead. I think they went too far with how much they put him through to the point it would be impossible to wrap it up properly

Oh absolutely. I think deep down he wants her to say the perfect words that will suddenly make him understand all the years of abuse and neglect, but of course that's impossible. It's a very sad missed chance to explore that with his character to be honest :(

Thank you so much for the comment! I found Ji Woong's reaction to his mother reappearing to be very valid but at some points it felt like the story was being framed against him for acting that way. I can understand the difficulties of raising a child you didn't want to have but it's not the child's fault and if you harmed them you need to be held accountable.

Absolutely! But I definitely think they should add therapy as a side plot when you have characters like Ji Woong. In YAMS it was an important plot point because the ML was a psychiatrist; which is also different from a psychologist, which is what I think kdramas should incorporate more of.

Since I binged it yesterday I may be late to the party with this take but I've just been thinkin about Woong falling for Yeon Soo after spending so much time with her and falling for who she is as a person, versus Ji Woong falling for her "at first sight" and never really getting to know her after that. Woong said it himself that she and Ji Woong were never really close so there's no way he truly knew how she was as a person, aside from what Woong told him about her. Ji Woong definitely only loves an idea of Yeon Soo, and I wish they'd wrapped up that sooner instead of waiting for the final episode.

I think they may go with the "some time passed and now he's an improved person" type of ending for him, without addressing how he improved and how he worked on himself at all. I personally really like the complexities of his characters but he's a type of character that must have a therapy storyline to have a really satisfying ending. He's incredibly emotionally damaged, and he can absolutely heal but not without professional help. If he ends with the producer it will be incredibly similar to a storyline in Hometown Cha Cha Cha, except that one was executed perfectly well.

I think they'll pair him up with the other producer, and he'll start "healing" after a talk with his mom but not in a very well developed way because there's only one episode left. I'd love it if they did a therapy storyline but they haven't even mentioned the idea of therapy and like I said there's only one episode left. I don't know if they'll make his mom explain herself or not, but I do believe it's possible they will have him start to heal his wound but not really forgive/reconcile with her.

And I do think he might realize his feelings for Yeon Soo stem from idealization more than anything and he'll move on from that.

Like another commenter mentioned, there's a huge stigma around therapy still, and not only he has been neglected for like 30 years but he's never learned how to understand what happened to him was out of his control. Where would he learn that? It's such a complicated thing to go through and no friend your age is equipped to advice you on it in any way that will make you fully understand and begin healing. From what we know of him as a character I don't think he's the type of person that even CONSIDERS therapy. I know several men around his age that are very emotionally stunted and don't consider therapy either, and I come from a country where therapy is not really taboo anymore. I can't even fathom how it is in Korea. And correct me if I'm wrong, but in Korea isn't it difficult for children to completely cut off their parents? It's something I've seen before where they put blood before any harm the person may have done to you.

The way the show handled this issues seems incredibly realistic to me.

Also: there is no love triangle. Yeon Soo and Woong never liked anyone but each other. The fact that they each had someone else who liked them does not make it a triangle.

I've seen many people mad at Ji Woong but he literally never did anything about his feelings? He always supported his friend and hid his feelings to the point where Yeon Soo would have the shock of her life if she knew how he feels about her. And the reason why he deals so poorly with his feelings is because of years upon years of neglect and his unresolved feelings about it. Honestly every time he talked about the way he processed how he felt made want to scream BOY GO TO THERAPY RIGHT NOW

Therapy for Yeon Soo and Ji Woong ASAP