This review may contain spoilers
A Beautiful Emotional Drama Ruined by a Rushed Ending
The whole show somewhere slightly got wasted by the ending. I had a lot of expectations, but it disappointed me. FL emotions are deeply handled, but the ML's are not. I didn’t need to complain about what or how much time he pursued her throughout the show because this is the theme of the show. But in the last segment that is totally rushed and very, very bad execution of the show for me. This is where they totally lagged with respect to the novel.
I mean the whole show is about the emotions, how it makes the whole show emotionally heavy, and this exact thing they failed to deliver in the last segment of the drama. Actually I felt a little bit odd about this segment, so I searched about the web novel where this part is definitely handled in a better and more mature, realistic way.
First of all she should have gone to Europe in earlier episodes, not at the ending of the 14th episode. It left very little time for the connection. I am not saying that she should go there or not, it was bound to happen and the breakup also in the show — no complaints here. But whatever happens after that in the drama is totally rushed and abrupt.
After returning, I am sorry I am using this, but the whole pursuing thing by her felt hollow. She doesn't even know what she has to do, so she was just clueless, just watching him here and there. She doesn’t even have the guts to talk to him honestly. And the whole concept of “try to win me back” felt kind of idiotic here. I know this thing is present in the novel itself, but there it was very well handled.
They totally shift the tone here. They didn’t connect them emotionally but in the “seduction” way, which is totally different from the overall emotional theme of the show. This is the main problem here. There are glaring things here, like the whole pursuing thing of what he does in the past she is doing now is totally childish because he did those genuinely, not because he had a mission to win her — it came naturally. And the timing of doing those things also — he pursued for a long amount of time and respected her boundaries.
Here it felt like just because he has done those things in the past she has to do those for the sake of it, and it felt totally childish and somewhere annoying for me. I mean it is not a college drama, they are fully grown mature adults. It doesn't mean that what he has done she has to do the same — they are not the same people. There may be a different way to “win him.” Again here is where the thoughtlessness of her towards him comes into the picture — it shows how little she knows him.
Another example of this is she doesn’t even know why he is reluctant to take her back, and she hasn’t even given that much thought about it. This thing I find most ridiculous and she even didn't understand this by herself — his sister told her that he has the fear that she may leave him again in the future and that is what is holding him back. This was the main part of the show, the whole point of the emotional connection was there and she lags here.
And after that she just said some so-called emotional words and they are back together, HE HE. I am not saying that it was not genuine or from the heart, but as a viewer it doesn’t feel that way to me — they didn’t make it feel earned. Frankly they didn’t have time for that either. It was already the middle of the last episode, so the whole thing is rushed totally. Mainly no emotional connection was established here.
Additionally I can say she didn’t do any extensive sacrifice to win him back, like leaving out an offer or something. But this is a mature drama so I understand that those things are not present — it's okay actually. But this is where the emotional part should come into the picture when the duration is short. Somehow I as a viewer am not sure whether she told those things in the car just to win him back or she genuinely meant them.
In contrast to this the novel structures this part very well. They establish the emotional connection by using small things like the “lipstick.” She uses the lipstick he gave her to show her devotion in the novel (contrastingly in the drama at first he gifted it to her but she never used it, which is totally left loose here in the drama, but it played a good part in the novel).
Among the office peers in the novel she is totally open and loud that her target is him and she wants to win him back at any cost without thinking about her office status, prioritizing him over her career advancement, which is a major shift in her career-mindful character. But here in the drama she is just going with the flow.
And mostly, the most important one was her return in just 3 years, which is the biggest flip in the character of her in the novel. She deliberately returned for him leaving international career advancement, and this thing played a major role in their reconciliation. But in the drama they just slightly brushed off the things here in the car scene, maybe because of the time constraints.
Another little thing that they didn’t show was the closure with his previous girlfriend. They used it as a wake-up call for him, but they could have shown a proper closure.
Only one character out of them I genuinely liked was Director Lee’s character. That guy is honest by his heart or by his job.
In the end I just want to say that the whole drama runs by the emotions and in the end you didn’t show that, which somewhere ruined the drama for me.
PS — those are my opinions. Feel free to criticize.
I mean the whole show is about the emotions, how it makes the whole show emotionally heavy, and this exact thing they failed to deliver in the last segment of the drama. Actually I felt a little bit odd about this segment, so I searched about the web novel where this part is definitely handled in a better and more mature, realistic way.
First of all she should have gone to Europe in earlier episodes, not at the ending of the 14th episode. It left very little time for the connection. I am not saying that she should go there or not, it was bound to happen and the breakup also in the show — no complaints here. But whatever happens after that in the drama is totally rushed and abrupt.
After returning, I am sorry I am using this, but the whole pursuing thing by her felt hollow. She doesn't even know what she has to do, so she was just clueless, just watching him here and there. She doesn’t even have the guts to talk to him honestly. And the whole concept of “try to win me back” felt kind of idiotic here. I know this thing is present in the novel itself, but there it was very well handled.
They totally shift the tone here. They didn’t connect them emotionally but in the “seduction” way, which is totally different from the overall emotional theme of the show. This is the main problem here. There are glaring things here, like the whole pursuing thing of what he does in the past she is doing now is totally childish because he did those genuinely, not because he had a mission to win her — it came naturally. And the timing of doing those things also — he pursued for a long amount of time and respected her boundaries.
Here it felt like just because he has done those things in the past she has to do those for the sake of it, and it felt totally childish and somewhere annoying for me. I mean it is not a college drama, they are fully grown mature adults. It doesn't mean that what he has done she has to do the same — they are not the same people. There may be a different way to “win him.” Again here is where the thoughtlessness of her towards him comes into the picture — it shows how little she knows him.
Another example of this is she doesn’t even know why he is reluctant to take her back, and she hasn’t even given that much thought about it. This thing I find most ridiculous and she even didn't understand this by herself — his sister told her that he has the fear that she may leave him again in the future and that is what is holding him back. This was the main part of the show, the whole point of the emotional connection was there and she lags here.
And after that she just said some so-called emotional words and they are back together, HE HE. I am not saying that it was not genuine or from the heart, but as a viewer it doesn’t feel that way to me — they didn’t make it feel earned. Frankly they didn’t have time for that either. It was already the middle of the last episode, so the whole thing is rushed totally. Mainly no emotional connection was established here.
Additionally I can say she didn’t do any extensive sacrifice to win him back, like leaving out an offer or something. But this is a mature drama so I understand that those things are not present — it's okay actually. But this is where the emotional part should come into the picture when the duration is short. Somehow I as a viewer am not sure whether she told those things in the car just to win him back or she genuinely meant them.
In contrast to this the novel structures this part very well. They establish the emotional connection by using small things like the “lipstick.” She uses the lipstick he gave her to show her devotion in the novel (contrastingly in the drama at first he gifted it to her but she never used it, which is totally left loose here in the drama, but it played a good part in the novel).
Among the office peers in the novel she is totally open and loud that her target is him and she wants to win him back at any cost without thinking about her office status, prioritizing him over her career advancement, which is a major shift in her career-mindful character. But here in the drama she is just going with the flow.
And mostly, the most important one was her return in just 3 years, which is the biggest flip in the character of her in the novel. She deliberately returned for him leaving international career advancement, and this thing played a major role in their reconciliation. But in the drama they just slightly brushed off the things here in the car scene, maybe because of the time constraints.
Another little thing that they didn’t show was the closure with his previous girlfriend. They used it as a wake-up call for him, but they could have shown a proper closure.
Only one character out of them I genuinely liked was Director Lee’s character. That guy is honest by his heart or by his job.
In the end I just want to say that the whole drama runs by the emotions and in the end you didn’t show that, which somewhere ruined the drama for me.
PS — those are my opinions. Feel free to criticize.
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