Wow! Why aren't people talking about this one more?
Initially when i saw the cast and roles, I thought that the twins would marry twins and that Chen Xing Xu was portraying both the Male leads, but thankfully that wasn't the case. This is the first time I was introduced to Luke Chen and he was amazing in the role of the third prince.I also had a lot of assumptions before going into the shows, I thought that the ML played by Cheng XIng Xu would be pretty tame however his story arc was quite powerful compared to that of the Void third prince. His pairing with Landy Li was so fun to watch. The drama didn't have much physical intimacy or even kisses but it was plain to see the lead characters feelings for each others.
I do agree with a lot of reviewers and commenters, the drama has great beginning and ending arcs, however it drags a little in the middle with filler episodes. I like the 3 shards story arc, but it could have been better written. Once they fell in love with her, she just stashed them in places and expected them to stay there no matter how much time it would take for her to find and woo the next one.
And one thing that bothered me, the drama focused too much on forgiveness & sacrifice. Too many characters that shouldn't have been forgiven were forgiven, and unnecessary sacrifices were made for those.
Some Notable Characters:
Liguang Ye Tan
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Loved her right from the beginning. I like watching characters that are open about everything and say what they want. So I pretty much enjoyed watching her every time she was on the screen. She adored Qing Kui and it showed despite her trying to be a hardass at times. What I liked about Ye Tan is that even though she was envious of the way Qing Kui was treated, she never blamed Qing Kui for it. She knew the culprit was her father and she laid the blame right at his feet. Despite being treated like a prisoner all her life, having to hear cruel words from her father, she found it in herself to forgive him because he did all that to protect her. (Nope, still don't care for her father. She almost died quite a few times because of his negligence. When he used those harsh words, he gave others in his kingdom permission to treat Ye Tan poorly. She was starved most of the time, left to be eaten by animal once. People dared to do this because they knew that her father didn't care for her. Her relationship with You Qin was beautiful to watch.
Empyrean Xuan Shang / Shao Dian You Qin
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He was so damn adorable. From the get go, we could see how affected he was by Ye Tan. Once he realized that he liked Ye Tan, he never hid his feelings. He was honest about them, even when he turned her into a walnut and sewed her mouth shut. When he found out that Ye Tan was not Qin Kui, he kick up much fuss about it. He accepted her without creating any unnecessary drama that would be out of his character. He was consistently loyal to Ye Tan (Let's not mention that one shard who was promiscuous for his own good). Qing Kui would never have been a good match for him, she would have probably just gone along with everything he wanted and not changed his life much.
Liguang Qing Kui
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In the beginning, I was a little upset with her character, not because she was favored twin, but I always felt like she could have done so much more for Ye Tan. What upset me even more was that she was a bit hypocritical with Chao Feng / Third Prince, telling him that she disliked people who treated their family badly. However, she was fine treating her father (Emperor Liguang) well when he treated Ye Tan abysmally. This highlighted her privilege, since her father so clearly loved her, she could turn a blind eye to how he treated Ye Tan majority of the time. Ye Tan never blamed her, since she was imprisoned by her own family, treated poorly, she was glad to receive what little she received from Qing Kui. There could be more to the story, maybe she helped her sister a lot more than we got to see but it wasn't depicted so clearly. I did grow to like her character, especially after watching, "Immortal Samsara: Part 1" , where we have another set of twin sisters who were borne out of same root. It just made me look at her in a different way. Throughout their interaction Qing Kui had always been kind to Ye Tan. She always thought the best of Ye Tan and her ambitions of becoming the Demon of the Void. All their interactions were genuine. Even when the whole mix-up happened and she ended up in the void realm she could have blamed Ye Tan for trying to create a mess to get her out of her wedding she wasn't really against of. However, she was quite sane and even looked out for Ye Tan in her own way. So maybe Qing Kui was one of the reasons Ye Tan didn't loose her spirit even after spending 18 years in captivity.
Chao Feng / Third Prince
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The great liar, it was fun to watch him come up with crazy but believable stories to hoodwink Qing Kui, who easily fell for it. The crazy idiot, didn't even realize that he was creating a trap for himself and when he did realize he was quite happy to fall head over heels for Qing Kui. While he appeared quite dashing in many scenes, I do wish his character would have been more imposing and not often defeated by You Qin. I wanted to see them as equals.
Shao Dian Xiao Yi [Heavenly Emperor]
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The emperor, You Qin's father, was more of glory hound, who didn't really care about You Qin as his child. He just wanted to be known as the father of the great Empyrean who achieved the perfect celestial body and saved the world. Even the fix is not permanent, only for a few hundred thousand years, after which he might as well pop out another child to sacrifice, when he himself never had the guts to step up to the plate. Qing Kui was such a decent person and he seemed very happy when she died, that was quite disgusting to see. His expression of glee was present when he found out that You Qin made progress in his cultivation, not really caring that his son was going to die. A decent parent would have been worried about his child, he seemed elated. Its a wonder his wife tolerated him for so long. We all understand sacrifices are to be made, but he could have been a supportive and understanding parent to You Qin. What's more, he was the first one to be an obstacle in bringing You Qin back to life. Even when he came back to life, he just was selfish prick to everyone included.
I'm not a fan of open endings like these so I scrolled down to the comment sections and found this link. This helped ease of the anxiety the I felt after that ending. https://x.com/YoukuOfficial/status/1750867181745688650?s=20
Missed its mark.
It had potential but ultimately didn't reach it. I never thought it would be a drama that would hit it out of the park, but I thought it might have some hidden depths. The drama started out good, they explored some issues in the beginning and I liked how understanding the ML was. He is clearly a green flag. But the story was very subtle and didn't leave much of an impression. The ML's brother and his wife were more interesting to watch as a couple.Every week I tuned it expecting that something would happen that would break the linear path it was on, but it never got to it. So, I am a bit disappointed. But it did have the power to make me complete it so there is something there.
Dou Zhao happens to be one of my fav FLs in both book and the drama!
Overall---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first episode was so otherworldly, not just because of the stunning visuals but also because the story didn't flow well. The setup was too vague. And anytime anyone said anything it was poetry. I felt detached watching it and could only focus on the visuals while the story became the background. The first episode could have been executed better.
The second episode brought the drama back to the ground where I could connect with it. It was so easy to like Jiang Mei Sun [Duke of Ding] from the get go.
I knew going in that I was never going to like Wang Ying Xue, but honestly like all cheating spouses, Dou Shi Ying is the worst person to tolerate in the first 2 episodes. He just couldn't keep it in his pants. Zhao Gu Qiu, Dou Zhao's mother was a catch, such a beautiful and kind woman. Well there's no accounting for taste, to go from Gu Qiu to Ying Xue, what a sad fate, but well-deserved. I had hoped that Dou Zhao's mother could make it out alive but the betrayal was far too much for her. Anyways, their relationship was messed up at least in the second arc of the drama he grew a backbone.
For me, a drama that starts out with a knife at throat but ends with the couple in harmony is always much more enjoyable than a drama where a they start out nice and hurt each other because of love. I am glad the drama stuck to the book with this aspect, them being a sweet couple who cherished each other and considerate of each other was what attracted me to Dou Zhao and Song Mo's pairing.
The elder princess Lu De and her arc with Dou Shi Shu took me by surprise. If only he hadn't been so power-hungry, then he would have some shame and wouldn't have treated Dou Zhao's mother so poorly. I am not a fan of this character.
I wish we had seen Song Mo's sister, it might have changed the dynamics between Zhang Ru and Chen Jia, i started out thinking why and what's gonna happen to Song Mo's sister to being okay I love these two together in the drama.
What I like:
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The casting is so good! I was excited to see Meng Zi Yi and Li Yun Ri bring the lead characters to life. They both did a good a job. They fit the role.
Song Mo's uncle was such a impressive character! Nothing at all like his cowardly "father".
Dou Zhao's mother was such a pretty woman! I'm sure sad that she was only on screen for a first few episodes.
So far I love that they haven't added any unnecessary drama that wasn't there in the book between the leads. What I like about them together is that they are my comfort couple. They are so damn nice to each other! The drama has brought that to light for me.
I like the idea about both of them going back in time, even though Song Mo doesn't remember there is a possibility of him remembering it one day. That's not how it happened in books but that's a welcoming change for me.
Dou Ming is so damn adorable! I was willing to let go of my resentment of her from previous life so I did not see that ending for her.
Zhao Zhang Ru has also been a favorite of mine and she gets a lot of screen time which I am very happy about!
I didn't notice it the first time but Lu Zheng and Lu Ming are twins! I thought there was only one guy named Lu Zheng who popped up everywhere.
What I dislike: (Mostly stuff that has been messed up from the book)
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The Dou family was supposed to have this rich history that's just missing. The currently Dou family was supposed to be so big with a few branches and in-laws. It would have been fun to see Dou Zhao navigate through them on screen, she did it so well in the book! (And she was just a child when she did that! I feel that it is such a missed opportunity)
The entire dynamic between Dou Zhao, her father, Wang Ying Xue, and Dou Ming lacked depth. It is much more satisfying in the books where Dou Zhao is actually the one who has the upper hand throughout their interactions and not once does she suffer because of Wang Ying Xue or Dou Ming's shady tactics. The only time she fails is to save her mother's life.
Since the book is so long with 500+ chapters it is bound to miss a lot of things but because of this I felt that a lot of things were missing in the drama and I had to fill in the gaps with the story that I remembered. I wish there were more episodes, but again a lot of things have to be taken into consideration so can't really blame them.
I'm not a fan of the changes that have been made to the Yuan Tong / Ji Yong character. I did like him better in the book.
Since it has Zhang Ling He, it is automatically on my watchlist. (Ep 1 to Ep 17)
The good:The story has just begun and I am hoping that this will be another drama that I can add to my rewatch list. The beginning arc is not so great but I still like some of the characters.
The FL when possessed by that genie has the best visuals so far. Hoping to see her powers more in the future.
Mu Zhan Ting is the best character so far, he adds the much needed fun to the linear drama that lacks depth.
The bad: (I can ignore all of this if the story picks up by the end since it is my fav genre with a talented cast)
Zhang Ling He's character seems washed out for some reason.
The visuals are sadly lacking. They remind me of Ashes of love which came out in 2018. The lack is especially jarring because I am currently watching the Dashing Youth as well which has really good visuals. The genie looks so bad, the Last immortal's water condensing beast looked way better than this hastily put together genie.
What's more, since it Xianxia the visuals were one of the most important part of the drama.
Jing Tian is a gorgeous gorgeous woman and has that otherworldly look that makes it difficult for me to see her as a character. I can never forget that she is an actor. I liked her better in Wonderland of Love.
I don't know why I can't seem to get into this drama, does it really lack the depth? When it suddenly came out, I was so damn excited but now I just seem to skip through the scenes for the sake of it.
Although it seems light, it tackles some difficult issues.
Although it seems light, it tackles some difficult issues. Yes, there are some cliches and tropes but then we came her expecting them and I do enjoy some of those while I am not a fan of others.Issues that they tackled:
>> Trust Issues: Lu Xing Yan's lack of trust in her was clear as a day in their past relationship. He came from a place of insecurity and instead of having faith in his partner he decided to react. And this was in the early stages of their relationship. It is good thing that they broke up at the time. They needed the distance to grow a bit.
>> Women's lot in marriage: Shen Xing Ruo's mother situations is the reality of many. When getting married they are told to either quit their job to take care of home or do both alongside. When a child comes along, the woman has to depend on the man blindly. After investing so much on the family, then she is told that she isn't enough and he has found someone else who is better for him. Yes, people change, divorces happen, that's life, but retaining some level of independence might have been better for Xin Ruo's mother's mental health.
>> Shen Xing Ruo's Trauma: It is understandable for Shen Xing Ruo to not want to get married. Her parents' unhealthy dynamic plus the result of that marriage caused a significant trauma for her. Despite all that, she managed to make choices that were smart and logical. She knew what she wanted and stood up for herself. And when she ultimately made the decision to get married it was because she knew that it was the best thing for them and that they could rely on each other.
I was indeed a bit surprised with the sudden transformation in Zhai Jia Jing's character. Unlike the last few episodes she seemed like such a decent human being so the complete change in her character was difficult to adapt to. To me, it felt more like an addition at the last moment than a gradual arc.
These things aside, Lu Xing Yan was so damn adorable whenever he was with Xing Ruo. Despite their challenges, I hoped that they would make it work. They are a good fit for each other.
Dumbest male lead ever! Not a single attractive quality! (Poorly written)
The only thing going on for Chen Yi Du are his looks. He should have been a sculpture or a mannequin, who made this guy human? They could have chosen a better one to transform into human!There's a reason I'm calling him dumb: All his reasons for believing that female lead did him wrong and treating her like shit are all misunderstandings. He is so prejudiced against her, thinking that she is only out for her career, that he believes anything everyone tell hims about her. But he never trusts her. For him she is someone who can be tossed aside every few days and she just keeps coming back.
I feel worried about any woman who acts like this female lead, why worry about how her own reactions sif she were to regain her memories? Just focus on the present and see how poorly he treats her. There are 2 good things for 8 bad things.
What romance? This is Chen Yi Du's absurd revenge fantasy.
This drama would have been better if Huo Xiao was the male lead.
11 episodes and the entire time, the ML was a living out a revenge fantasy, right now, even with his looks, it is hard to overlook all the things he has done to the FL. The FL is supposed to be ex and shady business rival who has now lost her memory. We see her being a mean boss for 1-2 episodes and so those scenes are easily forgettable, overtaken by ML misunderstandings and prejudice. He abandons her in a remote location and she walks all the way to his home, even in that state she is begging him to listen to her. eck.
You would think as the drama progresses, Yi Du would try to redeem himself in some ways, but he squanders all the chances as if Weiwei owes him worth a lifetime of them.
Let's top calling him Yidu and start calling him POS, so the POS doesn't have the guts to put in any efforts in a relationship because the woman he claims to love is a rival, he wants to force his views upon his subordinates as well. Bravo!
Okay miracles do happens for some reason he had some sensible moments a few times. In the final arc there were some happy times for the two.
Now it was the Female lead's turn to initiate breakups, well atleast she is getting even. I lost all hope in their romance a long time ago. I have come this far might as well watch the whole thing.
What this drama could be known for: Countless breakups, atleast one in majority of episodes. They only spared a few episodes where there were no break up at all. Emotional Immaturity.
The Leads had good chemistry which just went down the drain with this production.
Nope! I came here for Seo Hyun Jin, but even she couldn't make me love their story.
I was wondering why I hadn't revisited this drama, I remember watching it in the early days when I first came across Kdramas.And now i know, the reason why.
10 episodes in and I wanted O Hae Yeong, our female lead to grow a backbone already and to stop being so pathetic. But from time to time, I found myself wanting to give her a hug and to tell her to treat herself better.
The people in this story definitely played a role in shaping her character, her inferiority complex, making her feel so insecure that she wanted to fill in the big black hole inside her with scraps thrown by the male lead.
Yes, he looks pretty but for heaven's sake for 9 and half episodes all he ever did was make her cry. He rarely smiled at her. Honestly, 10 episodes, and most lovey-dovey romance was between male lead and his ex in flashbacks and it overshadows their entire relationship to this point. Because they didn't have such happy moment, just the FL's one-sided obsession with him.
The leads finally get together in episode 10 and yeah they are hot together, the chemistry was never to be questioned. But I just feel a little sad about all the mean things he said to her.
They are not even together for half an episode when O Hae Yeong finds out the real reason why her ex went bankrupt and went to jail.
For heaven's sakes, we are on episode 11 and she gives him a chance to show he cares. Yeah, she absolutely out of it to ask him to beg her, but at the moment in his place, I would have begged her to take me back. She didn't even expect him to do it, she just wanted to see if he was willing to do it. Meh, what a low effort man.
Ep 12: He isn't getting any better. I want her to just move on, at this point, anyone would be better especially her ex.
Ep 13: Just a few sentences and she folded so easily. I just wanted her to go see a therapist and heal her mind, not get together with someone who treated her like shit.
Ep 14 to Ep 16: Well well well, look who is back to his old tricks. I have no hopes for this guy. Someone needs to rescue Miss Oh, because she has never been in her right mind!
Ep 17 to Ep 18: It has finally ended. Thank god. I get the comments and reviews now. Even such good looking and talented cast couldn't save it.
Loved the visuals of the leads and the chemistry.
Reminded me of The Greatest Love featuring Cha Seung Won because the actors gruff nature and voice seemed pretty similar to me. I loved the pairing and enjoyed watching their romance no matter how illogical things were when it came to the story. Honestly, this is the first medical drama where more patients have died than being saved. The story was far too confusing and not at all interesting.For some reason, the female characters were not very well thought out. The female lead character in particular wasn't fully fleshed out, even the male's lead's ex fiancé was properly written. The shift in characters were quite abrupt as if we were doing hyde and jekyl instead of character growth.
Regardless, I enjoyed at least the romance part of the drama, for me these two were cute together and I wanted to see more.
Only nice things to say!
The only reason I haven't rated this drama 10 is that it can be a bit heavy for a rewatch. The dramas that have more rewatch potential for me are the ones that are light and happy. As much as I love these two together, I don't want to go through the entire plot again, just a fan made video of all their moments would make my day. So i'll go look for that, if i ever want to rewatch this.
Adorable! The kisses are lit!
The actors and the characters are such good fit. They all did such a good job on this one. The costumes are also so beautiful. This is tiny bite that I won't mind rewatching a few times. The lead couple were terrific and adorable. I wonder thought what he was doing down there for 100 years, would have liked seeing some flashback to the time he spent there.I didn't take her being the demon realm's ruler seriously as there was barely any depth to that aspect of her character. It was supposed to be a light hearted drama and it did so damn well in the genre. The kissing scenes were done just right.
I read a review that this was Xianxia without Angst, and I thought okay I want to watch a adorable short & sweet romance like that. There was just a pinch of Angst that would have had me going for the Yin Mo Ting neck, but all is good since he did not end up consummating his relationship with Lin Qian Yu.
Nangong Xin Lan / Lin Qian Yu reminded me of Georgina sparks, the looks and the entire vibe she has going on for the drama.
Brilliant Cast! Intriguing Characters! Worth the watch!
The best part about this drama are the leads, their witty & intelligent banter made me like them. In the beginning, I liked the ML more than the FL, because he was actually pretty kind and decent person. In comparison, the Fl was kind of foxy with her schemes. I also liked how ML was open in showing his affection and was very much in love with her. So, I was rooting for them & hoping that we would find out more about the FL as the show progresses so that I can like her. And she grew on me, at the same time I continued to like ML for who he was.That changed midway, I started liking FL more because she was very consistent with her feelings and made better decisions than ML most of the time, not always, but majority of it. The ML wasn't bad either but his thinking was hampered by his need to choose a life away from the scheming. Their intelligence and strategies weren't to be questioned, but I questioned ML's feelings for her in the latter episodes. The ML feelings constantly wavered, in the beginning, he was quick to blame her and even nicked her neck drawing blood in a fight, this was when he claimed to love her. To be honest, he was the one who used her more to achieve his goals, and she didn't complain. Once his goals were achieved, he just refused to listen to her even knowing that what she said was valid. Even when he had concerns he refused to talk it out with her. The second disappointment was when she was sick and he found out too late. Even then, he didn't make much efforts for her. He always needed to be prodded by his soldiers to make a move on her & even then sometimes didn't. I don't much like MLs like that. The change in his character was so obvious. What was sad about their breakup in episode 29 was that even with how silent it was, it was violent, he treated her as if she had something to gain from asking him to be the crown prince, other than maybe a chance for him to survive longer. She is a warrior who was never really interested in the court & cared more about her soldiers. If it wasn't for him, her father and she would have probably come up with some other strategy to save their army from the likes of that cowardly & honestly silly emperor. Even with all the claims of loving her, his actions fell short.
Thank god for the final 10 episodes, ML was back to his earlier self where he seemed to care a lot about the FL. And I'm glad that it was that version of him that ended up with her. One thing you got to give the guy credit for, even though they fought a lot of time, he never once considered loving anyone else. Even when the emperor gave him a concubine, he was upfront and told her that he would never love her but all he could give her was the title of lady of excellency, Apart from that she couldn't have anything from him.
In contrast to the ups and downs between the leads, the relationship between the Tao Zi & Chang Er was very adorable and they were very consistent about each other throughout the drama. Chang Er was a warrior in his own right and still made sure to treat Tao Zi well. They understood each other.
Had potential
The name Gen Z is just not well-suited for the drama. I disagreed with a lot of ways the things were handled by the grown ups in the drama. The whole concept of the drama was not for me. But I can say that the master-disciple relationship between the Xing Zheng and Sun Tou Tou had a lot of potential.I'm not a fan of Tian Zhen and couldn't actually see him in favorable light once he left Sun Tou Tou drunk alone, where she almost drowned. He was too damn irresponsible at all times. Never stepping up when he made any mistakes, always allowing others to take the blame for him. Let's not forget that in order to alleviate his guilt about Meng Meng, he tried to keep her with him so that he could treat even knowing that it was beyond his expertise. I could only like him for the last part of the story because I chose to turn a blind eye to all of these things & because that's what Sun Tou Tou wanted.
I couldn't believe the way things ended for Meng Meng, what she needed was a therapist not Tian Zhen who wasn't capable of taking care of her. Her parents were even worse, trying to lock her up as if she was some monster. They all failed the poor child.
I didn't much care for how Ling Lan treated Sun Tou Tou, telling her to leave even without giving her the chance to prove that she wasn't guilty. Sun Tou Tou was a such a bright light throughout the drama, she was childish at times knowing that she would be kicked out even if she behaved, not really believing the whole thing about her being the descendant.
Zhao Lusi was the one who made the drama worth watching, her performance as an orphan who knew that she could be kicked out if she stepped one foot out of the line was marvelous. She is a joy to watch & it broke my heart every time she was blamed for things that weren't her fault. She got so used to it that she didn't hesitate in taking the blame & being selfless when she thought it would be better for her master's family.
I was surprised to see Park Min Young & Song Kang Paired together.
I was intrigued by the actors playing the leads, which brought me here.Ep 1: Having watched Cho Young Pil go crazy over weather forecast in Samdalri, I was happy to see another crazy forecaster in Shi Woo. I liked how he stood up to Ha Kyung when he knew he was right. I think him calling her out on her personal issues was a bit too much. Now, let's talk about the trashy ex. Moron got caught cheating, so he married the woman he cheated with. He took half of the expensive stuff as if it was his own, wants the FL to sell the apartment and split the costs (this maybe is fine, since they weren't married) But he wasn't remorseful about his actions at all. FL looked heartbroken when she caught him in the act. Gives me the eck!
Ep 2: What an horrible ex to have. Not only is he even a little bit apologetic, but he goes around flaunting his relationship with his new wife without even consideration for her feelings. Whenever him and his wife come on screen they spoil the whole watching experience for me. The leads have good chemistry together. I'm so glad that Ha Kyung finally spoke her mind. The guy didn't contribute to most of it. She was the one who paid for most of the stuff including the house they were living in. He wanted to go half when all he paid was for 7%. He had the guts to ask for those things after he cheated on her. So damn low. Shee Woo's ex isn't any better either. She keep pretending as if she is gods gift to the world.
Ep 3 to Ep 8: Both Shee Woo & Ha Kyung are gradually learning to trust each other. They are quite a few setbacks which include their idiot exes who can't seem to lie in the beds they made. Ki Joon is such a hypocrite, it was fine when he lived with Ha kyung before but he can't accept his wife's past because she lived with another dude before she got hitched to him. She isn't any better, why not be upfront about her past. I think she got together with Ki Joon because she thought he had money, but learning that he doesn't have much and that they both would have to work to earn a house for themselves seems to make her so uncomfortable. As if someone owes her a house. Now that they both have found out that their exes are dating each other, pretty sure they are going to go out of their way to tell them that they are wrong to be dating.
Ep 9 to Ep 16: This arc was very frustrating to watch. The leads kept dragging the same issue without resolving it. It was frustrating and painful to watch. Why suggest break up if you don't want to? You clearly have different ideas of what you want from life. One wants to be married the other doesn't. Why torture each other needlessly? Is there not going to be any resentment down the line? I was so upset with how Shee Woo was dealing with things that I wanted Ha Kyung to meet someone else at this point. Someone who wouldn't make her constantly doubt her worth. At the same time, I felt that Shee Woo was in need of a therapist. If after dealing with his issues he still felt the same way about marriage then that would have been more logical.
As much as I like them for a short arc, it wasn't that fun to watch. It was interesting but that's about it.
All the couples are great!
I started this drama especially to watch Shin Hye Sun & Sun Hun together and they were so damn good. All the couples in the drama were so well-written. They were loyal to each other, cared for each other, and didn't give up on each other even during hardships. Many of them temporarily retreated but then came back strong in pursuit of their loved, which was so endearing.I was bit afraid about the Sang Tae being a jerk to Mi Jung not just because of his dead wife but because of his chaotic family. There was that one instance in the beginning when he tried to put a wall between them, but it handled nicely by his father. His father was such a sensible person throughout the series. Apart from the part when the boys were hit on their calves, I really liked the way they handled parenting those kids. With so many of them under a small roof, it could have turned bad but they both handled it so well. Mi Jung's ex was deadbeat father even when he was given the chance to bond with them he always chose to be selfish. He had no business having more children who he might end up leaving in the future. I didn't like that Mi Jung held the children against him when he cheated. But looking at how the ex behaved majority of time, Mi Jung made the right decision. The kids wouldn't have grown up so well-mannered or even nice under his care.
Ho Tae & Soo Young were good for each other as well. Despite their past decisions, they grew up well. It was good to see Ho Tae growth from the thief who stole from his sister to a successful director.
All the parents in the drama were chaotic enough to give me a headache. From the parents in law who didn't want their son in law to move on, to the parents who thought their son were too good for the women they chose. That's the only part of the drama that I could do without.
A funnier and more romantic version of the 2016 drama of the same name.
I watched this one first and liked it on the first go. As I was about to rewatch it, I discovered the 2016 drama, which is was watched for the first time, before rewatching this one. Both dramas have their appeal. Where the 2016 drama has more depth and sticks to the crime tone more, this one is more sillier and funny. The ML is both are very attractive, however, even that didn't much endear me to the 2016 drama, as it lacked romance. They dropped the ball on that one.This 2023 version picked up that ball and gave us better romance, even balancing other genres well. This version clearly has a higher rewatch value for me. (Already seen it twice) Sometimes this silliness is just what we need in life to make us laugh. I liked certain aspects of this story better, especially the part about the FL being the one to loose a friend to murder. It just added more to her character.

