I recently watched and I too was a little uncomfortable with the apparent age difference. However when I thought about it, it was not so troubling. But there are certainly other examples in literature: Jane Eyre, Judy (in Daddy-Long-Legs), Holly Golightly. I remember having to read Jane Eyre as a set book in Year 9 English.
The actual age difference between the actors is not so much as Kim Go-Eun was playing a younger character. Gong Yoo’s characters’s age was in fact indefinable. Was he >900 years old? Would you count the age he was when he died? We don’t know what that was (unless I missed it). The supernatural characters (Dokkaebi, Grim Reaper, assorted ghosts) seemed to stay the age that they were when they died - except for Park Jong-Hoong (the king’s tutor) who reappeared as a very nasty, aged ghost.
I also think the story early part of the story had its Henry Higgins/Eliza Doolittle aspect. I think Shaw had a problem with this issue too, as he tried two endings for Pygmalion. In one Eliza ends up with Henry and another where she ends up with Freddie.
But in Guardian, this resolved itself through some reincarnations, which given the story worked out. It provided both tragedy and a happy ending (or “hapyinding” as the Grim Reaper said to Sunny in Korean),
Anyway just some thoughts! I may try to write a review myself, but there are a few reviewers on this site (including you) who set quite a high bar. As a drama it has had quite a lasting impact, so a late review could still be worthwhile.
The actual age difference between the actors is not so much as Kim Go-Eun was playing a younger character. Gong Yoo’s characters’s age was in fact indefinable. Was he >900 years old? Would you count the age he was when he died? We don’t know what that was (unless I missed it). The supernatural characters (Dokkaebi, Grim Reaper, assorted ghosts) seemed to stay the age that they were when they died - except for Park Jong-Hoong (the king’s tutor) who reappeared as a very nasty, aged ghost.
I also think the story early part of the story had its Henry Higgins/Eliza Doolittle aspect. I think Shaw had a problem with this issue too, as he tried two endings for Pygmalion. In one Eliza ends up with Henry and another where she ends up with Freddie.
But in Guardian, this resolved itself through some reincarnations, which given the story worked out. It provided both tragedy and a happy ending (or “hapyinding” as the Grim Reaper said to Sunny in Korean),
Anyway just some thoughts! I may try to write a review myself, but there are a few reviewers on this site (including you) who set quite a high bar. As a drama it has had quite a lasting impact, so a late review could still be worthwhile.