bokminthe

Overall I liked certain characters and scenes in this drama but it just misses the mark for me in so many aspects.

After watching a couple of episodes I was having this sense of deja-vu in the way certain characters or topics were presented, it was giving me Lovestruck in the City vibes, so I checked the director... and yeah. I didn't even realise he was the director of other dramas I've watched that I haven't liked much because normally I don't really check who is the director or who are the actors, I look mostly at plot summaries.
After watching this series I guess I get the general idea that I should generally avoid this director because the scripts he picks, and that I assume he resonates with, I personally don't. I get he tries to do some different things here and there, with some characters that are different and many times quite toxic and problematic and it might be the cup of tea of some, but the ideals he seems to gravitate towards, the toxicity of certain of his characters passed as hero/ideal or the ideology that he presents in his dramas I do not agree with in general. Don't even get me started with whatever 'When the Stars Gossip' was. Our Unwritten Seoul is one of the highest ratings I've given to a drama I've watched of his.

I liked certain aspects of this drama in certain struggles and some of the healing, but overall, as it happened for me with It's Okay to Not Be Okay they're still way too superficial and psychologically speaking very classical, outdated and even freudian at points (what the hell was that with the guy that looked like the father, why is he a copy to start with).
I know this drama has been praised by many for the FL actress and her portrayal of the twins, but I have to say it was one of the main things that annoyed me in this drama. I think some others have also pointed out the fact that not only it was very obvious to everyone who was who and for that alone the premise of the change in the story made no sense, but also the fact that the whole personality of Mirae was having a stick up her back constantly and there is no change or even reflection on this. Miji on the other hand was a 5 year old for... what I can only assume is very classist views. I'll say it, Lee Jae In made a lot of a better acting here playing younger Mirae/Miji than Park Bo Young, and what's more, there was more chemistry between young Miji and Hosu than adult them. It was sad. At points I wished this was set when they were younger.
It already pissed me off quite a bit from the first episode the portrayal of Miji and prejudices against her, not only from her environment what could be realistic to certain extent (if overused) but from the drama itself to portray her as extremely childish because she didn't go to university. On top to keep repeating that she's unemployed but she's working? and taking care of her grandmother? only because she doesn't have a career job. She's way more out and around the world than her sister but she's treated like crap. It probably wouldn't have annoyed me as much if it wasn't because it's not the first instance I've seen of this degrading of people without further education, like if they become stuck somehow and are very childish (more so than ignorant even). Her staying three years in her room was very forced given the circumstances and I feel that it was only presented that way because they wanted to just make very obvious the topic of loneliness and marginalisation (as they did with Mirae's coworker), but there is no real talk there about it. There is in a cheap melodramatic emotional level of it obviously, to serve the purpose of whatever the director/script wants to provoke in the audience (cheap tears I guess), but not an in-depth realistic way on the why. I say it this way because this director has done it other times, he seems to like to use certain topics as props but they're not approached in a very conscious way or even dwelled or resolved in a realistic way either. She left the room when the grandmother passed and pretty much that cured her? It's always some shock exposure therapy of the sorts that cures it all it seems. It's very misleading and honestly quite bad taste to me at this point for repeated offender.

I get swapping them was "fun" and the main gimmick of the drama but it has been overdone in the past and the reasoning for it seemed weak to me, but maybe it's also because I'm tired of seeing bullying issues in companies where the employee just takes it to breaking point. I know it's a big problem in korean society but I think we all know that unless there is a change in education and the view of work as a whole nothing will change, so I would say that specifically for dramas to keep using this just becomes a cheap plot device. Why was the guy a copy of their father anyway? made no sense!!! artistic liberties and whatnot (in the same manner than identical twins never being identical), but even in the story it was so jarring and off-putting.

The plot overall dragged, and it never got to be that interesting, there were side characters that I found more interesting than the main two, and that was Hosu's mother mostly because I guess it was a bit more unique that she just continued raising Hosu on her own after the father passed, and Han Sejin for being a bit more relaxed and flowing around without care, what made him a bit more fun, in despite of the fact that overall I don't think we learn near enough about him.
The FLs' mother is quite bad, especially towards Miji in the beginning but her role as a mother and her actions, or inactions, are pretty much brushed under the rug to then focus on her role as a daughter. It was not satisfactory. This show anyway has once again that very performative showing of filial piety what is something this director has overused in the other dramas I've seen of him. He must have a big mommy/daddy complex and needs to keep repeating it.
As I mentioned there are a few things that it's good they're there, like Hosu's senior as a character in a wheelchair (and not a full time user of it, something not seen much), Hosu's hearing loss or the gay friend (what an achievement!). But I feel these are used as tokens and to get points more than anything. Mostly I feel this way because of the way they're presented and tackled, especially Hosu's hearing loss that it's more central to the story. It's all left very superficial and at points not very realistic, same with the mention of dyslexia. So I have mixed feelings about it because I'm not quite sure the direction on including these topics is done from a considerate and acknowledgement standpoint to have a realistic portrayal of society and they feel at times as cheap melodramatic stunts to be used sparingly throughout the series for points and personal gain of the director/writer and add a couple of obvious melodramatic/conflict scenes.

As others have also pointed out, it's extremely unrealistic that in that given situation the sisters would communicate that little. You're throwing your sister into a company she knows nothing about and think all be fine because she has to do nothing? I mean you can do nothing, doesn't mean the environment won't do anything to you though.
Either way, this brings me to my overall despise of Mirae as a character. In the past, the little she appears, she seems to be quite introverted and shy what is fine, but in the present her vibe was more like angry and spoiled. Not only Miji swaps with her but then Mirae keeps telling her what not to do while not telling her what to do other than "nothing". She forbids her of doing certain things but she doesn't respect the same boundaries and everything is fine if Mirae does it. She quits the farm without Miji's permission because I guess to her that's not a job? doesn't matter. She barely tries to be her sister or to keep her sister's life going, but she has a fit if her sister does anything on her own, reason for Miji to obviously not tell her anything. This is never really tackled, their relationship and the constant degrading of Miji is never tackled either and overall Mirae really doesn't change in the whole series, her healing is only a matter of the company issue in taking a stance, but she doesn't have a change in her ways in any way.
I would have also preferred Sejin didn't have an interest in her, it felt forced and Mirae as a character is such a stick that it was not really much of anything or enjoyable, but at the end after the year they try to present that reunion like destined and I was just not feeling it. Maybe it was also done this way because otherwise Park Bo Young would have had to kiss two guys and maybe that was a big no, although considering her kissing scenes with Park Jin Young also felt very forced to me independently of the lack of chemistry they had, I would have almost preferred to not have any kissing scenes. This also brings me to the fact that Hosu and Miji in present time together were antic-climatic to watch many times, because she was acting like a child and it was difficult to see why Hosu would be interested in her if it wasn't for their past.

Towards the last episodes it dragged a lot and they were pulling melodrama from under the rocks to fill the time.

So although generally it's just about kinda watchable I'm not sure I'll be recommending it. If you like the director's other works then I would say you might like this, but if you have watched some of his other dramas and didn't like them I would avoid this one, it's not that much better.