demontaerae

women with autonomy >>>>

first and foremost thought i wanted to jot down for this review: i love how the women all made their own decisions. no matter right or wrong, this series showed multiple aspects of women in these circumstances with their thoughts, decisions, logic, and ultimately their actions. whether it was a reaction or a preemptive move, it was always the women leading it through. the men were merely a tool, which i thought showed a lot about what this kind of series was about, even if i struggled with it when it came to solving this mess.

as soon as jin became aware of the women’s actions and their plans (or lack thereof), i realized how much i’ve been conditioned to watch a man take over and “save” the day, not giving any thought as to whether the women were capable of completing what they finished, what they’re able to get away with, etc. it would’ve been SO much easier to let jin take the reign, call his men, and clean everything up, but the series challenged us to let the women keep their lead role to drive the plot on their own. jin was there to help them, steer them in the right direction, give his resources, and ultimately give them safety, which was so so important to show that there are men who are more than willing to help women in need.

and i loved that jin acquiesced most of the time, to show that yes he’s capable of much more, without the need of the women to do anything further once he was filled in on what was happening, but he gave them space to do what they thought was right, even if he possibly didn’t agree with it (aka when he let hui-su run out of the hospital to confess—it may have gone better than what ended up happening if he put his foot down and locked them up, took away their autonomy and took care of things on his own). i think this was a very important part of the series that people may even overlook because they want the women to get away with it, to achieve that satisfying justice.

in terms of plot, it was definitely wild. it had that wow factor to reel you in, but it never made the theme of domestic violence any smaller. it highlighted the lengths people would go to on both sides—being the victim and wanting to escape by any means necessary, and seeing the abuse but not wanting to shake the status quo, or to hurt your loved ones who are the abusers.

the misconception that violence should be kept in private was challenged, the sad reality that people do protect abusers was shown, even those who are in positions to challenge it (like being in law enforcement and being a public DV advocate). and i also liked that they showed that there were people in law enforcement who were trying to do right by the victim (jin-young’s partner? or fellow officer idk). there were so many points to this series that i feel like i could write an essay on it 😅

all in all, there were many thought-provoking ideas in here but it never shied away from what was the root: domestic violence is never easy to run from either due to family circumstances (eun-su’s mom staying to keep her family together) or power play (jin-pyo’s family always being aware but never confronting jin-pyo because of their careers/status). society teaches us that we should not interfere with personal affairs, that this is something that just happens to people. but it’s never that. domestic violence doesn’t just happen—it is being done by someone, it is being committed.

i was thoroughly entertained with the story and moved by the characters all the same. the craziness of the events didn’t faze me because there are so many cases of domestic abuse that it could well be just as crazy if not crazier than the stories told in this series. the fact that there were multiple victims of domestic violence in close connection with eun-so in her family life as well as her work life depicts how common it has become—it is EVERYWHERE. i feel like the crazy plot twists just shows how wild it could get if passersby become like eun-su in the beginning and become desensitized whenever they see violence in domestic settings.

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it had so much potential but the plot fell flat

- slow pacing; didn’t care much about what was really happening until halfway through the series when she was remembering her first life; didn’t care for the conglomerate family sabotage subplot
- really only started paying attention when she sought her sister and her mother bc those relationships felt more real to me, especially bc she’s been rejected by family before. i didn’t care so much about her and seoha’s childhood romance which i thought was meh to begin with but i understand they had a special bond bc he was struggling w his family and she was there for him and they ended up being in an accident together, but i didn’t see how or why he was so important to her tbh he seemed like just a kid who wanted her to be a kid but that’s it ig idk
- also thought it was kind of weird they had the child actor juwon have proximity scenes with adult actor seoha but i felt like that could be removed and it wouldn’t hurt the story 😬 i already get it, he’s thinking of her as she was when he lost her. we don’t need the visual lol
- the buildup to remember her first life and the rage that brought on her curse to remember everything did not meet my expectation once she realized it and decided off-screen that she was going to let that go 😕 i don’t expect her to be angry and kill mingi but i thought it deserved a little more theatrics since we spent an entire episode remembering her rage and thirst for revenge.
- so the ending felt flat to me
- i know chowon is supposed to portray the younger sibling but it didn’t seem like she grew or matured from her sister’s death—i would’ve loved to see her character further developed.
- ending was super weird LMAO it didn’t feel natural at all, acting weird around her when it’s their first time meeting oh lord cheesyyyyy but at least they went full circle to the first episode. i thought it was cheesy at the beginning too so that’s that lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- the POTENTIAL for a complete 180 would’ve been like this: if all along it was jieum and mingi who were lovers and he died by seoha’s hands. so she realized too late that she was in love with the enemy and that her true love was waiting for her 😭 i would’ve loved to see that kind of plot lol but i guess this isn’t the style of kdrama for me, but i DO love time travel plots. maybe i wanted a bit more angst regarding her first life and how she’s processing it and what that means moving forward when she decides to let go of not just her current relationships but ALL her past lives. we took too long with the subplot of juwon’s accidental murder which didn’t even end up mattering all that much imo
- even the subplot with the mom from her past life would’ve been more interesting but i feel like they added yeon ok for that circumstance only and she was a pretty useless character overall
- the second lead romance would’ve been cute if it was written better idk i feel it was lacking depth and i didn’t see any chemistry between the two at all
- overall it was a bland kdrama and i wouldn’t recommend it even to anyone who rly loves time travel romances 😞 it just wasn’t satisfying enough to justify watching the full series

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mid ending

i’m sad it ended this way bc it felt like they were trying to close the door once and for all and left a lot of things still up in the air. the baby winning seems like a decent finish but leaves so many unanswered questions. nothing really happens, no one gets caught or punished for what they did on that island so we’re left pretty unsatisfied. no sense of justice except for the “good” guys getting the money, fixing up a motel, or getting word from your long lost daughter. all in all, there was more they could’ve added and a lot of open doors they should’ve given an answer to if the writers wanted. not sure why they chose to go this way 😞 like after all his searching the guy finds his brother and then BAM. he gets a baby and the prize money. that’s it???? ALL HAT WORK? YEARS OF DEVOTED SEARCH. just for that. none of it makes sense imo i was left pretty bored at the end.

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