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this really had no reason to be this good
i genuinely dont understand why this drama flopped THIS hard and then basically disappeared. the international fandom is nonexistent and even on the korean side you can barely find anyone talking about it anymore. when i first read the plot i honestly thought this was gonna be the most basic 2000s melodrama ever. married woman falls for younger man, horrible husband, first loves, cheating, terminal illness yeah ive seen this 300 times.
but somehow this drama felt much heavier and more realistic than the plot makes it sound.
young shim especially shocked me because on paper she literally has almost every fl trait i normally hate. shes naive, loud, embarrassing, way too forgiving, has almost no pride sometimes and lets people walk all over her. normally i would be screaming at my screen after two episodes but i LOVED her.
i think its because the drama actually understands why she is like that.
she got married young and basically never learned how to exist outside of being someones wife, mother and daughter in law. she doesnt even really know what she wants because nobody ever cared enough to ask her. she has been unloved for so long that when another man gives her the smallest amount of attention she suddenly starts discovering that she has wants and desires of her own.
and honestly for a 2004 drama i thought that was pretty fucking brave. the affair isnt just "married woman falls for hot younger guy." its also young shim realizing that she is still a woman outside of her marriage and family. she can want someone. she can be selfish. she can want to be touched and loved and looked at like a woman instead of someone who cooks dinner.
i honestly found the drama weirdly feminist because of that. she just slowly realizes that being a wife and mother is not supposed to erase the fact that she is also a person. even the fact that the drama takes her sexual desire seriously felt brave to me for the time. nobody has looked at this woman like a woman for years and the drama basically lets her say i want something too, even when what she wants is messy and morally wrong.
uhm jung hwa was fucking AMAZING.
i already love her but i genuinely dont think young shim would have worked this well with another actress. she can make her unbelievably funny without turning her into a joke and then suddenly make her look so lonely that you feel horrible for laughing at her two minutes earlier.thats probably one of my favorite things about the drama actually. its genuinely funny but the comedy never eats the melodrama.
sometimes young shim would do something so stupid that i was laughing out loud and then suddenly nobody would say anything. the scene would just sit there for a few seconds too long and you would realize how sad her life actually is. this drama used silence really well sometimes and it caught me off guard more than once.
the love square was also messy as hell which obviously i enjoyed. nobody was innocent and everybody wanted something they probably shouldnt have.
and literally everybody is cheating on everybody in some way which made the whole thing even messier. ji hwan is basically emotionally attached to his first love throughout his marriage. ji hye gets married to another man and still hugs jung woo, kisses him, keeps meeting him and acts like she still owns him emotionally. jung woo knows this woman is married and still keeps getting dragged back into whatever the fuck their relationship is. then young shim obviously falls for jung woo while shes married too. nobody in this drama can just leave a relationship before starting another one apparently.
jung woo isnt innocent and i actually liked that. he uses young shim at first and i have absolutely no problem with that because use her for revenge and then accidentally fall in love is literally my shit. my problem is that the writer didnt develop jung woos feelings enough. i kept waiting for that exact moment where i could feel "oh fuck hes actually in love with her now."
and i never completely got it. i wanted more from his side. more missing her, more needing her, more moments where ji hye slowly becomes less important without him even realizing it. instead he suddenly gets very serious about young shim pretty late and i was like okay but WHEN DID WE GET HERE. the setup was literally perfect so i wish the romance had been written deeper from his side. and ji hwan... i hated that man im sorry.
he spends years barely looking at his wife while staying emotionally attached to his first love and letting his family treat young shim like their personal maid. then another man looks at her and suddenly hes screaming about how shes a married woman.
fuck off. and him hitting young shim FOUR TIMES was disgusting. i like toxic jealousy in dramas. grab her arm, shove her against a wallr. but beating your wife is not sexy to me and i cant justify that shit because youre jealous.
i also never fully bought that he suddenly became madly in love with her. to me it felt like a man realizing something he thought was guaranteed could actually leave him. young shim was always there until suddenly she wasnt and NOW hes interested.
the drama should have humbled him way more after everything he did to her.
but even with all that i loved watching this.
i barely skipped anything and for me thats already a huge compliment.
this is definitely one of those dramas im gonna remember for a long time. not because the plot is original because its absolutely not. but the acting, directing and the way it understands loneliness made it feel like so much more than its synopsis.
9/10. somehow one of my dramas now and young shim they could never make me hate you.
but somehow this drama felt much heavier and more realistic than the plot makes it sound.
young shim especially shocked me because on paper she literally has almost every fl trait i normally hate. shes naive, loud, embarrassing, way too forgiving, has almost no pride sometimes and lets people walk all over her. normally i would be screaming at my screen after two episodes but i LOVED her.
i think its because the drama actually understands why she is like that.
she got married young and basically never learned how to exist outside of being someones wife, mother and daughter in law. she doesnt even really know what she wants because nobody ever cared enough to ask her. she has been unloved for so long that when another man gives her the smallest amount of attention she suddenly starts discovering that she has wants and desires of her own.
and honestly for a 2004 drama i thought that was pretty fucking brave. the affair isnt just "married woman falls for hot younger guy." its also young shim realizing that she is still a woman outside of her marriage and family. she can want someone. she can be selfish. she can want to be touched and loved and looked at like a woman instead of someone who cooks dinner.
i honestly found the drama weirdly feminist because of that. she just slowly realizes that being a wife and mother is not supposed to erase the fact that she is also a person. even the fact that the drama takes her sexual desire seriously felt brave to me for the time. nobody has looked at this woman like a woman for years and the drama basically lets her say i want something too, even when what she wants is messy and morally wrong.
uhm jung hwa was fucking AMAZING.
i already love her but i genuinely dont think young shim would have worked this well with another actress. she can make her unbelievably funny without turning her into a joke and then suddenly make her look so lonely that you feel horrible for laughing at her two minutes earlier.thats probably one of my favorite things about the drama actually. its genuinely funny but the comedy never eats the melodrama.
sometimes young shim would do something so stupid that i was laughing out loud and then suddenly nobody would say anything. the scene would just sit there for a few seconds too long and you would realize how sad her life actually is. this drama used silence really well sometimes and it caught me off guard more than once.
the love square was also messy as hell which obviously i enjoyed. nobody was innocent and everybody wanted something they probably shouldnt have.
and literally everybody is cheating on everybody in some way which made the whole thing even messier. ji hwan is basically emotionally attached to his first love throughout his marriage. ji hye gets married to another man and still hugs jung woo, kisses him, keeps meeting him and acts like she still owns him emotionally. jung woo knows this woman is married and still keeps getting dragged back into whatever the fuck their relationship is. then young shim obviously falls for jung woo while shes married too. nobody in this drama can just leave a relationship before starting another one apparently.
jung woo isnt innocent and i actually liked that. he uses young shim at first and i have absolutely no problem with that because use her for revenge and then accidentally fall in love is literally my shit. my problem is that the writer didnt develop jung woos feelings enough. i kept waiting for that exact moment where i could feel "oh fuck hes actually in love with her now."
and i never completely got it. i wanted more from his side. more missing her, more needing her, more moments where ji hye slowly becomes less important without him even realizing it. instead he suddenly gets very serious about young shim pretty late and i was like okay but WHEN DID WE GET HERE. the setup was literally perfect so i wish the romance had been written deeper from his side. and ji hwan... i hated that man im sorry.
he spends years barely looking at his wife while staying emotionally attached to his first love and letting his family treat young shim like their personal maid. then another man looks at her and suddenly hes screaming about how shes a married woman.
fuck off. and him hitting young shim FOUR TIMES was disgusting. i like toxic jealousy in dramas. grab her arm, shove her against a wallr. but beating your wife is not sexy to me and i cant justify that shit because youre jealous.
i also never fully bought that he suddenly became madly in love with her. to me it felt like a man realizing something he thought was guaranteed could actually leave him. young shim was always there until suddenly she wasnt and NOW hes interested.
the drama should have humbled him way more after everything he did to her.
but even with all that i loved watching this.
i barely skipped anything and for me thats already a huge compliment.
this is definitely one of those dramas im gonna remember for a long time. not because the plot is original because its absolutely not. but the acting, directing and the way it understands loneliness made it feel like so much more than its synopsis.
9/10. somehow one of my dramas now and young shim they could never make me hate you.
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