lilly.eddie2019

This series was OK. The acting was good. The story was just like the Korean version, the only difference was the series was shorter (only 8 episides) and the episodes were short (average length was about 30 mins). This made it feel like key points and the overall flow of the story was rushed. Aspects of them understanding their feelings for each other were rushed along, and the angst with them trying to come to terms with their emotions felt forced and the male lead just didn't seem sincere throughout the whole series. Whether it was towards his best friend, or the female lead, his treatment of both of them should have not brought about the outcome that it did. Because the episodes were short. Their hook up, break up and eventual relationship felt just weird. The ex boyfriend of the female lead was just a fleeting part in this version, which made it so that her initial response to his piece of art and his way of explaining himself was just weak. The only good thing that was different from the Korean version is that she got to destroy that vile piece of work. Here you actually got to see some emotion from her. Some of her pent up anger. The humiliation and rage that she must have felt seeing herself depicted in that way was very well played out in that one destructive scene. After that she went back to this innocent girl. The strong, emotional woman was not there. I never felt she was grown up enough to understand relationships, nevermind an adult one. As for the male lead. His lothario, playboy persona seemed to be down-played in this version. His relationship with his female best friend was never ambiguous like in the Korean version. Just always made her a priority over the female lead, and you never got to unpack why he had such a close relationship with her in the first place. Was it through genuine affection. Was it just because of longstanding loyalty (they had known each other since children) or was it guilt. He knew she was ill, he also knew she had deeper feelings for him than he had for her, but because she had some sort of terminal illness he still kept her in his life. If the episodes and series was longer this relationship, and the one with his mother too could have been addressed in much more detail. Maybe we could have understood why he was drawn so much to what seemed in this version the innocent female lead. The deep passion and love you felt from both the male and female lead was not there for me in this version. Yes I felt there was chemistry between them, but because we could not see the friendship/relationship between them grow, it just felt rushed along to the final outcome, their eventual realisation that they could not be apart from each other. I couldn't understand why. They hardly spent anytime together. They hooked up one time, and the next it felt like the distance was there again. Even the second male lead's story was just lame. He liked her from afar, but never persued her. You never really understood why she was friends with him. You just saw that she went to his restaurant regularly, but their interactions were never really that indepth enough for me to be convinced that she would even entertain going out on a date with him, nevermind contemplate a relationship with him.
Overall this story could have been just as good as the Korean version, if only they gave the story a chance to grow. The episodes and series needed to be longer. Give the characters chance to fully develop into their roles and understand the complex emotions that thay were trying to unravel and deal with. I just felt we never truly got to understand why both of them struggled with their feelings, and why they were attracted to each other in the first place. The male lead was attractive, but the female lead did not seem outstanding enough to even warrant the male lead to even look at her. She was pretty, but not striking enough to make her standout in the crowd and make this whole love story come to life. Would I rewatch this series. Probably not. It was an ok version, but the passion and tension between the two leads was not there, and the story felt rushed. There have been better stories about complex adult relationships, and the chemistry in those series were much better. Yes there was some chemistry between these two leads, but not enough to carry this story to the ending we received.