m5m

Acting! My god, the performances by the two leads were both masterful. Jung Jun Won, as the sensitive Male Lead was charming, sweet, caring, wise and the more emotional half of the pair. He was so good at bringing the audience's emotions along with him, whether he was happy or sad or whatever. He deserves nominations, flat out, for this performance. But even more impressive for me was the outstanding performance by our legendary rom-com queen, Kong Hoo Jin! This was a role unlike any I personally have seen her in before. First off, she pulled off a very convincing bad-ass, strong-female action lead. She already is tall, and she clearly buffed out for the role, she looked legit as a strong, athletic soldier. So many C&K drama female leads are tiny waifs and you have to squint your eyes to believe them as strong warriors. Nothing about Kong Ho Jin's stunts and action scenes looked fake and contrived. She looked the part. Second she had to show three very different sides of Yoo Bo Na in this drama. On one side was the serious, calm-no-matter-what-the-tempest assassin who was reserved and all-business. On another side was the seriously lonely and depressed, emotionally drained and isolated Yoo Bo Na who felt crushed between the responsibility of helping people with what she was doing and wanting to escape the darkness of what she was doing. And then finally, the third side was the side that gave and received love. The absolute joy and love of Yoo Bo Na as "Yul's Mother" and "Tae Seong's wife" was like a blinding light. The happiness glowing from her smile when bonding with her husband and/or child was blinding. Kong Hoo Jin did such a wonderful job of giving us a complex character with all these aspects woven perfectly together that if she doesn't receive major accolades for this performance that is just a crime.

Oh, yea, the rest of this show was pretty darn good too.