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I was invested in the kidnapping mystery and I liked the reveal around it — the way it played out was kind of anticlimactic but the reveal was good. I kind of wish there was even more built up and that the plot was carried better, as I wasn’t too fond of the ghost-of-the-week style and was craving a loot more of this plotlinne.
Other aspects of the drama like the romance fell flat for me. I’m just not a fan of the cold CEO / ditzy poor female pairing and this drama kind of took it to another level. Also, maybe I’m just DUMB but the dialogue between the main leads whenever they talked about their relationship was so weird all the time and always went way over my head.
The last few episodes really felt like they were dragged out longer than they had to be, especially with the addition of a new character and a supposed obstacle to the romance.
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A heart-wrenching romance that feels like home
And this is why an us-against-the-world couple dynamic is my ABSOLUTE favorite and it’s absolutely criminal that there aren't more of them in dramas.The relationship between the leads was the highlight of this show, from the chemistry to the way they went from not getting along to being each other’s safe space was such a beautiful journey. There’s that one big thing that splits them apart obviously, but other than that it was SOO refreshing and beautiful to see such great communication and comfort in their relationship, even at their lowest points, and the main relationship conflict being how self-sacrificial the ML’s love for the FL is is so much more interesting than miscommunications that dramas usually go for, and again it’s so refreshing that the FL is smart, capable, and extremely aware of what’s going on.
In terms of the overall plot with the audit company and all the fighting, it’s dramatic but I actually really enjoyed it and how much tension it inserted into the plot. I liked how intense the stakes were — amplified by the amazing OST — although I admit I didn’t always fully understand what was going on with the audit and sometimes it wasn’t really clear what the plan was.
The biggest complaint I probably have (and I think it’s a common one) is episode 11, where the separation happens. Even though the gaps are filled in later with flashbacks, the way the actual episode was edited felt really off and I was thinking we’d get a few more episodes before the time skip happened. Once the drama settles back into the present timeline though, it becomes really solid again.
I also really liked the side characters; they had their roles to play and their stories to tell, it was sweet and added to the show, and they never overstayed their welcome.
Overall, LOVED this show and the experience of watching it. I have some criticisms when I'm thinking objectively, but this really hit the spot. I need more ships like them.
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I’ve seen this film before
I think there’s definitely an audience for this out there — if you are a fan of fantasy mixed into real life and adult romance (think Goblin, Legend of the Blue Sea, My Love From the Star, those classics) I think you’d really enjoy this.For me, it was just okay. I think I prefer my romance a little more down-to-earth and conversational; a lot of the more flashy scenes where they were saving each other didn’t really have a strong emotional impact on me and felt borrowed from the aforementioned classics, while the more domestic scenes where they were talking to each other or working together were stronger but not enough for these characters to set themselves apart from other dramas.
Additionally, and this is absolutely personal preference, I think I’m just not the biggest fan of linking saeguk and modern plots with the past lives and reincarnation premise. It’s been done to death (See Goblin, and most recently A Good Day To Be A Dog and The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract) and I just can’t find it in myself to care that much about their past story, since that’s all it is: past. Our non-immortal main characters have lived different experiences. I understand how it adds a level of angst to the leads (as if destiny works against them) as well as upping the stakes (from basic company politics, for example, to actual death) but it always just feels like a tangent.
With all that being said, this was just okay. I didn’t care that much for the modern plot about the company, but also didn’t really find the backstory to be all that memorable. The main characters are likable enough; Dohee is strong, and Guwon is a convincing demon that balances between being heartless and hilarious, but overall they’re both kind of cookie cutter characters.
This ended up being sort of “I started it so I might as well finish it” kind of show for me.
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To be very honest, the first few episodes were really hard to get through. I felt like the pacing was slow, and I wanted something emotionally harrowing and scary right off the bat. It felt like the drama went for something more light-hearted, and some humor.
But as I kept watching, it became hard to stop. All the characters grew on me, even the side characters, and it was amazing how three-dimensional they all were. Everyone had their own stories and no one felt like a plot device.
I'm also surprised that the drama how handled cliches not in a cliche way. They went for the "these two people were connected in the past SOMEHOW and them meeting over and over again is fate," but it didn't annoy me as much as these types of things usually do.
I'm honestly super torn about the ending. It's not your typical happy ending, and I normally hate time skips, but within historical and cultural context of North and South Korea today, I honestly couldn't imagine the drama ending any other way.
Overall, I honestly am kind of sad that I don't seem to be as into this as everyone else is — and that I didn't shed any tears over it, but I still find myself appreciating the writing and the love story a lot. It's the kind of story that really needs the setting and all its contexts to break your heart, and for me it's the kind of story you think about when it's 4 am and you can't sleep.
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Warm
A very warm show about dealing with grief. The short runtime is kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it really made the most of its time — the pacing was steady and we wasted no time. On the other hand, I'm not sure I could fully connect to the characters; they felt more like archetypes or representations of their themes. But this was still a pretty sweet watch.Was this review helpful to you?
Fizzles out but stays cute
I’m kind of surprised by the glowing reviews on this one, because as cute as the main couple is (and not only are they cute, they’ve got an AMAZING kiss scene)…I really think this is one of those dramas that starts out strong but ends up fizzling out.The first episode is extremely strong; the heart-wrenching tragedy of the male lead’s death gives our female lead a purpose in her time travel journey, and the added layer of her being able to walk after being in a wheelchair for so many years adds is also great. There’s commentary about disability and inaccessibility, which I really appreciated. I also really loved how we saw Im Sol getting back the will to live.
The next few episodes were still promising; it was the right balance of funny and heart-wrenching, and I was also pleasantly surprised that the FL already went back to a changed future.
The first thing I didn’t really like was the mystery element. The recent trend of inserting a random serial killer into a rom-com drama is something I really do not enjoy, and this was no different; it felt like a lot of the profound commentary we got at the start about living with a disability or depression and suicide became reduced to “actually there was a villain, so our ML was never depressed, and our FL shouldn’t have been disabled anyways.”
As the drama went on it felt like the story focused more on the mystery, with the second lead randomly popping in to fulfill his police officer role, while our main couple also got more repetitive: Im Sol was always sad because she had seen a sad future, while Sun Jae was in a perpetual state of ignorance, or even amnesia. The actual state of the future switched around, sure, but their core characters were always the same.
Ultimately, I think this was still a very cute watch; there are funny, chaotic scenes and the male lead is one heck of a green flag. I just wish it kept all the substance and momentum it had at the start.
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This review may contain spoilers
Frustrating
This one already got off to a rough start for me, and as it went on it only got worse.I actually quite enjoyed the past timeline. The way the main romance started was a little too easy and full of coincidences for me, but I actually appreciated the conflict in their relationship being about money, and I thought both of them had valid perspectives. The FL did not want to become dependent on someone else, and the ML wanted to take care of someone he cared about. I thought both of them had very good points and it's actually a really realistic conflict for a new relationship when two people are from different financial backgrounds.
But it feels like we just never move on. The characters double down on, and we rehash the same issues over and over again. The leads just take turns doing noble idiocy. The love rivals are all irritating. The leads make up, but it's clear the issue is not actually addressed, especially once we get to after the time jump. The FL is still so tight-lipped and non-communicative, we just get episodes of her getting close to the ML but then rejecting his advances. And the ML is still so stubborn and pushy about rekindling their relationship despite her constant rejections. What the show advertises as his perseverance just looks to me like disrespecting boundaries.
I think the show just tries too hard to convince us the leads should be together, instead of writing actual character development to show so. Each episode is full of lines about how they are fated because they had the same survey response, or because they had the same childhood toy, or because they met again. But the way the characters actually act just tells me the opposite — that they should not be together.
I did not care for the second couple either. The teacher-student trope is already something that I find deeply uncomfortable, and it's weirder because the drama doesn't address their power dynamic at all. Her thing is playing hard-to-get and he gives us nothing.
The third couple, surprisingly, was my favorite. They had very little screentime but they were cute and that was all I needed.
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Great acting and characters
The acting of each character is fantastic, which is so necessary when we have such layered and deep characters. I really liked the "whodunnit" style of drama where each character took their turn being a little specific before we delved into their actual stories.Ultimately though, I feel like this just didn't really hook me? While I highly enjoyed the unique ways in which our main characters responded to conflicts and clues, I felt like the case itself wasn't all that interesting, and on a note of more personal taste, I think I just prefer stories that are faster paced.
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Vibes but no plot
This review is coming at you from a non-novel reader, just FYI. But it's another one of these beloved dramas that I ended up just not quite clicking with.The concept is fantastic. I love a good time travel / isekai type story à la Scarlet Heart Ryeo or Romance of Tiger and Rose. The acting is sometimes good and sometimes a little awkward.
I feel like my main issue with this drama is that so much of it feels unearned and aimless.
There's a sort of "mystery" subplot surrounding a conspiracy reveal that appears for maybe three episodes, and it's all played out so fast from the moment it's first mentioned to the final reveal. We never really follow the story; we just know it's happening in the background, and then the big reveal happens and the story just ends.
The romance, which is the biggest part of the story, gives me much of the same feeling. I am absolutely a hater of insta-love and "destined love," and here it really does show my biggest problem with it. I'm just not understanding why or when they fell in love with each other, and we're given these romantic moments when I feel like they should still be getting to know each other better. It's weird because the potential is definitely there — the massage scene, for example, is A+ — but it would've been even better if it felt earned.
It also feels aimless in the sense of Jom's time travelling not being explained. It's explored at the start when he's so frazzled and trying to figure out what's happening, but he gradually just starts living a normal life. His situation is only addressed when he's forcibly confronted with it, and it leaves a lot of questions by the end. I constantly wished the drama went deeper into this aspect and upped the stakes. I think this is where the conspiracy subplot could've been used, because it could've given Jom a goal, and a "oh, THIS is why I came back" moment.
Ultimately, the ending also feels quite rushed. I know there's a sequel though, so maybe it'll help. Nevertheless, I think the vibes are still there, and I know the novel probably explains more, but from a drama-only perspective, that's what I felt.
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What could have been
The teasing male lead, the hilarious bickering, the girl pining over someone else while the male lead pines over her before she realizes who's been there for her all along...all this combine to form one of my favorite types of romance, so this drama starts with a winning formula...but it never actually uses it to its full potential.While I enjoyed seeing the female lead deal with unrequited love, it should not have SO. DAMN. LONG. She's deep in it for 25 episodes and it lingers for a few episodes after that, and we're hit with scene after scene of the female lead never taking the male lead seriously. Meanwhile, the second male lead (Cheng Lang) pines for another girl, and those two are given wayyy too much screentime. I never cared about them and they kept getting slow motion scenes.
We sort of have the opposite issue with the third couple, Qiu Le Tao and Huang Jun, who also have a really interesting story, but they get together so fast that I found it difficult to care for them. And I even like the ending of her reconnecting with their childhood classmate, but the show tried to give it shock factor and left the reveal till the very end, despite it being pretty obvious. The result of that was no time to develop the actual relationship, and a situation where her supposed best friend Xiao Ju didn't even know she was marrying until the engagement party.
In fact, the last few episodes are just filled with misunderstandings and time jumps, and I feel like the leads really lose their spark. They're supposed to be grown-up, but they're still written like children, and the show opts for "fun bickering" scenes when a more serious conversation was long overdue. The ending, overall, feels rushed and makes no sense, which is sad because the early high school and even college days were still enjoyable to watch despite the flaws.
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A comforting tearjerker
"Comforting tearjerker" might sound like an oxymoron but that's exactly what this is. I loved the relationships we saw in this drama — between family members, between friends, between classmates, etc. and the little hint of romance was so adorable and heart-warming. I loved how subtle the character development is, and the lines are so profound and thought-provoking.There's really not much more to say and I don't really. have any criticisms about this show. The only thing is that I maybe wish it was a little longer as there were some little time jumps that took me by surprise at first and I would've loved to see even more day-to-day scenes. But maybe that's just me being greedy and not getting enough of this entire cast and how beautiful this drama was.
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Short and bittersweet
There are no words to describe how glad I am that they added this extra scene — though this was implied, I had wanted a more fleshed-out ending and even just 5 minutes did that for me. It's really wholesome and bittersweet at the same time, and I love how they were able to incorporate a running theme (birthday wishes!) in it.I hear the movie starts with this scene so maybe we'll get more of this timeline as well; that was probably the only thing I wanted in the original drama and this was kind of a sneak peek into that.
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Adorable Slice-of-life
I always feel like these more realistic slice-of-life stories are so underrated, but they're my favorite. It's just so relatable to watch normal teens and college students go through everyday issues like picking a major or dealing with family pressure.And the main leads are adorable! As someone who loves slow burns and friends-to-lovers, the main leads got together in the perfect amount of time, with so many satisfying jealous moments and awkward tension. The FL is clumsy butDespite the male lead being described as "cold", it's plain as day that he went soft for the FL early — which is just so fun to watch. There's great chemistry and the leads are also pretty straightforwards with each other, so misunderstandings are cleared up pretty quickly and the ML never gives the mildly obsessive second female lead the time of day.
There are some sub-plots they kind of dropped the ball on, but for the most part, there was a good amount of continuity for even the side characters, who each had their own personality.
Ultimately, I'd definitely recommend this as a light-hearted, chill watch and there are definitely scenes I'll come back to. This is a rom-com in its PUREST form.
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Watching this drama and comparing it to her later dramas...you can also really see how much Park Shin Hye has improved over the years. Part of why I disliked the main character so much at the start was because her voice was in constant aegyo and there were weird, unnatural facial expressions that might've been an attempt at humor.
But the plot actually got better, and I really enjoyed the development of the characters. Even the main lead, who started off really mean, turned out to be quite lovable and understandable. I was fully prepared to be suffering through SLS the entire drama but that did not happen.
A lot of the issues were very cliche, especially since cross-dressing identity secret plot comes with a lot of cliches of its own. But the humor made it a lot better, and none of the plot points were dragged out for too long.
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From strangers to...acquaintances
I appreciate a fluffy, drama-free romance show as much as the next person, but I just didn't really feel any spark between the main leads, despite the way they actually meet being quite promising.They are cute at certain moments, but the biggest issue for me is just that they're always so POLITE, and it never got better. Even in the penultimate episode, their conversations felt very robotic ("Would you like some [food]?" "Yes, thank you. Wow, that is spicy!" "Here, have some water.") I know this type of relationship probably does exist and works for some people, but as someone who likes a bit of casualness and banter in their everyday dialogue, their conversations just felt like ones I'd have with a coworker who I'd just met at a networking event. Ultimately it made their relationship feel pretty flat and repetitive; they do something cute, everyone teases them about it, repeat.
The second couple were also cute at times, but ultimately very similar to the first. It seems like there's some light-hearted banter when each character is with their friends, but they completely shut down when they're with each other. It would've been interesting to see this dynamic open up over time, but sadly we barely got any of it and we jumped to them just being together in the ending. I think some of the writing just feels very generic and not quite tailored to the actual character arcs. Zhou Zheng and Geng Xiao Xing are given the iconic line: "If we break up, then we can't even be friends" — but their storyline was never friends-to-lovers anyways and I didn't feel like the "friendship" had become that vital because the progress was very minimal.
Instead, that line should've been reserved for the third couple, which turned out to be my favorite despite having the least screentime of them all; that's Dou Dou and Feng Ya Song, a couple that you could tell really felt comfortable around each other, with a really good "we like each other but can't say anything" dynamic. I wish they'd gotten more scenes paced throughout the show instead of having all of it in one episode near the end.
I'm also just not sure about the mix of themes: dubbing industry and cooking. Part of it is personal preference (I don't care much for cooking or for the dubbing industry), but I think individually it's also just...fine. The cooking doesn't really add any character depth and it feels kind of random the way it flits in and out. The dubbing industry part had some interesting moments; the songs are great and the voice acting is actually really satisfying with all the historical drama scenes, but there's actually no clear through-plot for it. There are events and projects here and there but you don't really get to follow the characters towards a specific goal, and it's definitely not one of those "follow your dreams" dramas because the tone stays pretty monotonous throughout. I think the part I liked least about the dubbing industry plot were all the fangirls fawning over the main boys — I know this is a common drama trope, but it was way too reminiscent of the idolization we saw in old dramas like Meteor Garden that it made me cringe a little. Plus, one can only take so much of the side characters comparing themselves to the male leads and calling themselves "little nobodies."
Overall, I can understand why so many people enjoyed this drama, and I do love how unproblematic it is. It's heart-warming for me too, but was really missing the spark for me, especially as the show went on.
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