To start with the strong points of this drama the cast is as stellar as it gets. Also there is the visually perfect lead couple of Kim Ji Won and Kim Soo Hyun. The camera focuses on their faces and perfect hair and skin a lot. Sometimes it's like an extended photo shoot for them. Kim Ji Won looks stunningly beautiful. Her face has always been very pretty but here she is shown at her most glamorous. Her hair and skin and makeup and wardrobe are perfect.
The story was weak. It was an impossible task for the writer to live up to Crash Landing with the scope and grandeur of CLOY. I didn't expect it to be as good given the subject matter but even then this story was disappointingly thin and weak and not well structured. Terminal illness and memory loss are so overdone in the K drama universe. There wasn't enough story and there were repetitive scenes and predictable plot lines. The villains mother and son were not that well written and were one dimensional. Although it is great veteran actress Lee Mi Sook got a big role as the evil mistress. There are greedy mistresses out there and she did a great job. Park Sung Hoon the villain from the Glory is good at acting evil but his love for her seemed so unconvincing. The colonel's wife and rat from CLOY are a watchable and amusing secondary romance. There are some funny parts when he hides his divorce intentions in the beginning and later contrasting the conglomerate family and the village family. Kwak Dong Yeon brings some comic relief. This great cast couldn't save the weak material. The ending felt like a whimper and the shootout was so cliched. In the shoulder like CLOY?
As for the locations, it is great they filmed overseas again. But Berlin and Sans Souci aren't the most magical places they could have chosen. Rather grim compared to this writer's previous overseas locales. I get she wanted to get treatment in Germany but couldn't they have picked a prettier place?
It's sad this series wasn't better after such a long wait. I was actually bored quite often. I have seen way better makjang and family dramas. Maybe the episodes were too long.
The story was weak. It was an impossible task for the writer to live up to Crash Landing with the scope and grandeur of CLOY. I didn't expect it to be as good given the subject matter but even then this story was disappointingly thin and weak and not well structured. Terminal illness and memory loss are so overdone in the K drama universe. There wasn't enough story and there were repetitive scenes and predictable plot lines. The villains mother and son were not that well written and were one dimensional. Although it is great veteran actress Lee Mi Sook got a big role as the evil mistress. There are greedy mistresses out there and she did a great job. Park Sung Hoon the villain from the Glory is good at acting evil but his love for her seemed so unconvincing. The colonel's wife and rat from CLOY are a watchable and amusing secondary romance. There are some funny parts when he hides his divorce intentions in the beginning and later contrasting the conglomerate family and the village family. Kwak Dong Yeon brings some comic relief. This great cast couldn't save the weak material. The ending felt like a whimper and the shootout was so cliched. In the shoulder like CLOY?
As for the locations, it is great they filmed overseas again. But Berlin and Sans Souci aren't the most magical places they could have chosen. Rather grim compared to this writer's previous overseas locales. I get she wanted to get treatment in Germany but couldn't they have picked a prettier place?
It's sad this series wasn't better after such a long wait. I was actually bored quite often. I have seen way better makjang and family dramas. Maybe the episodes were too long.