started out great but...

I've waited a while to write this review because I wanted to think about it thoroughly before I gave my opinion.
I personally felt like this drama started out extremely well and had the perfect formula for a tragic story. However, it felt like the director changed his mind halfway through and wanted to make this drama a happy ending.
Let me explain. The male lead comes from a broken family. He is extremely affected by his parents' divorce and their arguments leading up to it so he believes that love should just be kept far away because at the end "there are no happy endings" (a direct quote from the drama). He likes to exclude himself from the world around him because he thinks that if he gets attached to someone, it will only lead to pain. The female lead on the other hand is somewhat of a pushover and falls in love with the male lead because he cares for her. In fact he hates that she's a pushover and wants her to be confident and happy on her own. Basically they are two very different people with very different outlooks on life. When the male lead decides to move to America, she confesses her love to him only for him to reject her because he just sees her as a friend. This leads her to have commitment issues and later in life dates multiple guys just to get over him but she never truly loves any of the other guys she's met.

The rest of the drama is a very kdrama style story with a love triangle and of course the second lead is extremely nice and rich and wants to be with her while she is in love with the male lead. For the first time, I did not have a second lead syndrome. I just really liked the male lead.

There were many scenes in the drama where it seemed like the pessimistic dialogues that the male lead was saying were somehow a foreshadowing. The male lead mentions that he doesn't believe in happy endings and there was a dramatic closeup scene and I wish that was a foreshadowing. IT JUST MAKES SENSE YOU KNOW? Either I was overanalyzing these scenes or interpreted them wrong but the story did not go the tragic route which I was very disappointed by. I love happy endings but for this drama... I just wanted it to be different.

The leads were brought together by many coincidences and until the very end of the drama they weren't officially together. I wish the story took the route where the leads would not end up together because 1. they are very toxic for each other and 2. they have very different definitions of love. So they could've played with the idea of letting a person go because you love them but aren't the right person for them. I feel like that would make more sense with the way the scenes were set up in the initial episodes.
The side characters were fun and overall I like the cast. However, half way through the show became a very formulaic kdrama with a happy ending.

serendipity by ha sungwoon was an amazing ost and my wannable heart was happy. Talented actors and a story that had potential were kind of wasted :/

Read More

interesting plot and great characters

It has been a couple days since I've finished watching the show and I have to say that it was a very interesting plot idea.
This was my first jdrama so the style of the drama is very different from what I usually watch.
The acting is overdramatized for comedy purposes which was a bit weird to watch but overall I really enjoyed the plot of the drama and every character shined in certain scenes.

At the end of the drama there is no one who you hate. Even the villain had reasons for what he did. It almost seems like the hero of the show is indeed the villain at the end. The main character's redemption arc was satisfying to watch. I also liked how everything tied back to their history and somehow everything had meaning. I particularly loved the ending scene and I feel like everyone's acting in that scene was incredible.
Ost was also very fitting.

______________________________FOR THOSE WHO WATCHED THE SHOW ALREADY______________________________________
a small spoiler so please don't read the rest if you don't want to be spoiled.
The last scene where Saiko hugs Takauji after what he did to her truly shows that she has no hate for him in her heart and she understands his frustration. The fact that he became that kind of person is lowkey because of her changing his life without him even realizing. The tears in Takauji's eyes show that he didn't intend to do what he did. It almost seemed like for all the time travelling and messing with fate that Otaro did, Takauji was punished instead. Was it really justified for him to go through all that when all he did was throw a toy at the engine because he was mad when he was ten years old? The conversation he had with Hotei really made me sad. Otaro desperately trying to go back in time with Saiko shows how much he has changed. All he cared for in the past was himself and making money for his own happiness. But at the end he says "Saiko this is not the happiness you deserve" and it shows that he is willing to redo everything just so that he can save her and give her happiness. And that he doesn't care about the 10 billion yen anymore.
Also what happened with Kazuma?? he just kinda disappeared at the end? Mikoto did absolutely nothing ngl. Suda's character was definitely quite interesting. It felt like he was representing the viewers in a way because we and him knew everything that was going on.

Read More