I have to say I enjoyed watching this show, especially after looking forward to seeing a couple of my favorite actors. I felt there was a lot of good in this, but there were some misses for me as well.
STORY: I'd have to say this is where I found the shortcomings. At times, the story just felt like it got mired down and couldn't (or didn't) move forward. A lot remained unexplained. The writing was often very stilted (maybe it got lost in translation from Korean to English). I know writers often want us to make our own conclusions, but some of the things in this were so vague I wasn't sure what to think! The character of the female lead was problematic for me - she's dying, but you never feel that she quite "gets it". I understand they were going for that positive, spunky heroine that can soften the heart of a man with no heart, but come on! I wasn't able to quite relate to her, because her emotions were always pretty much on the surface. I think that you have to believe that someone recognizes that they are dying before you can empathize with them. The death thing never fully got fleshed out, I didn't think. I like to be able to see why people fall in love with one another. It was rushed in this show. They didn't like each other and then suddenly they are in love. She sometimes seemed like she missed him, but for the most part was her regular bubbly self, which didn't ring true. I also didn't care for the secondary romance at all - it dragged on needlessly and each of them had such problems that I could figure out why any one person would like the other. The ending of the show was quite a big letdown for me. It was very abrupt and there definitely needed to be more. I did enjoy the family relationships.
SYMBOLISM: The deity girl part of the storyline, if you could get past that all the conversations seemed like they were in code and I didn't have my secret decoder ring, was good. I've always liked the concept of destiny and people ending up together despite them trying to take different paths to change their future. The deity seemed like a god that was rooting for this couple. She started out playing with their lives but then kind of became a cheerleader for them. I felt redemption and second chances in her scenes with both main characters.
ACTORS: Seo In Guk as Myeol Mang was excellent. He is an actor that can display so much emotion with just a quirk of his brow. His progression from evil to good was spot on. He had that inhuman coldness down pat, and then when he started to change, it was lovely. Park Bo Young as Tak Dong Kyung - I love her as an actress, but I didn't feel that she was perfect for this role, but that may have mostly been the fault of the writing. She seemed that she spent most of her time speaking with wide eyes, and pursed lips, trying to be cute. And I have to say, I absolutely HATE the way she cries. It always makes me want to laugh because it is so over the top, I thought that when I saw her in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, and it was the same in this show. Dawon as Dong Kyung's brother provided some wonderful comic relief.
COSTUMING/HAIR/MAKEUP: I loved the clothes they wore in this, especially all the long coats. They dressed Seo In Guk very well in all dark colors until the end, when he got to wear some beiges and gray. That man knows how to wear clothes! Everything was tailored beautifully. I also loved what they did with the color of his hair - not black but an interesting, subtle shade of gray/black. There was an effective change in his makeup from the beginning to the end that spoke to him becoming human. Her outfits were really cute and I loved how they paired sneakers with skirts for her in a lot of the scenes. I was bothered by the fact that she was going to die in a few months, but she just kept getting prettier and prettier.
CINEMATOGRAPHY/SCENERY: Very well done. I loved the composition of his house connected to her apartment - his space was large, monochromatic and cold, her area was vibrant and full of a multitude of textures and colors. the symbolism and used of plants/flowers/gardens was very well done. I especially loved when she went into his gray world and her vibrancy brought everything to life.
MUSIC: Beautiful, especially Seo In Guk's song. The music was able to make me feel some emotions that the script wasn't able to convey.
I'm glad I watched this. I do have to say that I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the last half, when it just felt like it ran out of steam.