INTRO:

Firstly, I have to say that I am not someone who really enjoys romance in general. Rom-coms, especially, are just not up there for me. I tend to enjoy thriller and action dramas/ movies more. Secondly, I am a little bit biased towards sentimental and emotional romances, if i had to pick out of romance as a genre. Thirdly, I have the attention span of a toddler, I lose interest extremely fast, especially if the story is slow paced. All that said, on to the review!


STORY:

I, personally, loved the whole premise of the story. The idea was very interesting and emotionally provocative. Love that transcends time and existence, there's quite a profound beauty to that. As beautiful as the concept sounds, I felt that it wasn't executed as well as it should have been.

To be honest, while I was watching the show as it was airing, I thought that episode 12 was the final episode, until I checked MyDramaList and realised that the drama was actually 14 episodes long. I felt like that was enough proof that the drama was dragged two episodes too much. Had they made the execution more concise, it would have been more memorable and more enjoyable.

Somewhere around the middle, the drama started dragging. There was a bit of repetition and too many flashbacks that gave the same feeling (and didn't necessarily add essence or emotion). I felt that there were missed opportunities for emotional and deep moments. The characters' growth and change wasn't seamless enough. Also, I did identify some loopholes in the plot.

Plus, I really wished that they kept the FL as strong as she was in the beginning. There should have been more occasions for the FL to show her strength, both physically and mentally. After all, she was a firefighter who had seen death and faced tough situations.

Even so, there was something about the drama that kept me wanting to come back and watch. I was made curious about the ending and about the fate of the leads. I've seen many people claim that the last few episodes were the most disappointing to them. But I beg to differ, for me, the last two episodes were my favourite from the whole drama. They were the most memorable and most emotionally provocative to me. Personally, I loved the ending and the depth behind it. The ending was a true testament to transcendental love. The last episode was the most well done in my opinion. You could clearly see how much the leads had improved in their acting, chemistry and roles. Although, I did feel that last scene of the finale was somewhat unnecessary. I would have preferred for it to not have been there and instead shown the characters in their old age so, that the audience could have really felt the time pass and the story come to an end.


ACTING:

I did feel that the leads (Pyo Ye-Jin and Kim Young-Dae) were quite awkward in their acting at the start. KYD in a historical context felt a bit odd to me, as if he wasn't very suited for it. PYJ was great but there were awkward moments but in her modern settings. The kiss scenes were just not giving, especially considering that the drama was supposed to be overflowing with emotion. There was only one decent kiss scene, every other one was lacking passion by heap. PYJ was absolutely gorgeous in her historical attire.

Their acting and assimilation into their roles peaked in the final episode. It felt like they finally got to be their characters. To me, their chemistry during the historical settings felt more natural and convincing.

P.s. I have to say that I am a simple person: I see KYD, I click. I see PYJ, I'm convinced.


OVERALL:

I really did like the drama. It's one I would recommend others give a try. But I can also see why it might not be someone's cup of tea too. At least for the sake of the finale, you should give it a try. As for me, the reason the drama got a such a high rating was simply because of its finale and concept.


Thank you for reading hehe <3