Incredibly Well-Done Drama

One of the things that is so interesting about this show is the way they play with male/female dynamics, especially in Korean culture. Mun Young is a very dominant and aggressive (often abrasive) personality, while Gang Tae is very nurturing and supportive. Mun Young pursues Gang-tae very openly and directly. She has no problem talking about her sexual desire for him, or asking him questions about his sexual history. While all of this could be chalked up to her personality disorder, Gang Tae later willingly plays into light-hearted teasing about their dynamic. They make jokes about him being the “wife,” as in Mun Young needing to ask Gang Tae’s brother for his hand in marriage, or Gang Tae being teased for acting like a daughter stealing food from his mother-figure to feed his “husband.” Furthermore, Ju Ri as the love rival represents the more traditional sweet and kind feminine image who patiently waits for Gang Tae to notice her, but Gang Tae never shows even a bit of interest in her. I do like the symmetry of him having to do SOME pursuing of Mun Young towards the end, though.

The dynamics between Gang Tae, Sang Tae, and Mun Young are absolutely everything. Sang Tae is a gem and I adored him so, so much. The underlying mystery drama for the series was very compelling, and had some shocking twists and turns. The supporting cast of characters grew on me — I loathed Ju Ri for a while, but she improved greatly as the series went on. They were all positively heartwarming by the latter episodes. Oh, and the soundtrack was incredible! Janet Sunh’s In Silence was probably my favorite, but I also liked Cheeze’s Little by Little and Lee Suhyun’s In Your Time.

Everyone’s acting was so good, Moon Gang Tae, Moon Sang Tae, and Park Haeng Ja in particular. But I have a special spot in my heart for Seo Yea Ji as Ko Mun Young. Her performance was phenomenal and she is soooo pretty. She looks like a doll. Her outfits and makeup in the show were impeccable. I’m obsessed with her; she may be one of my favorite Korean actresses right now. Her chemistry with Kim Soo Hyun was fantastic (their kissing scenes were top tier). I also quite liked Kim Soo Hyun; he was very cute and sweet (most of the time) and did an incredible job.

Slight con: the representations of disorders were empathetic but not totally accurate or consistent, in some cases. I feel like this especially for ASPD, which started out accurate in the beginning, but later seemed to substantially waver in its depiction as the story developed. I almost wondered if she was really diagnosed with ASPD at one point, or whether they were trying to chalk it up to trauma or how she was raised. I also feel like the representation of autism, while also very empathetic in its portrayal, was a little two-dimensional. This is the third Netflix kdrama I’ve seen with an autistic character, and the representations are all so similar, it starting to feel like it’s now a typecast characterization instead of a true representation of the spectrum that autism can take. To be fair, this was the earliest of the three I’m thinking of (the other two being Extraordinary Attorney Woo and Crash Course in Romance). That being said, I think the fact that the conversation is started and the good intentions are there means that overall they did a pretty good attempt. Also, these are common issues in Western shows as well, even though they portray these issues more often. It may not be something that someone would notice unless they either had background in psychology or lived personally with these disorders.

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