Timeless, wonderful and super romantic. A noona show combined with a reverse cinderella premise both of which end up subsumed into a bona fide story of true love. Lots of poetry and photography. Great actors, really romantic ballads on the soundtrack, absolutely beautiful outdoor scenes in Havana and on the NE Korean coast. A great watch for valentines' day or any anniversary. Park Bo Gum and Song Hye Ko give very precise emotional performances full of joy. When they weep you weep.

Fine production, all 10star. I have too many favourite scenes: first kiss, several proposals in various forms, many accidental meetings, even the exchange of couple rings is special. Natural acting sweetens and smoothes out some of the more arcane standard parts of a drama. The two hotels run by the semi-chaebol FL are high-end but not threatening or gloomy and the actual chaebols are operatically scary until they arent. 2ML syndrome for me on Jang Seung Jo, hapless romantic victim bad boy. Really outstanding supporting actors. Really, really outstanding.

Cannot forget to mention the opening/episode title/ending credits -- very pretty, they provide a left-field dream narrative which is useful to the more visually oriented.

first posted on viki sept 4th 2024