I am fresh off of finishing this drama and finding it hard to sum up as I feel like my emotions are a bit scattered. It is a happy ending but the type of happy ending that has you crying. You let out that shaky breath and say "FINALLY". This drama is a master at inducing conflicting feelings. You will hate a character and their actions one minute and then find out their reasoning and all of a sudden understand them. Also, when some characters return it's this combined "HES BACK!!" accompanied by "wait that means...nooo".

This drama really keeps you on the edge of your seat and debating right vs wrong and does the end justify the means? I can understand why characters did what they did but whether I could fully forgive them is another story. I still am all over the place, but I will say I think ALL characters got the justice they deserved. BJ got what he deserved from HC and SG despite knowing he did what he did for the right reasons. Obviously, the evil lady and her daughter got their justice too. I really enjoyed how the show tied everything up in the end.

Anyway, my technical review:


Acting

I thought both leads did a great job along with the side characters. I found myself rooting for so many of them and even the bad characters played their roles so well. A lot of the side characters will still your heart in this show and luckily there are many good ones that you will like. This isn't a show with mainly bad people, I would say for the most part the good outweighs the bad. Xu Kai really surprised me in this drama, it's the third I've watched of his and I feel like you can really start to see his growth as an actor. He was masterful over subtle expressions and holding a lot of emotions in his face without saying or doing much. I think his acting improved throughout the drama too. The beginning is kind of the typical stone cold male lead but as the show goes on, I felt like his acting and expression were great as the character opened up and also his character... became a "new" one.

Story/Plot

Overall, this is one of my favorite storylines. This story takes you through two main time periods where you experience the leads in two different settings based on events that happened in the past that slowly unfold as the show goes on in the second half. When they first fast forward in time it is confusing a bit for an episode or two, but you start to put everything together pretty fast.

However, it took me a few months to get into this show. I would watch an episode or two and drop for a bit. Not because it was awful, but it didn't suck me in right from the beginning. I think the first few episodes move kind of slow and it is the typical cold and unemotional male lead who teaches the naive and silly girl at the start which is a bit cliche. BUT the female lead gains strength and wisdom relatively quickly so this isn't quite as bad as AOL in terms of that plot device. This show didn't drag too much though, there is always something happening that I found interesting and isn't too much filler which is nice to see. There also wasn't really in plot holes that I could remember either.

OST

One of my favorites. By the end one song is so associated with sadness though you just want to start crying when you hear it play. Hauntingly beautiful songs though I wish there was a bit more diversity.

Main Complaint(s)

I wish we had gotten to see the leads happier together longer in the beginning and at the end, even in the middle. This is a definitely a story of two people struggling to be together in every life/time period. Their happiness lasts only minutes which is a bit frustrating even though it's what also makes the story so heartbreakingly good. But I also felt like in the beginning and middle I wasn't as invested in their story as I could have been because I didn't have enough time (this is me personally) to fall in love with their love. It honestly wasn't until the end, and everything came to light that I really was moved by their relationship and all they went through. But about the ending...

The ending is happy but also... kind of abrupt after all the emotional trauma we went through. I wish we had seen them as a happy family, even just for a few minutes (not necessarily a whole episode or anything). I kind of feel like we were robbed of what could have been an even better reunion. I also don't like how the child is... kind of just cast off at the end by his mother and left on his own and also not seen in the reunion. I wish too we could have seen them say they forgive one another and actually hear Bai Jue explain himself and how much he wishes he didn't have to do that. Obviously we know the reasons but again the ending ..kind of surprised me? I thought we would get a bit more of a reunion. I wanted to see him and Hong Ri reunited too. It's a small complaint and the ending still had me crying and feeling a lot of things but I do think it could have been done a bit better.