This very calm and meandering drama has a slightly surreal feel to it.
From the FL character of Ji-eum, who has been reborn early this life and has always been able to remember her past lives (with varying degrees of clarity), to the characters she's reconnected with, it's presented as being all rather mysterious.
Ji-eum is quirky, unique and very focussed. Several scenes made me laugh and I liked Shin Hye-sun's portrayal of someone with an extremely old and life-experienced soul, in its new body (loved her in Mr Queen too).
As she reconnects with the now grown up young boy from her tragically cut short last life, various conspiracies and ominous predictions come to light.
The first few episodes I found captivating, but the pace never picked up and the 2 main mysteries that revolved around her, Seo-ha and some of the other characters, kind of fizzled out as they were brought to their conclusion.
It was a nice watch, but I didn't find it in the least exciting, or exhilarating. I was invested, to find out why she was stuck with so many memories, but disappointed in the fact the conclusion in this life was just so 'meh'. There was one bit in the past that did make me gasp though.
The revisits to her past lives were some of the best bits, I thought.
How the other mystery got solved, was again so flat. It felt like imagining you were climbing to a great height, to find you were only on level 2! ??
It totally lacked any punch at all and yet with the plot it carried, there should have been so much more. I have no idea how they managed to lose the momentum entirely. There was more than enough opportunity, but time was instead given to very wordy scenes where she was basically trying to tell Seo-ha who she was, without actually saying it.
I really liked the character of Seo-ha, whose childhood traumas left him scarred in so many ways. He was gentle, clever and had a vulnerability about him, but was not pitiful.
It is a very romantic drama, however, in the nicest way and that, I thought, they got right. The relationships from the past and present, that bind the characters together, I loved. That was the drama's saving grace.
I also liked that Ji-eum's past lives were both male and female, from different continents; they weren't all the same actress in varying guises, which is not what reincarnation is about at all. I would have seen that as a lazy cop out in production.
Overall an OK watch, but it did miss the mark and fell short of what it could have been. The cast did not disappoint, however and the soundtrack was excellent (especially loved ABH's contribution, Colde's 'Star' and Jo Yuri's 'Down'/Juicy Juicy).