Mature, realistic romance and character arcs within a compelling slice of life setting

Mellow, mature romance with true character arcs and growth built up in the middle of very realistic feeling characters and settings. I will definitely be rewatching parts again.

Jung Ryeo Won is always amazing and brings a touch of realism to anything she takes on, but Wi Ha Joon was delightful as well in his slightly out of the ordinary role turn and they had really nice chemistry together. People looking for a focus on romance will be disappointed, which I assume is the reason for the lower rating and some of the complaints I've seen, but the story was about their lives and the Hagwon activities/ work politics with the romance as part of it, and it worked great for me. The director likes repeating his supporting cast across shows and I'm not complaining because they're all very talented and it's fun to see them play alternate nice and petty across his shows. The secondary cast all got lovely interiority, which is not always the case for dramas.

The character dynamics, including extremely well written out secondary characters, and artistic shot decisions were lovely and triumphed over the overused soundtrack, which was mostly very annoying and the director needs to get over his obsession with irritating english songs played every climactic moment. However, by the end I could ignore it as the story overcame it. I was sad to see it end.

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Delightful cast creates a wonderful viewing experience

Kim Hye Soo is stunning on screen, both visually and as an actress and I loved every bit of her turn as the driven Jung Geum Ja who has a somewhat selective but still very strong ethical morality about things and a unique way of accomplishing them. Yoon Hee Jae is the character you'd generally mark as the dashing and suave occasionally amoral male lead but who instead turns out to be a softer and a lot more fun interactive partner for Jung Geum Ja's complex and intense personality and isn't just a generic rich jerk with deeply hidden heart of gold you have to tolerate for 90% of the show, but is instead trying to find his own footing in life and with the woman he loves. I loved that there were multiple female characters interacting with each other, all with their own personalities so no one female character had to be the sole Strong one and it wasn't just a sausage fest. The plot was interesting but was more of a vehicle for the characters and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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Beautiful movie with strong writing and great acting

Loved everything about this movie. I looked it up because I was so impressed by Extraordinary Attorney Woo and this was the only other thing the writer had written, and I was not disappointed. They are not similar stories and this is not a younger Woo Young Woo, but the writer has a deft, sensitive and thorough hand with how she writes her characters and the plots they're in, and this movie is a lovely piece of work.

Ji Woo is her very own character and there is something lovely about how she is not a foil to any other character around her, she's a whole person with her very own personality and beliefs and strength and she isn't there to just provide character growth for the male lead. Kim Hyang Gi was great, as was Jung Woo Sung, whose partly jaded but mostly trying to find his path Soon Ho grew in the most mature way. I liked the cleverness of the plot, the nuanced touches of reality between the mains and all the secondary characters. Also, it's always a pleasure to see Jang Young Nam and Lee Kyu Hyung, they never disappoint.

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Could have been great

I was hooked for the first few episodes. The premise was great, the acting was good and the mystery was smartly pulled together. I was still all in till about the 10th or 11th episode but the drama cliches made me finally drop it. Jiwon is meant to be a smart, capable, physically fit police officer, why does she need to be rescued so much when the plot suddenly needs her to be less capable? Hee Soo is a grown woman who clearly loves her brother and feels guilty about what he took on in her place, why was everyone babying her to keep quiet about it instead of clearing up the huge misunderstanding that implicated Hyun Soo? Hyun Soo seems to have a very dark streak in him as well from the beginning, but instead of it being a more complex arc of having the darkness but still getting a different future, he was just everyone's victim. I was really disappointed.

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