I will be honest, I was going into this with a lot of skeptical as always because you know I don’t like to fall for the hype train, but to be honest it really was a great drama. Now was it perfect? No way. But it was a drama that really made me feel a wide range of emotions while watching it that is for sure. There were a lot of heart touching moments in the drama that had me either on the verge of tears or completely sobbing over my keyboard. There were also moments that had me laughing very loudly so it evened itself out a lot of the time. I felt as the drama could have ended at episode 12 and it would have been a pretty fantastic drama. After that, there were moments in this drama where I was very confused and wondering why things were happening. Now there was a scene where someone got shot then and died and got brought back to life in the hospital then just casually strolled out after being shot several times that really confused me. Now there are some things in this drama that are unrealistic of course and we just brush those off, but that was pretty much where I was like Okay well that’s some bullshit haha.
I watched this drama on Viki and had the comments on for the first time in many many drama viewings and I remembered why I did not watch with comments on any longer. I think these were some of the most ignorant and down right childish comments I had seen in a drama. A lot of name calling and basically people bitching about our main female, which I happened to enjoy. I think it was a lot of teenage girls who had an intense crush on Song Joong Ki and didn’t understand the female characters choices, and I assumed many of them have never been in a real relationship to understand the choices someone has to make that may change their lives, so for that I would warn anyone who has never seen this drama to watch it on another site or without the comments on.
The acting in this drama was great, from the four leads to the small characters, the Korean cast of this drama were off the charts. Now I am not here to judge the foreign (non-Korean) actors and actresses in this drama because I know that even though they may be speaking English in their scenes that may not mean they are native English speakers, and many Non-Korean actors (non-Asian) have really weak lines and don’t seem to be well-trained actors and actresses in the first place, along with that I wouldn’t even begin to critique our Koreans for speaking English or another language along with them so to keep it fair I would only ever talk about our Korean or Asian actors Song Joong Ki has been a love of mine for many years and when he left to go to the military I was heart broken, and it is lovely to see him back in the drama scene once again. He definitely did not let down either, the boy is back and man his acting has upgraded some as well. I don’t know where they have acting lessons in the military or the fact that it has made him more of man (though he has always been rather manly to me) I am proud of him in this drama. He sweeps you away with his charm and when he takes charge and when he is cute and funny it is even more endearing. I have not seen Song Hye Kyo since That Winter The Wind Blows which is one of my favorite dramas, and she didn’t disappoint me here either. I thought she did a fantastic job of portraying a woman who is confused and has a lot of things she has to consider when going into a relationship with a man such as Yoo Shi Jin.
Now I know many people did not like her character but I found her realistic and had so much depth and I think she is the type of woman more dramas should portray. A hardworking female who has to consider her options and not just jump head first into a relationship that may cause her emotional harm, unlike many dramas where the female just jumps in head first. Jin Goo was also very good in this drama and his relationship with Kim Ji Won may have even out-shined our leading male and female. Both these actors did a fantastic job in portraying their characters and their story was very heartwarming and breaking. The rest of the cast from the soldiers to the nurses and doctors were all well put and we got to see so many side stories that one may think it would have taken away from the main focus of the show, but without them, there were would be so much less to this drama. Each character had a role that really felt needed for the drama. They all portrayed emotions and their characters to a T and I loved this cast so much, even our bad guy was great.
The music and cinematography for this drama were outstanding. So many good angles and transitions throughout this drama that really need to be praised. I found myself even more fixated due to that. The songs in this drama were also very good, they would get stuck in your head and you had to sing along. The songs brought more emotions to the drama as well, and I was happy to hear some great music in dramas after such a long hiatus from dramas.
Overall I thought that this drama was pretty freaking great, that I can see why it had so much hype for it. Now it was perfect, at all, but it was something that kept you on an emotional roller coaster ride to where you were emotionally attached to all of its characters and wanted the best for them and their lives and family and friends. For those who are in doubt about watching, the probably 3 of you out there by now, I would say hey give it a shot, its worth it.
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