IU and Yeo Jin Goo are some of my favorite stars in the Korean entertainment industry, but I never expected them to end up in drama together. I enjoyed seeing them together on screen. The Hong Sisters have written some of my favorite dramas and I often really enjoy their fantasy dreams, though I must admit that in recently they have not been as strong.

This drama had that bit of a fairy tale vibe about it that I really enjoyed, and I felt lacking in their previous fantasy show. There seems to have been put a lot of effort into it, looks wise at least, which made it really cool to look at. The drama looked stunning. The clothes that IU wore were frenzy, the scene was done, and the special effects were well done.

The story wasn’t terribly original, and you can very easily point out similarities to other dramas like Goblin - another hugely popular drama about a fairy-tale creature that lived for a very long time and falls in love with a human being. Or just other stories about ancient being falling for mortals. There are plenty of those to go around. But I do like this version of the story. Mainly because here that ancient being is female, which is rarely the case.

And that magical being, Jang Man Wol (and of course IU), stole the scene every time she came on the screen. And the fact that she got to be the main star there, in a role most often assigned to a male character in similar stories, was what made this drama sorts of unique to me and was one of the main reasons why I liked it so much.

Yeo Jin Goo, though perhaps a better actor than IU, did not get to shine all that much in this drama. His character was sometimes just there. He was out connection to the human world to us and the ghost characters, but he was also just there to make Manwol open up and find love again - a role most often given to the female character. It got on the nerves of some people (understandably) but I enjoyed the role reversal a whole lot.

Some of these ghosts of the week (as I call them) didn't really do much for the plot, didn't link it too much together and were often just there to act as fillers while we waited for more on Manwol's backstory and gave the characters time to do something as the story chucked along. But Manwol’s story was the focal point of the whole drama. But even if it happens quite slowly, but I didn’t really get that bored. I enjoyed a lot of this extra bits (even if it started to drag the story a lot towards the end) and some of the side characters that the drama gave us.

I was impressed by some of these ghost stories were told and some of the more fantastical storylines, though they became weaker as we went further into the story. The Hong Sisters are usually good at mixing ghosts and some of the more traditional romantic comedy plot, but they also tend to loose their hold on that as the story goes on.

The romance in this one was a bit on the slow-burning side of the spectrum. I expected a whole lot more from it at the start of the drama. There was never any great spark between IU and Yeo Jin Goo. That chemistry where you felt they were right about kissing every time they were together. I was a lot softer than that and the romance a lot quieter than I expected, but you really got the sense that they really cared about each other.

The story, or the romance, was never too tense. It was more just sweet. But I really enjoyed that. The intensity was more in Manwol’s backstory, so while some might find the modern version of the show a bit boring and lacking compared to that, I felt like it created a bit of a balance between the two stories. And that part being more somber and mellow made the backstory stand out more. However, it also made the story kind of just fade out towards the end instead of going out with a bang. It was nice, but maybe not super rememberable.

It was a mellow little noona-romance and I liked it. There was more chemistry and drama in the other storyline, but this one had that fairytale vibe. Unlike other stories, like Goblin, it was never creepy that one person was immortal and the other was not. And I think the role change helped. And I enjoyed that.

The story wasn't big enough for these sixteen episodes. It was rather simple. But what the drama may have lacked in story, it sorts of made up with style and a kickass female lead, which I was kind of okay with.

After all, this was Manwol's drama, where her character and her backstory were the strongest point of the drama. Her backstory could have been its own drama. And IU is so charming in this role. This drama would be lifeless without her and getting to see a female character in such a role is not something I see every day (both in kdrams and other shows). I shall remember this drama for a long time because of Manwol.