Tiring but meaningful
This might be an unpopular opinion, but this drama left me exhausted. I was so tired of the back-and-forth, push-and-pull dynamic between the two leads. Throughout the series, I kept wondering when they would finally get together and when the FL would make up her mind. I personally disliked the FL’s personality. For someone meant to be strong and independent, she was so indecisive about love, making one illogical decision after another, especially when captured by the Qing.At the start, the chemistry between the leads was excellent. I enjoyed it—they were very cute together. But due to all the back-and-forth later on, they completely lost that initial spark.
This was the first time I had to look up whether a show would end happily, because if it didn’t, I would have stopped watching—I wasn’t willing to endure endless separations between the leads.
The series could have easily ended at 16 episodes like usual, but it dragged out too much in the second half with lots of unnecessary scenes. Despite how tedious it became, I still rate it an 8 overall because of Namkoong Min’s astonishing acting, the beautiful cinematography, and a meaningful story that depicted war so realistically. After watching, I was surprised I hadn’t seen any of NKM’s work before—he’s one of the best actors I’ve seen. The FL’s acting, on the other hand, felt lacking next to NKM. At times, it felt forced and unnatural.
The ending featured a lot of timeline jumps, as many people have commented. They could have made it simpler and more organized, but I still understood which timeline was which. Overall, I wouldn’t rewatch the show, but I’m glad I discovered NKM, and I’ll definitely watch his other shows.
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Started well but became a disaster/ Wrong choice of FL
NO SPOILERS!!What throw me off the most in this drama is acting and script.
Acting:
1. FL: I don’t see many comments on her performance here but everyone comments about it on imdb. I think The lead role is too big for the actress to handle. She needs to learn acting and do more supporting roles for another 4,5 years before she can handle a lead role. Her emotion and facial expression stay the same throughout the drama. When she’s sad, happy, angry, love or being loved- SAME EXPRESSION! I almost think that any other female supporting role in the drama can do this role better than her. They are also more visually attractive. Lead roles have a lot of screen time and character development, therefore, the actress needs to be skillful enough to show the development in character and emotion. Won Ji An failed miserably. Another unpopular opinion is that I personally think she looks better when she doesn’t smile. It gives me a very uneasy and unsettling feeling whenever she smiles. Maybe because it’s fake? IDK.
2. ML: Taecyeon is charming and can definitely act but he couldn’t save the drama
3. All supporting roles: I thought they all did a good job. I’ve never seen the 2nd FL and ML before but the 2nd ML can act quite well. The 2nd FL is not too bad either.
Script: Sometimes i thought the script was written by a 5 years old. No logic or explanation whatsoever. All happened because of this cat man said it is what it is. The drama started very well and showed a lot of potential but then due to bad script and bad acting of FL the show became a disaster. Ep 1-9: worth watching. Ep 10 onwards: just skip.
Ending: Oh yes it’s not a happy ending. So if you’re opt for happy ending only this is not for you. I personally think it’s ok. Some dramas/movies have happy ending, some don’t. But this sad ending doesn’t make me feel sad at all cus it was poorly executed and poor acting. I can feel Taecyoen pain but I can’t feel the FL pain.
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This review may contain spoilers
It's not bad but a bit depressing
I watched this show because I'm a big fan of Lee Je Hoon. I was impressed with his performance in Signal and Move to Heaven. For me he's one of the hottest and cutest Korean actors and very talented too. In this drama he also performed very well although this drama is not his usual type.Story wise: The show started well and made you wanted to watch more but as the show goes on, I found it's pretty depressing. I know this is not a common review. I didn't have a good mood watching the show. Although there are some very sweet cheesy scenes, the show focuses too much about their future death. I mean can we just focus and treasure the present? And if you already know that you will die on that specific day at that specific time, why don't you just stay at home? Why did you go out on the road? A lot of things can be avoided if they just communicate with each other. For me that makes the plot weak.
There is one unanswered question for me. How did So Joon and the ajusshi got the ability to travel to the future? How did they get selected but not Song Marin? Maybe I missed something?
The couple: they have some good chemistry there. It's not electrifying but the chemistry wasn't bad.
Characters: I couldn't say that I like Song Ma Rin. I think she sulks too much. Nothing really stands out from her personality. She sulks for days because So Joon keeps secrets from her but what do you expect when you marry the guy after 3 months? She did get better and became more understanding as the show went on but it's still annoying watching her sulk. Also, Shin Min A should practice her crying scenes. You know that she's trying to act when she cries, it's not natural.
Overall, I didn't think that i wasted my time (maybe because i love Lee Je Hoon too much) but I definitely won't rewatch. If you like time travelling this show is for you.
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This review may contain spoilers
The plot is weak
I watched this because it has 2 of my favorite actors- Lee Joon Gi and Seo Yea Ji. I will keep my review short here.Overall, it's not bad. You wouldn't waste your time watching it so you should give it a go. However, I think there are so much room for improvement in the story line. I think 16 episodes are not enough for the story. Similar to other reviews, I think the villain was brought down too easily and this could have been improved if they extend the story a little bit. In addition, I am not a lawyer but I can tell that the evidence to bring down the villain was way too weak. And to be honest, with that type of evidence, the villain could have been brought down since episode 1.
The couple: there is no chemistry between the couple. It's more like a friendship to me.
Acting: I think all actors performed well in this drama.
Warning- Spoiler below-
The most frustrating part for me was how the samchon died. The way he died was like: sorry guys, my character has to die here because I need to move on to another project. That's how stupid his death was.
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This review may contain spoilers
Firstly, for me, it's not thrilling at all. I can predict what is gonna happen in most of the so-called thrilling scenes. They have a good story behind but it can be developed much better. There are still a lot of weak, illogical scenes and the supporting roles have very unclear personalities. Maybe if the drama is longer, they can develop the characters better and link the scenes better. Sometimes things change too quickly and therefore, unconvincing. However, I really like episodes 14 to 19, i think those episodes were well made. I agree with some people here that the ending wasn't very good. I dislike their choices at the end, it was just weak.
For acting, the reason i gave 7/10 is because of the supporting roles. The 2 main characters husband and wife were no doubt really good acting but the 2 supporting actors in the drama (both are the wife's ex-bfs) should really develop their acting skills.
In general, the drama was not bad but I am generally a hard rater so you might like it better than me :)
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