So, a professor and his young TA goes to a remote area (TA's home province) and stumbles upon a fairy cafe and meets, yeah, a fairy, very much in flesh and blood, who's waiting for her human husband's reincarnation for 699 years. The story is pretty playful and have a very quirky and sometimes childlike sense of humour. A triad of fairies in tacky clothes only exist for constant gag reels. At first, I was a bit annoyed, but Geon Han is really good, and they are kind of ridiculously funny sometimes. But as I said, Shin Seon is my fave and I won't lie - out of annoyance I did skip a few scenes of the other two. The heart of the story though initially comes off as a romance triangle, and believe me when I say, without any of the bitterness you'd associate with the genre. I was surprised that some viewers didn't like the pairing, because the show pretty much one sidedly kept hinting at who this mystery husband could be. Now, about the three central characters - it's surprisingly refreshing to see someone so young (and gawd so sweet!) put into this mix with such a firm footing. Moon Chae Won has to be at least 10 years older than Seo Ji Hoon (and he was probably 21 when he filmed this drama) and oddly it never felt particularly problematic considering how she first appeared as a granny. What I loved is how Kim Geum is so boyish and cute and doesn't act like a grown up to counter the maturity of the other characters. He looks young and acts young. It works because despite her 699 years of age, fairy Ok Nam is also a bit childish and liberatingly frank. I had to laugh at the absolute cuteness when she started crying 'kingkongi!?' at the movie theatre and Kim Geum just joined her in the sobbing?. He also looked mighty cute with that flower in his hair. It was fun to see something so different work so smoothly. His professor has the angst and also a sweet brotherly bond with him, but I was never convinced of something special between him and the fairy, the plot was adamant about that part. Then this romance triangle sneakily transformed into a much mysterious story of lost memories and past lives. This drama didn't skimp on the same-sex nods and one of these is crucial to the plot. The ending is surprisingly deeper than the rest of the story, the tension they built for the first half was efficiently used to reveal something deep about the human nature, the desire for revenge and redemption and salvation from resentment. Izy of Mizar was really elegant and captured the pain of a multifaceted and 'faced?' character with heart (I think MDL doesn't have her in the actors list. Odd?). The ending on a whole wasn't bad but Professor Jung received more of a rounded ending than say, Geom. All through the story, in all his forms he has been incredibly good and still suffered greatly. In the end he and the fairy needed to have their alone moment where they finally get to have each other forever.
PS: #Spoon worm Jeom Dol was so cute with those little beady eyes!?
#One of my best comedic moments is how the fairy receives Jeom Dol's egg with a sticky note like 100 years ago from now and I was like 'wth was that?' and then they actually tied this plot up! With a little time-loop! Which made me want to know. from where those towels landed out of nowhere for Kim Geom to take that bath in the fairy falls. But they never said?
#One plot hole: I still don't understand how Izy burned that village. Did she go into the past? Exactly what happened there?
#I'm not a fan of the final scene, but I guess I already said that.
So, all in all, I was surprised that I liked this drama, more so in case of the romance. The drama is too goofy, and the CGI is so bad I have to conclude that it was somehow intentional. Because of this playfulness I was annoyed at times but conversely also laughed quiet a lot (especially later). There is this scene where Ok Nam suddenly starts dancing with the Nigerian exchange coffee fairy (yeah he exists-_-) and that's the spirit of this drama. All the serious moments are often broken by silly comedic tones and despite the silliness the seriousness doesn't falter. I liked that about the drama. So, even though my average score should be 7, I awarded it an extra .5 for the unexpected pleasures.
(Also, I think I watched 2 end credit scenes; I wonder if all the episodes have one?).