While I did like "Our Beloved Summer" to a certain extent back then, I wasn't keen on watching another similar romance drama about ex-lovers reuniting with somewhat been-there-done-that vibes. To add on to my concerns, seeing Choi Woo-shik as the male lead again and what the trailer projected made me deliberate longer than expected before finally hitting the play button. It was only after I finished this drama when I finally found out that both dramas were written by the same scriptwriter.
Potential spoilers ahead, proceed with caution!
With regard to the lead couple's love story, I have to admit that it didn't quite resonate with me. Maybe it's just me but I thought that one big reason for this feeling was the romantic chemistry between Choi and Park Bo-young being a tad weak. It felt more like they were more friends rather than lovers. Coupled with the fact that the story of the lead couple was not as heart-wrenching as compared to the second lead couple, it was difficult to feel emotionally engaged when watching them. I do not know for sure but the notably higher number of sweet moments towards the end and kissing scenes sometimes in the weirdest scenario and timing (on the filming set when people were moving around???) stuck out like a sore thumb to me rather than accentuate the romance vibe between them.
On the contrary, what was more fascinating about them were their individual stories and how they dealt with their own traumas, pain and feelings since childhood, found closure after all these years and sought comfort in each other's presence. In Mu-bi's case, her long unresolved guilt and pain related to her late father as well as the conflicting thoughts in her mind about her career choice were well-conveyed through Park's great acting. As for Gyeom's situation, I really liked Choi's monologues and acting in showing the contrast between Gyeom's cheery facade and his anguish, anxiety and self-doubt hidden deep down. While I was already impressed with Park from her past work "Daily Dose of Sunshine", Choi really surprised me this time with the emotional side of Gyeom which was in stark contrast with his usual cheery and youthful image in variety shows and his roles I had seen thus far.
While I wasn't too keen about the lead couple's love story, what kept me going till the end were the two subplots i.e. the brotherhood of Jun and Gyeom and the second lead couple's love story which were "not-mean-to-be".
Kim Jae-wook was simply superb as Jun who was a very complicated and deep character. Not only did Kim nail the intricate emotions of Jun as a young carer and an elder brother who had given much of his life to care for his younger brother, there was a relatively unknown side to him which was so nice and fun to watch. As the viewers got to discover the other side of Jun, it was so bittersweet because it could have been good if Gyeom got to know all these while Jun was still alive. Imagine the things they could have done and enjoyed more together but it was not meant to be. Ep 7 was the big tearjerker but it was good that the story didn't try to be overly dramatic and splash out on emotional outbursts. Everything seemed to flow naturally as in real life when we may not display our grief openly in times of loss and pain so I think that hit me more than I expected. And grief doesn't pour out at one go and can creep up at unexpected moments more often than we think. In particular, when Gyeom found it hard to go back to an empty home and slept in his car, that was so difficult to watch.
Lee Jun-young and Jeon So-nee had so much chemistry going on between them as the second lead couple who were so much in love but parted ways due to circumstances and changes in their mindsets as they grew up. From students to adults, things had changed between them but it would have been difficult to love with the same intensity and depth without letting the toll of reality weigh them down. The constant tug-of-war between the ex-lovers who still had lingering feelings for each other but found that it was not possible to reconcile despite so - some viewers may not like it that they did not get back together but I could understand why because the story explained it well. While feelings may remain even after people part ways, the intensity and nature of these lingering feelings do not necessarily make it possible for people to get back together. Besides, past trauma, concerns and issues which ended things the first time could still come back to haunt even if both parties had resolved them or talked them through. As such, while it might have been a fairytale ending if Si-jun and Jun-a got back together, I actually liked how things went the other way after they came to terms and healed themselves from the pain of the first break-up to move on.
I did not regret my choice of watching this drama but on hindsight, I thought that the pacing could be improved from Ep 3 onwards. I was quite close to giving this up because I just didn't like the extended focus on the lead couple. In particular, Gyeom's inability to think about anything else whenever Jun had an issue and going off the radar so easily instead of contacting Mu-bi in many ways possible in this digital age frustrated me a lot. Thankfully, as the brotherhood and second lead couple subplots took centrestage in the second half of the story, I was convinced to stay till the end although I would have wanted to see more of Kim Jae-wook. However, it would have been better to make this drama a bit shorter and cut out the fluff to make this more engaging and memorable.
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