| This is a super-intense drama-comedy series, with a remarkable performance by the always beautifully high-strung Jeong Da-bin at the center of it, leading a wonderful group of actors who know how to keep up with her. The writers packed in an incredible number of K-drama dramatic goodies. There are the big themes of family; crime and punishment; guilt, atonement, and forgiveness; conflicting loyalties; wealth versus poverty; good versus evil; fate and coincidence; envy and friendship; and, of course, the undying pursuits of love, happiness and revenge. All the K-drama situations are there: amnesia, traumatic childhoods, cruel separations, fatal illnesses, lovers from conflicting families. It’s packed with the standard characters, like the poor but smart, energetic, and charming girl who goes from one unbearable situation to the other; the fascinating, but loveless cold-blooded beautiful girl who’ll do anything to fulfill her ambitions; the gorgeous, but emotionally-abusive wealthy young man; the overbearing wealthy socially-obsessed mother; and there are hopeless lovers all over the place, hetero- and homosexual. And, naturally, there are slaps and punches all-around to add to the emotional touch. It’s so intense and unpredictable that while all the dramatic collisions are driving the characters crazy, they’re driving you crazy, too. What makes it even wilder is that all of these intense interactions take place among less than a dozen people who over a twenty-year period keep running into each other no matter how much they try to separate. The characters see their lives as an inexplicable fate, a crazy-making puzzle for which they don’t have all the pieces, and the pieces they have keep changing.
A distraught debt-ridden, greedy woman, abandons a 4-year-old child on a train, only to have her show up 15 years later as the love object of both her sons; forces her out of their lives because she’s poor; only to have her show up again four years later, finally discovering piece by piece that she’s not only the abandoned child, but also the daughter of her most important business partner, who, by the way, is slowly overcoming the amnesia that keeps him from remembering the key past characters and events. It might sound like your basic K-drama filled with coincidences, but the intensity and quality of the performances coupled with the brilliance of the writing makes it unforgettable and deeply human.
There are also beautiful shots of Seoul, especially the Han River at night.
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