The story is your basic K-drama 18-year-old bride story, but the characters are so well-conceived and beautifully acted that it has a remarkable freshness, charm, and energy to it. Han Ji-Hye gives such an intense and complex portrayal of the 18-year-old bride in question that you worry about the drama's effect on her. She can do all the classic sassy high-school-girl moves, but textures it with some serious self-doubt and the almost-desperate need to get a clear sense of the situations that she gets herself into. She has an unshakeable love for "her man," but has to learn how to act in accordance with that love and the social strains that come with that love. She can be both thoughtful and vacant, dull and charming, loud and quiet, innocent and scheming, virginal and lustful, prudish and erotic, naïve and wise, shallow and deep, timid and bold, insecure and self-confident, elegant and crude, loving and indifferent, sincere and manipulative, playful and serious, infantile and mature, determined and hesitant, focused and wayward. What she is depends on the newness and importance of the situation to her; and she's as liable to make the "right" decision as the "wrong" one. Han handles all of this beautifully with energy, a variety of distinctive facial expressions, physical postures and movements, vocal inflections, and wardrobe changes (from hanbok to leopard-skin coat); and does so in a way that all of these many facets come together to portray one beautiful and charming high-maintenance high-school girl intent on finding her way into a new and complex world. Han's performance is beautifully over-acted, while maintaining your interest and concern every step of the way, as in a well-acted first-rate sexual stage comedy.

Lee Dong Gun does a great job as the emotionally-hesitant and confused 28-year-old husband, who proposes one of your basic K-drama situations--a purely formal relationship that will get people off his back. He can seem fierce and confident, and he can seem goofy and uncertain. He can also seem loving and attentive, then appear preoccupied and indifferent. He and Han worked beautifully together, portraying some touching moments and some scary ones. It was great to watch their sense of love develop and strengthen into something natural, unshakeable, and charming.

The supporting cast was also very good, especially The Twins, two of the Five Princesses, whom I've loved since seeing them in "Take Care Of My Cat". I have to confess that one of my main motives for buying the DVD was to see them in action again.

The quality of the scenes was consistently high, and I'm looking forward to watching the drama again. There are some scenes that I especially liked. Among them are: the final scene of the first episode; the scene where Lee, dressed in a hanbok, is mistaken for an extra in an historical film; the final scene with the bad-girl lawyer; and all the scenes that feature one or both of The Twins. My great discovery in the series, however, was Han Ji-hye; and I'm looking forward to seeing her in other things. Next stop? "East Of Eden", where I hear she's amazing.