This show is the very definition of slow burn romance, with lots of deep, restrained emotion and sacrificial love. I actually dropped it a couple times during the first 4 episodes, because the backstory (though vital to the plot), was understated to the point of being frustrating. However, if you hang in there, things do pick up after that.
I can't say there was much about the story or its execution that seemed particularly original to me, but that's ok. Sometimes you'd rather have a cheeseburger than gourmet food, right? So while you can expect many of the usual tropes (i.e. love polygons & rivals, playboy male + average girl, overbearing matriarch, etc), the film at least had a good cast who made those tropes (mostly) believable.
IMO, the most notable thing about this film was actually its soundtrack and background music, which featured an incredibly diverse array of era-appropriate songs in English, Korean and French (heck, I even heard some John Denver in there!) Oh, and shout out to the writers for featuring a girl using power tools (definitely not a common archetype)!
Fair warning: the current subtitles on Netflix are rather poor, with segments of conversation where the wording is confusing, misleading, out of context or fails to tie together the larger meaning/subtext of what is being said.
ROMANCE RATING: 8/10 The romance is relatively typical and formulaic, and there were only 1-2 really invested kiss scenes (plus a few other PDA moments). However, the main leads had good chemistry and you really felt their desperation...which might be why I thought some of the later hug scenes felt less realistic than if they had featured kisses instead.
In short, if you like classic K-drama and manga-type premises, I'd say give this show a try. It might resonate with you. (Circumstantially) Recommended.
