Welcome to Ongsan, a downtrodden, middle-of-nowhere town that's famous for it's marinated crabs. No city lights, high skylines and freakily advanced technology. Life is simple here, everyone knows everybody. This all changes when a single mother from the city suddenly moves in and opens a bar.

If you picked up Camellia in hopes of catching a cute romance, you're going to be disappointed. Or if you saw the thriller tag and thought this would satiate your mystery cravings, I would suggest watching something else. Because what Camellia primarily is, is not a romance or a mystery, it is about family.

This is a drama that attempts to tackle big, scary questions, and in the beginning, I too doubted its capability to successfully pull it off. But as I kept watching, I realised my worries were for naught, because this drama doesn't just obnoxiously plunge in and propagate its one-size-fits-all answer, it takes its time (20 entire hours!) and leaves us not with answers, but with faith. Faith in our humanity and confidence in our ability to be kind to each other. This is a story of grieving, sacrificing, healing, but most importantly, of love.

“Miracles don’t exist. It’s just the little heroes inside us working together. It’s small acts of kindness done by kind people.”

The love between two people, love for your child, love for your parents, love for your friends, love for your neighbours and love for yourself, all are explored in great depth to the point where even mundane moments in this drama fill you up with warmth.

Dongbaek amazed me until the end. I don't think I've ever seen a female lead so obliterating, so stunning. To go through incredible hardship and still remain kind and self-less, she easily takes the trophy for best FL of the year. Her vulnerability as a character is what made her strong, but even she wasn't without fault, which is where Yong Sik comes in. He gently builds up whatever Dongbaek was lacking, all the time smiling with that cute smile of his (I know y'all are whipped for Kang Ha Neul too, don't deny it). He made her believe in herself, trust in her strength and taught her to look for sunshine even in the rain. Gahhh I love him mom I want a Yong Sik toooooo

Speaking of moms, the way this drama depicted mothers and maternal love is so accurate and complex. A lot of our main characters are mothers, and the drama took full advantage of that fact to deeply explore themes of sacrifice, selfishness and protectiveness when it comes to parents and their kids.

That being the case, Camellia also remains one of the best mysteries I watched till date. The writer made sure to tie all loose ends, and the twists that came as the plot progressed were truly ingenious. A lot of dramas try to balance these contrasting genres of rom-com and crime, but not many do well. However, I'm proud to say that the transitions between romance and comedy and thriller were executed very well without any awkwardness. The sentimental scenes between Dongbaek and her mom were as touching as the scenes with the Tsundere Neighbourhood Ahjummas^TM.

So even if you thought this was going to be a cute rom-com (it still is!) and it hasn't exactly matched your expectations, all I can say is- keep going, because what you will find on the other side is a gem of a drama worth treasuring for a lifetime.