This was not a groundbreaking series by any means, but it had heart. You just have to get past all the clichés and stereotypes. It’s not easy, because there was a lot of those.

There was the usual cancer, amnesia, and blindness clichés. There was your stereotypical CEO male lead who was trying much too hard to look cool. There was your stereotypical crazy stepfamily with an evil plan so dumb yet no one saw through it. Then there was your stereotypical selfless admirer who went above and beyond what’s humanly reasonable to ensure our heroine’s happiness.

What kept this series grounded was our heroine herself. Choi Ji Woo was so natural that it didn’t feel like she was acting at all, like she was just being herself. It made you wonder if she was just as kind and warm in real life. Her innate goodness was actually shown, not preached, to the viewers. It was easy to see why two men were so crazy about her, and it was not because she’s the female lead.

Kwon Sang Woo was incredible in the sad scenes. He was so immersed in his character that you will feel with him and weep along with him. Shin Huyn Yoon was also good in that he made an unbelievably nice Tae Hwa felt like a real person, and not an idealization. Kim Tae Hee was beautiful, but weirdly cartoonish in her portrayal of the wicked Yuri. The kids who played the young Jung Suh and Song Joo were perfectly cast. They matched the mannerism and feel of their older counterparts, so you have that nice continuity and emotional connection from the very start of the story.

The pacing was slow, as was expected of most melodrama. I slogged through it hoping to see a happy ending. That didn’t quite happen, but it was still beautiful and made sense in the overall theme of the story. Many years later it still made me cry.