Quite possibly my favourite drama ever. Not being hyperbolic - it’s seriously excellent - and bring tissues. Make space and time for this drama it isn’t easily binged as it’s a bit heavy for that but it will totally reward you for that time.

Spoiler free summary - my words can’t really do justice to this drama it’s that good. You just need to watch it - persevere through the initial bleakness - and you will be rewarded by wonderful drama on the heart in humanity, what it is to live, the power of making a connection, community and the kindness of strangers.

The cast are amazing, most especially the main leads - I’ve seen and loved both IU (Hotel del Luna) and Lee Sun Gyun (Coffee Prince) but they are both on another level here. The direction is deft and the writing assured and subtly brilliant. The characters are so wonderfully rounded and authentic, it’s practically trope free for a KDrama and the OST is just top notch.

Please just watch this - it’s a total masterpiece.

Longer spoiler filled review.

Things I liked:
IU as Lee Ji An. I loved her layered performance. She managed to be so dead in her eyes when we first meet her and we know she’s telling us the truth when she says she can’t wait to die. But she’s also scrappy and strong and in those moments she gets a real fire. In later episodes when she cries, when she tells the selection board what it’s meant to have been noticed and treated well by Dong Hun, when she says sorry 10 times, when she thinks Park Dong Hun is mad at her for wiretapping, she shows such emotional vulnerability and her journey from making herself invisible to growing to love and care for Dong Hun is beautiful.

Lee Sun Gyun - he is such a fantastic actor - this role gives you the whole gamut of his range. He basically was Dong Hun. He inhabited that man of deep emotions and not very many words. His voice, so deep and sonorous was like another character in this drama. I absolutely loved the last part when she picked it out in a cafe and was drawn to it. But even his breathing and his footsteps were marked in this. I love how Ji An said they moved her when she heard them.

Them together - I loved their undefined relationship. I loved how they conveyed how special they found each other’s company, how they could be authentically themselves with each other but so subtly. We see how he’s only really able to be himself in her company rather than the guy who doesn’t answer questions of his wife, Mum and brothers. They know each other and they recognise they know each other. It’s the kind of relationship that I know exists, but so rarely gets portrayed. As someone who spiritually believes in a reincarnated life I think these two have deep relationships in the past and in this life they were brought together to heal each other. I loved that she was so frank with her emotions but despite it, it didn’t need to then turn into a mawkish unrequited love or romance, as it wouldn’t fit right.

The brothers - I don’t have a lot of experience of brother only relationships but to me this was such an authentic trio. I loved how different they were, how fiercely they loved each other, faults and all - and most of all like their mum said - when a bad thing happened to 1 of them they were all depressed. They bought some much needed levity to the drama and again these actors just inhabited their respective characters.

The villain - firstly I just love Kim Yeong-Min as an actor - and he made this wholly unlovable character so believable. Rat-like and such a jerk, but a bit menacing with it, we know what Yoon-Hee means when she says she is embarrassed she fell for him. I like that we didn’t need flashbacks to see what kind of person he was at college and how he came to be CEO.

Gi Hun & Yu Ra - they really grew on me and in my own continuation of this drama they get back together again (though they will probably split up and get back together..) I love how they made Yu Ra, this seemingly ditsy character have a lot more depth and some of her lines were some of the most profound in the entire drama. I loved the scene where he broke down and explained why he’d been so awful to her in their movie. Amazing. (I didn’t like this actress Kwon Nara in Suspicious Partners so am glad I’ve seen this performance from her)

Special shout outs to Dong Hun’s Mum - the ever brilliant Go Doo Shim - to an evil but vulnerable Jang Ki Young (giving us glimpses of the man he could have been without the abusive dad) and to Ji An’s grandmother, who made me cry so badly in so many scenes.

Things I didn’t like - nothing. Really nothing. Everything was just pitch perfect.

In fact for me, the writers got everything right in this drama including the bittersweet ending. The only thing I was missing was an explainer on Ji An’s relationship to Ki Bum - I assume he was her childhood friend in the one flashback they had with all 3 of them after one of the times she’d been beaten up. But it s a tiny minor quibble.

And the OST. This is amazing. It’s on repeat. Even if it does make me want to curl up in a morbid ball and sob. Thanks Viki translators as ever but especially for the lyrics of the songs which went so well with the drama.