This drama really feels split into two sections; the first two thirds that deal with a blossoming love between the two leads and the final third that is primarily focused on the Gwangju Uprising and its impact on the characters. This jarring difference works to the show's benefit in my opinion, since it highlights how terrible the uprising was by juxtaposing it against everyday life and love.

This was my first time watching either of the two leads and they both really impressed me. Lee Do Hyun was so likeable as Hwang Hee Tae. He also did a wonderful job at portraying a character who is pretending he is okay in order to reassure others around him. His work here made me super excited to watch him in other dramas. Go Min Si was equally as impressive, taking a character in Kim Myung Hee that could have been a stereotype (the poor, nice, hardworking female lead) and gave her nuance in a quiet yet powerful performance. Their chemistry was wonderful and this has to be one of the purest and "protect and them at all costs" couples I've seen recently.

The supporting cast all did a really great job with their characters and kudos to the writers for giving all these characters quite a bit of development over the 12 episodes. Props to the actor playing Hwang Hee Tae's dad because I hated that character so much. The child actors were stand outs too, playing characters far too young to be dealing with the horrors they did.

The overall setting and atmosphere was perfect. Nostalgic and simple. The use of music from the time period was absolutely perfect in some cases and added a lot of emotion to the scenes. The Rose and Annie's Song stand out in this regard.

Watching the episodes that dealt with the Gwangju Uprising was particularly difficult; just imagining that this really happened in the not so distant past and that people have to live with those memories to this day is absolutely horrible. KBS didn't shy away from showing the horrors and really pushed that 15 rating as far as I've seen in terms of violence and disturbing imagery.

My only problem with this drama was the end. Not necessarily what the end was but how the writers got to said end point. It felt like the writers knew what the ending had to be and had the characters make dumb decisions to get them there. The "let's split up" scene felt like writers forcing characters apart instead of a decision that two intelligent characters would have made. I was still moved and emotional at the end of the drama but there was a nagging feeling in my brain that it didn't have to be this way; if the writer's had a better path to get to the end point this could have been avoided.

The first two thirds are very rewatchable, however the final third not so much since it was hard to watch even for a first time.
All in all this beautiful drama is one I won't soon forget. The way it combined a heartfelt love story with terrible real life events was pretty close to perfection for me.