The premise is laced with Asian sensibilities about fate and destiny. The period is beautifully captured. The drama is full of twists and turns. The characters are developed through two time lines, and by and large, the younger and older versions of the characters tracked well. However, despite the talents of Han Ga-In, in the role of the older version of the character Heo Yeoh-woo, the very talented Kim You-jung (sometimes translated as Kim Yoo-jung) was hard to replace. The sweetness, charm and intelligence, that were the hallmark of the younger character, just weren’t there in the later version. (You-jung was 13 when she played Heo Yeoh-woo, in 2012, but I was so captivated by her performance, it set me on a journey to follow her filmography.) In Shakespearean terms, this drama would be considered a Tragedy, a tale of star crossed love, but even to a modern audience, the inevitable twists and turns of the story hold us captive. I give this series an 8 (heart wrenching adventure) out of 10.

I hover between giving 7s or 8s to the episodes of this series. The stars were the young actors and then, when we switch up to their older characters, the storytelling made a marked dip, but picked up again around episode 16. I’m going to give the series a solid 8 (stellar young cast) out of 10. [Fantasy Period Romance]

That was fine but uh, a bit overrated imo.