The basic story:
Woo Seo Ri (Shin Hye Sun) was a 17-year-old violin prodigy and is preparing to study abroad in Germany at a prestigious music academy of some sort. Gong Woo Jin (Yang Se Jong) is someone who has been watching her from afar and been curious about her. He finally works up the courage to say something to her on the bus, but then chickens out at the last minute. But that one thing winds up meaning that she's on the bus her (along with a close girl friend of hers) one stop more than she should have been. Tragedy or fate -- the bus is involved in a serious accident and the friend dies in it. Seo Ri winds up in a coma. Woo Jin is traumatized by his role in this, further complicated by the fact that he believes that Seo Ri's name is her friend's name and thinks she is dead. Thirteen years later, he is working as a set designer but is emotionally cut off from everyone around him and actively pushes people away by acting like an ass...and Seo Ri awakes from her coma to a world completely changed and no one she remembers around her.
The first two episodes were fine. They are shorter than the other dramas I've been watching (30 minutes vs. an hour). But I'm now starting up on episode 6 and even though Seo Ri and Woo Jin are now in close proximity, they are reaaalllllllyyyyy dragging out him finding out who she is or even that she was in the bus accident. Like, she got through rehabilitation and everything and then escaped the hospital (and why did the hospital not go to the police?) and has told NO ONE why she's so clueless. It's a little weird. Why wouldn't she tell? Why wouldn't she go back to the hospital because she knows the nurse was holding back information?
Also, I'm feeling really bad for the other dude friend of hers from when she was young who has grown up to be a doctor and was apparently the only one looking out for her all these years while she was in a coma. He's billed as "supporting cast" which means he has no hope of being the love interest. Poor guy.
So...jury out still. The acting is pretty good. The story is interesting but the plot is really moving too slowly. If I hadn't heard from a lot of people that this one is really good, I might have given up by this point. And it has one of the more extreme versions of "plot convenience" I've seen yet -- Woo Jin is actually living in the house that was her house and has her dog. Like, really? Sooooooo convenient. And they keep teasing him almost finding out who she really is but it's gone on long enough now that I'm, like, okay just get on with it already.
Edit: Oh FFS about to start episode 10. At the end of episode 8, they were teasing that he'd FINALLY figure out she's the girl from his past but NO. How long are they going to draw this out??
On the plus side, the guy playing his younger nephew, Yoo Chan, is just adorable. He's starting to crush on Seo Ri, partly because she's still more like a 17 year old than a 30 year old. Too bad he's 11 years her junior. Why did I not know a Chan when I was 17?? And Woo Jin is finally starting to thaw. But, seriously, episode ten???
Also, the housekeeper Jennifer character is one I totally love because she's so bizarre.
Edit, mid episode 10: SERIOUSLY. Seo Ri winds up cleaning an apartment because Jennifer hurt herself doing Tae Kwan Do and it's the apartment of...her doctor friend. But of course they miss each other. Come on! I like the characters but these ridiculous near-misses are getting...well, ridiculous.
Edit Whatever: Okay, I finished the whole thing and gave up on the whole blogging as I went thing. Overall, I did enjoy this one even though the ridiculous coincidences for plot convenience were nearly stupefying. SO many. The whole thing was held together with "isn't that a coinky-dink?" It was egregious...and pretty predictable. The worst ones were:
- that the randomly hired housekeeper (Jennifer, who was really an awesome character)'s husband was the only other fatality in the massive traffic accident and
- that Woo Jin's family just happened to buy Seo Ri's house and adopt her dog that was left behind and
- that the florist they randomly stop at is owned by Seo Ri's missing aunt
That said, the characters were lovely. If I ever watched it again for the good moments, I would probably just start off at somewhere around episode 16 which was around where everything blew up at once (doctor finally finds her; she discovers her best friend is dead; Woo Jin finally figures out the girl he was crushing on was Seo Ri and that he didn't kill her...all in one freaking episode). The chemistry between the two leads was really nice and they were adorable together (though neither of them ARE or LOOK 30).
It was sadly very easily to predict the plot turning points--I knew when he figured out who she was and how she fit into his past that he'd probably go right for guilt and want to run away and that all of that would be resolved by him learning that it really wasn't his fault that she was on the bus for that extra stop (and that she had been crushing on him too--they'd dropped so many little hints for that along the way that it wasn't a surprise). But I liked it despite all of that.
A couple of brilliant scenes too that were both funny and heartwarming -- like when she's thinking he's about to propose to her and she kinda freaks out but if you were paying attention you knew it was going to be a new keychain and not a ring. I enjoyed her freak out and it was nice that they made a point of him saying, no, let's take things on your time, we don't have to rush things. And it was a nice scene when he thinks she's gone off to Germany to study and spends literally the entire day crying at work and at home, not letting anyone talk to him, when all they wanted to tell him was that she decided not to go. He was trying so hard to be supportive. It was nice.
So...yeah...this is one that I had to just let go of my tendency to eye roll at the ridiculous plot and just enjoy the characters. Because they were nice. And I do think it ended well, other than that they didn't even give a nod to the poor old friend/doctor dude. It wasn't his fault he didn't have a chance and never did. But sweet Woo Jin was a total cinnamon bun and so was Chan.
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