Sigh. Yeah.
So, yes, it does have funny moments but DAMN there's a lot of crying in this one. Let me start at the beginning (I'm roughly half way through right now).
Actually, I'm gonna use the plot summary from AsianWiki as it's actually pretty accurate this time:
Oh Hae-Young (Seo Hyun-Jin) is dumped by Han Tae-Jin (Lee Jae-Yoon) on the day before their wedding. She is unable to tell the truth about what happened and lies to others about what happened. She works as an assistant manager for a company's restaurant division. She pretends that nothing happened.
Meanwhile, Park Do-Kyung (Eric) is a popular sound engineer. One year ago, he was supposed to marry Oh Hae-Young (Jeon Hye-Bin), but she did not appear at their wedding. He became desperate. Later, he hears from his friend Lee Jin-Sang (Kim Ji-Suk) that Oh Hae-Young is about to marry Han Tae-Jin. Park Do-Kyung gets drunk and places her fiancé in a difficult predicament. Park Do-Kyung is unaware that the fiancé is about to marry another woman named Oh Hae-Young. The fiancé is soon imprisoned and right before his imprisonment he lies to Oh Hae-Young. He tells her that he does not love her anymore, but he also vows to take revenge on Park Do-Kyung. For his part, Park Do-Kyung soon has visions of a woman he has never met. He soon realizes the woman is another Oh Hae-Young.
Seo Hyun-Jin I know from The Beauty Inside and I liked her in that. So that was another plus. I've never seen Eric (aka Moon Jung-Hyuk) in anything, but he's in a few on my list. Bonus that he's only slightly younger than me. Man, these dramas make me feel so freaking old sometimes.
Anyway, the thing that the synopsis doesn't mention is that there's a huge whole history with the "pretty" Oh Hae Young having gone to high school with the "ordinary" / "another" Oh Hae Young (which is how Park Do-Kyung got confused to begin with). And that ordinary Hae Young's life was made absolutely miserable by the association and has a pretty understandable complex about it -- everything from being beaten by jealous girls who thought she was the other "pretty" Hae Young to having rocks thrown through her window by disappointed boys to constantly being belittled and bullied. And "pretty" Hae Young smiles through it all.
Honestly, even though "pretty" Hae Young has her own tragic backstory and an almost reasonable reason for ditching Do-Kyung at the altar (his mom is a serious bitch...but still, she should have actually TALKED to him, not just disappeared with no explanation on the day), I have no sympathy for her. She's trash. She knew all those years ago what was happening to "ordinary" Hae Young and never did anything about it. And now that she's run into her again, she's just as bad, if not worse. She's the ultimate selfish person. Well, along with Do-Kyung's mom.
Anyway, after Hae Young is dumped and miserable, Do-Kyung begins having visions of her that causes him to place great weight (plus the guilt he's already feeling once he figures out he ruined the wrong woman's wedding) on their incidental encounters. They keep getting thrown together, including some accidental co-habitation. And, despite himself, he's falling for her. How much of that is guilt? I don't know. It's hard to say.
As for Hae Young, she falls for him pretty fast. He helps her recover from her break up -- a very harsh break up where Tae-Jin (played by Lee Jae-Yoon, the charming older brother in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo) literally told her he doesn't love her enough to marry her and can't stand to see her eat...because he's trying to protect her from the fallout of him being arrested. You do have to feel sorry for him, though you have to also think he's a total IDIOT for the method he used. He should have just been honest. He actually gets acquitted pretty quickly and very much regrets what he did. Basically, none of this would have happened if he'd been honest. She'd have waited for him.
If I had to guess at why she's so quick to love again after being dumped at the altar...it's probably two-fold. One, Tae-Jin is ridiculous pretty and she's always had her complex. I get the feeling she probably never thought she was good enough for him and then, when he broke it off that way, it was confirmed (to her). So she probably always loved him with part of her held in reserve. And two, at that point in the story, she's getting grief from everyone (especially her parents, who kick her out, thinking it will be for her own good) and Do-Kyung is the only one listening to her (out of guilt mostly, but she doesn't know that).
I don't know that the mystical future visions plot thread was absolutely necessary. I can see why they did it. It gives every one of their meetings more weight to him when he might have ignored her otherwise or kept his distance. And, at this point in the story, he and his doctor think it's because he's going to get into a car accident and die in the near future. And I suppose it adds some structure. But. I dunno. Not convinced it couldn't have just been a more straightforward "comedy" of errors. Maybe it's because I hate the whole "noble idiot" thing and he's got that whole "I should not really explain and let her go because I'm going to die anyway). I imagine they're going to solve the car wreck thing by having him actually get hit, but then survive. At which point he'll be like "Doh!" Though, if I were him, I'd throw away the outfit that he "sees" himself get hit in. I mean, dude, seriously. Fate is a crap roll.
At 18 episodes, it's a little too long, especially as the episodes are mostly slightly over an hour. I see that it was extended from the original 16 episodes to two more. WHY?? I'm currently at episode 12. And...I don't see how they're going to draw it out to that without a lot of extra stuff the story doesn't need. I'm going to finish it though.
It's not the light, fluffy romantic romp that I was hoping for, but I'm overall enjoying it. It does help that Ye Ji-Won (who played Jennifer in Still 17) plays Do-Kyung's absolutely ridiculous sister. She's so over the top that I love her. And there's also Kim Ji-Suk (most recently the baby daddy from When the Camellia Blooms) as a womanising best friend that's bound to wind up with the sister...even if they are the odd couple.
And Hae-Young's parents are surprisingly a joy after a rocky start. It's Kim Mi-Kyung as her mother (I swear I've seen her a bunch of times in this role) and Lee Han-Wi as her dad. He might be my current fav dad character. Though mom seriously needs to cut out the physical violence. I mean, geez.
So, will edit this when I finish it. The acting is good. I really do enjoy Seo Hyun-Jin's acting in particular. I'm pretty sure it will all end happy, though I think Tae-Jin deserves a happy ending too...honestly, I know Oh Hae-Young is going to end up with Do-Kyung because it's that kind of story, but they've just had the big reveal and now everyone knows everything (other than the fact that Do-Kyung is having visions) and...why does she go with the guy she's known so briefly and who has lied to her all along and was the cause of one of the most mortifying situations EVER and also has, up until the last two days in the timeline, been totally running both hot and very COLD to her compared...to someone she was with for years and was going to marry?
Yeah, I know, Kdrama logic. Not real world logic.
Edit: After episode 15. Ha. Yeah. Ok, I'll lead with that overall I do really like this one. But I swear, I don't think there's a single episode where someone doesn't cry. These people just CAN'T BE HAPPY for more than a hot minute.
And maybe it's that I've been trained by the fact that 16 episodes is the norm, but I really just want it to wrap up already. There's been some nice moments (and they're finally moving on with the sister side story) but they really didn't need to tack on the extra two episodes and prolong the agony.
Dunno what I'm gonna watch next but I am for damn sure going to make sure it doesn't have this level of will-he-won't-he-love-me-hate-me angst. We're in a freaking pandemic. Give me something happy.
Final Edit: Okay, I finished it yesterday. Overall, I did like it. They did some really predictable stuff in the end (like, he did wind up getting hit by a car, but didn't die). Glad they didn't make Tae-jin totally evil, though he could have wound up there. Dude's got some anger issues. Kinda understandable ones, but he likes solving his problems with his fists more than he should. Or with his car.
I think the one thing that really bugs me is that they shoehorned this one bit in that made no sense. Like, he "sees" that this particular singer dies on the same day he's supposed to be hit by the car and die. And on the day it was supposed to happen, that singer dude tries to commit suicide, but the psychiatrist saves him and Do-Kyung also doesn't die. Oh joy. But then, on the day when he does get hit by the car, the singer again has an almost brush with death, and they both live again. Why in the world did they tie these unrelated things together? Twice? The singer dude is older...what's gonna happen when some day he dies of old age or whatever? Do-Kyung's gonna have another car accident? It just seemed like a nonsensical thing to hook the two events together. And it wasn't necessary. They could have stuck with it being the cherry blossoms falling through the air or something.
But, anyway. I did really like the lead actors. She's always pretty good and not afraid to be over the top. And I appreciated Kim Ji-Suk and Ye Ji-Won in this and glad they got as much screen time as they did.
So, am I glad I watched it? Yeah. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to people? Sure, yeah, I would.
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