Gwaenchanhah, Sarangiya

The story of a love affair between a Psychiatrist and a successful writer. Both parties have mental health issues due to events in their past. Can their love overcome these issues as well as the serious family problems both have. The Psychiatrist is played by Hyo-Jin Kong who is superb in her role and the male lead In-Sung Jo is also convincing. The story mainly centres around the hospital and tries to highlight how ostracised a person can be because of their illness. A physical injury is visible and easily understood unlike mental illness which people tend to shun as it is not so easy to interpret. An enjoyable series with interesting side characters.

This is not a typical korean melodrama. I went into this expecting a fluffy romantic comedy, and there was much, much more to this than I expected. There are themes (I won't spoil them for you) that add quite the depth to the romance and the comedy. Stil, when it wants to be fun and light-hearted, it is, while never feeling sugarcoated. And it also never falls into the expected melodrama of most korean drama. In the last few episodes, I was quite impressed by how powerful some scenes were (scenes I did not expect at first, and then dreaded later on because I fear consistently melodrama). Yet, this show is able to pull out the wealth of emotions from a scene without ever feeling cheesy, cliché or meek.

From beginning to end, this show is on point. It has its own identity and it is worth watching. Especially for the wonderful acting of every single character on this show. Every single actor plays incredibly well, and mostly, every character is deeply interesting. I tried to do this review while shying away from anything that could spoil it for you, but, unless you are looking for a thriller-adventure TV show at the moment, I don't see how you could not love this. This is a korean classic and do not look over this one only because it has only a few people who rated this. It will become known over here soon enough, I'm sure.

I generally dislike older k-dramas, but I heard good things about this show and decided to give it a shot. What a pleasant surprise!

This show has more mature themes and plot lines than almost any k drama I have ever seen, but for the most part these were handled maturely. I was particularly taken aback by how good the acting was in this - both the ML and FL were outstanding. I found the FL to be quite irritating for about the first half of the show - spoiled, temperamental, and unfair to the ML most of the time. What was really refreshing was how the ML handled the FL, I absolutely loved his "give as good as he got" attitude. He was mature but also fair in their interactions.

I also thought all the mental illnesses were handled very well! There was a lot of professionalism and realistic portrayals, so I was very impressed with that. A lot of shows (including Hollywood shows in particular) tend to portray mental illness, especially schizophrenia, as an illness that manifests as aggressive and dangerous. I really liked how they showed how most of the time these illnesses are not dangerous to other people, if anyone its to the patients themselves.

Overall this was a really enjoyable watch, I am so glad I gave it a shot!

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This kdrama was pretty interesting. It had a more adult content especially with the topic involved. Mental health are the main part of the story. Most of the characters had issues they had to deal with. It was interesting to see them deal with what they have. The bond that the four main character developed was enjoyable to watch. Jae-yeol and Hae-soo's relationship was adorable and had a more adult perspective. They had to face many challenges and it was entertaining to see how things would unfold. I had issues with some scenes because it seemed like to lack coherency.

Not since queen of the classroom (Japanese version),has a drama made me think the way this one has. When it started off first, i thought i might just give it a 5/10, then it veered between 6 and 7, for a long time, then 8. But I still wonder why i didn't want to rate it higher. It's one of the best written dramas I've seen. The two leads are excellent and for the most part are backed up a wonderful cast. Being specific, the punk girl isn't really in the same league. It seems to be going in one direction, then goes in another unexpected one. Well at least for me, who hadn't read much about it before. I don't know how anybody who deals with mental health issues would rate this, but i thought it portrayed them honestly. It brought home to me the fact, that anyone can suffer from mental health problems, and just because you look okay, doesn't always mean you are okay. PS. Reminded in the "currently watching forum" about the soundrack. The poster said he liked it. So did i. Update. I see it won a plaque of appreciation at the Korean Society for Schizophrenia Research. Second update. Lee Sung-Kyung (the punk girl) is actually 24. Maybe her acting deserves a bit more credit, than i was giving her..