Fiona Rennie

This was cute and had no overly cheesy stuff or unrealistic heightened sexual tension for dramatic reasons, unlike many k dramas. Just two personalities coming together nicely in a realistic way. It's a BL meant to draw you into their relationship rather than to get titillated by it.

This is not your average Korean drama feel good romance. The main leads are both traumatised and fragile, for numerous reasons surrounding their relationships in the past. The whole visual and audio vibe of the series is dark, foreboding and claustrophobic. The soundtrack is intense and overwordly, mirroring the plot. Numerous images have thematic relevance and bring a sense of unease. The acting is amazing with both characters being somewhat likeable once you get past their frosty and damaged exteriors. They bring much needed healing to each other. The mystery of the trunk brings things together at the end, but the true drama surrounds the nature of manipulation, trauma bonding and the importance of a sense of safety in relationships. The plot is a little unbelievable at times and sometimes the character motivations seem inconsistent, but the surreal nature of the show is such that you can gloss over these without much problem.

The thing that made this series was Park Bo-gum as the main lead. Every little emotion showed up on his subtly expressive face. The FL Kim Yoo-jung was ok, but a bit limited in her expression. The driver of the drama was the epic love story, which worked in that I rooted for them, but there weren't enough bonding moments and an unrealistic lack of skinship given how often they were alone together and had confessed their love. Their story was melodramatic as you would expect from a k-drama and kept me largely entertained. However there were pacing issues at certain points later on and, coupled together with the leads being separated, it lost its way a bit. There were many ridiculous plot turns, but that's half the fun.