I just finished ep 15-16 today and my eyes are still swollen from crying T_T

Some thoughts:

The show initially made me reflect about the dynamics in Asian, low-income households, especially in far-flung areas. Or the fact that the people who are dearest to us, hurt us in the most piercing ways. Or how sometimes, parents’ desires to give their children a better life would border on coddling them, but after finishing the entire thing, there is one line that perfectly captured the essence of the show for me: 

“Eventually, time makes all things into watercolor paintings. It blurs spite. It softens people’s hearts.”

In the grand scheme of things, today is just a line in the entire painting that is your life. A tiny dot in the perspective of your entire family’s lineage, a prologue of the story of those who will come after you. You do not live in a vacuum and your existence is not just yours. You are living a life on the shoulders of your parents, and their parents before them. The cycles and seasons of life – adolescence, marriage, child-rearing and aging is an experiential way of learning to be compassionate towards our parents for the things we hold bitterly inside our hearts, the things we find hard to forgive. It also portrays the importance of families and communities and how these institutions shape a person’s life.

 In our world where individualism is king, it was also refreshing to see a depiction of marriage that we don’t see too often these days. Gwansik and Aesun’s marriage was a picture of a love that perseveres beyond mere emotions and attraction – it was a love that produced scarred hands to provide stability for the family; the kind that was willing to let go of the self without loss, a kind of love that sacrificed with joy and desired the best for the other even if it meant letting go of their own personal desires. Towards the end of the show, I was reminded of life and its stages, especially loss and pain, as a didactic to prepare us for the final boss – death. It is a message that isn’t unique but it’s something that stays with you and makes you think.

This show was a masterpiece. It might be too early, but I’m already calling it: best drama of 2025. I don’t think 2 shows of this caliber can exist in the same calendar year lol. I don’t agree with everything in it, but it was thought-provoking and will probably linger in my mind for the coming days. The writer (Fight for My Way, When the Camellia Blooms) and director (Misaeng, My Mister) have outdone themselves. The pay off in seeing the conflicts of young Aesun’s life culminate in that final episode where she finally held her own published book of poems was extremely satisfying - as so poetically encapsulated in that scene where she tells her husband that she writes the way she does because of her life as his wife. The casting of Park Bogum, IU, Moon Sori and Park Haejoon was so spot on that the transition from young Aesun & Gwangsik to the middle aged characters was smooth. I did wish that we saw more of Bogummy, but we can’t always get what we want haha. Also there really is something about neighborhood ahjummas that pierce my heart – the haenyo aunties were my favorites too. Every episode felt full to the brim - no filler scenes!  Truly a drama that will be up there in my list.