I loved way more about this than I didn't.
The very few gripes are honestly not worth mentioning.
Fabulous cast, many actors/tresses I love, all of whom played their characters so well.
It is quirky at times; the character of
Young-rak's wife is totally off the wall. I loved her! Her outspokenness made for some really funny scenes and, at times, not low level discomfort too.
I so felt for Kang-ho and as his story was revealed, thought him so brave. Lee Do-hyun portrayed him excellently.
There were many scenes that made for a tough watch. How cold, heartless and thoroughly evil some of the characters were.
Those were tempered by opposites, however, and that prevented this drama from becoming overly melodramatic and depressing.
I completely disagreed with the methods of the Mother in question. Yet I still liked her character; she was forced to toughen up, make sacrifices, cope alone, keep going and work her arse off. However, for me that didn't excuse her dictatorial approach toward her son as a child, or actions that bordered on abuse. Nothing can excuse some of the things she did. Yet I still couldn't dislike her.
Her character seemed to mellow through the story and her capacity for forgiveness, on several occasions, I found a bit unbelievable, but given her circumstances at that point, I did get it. She also repeated one of her previous mistakes regarding another character, which disappointed me, but she came through in the end.
Kang-ho's behaviour, I thought was out of synch at times, with what his character's age was supposed to have reverted to, but, I could care less. He had me in bits on numerous occasions.
I also loved Mi-joo. What a great young woman, with real strength of character. She never played the victim and was so tenacious. I really liked the relationship she had with her twins, too.
In fact, all the village women in this drama were tough in their own ways really.
Life wasn't particularly easy or a bed of roses, for any of them.
The men were funny, capable, but rarely the bosses ;)
Sam-sik was a conundrum for me... I loathed, liked, was amused and shocked by him, in turns. Drove me nuts.
The foreign character, Andrea, was weirdly likeable. I wasn't sure at first. The way he spoke was odd at times (and not when he was practicing his Korean), but then I find many of the foreign characters represented in K-dramas to be a bit odd in general. He helped out a lot though and wasn't insignificant. How they interacted together was lovely.
Plenty of suspense and a terrific watch. I never got bored, was pleased with the ending and so enjoyed the actors, who really made the story shine.