The original Korean version of this story was already sort of short on actual substance. As a story it has very simple moving parts, and the engine that drives everything else is the magnetic fiery attraction between the ML and FL. It is the centerpiece of the drama. The Japanese version tamps down that fire, and lacks the same level of chemistry, which is a huge mistake, because it sucks what precious little substance there is right out of the story and leaves you feeling like you watched some empty avant garde show about nothing.

Sure there's some chemistry in the Japanese version, and the ML and FL look like they could share a nice wicked kiss in an elevator or something. But in the Korean version, the ML and FL look like they are always 3 seconds away from leaping over the table and attacking eachother right there on the floor. This is a CRUCIAL difference in the shows. The whole POINT of it is that the ML is a player, and the FL makes him completely unable to be impartial or emotionally divorced from their insane attraction. She knocks him off his game, and he tries to hide that from her. Whereas in the Japanese version, the ML feels enigmatic and calculating, smooth and controlled. His eyes don't have that wild dark animal look for her. What he looks like is a womanizer who finds that the FL tugs at his heartstrings. That's a totally different dynamic, and one that doesn't work for this story.

So we have two totally different ML's. And we also have two totally different FL's -- In the Korean version, the FL is capable of seeing her world through the glasses of realism and caution, but at the end of the day she is a free spirit, and she is unconventional and independent. When she gives in to her attraction to the ML, it feels like she's liberating herself; shedding a restrictive part of herself that gives her pure relief and joy to take off... like she's flying. That's not the essence of the Japanese character's FL. When the Japanese FL gets together with the ML, it feels like she's driven by wild impulse that frightens her when she confronts it. She doesn't feel the sensation of flying, she feels the sensation of vertigo. She worries, she becomes insecure, she doubts herself and doubts him.

I can see how they tried to create a good artistic take on the original, but you can't make a story that's supposed to be about a wild powerful intense attraction, and then dial down the actual attraction between the ML and FL and expect to faithfully recreate the story. The Japanese version is "sexy" but that's not enough for this story. It needs pure fire to drive it, or else it loses its original meaning.

And what stylist dressed these actors, it's completely god-awful.

Korean version = better version