My rating criteria for dramas is based on how much emotion they give me and this drama certainly shook me quite a bit.This was the very first serious war fiction that I ever watched in my life as I always kept well away from them owing to the large amount of suffering involved. However, I was well awarded for braving through this very harsh and realistic portrait of the Korean War of 1950 as I was left with images that I will most certainly not forget.

I was sorry to find out that this drama has not had high ratings in Korea and has not been viewed by many viewers outside Korea either. Although I can understand the basic reason of not wanting to watch people suffering I can say that it is a real pity not to appreciate all the effort that obviously went into the production, filming and acting of this drama. I think this is the best acting I have seen of So Ji Sub so far (and I have seen most of his well-known dramas) and especially in the last episodes he gave a performance that would have been higly worth an Oscar award if he had been in the US. But I also have to mention the other two main actors and in particular Yoon Kye Sang who played an incredible character who was strong and very generous.

So to summarize this drama focuses mostly on what friendship, comradeship and patriotism are all about but it also describes a very intense love story. I highly recommend the viewers to have a strong stomach and go through all the hardships that these poor soldiers went through and in the end...you will feel higly rewarded like I did!

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When I first started watching this drama I knew it was a melo and I knew there would be a lot of makjang, however I got a lot more than I expected.

Right from the beginning I had problems in accepting the whole basic concept of the story (which I won't spoil) as I found it to be too extreme and unrealistic but I carried on watching the drama nevertheless because of the incredibly good acting but also because I hoped that the story would take a more believable twist as the episodes unfolded.
Instead the masochistic turn of events carried on becoming more and more extreme up to the very last episode.

What, in my opinion, made this melodrama special was the outstanding acting of all the four main leads (my favourite was Ji Sung) who had an amazing chemistry amongst them and were extremely talented in portraying their anxieties and distresses.

Personally I will not rewatch this as I couldn't go through all that anguish again, however I heartly recommend it to all melodrama lovers.

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