Just Between Lovers Review

Just Between Lovers

I waited until the last episode to read the comment section before I decided to watch this drama. I am glad I chose to wait because if I watched it on air, I would have been crazy with anxiety. However, I breezed through each episode in rabid anticipation of what else the plot had in store for me. The basic plot tells the story of individuals whose lives were tragically affected by the collapse of a mall in 2005. Each characters' identity has been indelibly shaped by this calamity. 

Jun-Ho plays the character of Lee Gang Doo. I've seen Jun-Ho play in the movie twenty and I thought he was a good actor then. He completely blew me away in this role. His character is volatile, aggressive, and childlike all in one. Gang-Doo is honorable in ways that are beyond his years. He has chosen to take on the financial burden of his family, which has left him debt-ridden for over a decade. He is quick to fight against injustice and he isn't afraid of conflict or confrontation. This character was amazing because he never had a victim mentality even though horrible things kept happening. Despite all the crap life hands to him he chooses to stand up for the weak, and his loyalty is unmatched. The only annoying character trait Gang-Doo has is that he doesn't know how to properly channel his emotions. We have to suffer a bit of noble idiocy which was grating to my nerves.

Won Jin-A plays Ha Moon-Soo, an architect helping the re-developing project that took her sisters' life. This girl is one HARD worker. She takes care of her alcoholic mother, she plays the go-between her parents who live separately, all the while she works hard on her own career. I liked her because, despite the obvious dysfunction in her family life, she still pursued the things that gave her satisfaction. Though her mother is a piece of work and we see some heartbreaking intimate scenes between mother and daughter, Ha Moon-Soo never wallows in the pain and agony of her past.

The secondary cast adds real flavor to this drama. Even the most hated character is humanized, and we are able to have compassion for characters that in another drama would be solely demonized.

I cried buckets of tears when I watched this. It's a very well done drama. While a lot of dramas in 2017 started with a bang and ended with a fizzle, this drama kept me intrigued from start to finish.  I recommend it to anyone who wants to let off some sad emotions!