User Reviews

It was quite a gripping, holds-your-attention series. The only problem I had was with the psycho-killer son coming out of the coma and being active and as if nothing ever happened. If a person is coma that long >15 years, normally surgeons may intentionally cut tendons as the muscles atrophy; but I guess they did show a scene where his hospital bed is equipped with "exercise" sections. He looked way too healthy. They should have had him wake earlier and have a time progression of the parents getting him up and about. One minute he's just lying there on a ventilator and then he's in a wheelchair then bouncing around hunting people down. There were even a few moments when it was almost getting too over-the-top, he was overacting with the nutty glaring eyes and it could have been lessened. He was methodical in one scene then the next he's wild-eyed. Okay, a minor step back for me but it was alright overall.

The story had a nice blend of characters...funny, nutty, devilish, romantic, sad, despondent - lots of supporting storylines.

The ending: I thought he was going to die which would have pissed-off the viewers as it was a solid romantic story. We wanted the happy ending and got it! Kudos to the writers.

The biggest problem was the too much stretch to end the series, which is the problem in almost all Korean dramas. The plot has too many similarities with previous dramas such as "A Beautiful Mind 2016". They don't give any reason as to why the Baek couple gives Dohyun Su their son's identity. However, the direction and romance was beautiful, which makes it appealing. I loved the character of Ji Won. The last episode was extremely unnecessary in its sudden shift to the-50-first-dates twist, such desperate stalling and shifting is very annoying.

I think they should keep such dramas shorter up to 9 episodes, rather than having a fixed number of episodes as long as 16, which is too much.

The series is about false identities, human trafficking and serial murder. In itself it is entertaining and the parts are well played. Especially Moon Chae-Won put down (as detective Cha) a character that can be funny, sweet and determined. She is a pleasure to watch. Choi Young-Joon (as detective Choi) is also well cast, as is the reporter Kim Ji Moon. But for following the plot you have to prepare to drift far off from reality. The two awakenings from coma to full cognition are too unlikely. Especially when one person suddenly awakes after 10 years of coma, goes through a speedy rehabilitation to the point of getting up from a wheelchair, runs after a person that he then engages with in a fight and later on turns into a formidable fighter to a point of disarming a police officer.

The main character, played by Lee Joon-Gi gives almost everything, including a bag of money and almost his life to obtain some evidence from a big criminal. When the criminal is finally floored he leaves without taking this evidence from the criminal's pocket. Nor does the police when he is arrested. The criminal is then left under the guard of just one policeman with the key to the handcuff hanging from his breast pocket. A couple escapes without anything and later shows up in a hotel suite with a large miraculously present laptop. And it goes on like this.

The series actually ends with the 15th episode. The final episode is sentimental crap that adds nothing to the story and is exquisitely boring.

This 16-episode series with 60+ minutes in each episode is a real gem due to the superb acting, screenplay, cinematography, and directing.

Baek Hee-sung is actually Do Hyun-soo, the son of a serial killer who took the blame for his sister's killing in self-defense and ran away, being now sought for murder. Adrift for awhile, he is accidentally run over by his father's accomplice, Baek Hee-sung, who tries to bury the still breathing Hyun-soo when his mother surprises him in the act. She stabs her murderous son and both parents decide to have the recovered Hyun-soo take the place of Baek Hee-sung, while the real Baek Hee-sung lies hidden in a coma.

The new Baek Hee-sung meets headstrong Cha Ji-won, who woos him until they marry.

Fast forward about 14 years. Hee-sung and Ji-won, a police detective, have a daughter and live in a house with a metal workshop, where Hee-sung crafts jewelry. Hee-sung works hard at playacting the happy husband, although he is a truly loving father to the daughter. His world comes to a crashing halt when he is recognized as the suspected killer Do Hyun-soo by a reporter and his wife takes on the cold murder case.

The story commences with tragic twists, surprises, false leads, and mistakes, as reporter, detective-wife, the detective's team, Hee-sung's parents, the real Hee-sung (having woken from his coma), Hyun-soo's sister, a distraught taxi driver seeking his wife who was the last victim of Hyun-soo's murderous father, and of course Hyun-soo himself try to outsmart the other. Everyone is hiding something from the others, but the viewer knows what's going on for the most part.

In the end, justice is served to the murder accomplice, but not before Hyun-soo is shot in the head and survives with amnesia, having returned in his memories to the fateful car accident from 15 years ago. He learns that he had been committing identity theft and no longer trusts himself to be a good guy (he never trusted himself before but had learned to truly love his wife thanks to her nearly unwavering support for him during the hunt-and-chase ordeal). His wife is distraught, but finally decides to let him go. That's when he realizes that he may be able to rekindle his feelings for her, but this time as a genuine person who doesn't have to playact anymore.

That's why the amnesia is so important. It allows the story to make a clean cut between Hyun-soo's suffering as suspected murderer in hiding and phony husband and his new life as innocent victim of false accusations and even near-hero who has to learn to feel emotions for himself. We only see a glimpse of these new feelings in the end, with Ji-won, his wife, slowly accepting that maybe not all hope is lost to transition into a genuine loving marriage and family.