Wah Hoo! How lucky I was to have found one more fine webdrama – Love in Memory. Award winning actor and actress, Jung Gyu-Woon and Jo Yoon-Hee are what attracted me to the very good, one hour (six episodes, 10 minutes each) love-triangle tale in the first place. I’ve liked them both in several Kdramas so when I recognized their faces on the promotional poster I decided to give it a try. And I’m very glad I did.
The show is about two lovers, Tae-Ma and Hyun-Joo, who parted ways and then run into each other seven years later. The writer chose to tell us their story through flashbacks, their memories… hence the title, Love in Memory. Hyun-Joo has a boyfriend who silently worries as he watches the woman he loves get back in touch with her first love, Tae-Ma, after seeing him in a bookstore, following him, and watching him from afar. The relationship these three characters have with each other is very authentic. I felt like I was watching something from reality unfold right before my eyes.
What I enjoyed about this show was the fact that the characters are mature, mentally stable adults. No one is scheming, trying to take revenge, or being deceitful. Right at the beginning the audience easily realizes a once-good relationship had gradually deteriorated until it finally came to an end. No guess work there. It was nice being able to watch the people involved deal, in a positive way, with the decisions they made seven years earlier. Very, very impressive writing throughout the whole thing, with a satisfyingly good ending.
Love in Memory was written with a lot of inner dialogue. I don’t always like that but it works well in this show. The audience is able to hear the characters’ thoughts which helps us understand, a bit better, each person’s past and present actions.
The following is a quote that was shown at the beginning of one of the episodes. “To notice someone’s beauty, one must look at them closely. To fall in love, one must look at them for a long time.” Very profound! I think the writer was telling us that all was well when the sweethearts looked at each other closely, but after looking for a long time, Hyun-Joo realized Tae-Ma didn’t have the character attributes she needed in a partner for her to make a lasting, loving relationship with him.
This webdrama certainly didn’t scrimp on soundtrack talent. Eric Nam sings Goodbye in Once Upon a Time, a pretty ballad that begins with just an acoustic guitar and slowly adds in more and more instruments, intensifying into multi-instrumental support for Eric’s rich voice. There’s also a lovely song with just a simple piano accompaniment throughout the whole thing. Another one starts out sounding like the music from a wind-up snow globe (which is significant to the show), changes to a piano, adds percussion, and finally strings join in, complimenting a strong soprano voice. Really good music.
As for scenery, the story takes the characters to a bookstore, a cafe, a studio/office, and some streets during what seems like the end of winter.
I enjoyed the way each episode was titled, showing the progression of the lovers’ relationship…
1. Why did you like me?
2. I found it!
3. Confession
4. Apology
5. Forgiveness
6. Hope
…and when a relationship ends with hope you know both people are at peace, and isn’t that a great way for a story to come to a close?
Even though it’s a webdrama, the superior acting, directing, filming, writing, and soundtrack easily makes Love in Memory come across as a professional, full-length Kdrama. Give it an hour. I think you’ll be glad you did.
Score: 7.5
The Good:
Jung Gyu-Woon
Jo Yoon-Hee
Realistic plot
Great writing
Emotionally mature characters
Nice ending
Big Kdrama feel
Beautiful soundtrack
The Bad:
I didn’t find anything I would consider bad in this one
Heart and Seoul 