Regarding Song Hye-gyo’s acting: She’s doing the job, but somehow she seemed very… flat in Episode 3 and 4. There’s something very cool about Ji-oh and Joon-young
’s developing romance — and I don’t mean “cool” as in awesome, rather as in detached and unemotional. The relationship should be sweet and endearing, and yet it lacks a spark. Same with her portrayal in general
— she goes through the motions reasonably well, but there’s no added zing. She’s the sum of her parts, but just the sum — no added alchemy or magic sumthin’-sumthin’ in the end product.
To the people who are wanting to slap me now for criticizing Song: I think I’m being very fair, and actually quite lenient about her performance. I think people tend to see things from one perspective and forget that there are others — for instance, as a Song fan, one might say, “Come on, she’s not terrible. Why are you picking on her?”
Fans often look at their star’s performance in an isolated vacuum, outside of its context.
But on the flip side of that,
there are others of us watching this with a holistic approach —
we are looking at the drama as a whole, in the context of a
well-rounded project containing many components. We’re not “picking on” one person because we don’t like her. We’re looking at how the drama holds up as a complete work, and notice flaws when they appear. And in THAT context, Song is weak.
Keep in mind that I don’t dislike Song Hye-gyo, and I’ll even defend her acting here, to a point. But this is a subtle drama with many layers, and she isn’t a very subtle or layered actress. That’s all I mean when I called out her acting.