Ever since I was in Japan in 2005 and saw some huge billboard advert for it in one of the TV studios we walked around I was curious as to what exactly it was. After getting back and looking around on the internet seeing all the hype and how it sparked off the whole “Korean Wave” I felt like I should watch it at some point… and so it sat there on my “to watch” list for years.

When the anime version was announced I thought “ah, I still haven’t seen that drama, i’ll just watch the anime version instead”. Once it started airing and i’d got hold of the first episode I thought “hmm… no….. I really should watch the drama first”. And thus here I am several weeks and 20 episodes later at the end of what truly was a wonderful, classic piece of drama.

At it’s heart is just a basic love story, a story of how true love overcomes everything. But inside is so much more than that. So much depth to the plot, the twists and turns (some predictable, some very much not) keep you going right up to the end of the series. The directing and the way the plot intertwines together, the way plotlines you thought were going to get left unresolved gradually resolve themselves as the series goes on; the director really is a genius.

The acting itself also has so much warmth to it that you can’t help but empathise with every single one of the characters; Choi Ji Woo and Bae Yong Jun are clearly incredibly talented people, incredibly talented. Even the obvious low-budget (as evident by the plentiful scenes where the microphone boom is visible in shot… and the many scenes where there are just ordinary people in the background looking at them filming thinking “omg, it’s those guys from the tv”) of the show just adds to the heart-warming nature of it.

And then on top of the amazing plot and wonderful acting is one truly brilliant musical score. You absolutely cannot beat a nice simple set of classical piano music, it fits especially well with the whole “winter” theme. The few songs with lyrics also fit with the show on many levels. Next to Tenmon’s musical scores in Voices of a Distant Star, and The Place Promised in Our Early Days i’ve gotta say that the Winter Sonata soundtrack is possibly one of the best i’ve heard, really adds to the emotion of some scenes.

Overall quite frankly it is a must watch show, for everyone. On the same sort of level as Titanic, just as everyone has seen Titanic, everyone must watch Winter Sonata. It’s simply too good not to watch.