Bombam

Three luminous sisters-the oldest one, Lee Seo-in (played by Im Sung-eon), is in a marriage that's gone from bad to worse; the middle one, Lee Jeong-in (Han Ji-min), is in a 4-year relationship that's gone sour; and the youngest one, Lee Jae-in (Joo Min-kyung), is a maverick who's not yet entangled with a partner-have each others' backs as they come to terms with themselves and the men in their lives. Their mother, Shin Jyeong-seon (Gil Hae-yeon) stands by them-and stands between them and the men in their lives, including their father, whose ideas about marriage are more traditional than those of his wife and daughters.

The plot revolves around Jeong-in's internal and external conflicts as she tries to extricate herself from one relationship (with Kwon Ki-seok, played by Kim Jun-han) and forge a new one with Yoo Ji-ho (Jung Hae-in, who also was a main character in "Something in the Rain"). Jeong-in seems to know where she wants to go with her life, but she can't quite find a path forward. Her performance is nuanced and evolves sweetly and strongly over the 16 episodes.

"One Spring Night" was directed by Ahn Pan-seok, who won awards for his work on "Something in the Rain." The cast of "One Spring Night" also includes several outstanding actors who worked with Ahn in the earlier series. Once again, the ensemble cast work together very well.

In "One Spring Night," Ahn seems to push the envelope for women even further than he did in the earlier series-or is he only reflecting ongoing cultural change in South Korea? The sisters are strong, wrestle with difficult choices, support each other, and are supported by their mother, who in middle age has begun to reclaim control of her own life. The sisters' female friends listen to them, share stories, give advice. The conversations among the sisters and their female friends are smart and sensitive. The men in their lives-many of them dressed in gray, black, or white-are often problematic, but some of them give sage advice and support to each other and the women in their lives.

The soundtrack is excellent and includes several songs-Rachael Yamagata's "No Direction," "We Could Still Be Happy," and "Is it You," as well as Oscar Dunbar's "Spring Rain" and Carla Bruni's "Spring Waltz"-that announce and accompany scenes with no dialog in which actors are thinking, lying in bed, walking in the park, riding in taxis, etc. In several slow-motion scenes, the music is synchronized to the actors' steps.

This is not a plot spoiler: Remember the rubber band in a drugstore scene in Episode 1!

This series warmed me-heart and soul. Check it out!

I'm a guy and I'm not really into these types of shows but I think personally it connected with me in a way. I was a single dad before so I can relate to the main character in someways. I really felt touched in someways because I know the feeling of being a single dad being scared to commit to someone after having a previous bad relationship. I think what actually made me get emotional in a way was when the main character tell his story of his previous relationship to his new girlfriend and how the mother of his child ran away. I have felt this feeling as well before and it touched me because it's a feeling that will never go away. What's funny about this is that I met my wife in a library which is what made me happy about this because my wife worked part time at the university we went to as a cashier. I'm not really into love story shows but when I saw my wife watching it reminded me of us in a way. I really enjoyed the show it was great overall.

A bit too slow and repetitive for my taste. Yet the story and characters are very realistic and relatable.

For me, this series doesn't capture the range of Jung Hae-In or his full charm, as do "While You Were Sleeping" and especially "Something in the Rain", which made him an international star. In the first six episodes of "Something in the Rain" the writer created some of the sweetest scenes in Korean drama, unmatched in this one. But I think this same writer was after more of a slowly developed study of the major themes this time: obsession, misogyny, abuse, intrusiveness, and single-parent shaming. Within that sometimes maddening struggle, there is strength and devotion, friendship and love. But I do wish there was more of our main couple and far less of the annoying obsessive. Even the last episodes had too much of him. I'd rather he had been finished and we spent more time exploring the love story and that evolving family. In both her series, I feel this writer loses her way in the second halves and closing episodes, then tosses a rushed closure at the viewer, which she has been faulted for before. Still, this is a good series with an excellent writer, director, and cast.

And if you're lucky, grow love with new soil. Either way, you have to get rid of the dead leaves for new blossoms. This movie shows the reality of relationships and different situations we may find ourselves in whether it's a fresh start from stagnancy or leaving a painful situation.