A young woman grows up in a poor family, as the daughter of a mute mother and a father who struggles to run a local tailor shop. But she has always dreamed of living a life of luxury.  So when she is faced with an opportunity to change her life for the better, she jumps at it. And that one lie changes the course of her life drastically.  But living with the consequences of her secret takes a great toll.  And as everything starts to cave in around her, she wonders if saving it is even worth the effort.  

Kim Joon Han as Choi Ji Hoon

Choi Ji Hoon is the promising young CEO of a start-up company.  He has his eye on the position of Mayor of Seoul, but he needs a beautiful, refined woman to stand at his side and make him look good.  His friend works with Anna, and sets the pair up on a blind date.  And they are married after a whirlwind romance.  But once he has filled the role, he turns his attention to politics, leaving his new wife on her own most of the time. And when she begins to challenge his expectations of the perfect wife, he takes extreme measures to make his will understood.  

Although Choi Ji Hoon appears to have grown up in the lap of luxury, he and Anna really aren’t all that different.  His family was also poor growing up, but he is able to make the right connections and get the right backing to open his own company and later run for political office.  Kim Joon Han was compelling as the sinister and guarded politician.  Even when he is smiling, his eyes give off a coldness that makes you suspicious.  This makes him the perfect villain.  I liked him in this role and I thought he fit it well.

Park Ye Young as Ji Won

Ji Won lived in the same boarding house as Yoo Mi when they were young.  The two become good friends before Yoo Mi vanishes suddenly.  But years later, the pair reconnect.  In college, Ji Won worked for the school newspaper and dreamed of becoming a political journalist.  She struggles at a small local paper before Anna asks Ji Hoon to get Ji Won a job at a major publication.  But as Ji Won becomes suspicious about who Yoo Mi really is, she is torn between her job and a person she thought was her friend.  

 ♥ Cinematography and Music

In my opinion, this drama looks and sounds amazing.  The cinematography is beautiful and the music really captures the mood of the drama itself.  The scenes of lavish luxury and posh living were convincing without being over the top.  I love how the music from her ballet solo as Esmerelda becomes her theme song in the final episodes.  It brings everything back around in a very satisfying way.  And the scene of her throwing her burning hand bag into the car and walking away was epic!

♥ Hyun Joo

Although I didn’t like her much, I found Hyun Joo’s character to be thoroughly enjoyable.  Jung Eun Chae really nailed this performance and her deliverance was perfect.  The news after her death that she suffered from bi-polar disorder made perfect sense for this character and was well supported by the actress, even before we knew it.   

Marriage Trouble

It seemed like when Anna and Ji Hoon were first dating, their relationship was at least a bit sincere.  The cute montage of them playing together in the snow was sweet and believable.  Of course, as Anna found out what he was really like, it is reasonable that she would come to hate him.  But I felt like her change of attitude was too sudden and without any central reason.  I think it would have felt more realistic if they had showed some breaking point in their relationship.

Ji Won

I felt kind of bad that in the end, Ji Won believed that she knew nothing about her friend Yoo Mi.  While there were plenty of lies, it seems to me that Ji Won knew her better than anyone else.  Yoo Mi allowed herself to be just plain old Yoo Mi when she was with Ji Won, especially later in life.  I just wish Ji Won could have realized that she was the only real friend Yoo Mi ever had, and that while their friendship was not perfect, it was at least, at times, honest.  

The ending of this drama has been telegraphed since the very first episode.  We have seen Anna trudging alone through the snow, and we see her at the scene of the car crash.  So now that we’re here, it’s just a matter of filling in the blank spaces.  In the end, Ji Hoon tries to have Anna institutionalized in the States.  Anna causes their car to crash on the way there, and finished the job by lighting her bag on fire and throwing it into the car where Ji Hoon is trapped.  And in case you doubt the outcome, we later see his empty funeral service, with his son happily throwing the mourning flowers into the air.  We learn that Ji Won finally told the full story, with the details Anna gave her.  This gained her a nice promotion and the money to buy a nice place to live.  And Anna is hiding out somewhere in the mountains of Canada.  While it appears to be a lonely life, she seems to finally have found a bit of peace.