You Are My Spring

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Summary

After Kang Da-yeong’s traumatic uprbringing, she struggles to find love and is constantly attracted to “scum.” Her current love interest, Choi Jeong-min, seems like a nice guy until he unexpectedly commits suicide. The note he leaves behind confesses to three murders. Ju Young-do, the psychiatrist who runs a clinic right underneath where Kang Da-yeong lives, proves to be a great support to her and helps her address her shock at Choi Jeong-min’s death as well as her past trauma. His support is even more vital when the mysterious Dr. Ian Chase comes to town, and it’s revealed the actual killer may not be Choi Jeong-min after all.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Ahn-Gayeong – Ju Young-do’s ex-wife who is a successful actress and is afraid of love

Park Eun-ha – Kang Da Yeong’s childhood friend. She runs the coffee shop on the first floor of Gugu Building

Park Chul-do – Also Kang Da-yeong’s childhood friend and Park Eun-Ha’s twin brother

Go Jin-bok – The detective of the team responsible for investigating the murders

Seo Ha-neul – Friend of Ju Young-do who runs an animal hospital in Gugu building

Cheon Seung-won – Friend of Ju Young-do who works for an entertainment company and is always roping his friends into testing out his next idea for a variety show

Plot

Nothing gets me excited like a serial killer drama. This one, though, was just ok. Not great, but not bad. The romance was awesome, so good in fact that I often forgot the murder was part of You Are My Spring at all. Let’s start with what I liked the most—the way this drama covered mental health. It showed several characters talking with psychiatrist Ju Young-do to prevent PTSD or overcome past trauma and showed how it helped them. Almost every character is dealing with some type of trauma, but it didn’t feel forced or overdone. I appreciated how it mentioned that if seeking help doesn’t work for you, keep trying other doctors or methods and don’t give up. Next, You Are My Spring had plenty of twists and turns I didn’t see coming, which I really enjoyed (when the person you think is going to be the main character dies early on, you know you’re in for a ride). Lastly, as I already mentioned, the romance was great. I will, of course, talk about this more below, but it was the thing that saved the plot of this drama.

Now onto the things I didn’t like as much. Remember, this is just my personal opinion, and while it didn’t work for me, you could still love it so be sure to have an open mind and leave a comment below with your thoughts. Firstly, a lot was going on. So much that sometimes it seemed like You Are My Spring couldn’t do everything well. For example, it appeared that an episode would go by without having mentioned the serial killer plotline, which left me struggling to remember where it left off. (I actually thought it was solved at one point until it came up again). Maybe I was just distracted, but it felt like it jumped around a bit.

Then, there is the weird camera angles and wobbly shots. I noticed this a couple of times during a serious conversation. During the close-ups the camera randomly and unsteadily starts moving to the left. Why camera? Where are you going? And during another serious conversation, the shot was set up with a blurry pole in the middle so Ju Young-do was as close to the edge of the screen as he could be. It was odd.

As I mentioned, there were plenty of twists, but it also leveraged a lot of overdone plot points, such as everyone knowing each other in the past. It wasn’t super necessary, and for a couple of the characters (I don’t want to give any spoilers here), it was irrelevant and didn’t amount to much. Also, I didn’t particularly appreciate how some of the secondary characters’ storylines were never fully resolved. For example, Seo Ha-neul and his nonexistent love life just fade away without him falling in love, which is sad after watching him search for someone the whole drama.

Romance

I think this was one of the more authentic relationships I’ve seen in a K-drama. I saw them actually having fun and joking together instead of just two-minute fluff conversations or one date at an amusement park. They dated over several episodes, and the time spent together really helps the audience become more emotionally invested. Unfortunately, they fell victim to the same overdone tropes of breaking up because one person decided it was best for the other person. I really, really hate it when shows do this because it all comes down to a lack of communication. We are barely in a position to know what makes us happy, let alone decide what will make someone else happy. However, compared to other K-dramas, I feel like this couple was still much more mature than others. They had honest, adult conversations and the way they supported and helped each other was sweet and endearing.

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Overall

Murder, twists, romance, friendship—this K-drama checks all those boxes. To its credit, I never predicted how it would end, and I feel like that’s very rare for dramas. Overall I still gave it 3.5 stars due to some of the issues I mentioned earlier, but it was a very enjoyable drama to watch.