I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice is a countryside healing romance about a man (Seo Kang Joon) who runs a small bookstore and a woman (Park Min Young) with a painful past who returns to her hometown.
Park Min Young plays Mok Hae Won who is a cellist from Seoul with a difficult past. She returns to her hometown for a break and reconnects with an old friend from high school.
Seo Kang Joon is Im Eun Seob. He is a kind and quiet man with a mysterious past who runs a small bookstore. He takes notice when Hae Won returns to town and finds himself wanting to connect with her.
I started I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice on a whim when I was in the mood for a heavily winter focused drama. I saw this one frequently recommended with its cold winter setting in a rural town. And it definitely checks that box with lots of winter scenery with stark, barren landscapes, snow, big coats, and cozy, warm indoor scenes. The drama also uses more blue gray tones for the outdoors and yellow tones for the indoors to create the wintry vibe.
Now, I’ll say that right from the get-go, I knew this drama was not in my typical genres of interest, but I do like to try other genres from time to time to keep things interesting, and since I was in the mood for this type of vibe I went in fully knowing. That being said, many of the things that I don’t love about this type of genre held true in this case, but plenty of things went well too.
I would describe I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice as very slice of life with a somber, moody tone that leans depressing but is wrapped in a coat of healing. It had a very slow pace and certainly took its time to get going as we met the characters, learned their connections, and got the backstory of them and the town. This all plays out over several episodes with lots of lingering shots of the characters and the scenery to create that moody tone.
I was interested in the story and characters pretty quickly, but it did really take a while to grow on me because of the slow pacing. I watched the drama pretty casually for the first half and then finally had a solid click point where I was much more invested. I watched the second half much more quickly.
I did enjoy the winter setting, and it definitely sold those cold vibes. It also contrasted it well with the more cozy indoor scenes with books, warm fires, warm drinks, and fuzzy sweaters.
The story focuses on the individual journeys of Hae Won and Eun Seob as well as their developing relationship. Both of them have a unique and complicated past. Hae Won’s past is full of hurt and trauma after her mother went to jail for the murder of her father.
She had such a difficult time in the town that she was glad to eventually leave and wasn’t on good terms with her mother or her aunt who still lived in the town. There were a lot of layers to peel back to the story and how it impacted Hae Won.
Then Eun Seob had his own interesting story. He was a very unique character for me. He was obviously kind, very caring, and helped everyone without hesitation. But he was so quiet and held back all of his feelings and many of his thoughts in general.
He was a very hard character to read because we don’t really get a look into his inner world for a good chunk of the drama. But as we finally see into his head and his heart, we learn more about him and his story and the challenges that he faces.
I liked the portrayal of the romance. It had many subtle nuances. We see a lot of their story with how they viewed each other from afar going way back to childhood, through high school, and into the present. They have a lot of thoughts, feelings, and experiences involving each other well before today’s current events. We see how the past affects them now and how it draws them slowly together.
It’s a very slow burn romance with quite a few obstacles in their way, but it’s a very satisfying relationship to watch blossom. I enjoyed their interactions. There’s a lot of awkwardness and unease in the beginning, but it does develop into a very cozy and warm relationship.
The secondary plots revolve around the implications of Hae Won’s family difficulties, her estranged relationship with an old friend, and relationships with other people in town. It rounded things out pretty nicely.
I always find rating dramas like I’ll Go to You When the Weather is Nice a bit complicated. Because it’s not a style I generally gravitate towards, there are things that are inherent towards dramas like this used that can be a bit of a negative for me. The slow pacing with the more somber and depressing tone definitely impacted my overall enjoyment of the drama.
There is healing in the midst of the depression, but the drama feels very heavy in a very realistic way. But I really enjoyed the portrayal of the romance, the handling of the characters backstories, and the variety of relationships addressed. It also definitely checked that winter box very solidly. If you like these types of dramas, I would definitely recommend this one.
My Rating: 6.5/10
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