"Lovely Runner" Gets Time Travel Right
Plus a look at 12 other K-dramas with time slip arcs
If the charming K-drama, “Lovely Runner,” had aired on mega streaming sites like Netflix or Hulu, rather than the more niche Viki, I’m convinced more viewers and critics would’ve paid attention to this clever time travel series, which tugs at viewers’ hearts until the very end. [ETA: right after I posted this, I learned that the series will be airing on Netflix as of August 1, 2024.]
But as it were, even the online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes neglects to have a page dedicated to this show. Regardless, I wanted to share my review of this series, as well as some other K-dramas that incorporate time-slip story lines, including:
“Again My Life”
“Go Back Couple”
“The King: Eternal Monarch”
“Lovely Runner”
“Marry My Husband”
“Reborn Rich”
“Signal”
”Sisyphus”
”Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938”
“Time Called You”
“Tomorrow, With You”
“Twinkling Watermelon”
“W”
"Lovely Runner"
선재 업고 튀어 ☆☆☆
Ryu Sun-jae (played by Byeon Woo-seok)
Im Sol (played by Kim Hye-yoon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
“Lovely Runner” is the latest K-drama I watched this year that has held my interest. My review of this series ran on TODAY.com earlier this week. (I’ll add more in the Spoiler Alert below).
The sleeper hit of this year is “Lovely Runner,” which stars Kim Hye-yoon (“SKY Castle,” “Extraordinary You”) and Byeon Woo-seok (“Record of Youth,” “Strong Girl Nam-soon”) in his breakthrough starring role.
“Lovely Runner” is full of action and intrigue, but at its core, it’s a story of undying love and sacrifice. Sun-jae (played by Byeon) is an isolated superstar, and Im-sol (Kim) is an uber fan who would do anything to support him. Both are 34 and wishing their lives had played out differently. The plot reveals that the unlikely pair has a history together that is centered on doing whatever it takes to protect each other. This includes traveling through time, knowing they may not be able to return home, or even see each other again.
Unlike many K-pop idols who also act (IU, Bae Suzy, Rowoon, Yoona, Cha Eun-woo, D.O.), the male lead here is not a trained singer. But Byeon portrays the leader of the fictional boy band Eclipse well enough that “Sudden Shower,” the drama’s recurring OST song that he sings, charted on Billboard in real life.
Like “Under the Queen’s Umbrella,” this series uses the 우산 to represent how our protagonists fight to protect themselves from countless obstacles — including a messy serial killer subplot that I found redundant and not particularly compelling.
Also, future Im-sol is disabled and in a wheelchair, until past Im-sol (and Sun-jae) are able to alter some events to leave her able bodied. Honestly though? If the writers weren’t going to follow through on her disability, it would’ve been better not to include it. Because that part just came across as a trope, rather than a meaningful part of her story.
Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on tvN from April 8 to May 28, 2024. (I watched this on Viki.)
Spoiler Alert: At the end of Episode 1, Im-sol time travels back to the past and is reunited with her mother and grandmother. She’s overcome with happiness and cries happy tears that her grandmother — who has Alzheimer’s Disease in the future — has her memory intact.
Im-sol and Sun-jae meet cute at the end of Episode 2, when she runs towards him to claim her package. She mistakes him for a deliveryman and refers to him as ajusshi, which is what a teen would call a middle-aged man. Maybe that’s what he looked like from far away. But I’m not clear why she didn’t correct herself when she was face-to-face with him and saw that he was clearly the same age as her. He’s just taller. Much, much taller.
Early on, this K-drama implies that she is the one who has been besotted with him for all these years as a dedicated fangirl of his band. She was particularly touched when he (as the adult Sun-jae) cast an umbrella over her head as it snowed. In reality, he fell for her on this rainy day (depicted above). As a teenager, she had no idea who he was or that she had caught his eye. Or that she was the one who had offered him shelter first under her umbrella.
It’s not spelled out in the series, but Im-sol’s grandmother may be a time traveler as well. In episode 14, we’re back to the future. Grandma, who has Alzheimer’s, has wandered off, but somehow finds her way to the BBQ restaurant that Sun-jae’s dad owns. When Im-sol finally tracks her down, Grandma tells her that she missed Sun-jae and wanted to see him again: “I did well, right? You missed him, too, didn’t you?” She knew, without knowing.
There is also a funny vignette when Im-sol travels back to the past. Knowing that her brother and his wife (who is also her childhood best friend) will suffer financially in the future, she tells him the winning numbers to a Lotto ticket. He eventually wins, but it’s only about $300,000, rather than the $15 million pot that Im-sol had remembered. It turned out that the brother was drunk on the day he bought the ticket and loudly shared the number with about 50 other people, who also won.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
“Reborn Rich”
“재벌집 막내아들” ☆☆☆½
Jin Do-joon / Yoon Hyun-woo (played by Song Joong-ki)
Jin Yang-chul (played by Lee Sung-min)
Seo Min-young (played by Shin Hyun-been)
Rachel (played by Tiffany Young)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
Describing “Reborn Rich” is tricky without giving away the ending. Is this K-drama a time-traveling thriller? Or a revenge series with the poor battling the obscenely wealthy? Maybe it’s a tale of repentance?
The answer is: It’s all that and more. There’s a reason why this was most-watched K-drama of 2022 in South Korea. Smart and calculated without resorting to tired tropes, “Reborn Rich” offers powerhouse performances by Song Joong-ki (in two roles) and master actor Lee Sung-min (“Misaeng“), who at just 54, convincingly portrays the former’s mercurial-tempered grandfather.
When we first meet Hyun-woo, he is the perfect employee. Smart (but poor and uneducated), he is made to believe he is lucky to have a corporate job at Soonyang, one of South Korea’s most powerful companies. As he advises an underling, his job is to complete any and all orders from his superiors without question. This includes everything from swapping out a hotel toilet seat for the wife of the chairman’s eldest son, to traveling overseas to reclaim the company’s slush funds.
This isn’t much of a spoiler since it is advertised in the series synopsis, but still … stop reading if you don’t want to know more. (I’ll write about the major spoilers beneath the trailer below.)
During this trip, he is set up, shot and falls from a cliff. The knowledge he possesses about the family’s dirty deeds have been protected by his death.
In the next vignette, we meet Do-joon, the youngest grandson of the Soonyang Group family. (The literal translation of the Korean series title 재벌집 막내아들 is The Youngest Son of a Chaebol House.) He is about 10 years old and confused. Because Hyun-woo’s spirit and mind are now in the little boy’s body.
From that point on, Hyun-woo begins to plot his revenge. But as is pointed out in the series, revenge isn’t for those who have been wronged. Only those with power can truly get retribution in any meaningful way. So he carefully plots out his future, knowing what he knows from having lived it and from having read his grandfather’s biography (which hasn’t been published yet in the era he’s currently living).
His goal is to find the Soonyang member who ordered his death, take control over the conglomerate and make sure that the family members are punished for their wrongdoings. But in the 15 or so years he lives as Do-joon, he grows to love and respect his grandfather Yang-chul — the family patriarch who is well aware that his obsequious and duplicitous sons and daughter aren’t qualified to take over his business. Using his knowledge of what will happen in the future, Do-joon makes bold predictions that prove to be lucrative. And there’s no better way to win over Yang-chul than to make his company even more successful.
He also makes enemies of his uncles and aunt who view him as an unqualified threat — not because he’s not bright, but because Do-joon’s father isn’t their real brother, but merely a half brother.
Song Joong-ki’s love interest here is a prosecutor (played by Shin Hyun-been of “Hospital Playlist”). But the series is driven not by the promise of romance, but by the cat-and-mouse relationship between Do-joon and Lee Sung-min’s Yang-chul. It’s a battle of wits between two cunning men who are too pragmatic to wholly trust each other.
Acting aside, “Reborn Rich” is a fascinating look at South Korea’s modern history, when South Korean cars were viewed as cheap automobiles that could never enter the international market. And its electronics and goods weren’t of comparable quality to products made in the United States, Germany or Japan. It deals with the ramifications of the IMF crisis, when leaders were asking its citizens to donate all their gold jewelry (including wedding bands and babies’ dol rings and bracelets) for the good of the nation. And in Episode 13, there’s a fun reminder of how well South Korea performed two decades ago at the 2002 World Cup, before eventually losing to Germany (1-0) in the semi-finals.
I have seen a few things on social media where fans are upset at the finale. For me, it was a satisfying end to a well-crafted show that felt natural and hopeful. Surviving is an act of courage in and of itself. While it’s not a sexy happily ever after, there is definitive closure and repentance.
Meta Moments: Girls’ Generation’s Tiffany Young has a nice co-starring role here as a finance expert who works with Do-joon. And ATEEZ‘s Jong Ho shows off his powerhouse vocals in “Gravity,” which is featured prominently in the K-drama’s OST.
Airdates: Sixteen episodes — ranging from 60- to 75-minutes each— aired on JTBC from November 18 to December 25, 2022.
Spoiler Alert: In the finale, Hyun-woo realizes that what happened to him wasn’t a fluke: “I finally know now that this wasn’t about possession or time traveling. It was repentance — my repentance for Jin Do-joon and for me, Yoon Hyun-woo.”
Hyun-woo was left for dead in the first episode. But a savvy prosecutor who had been keeping tabs on the Soonyang family had a NIS team following him. He hadn’t died. He was rescued.
In Episode 12, we learned that the person behind the murder attempt of Yang-chul and Do-joon — who she didn’t realize would be traveling with his grandfather — was … Yang-chul’s wife. When she saw that her husband was favoring Do-joon over their own children, she wanted her husband knocked off. She resented him and hated Do-joon for standing in the way of her kids.
In one of the small story arcs that ticked me off, Do-joon helped his grandmother flee overseas so that she won’t be imprisoned. Do-joon’s dad sees her off, and forgives her, saying that he understood what she must have went through, raising a boy (him) who had a different mother. WHAT? She. Not. Only. Tried. To. Kill. Your. Father… She. Almost. Killed. Your. SON! I could never.
We saw at the end of Episode 1 that Hyun-woo was betrayed by his underling Gyeong-min (portrayed by Park Jin-young). In the finale, we find out that the person who ordered the murder of Do-joon was his oldest uncle, who wanted to ensure that the chairman position would be passed down to him and then eventually his son.
At that time, Hyun-woo was working as a laborer for the Soonyang Group. His assignment that day was to drive a small truck to a destination that didn’t seem to exist. He got out of his car to call his boss for clarification. A semi truck came barreling down the road, hitting his truck, which rammed into the sedan in front of him. Do-joon was a passenger in the car and died in the crash. And had Hyun-woo made the call from within his car, his life would’ve been over as well.
I don’t think Hyun-woo realized at the time that the chaebol family was aware that he could die (and they didn’t care). His options are to go to the police and report the crime. Or, to accept the white-collar position to work at the company. He chose the latter.
The one plot point I found unbelievable (even for a fictional show) is that when he finds himself living as Do-joon, he has no memory of the man. Only later does he realize that he was the youngest grandson who had died tragically. Given that he was at the scene of the crime, wouldn’t Hyun-woo realize that he had been a party (unwittingly) to his murder?
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
“W”
“더블유” ☆☆☆½
Kang Chul (played by Lee Jong-Suk)
Oh Yeon-Joo (played by Han Hyo-Joo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
I usually don't reveal spoilers until the end of my reviews. But the premise of the Korean series, "W," centers around an element that I am going to reveal in the next paragraph. So, if you haven't seen the series yet and don't want to know about it, please stop reading now and come back after you've watched the series.
Spoiler Alert: Director Jung Dae-Yoon described the series as the "story of a man and a woman who discover their reason for existence, while living in different dimensions in Seoul."
I've often thought about life on other planets. But I have never once wondered if there was a parallel comic book universe that exists, as it does in "W."
When the series begins, we meet Chul, who is a 17-year-old wunderkind who wins a gold medal in the Air Pistol Shooting competition at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Not long afterwards, he is framed for murdering his parents and two younger siblings. After spending time in prison, he's released and at a loss for what to do. He attempts suicide, but at the last minute decides that he wants to live.
Flash forward 10 years or so. He is now 30 and a multi-millionaire, thanks to the conglomeration he founded, which includes a news center that is dedicated to finding criminals like the murderer who killed his family.
Meanwhile, we meet the woman who will become his love interest. Yeon-Joo is a surgeon, whose boss is obsessed with an online 만화 (Korean comic book) called "W." Coincidentally, Yeon-Joo's father — Oh Seong-Moo — is the creator of the manhwa. Mad Dog (the boss) asks her to get him some spoilers for the upcoming edition of the webtoon. In her attempt to do so, she literally gets pulled into "W" and meets Chul, who has been beaten and stabbed. She goes into doctor mode and saves his life. But when people start asking who she is and how she got there, she realizes there is no way she can explain what is happening, because she doesn’t know either.
And then she disappears back into her real world.
I'll be honest. In the beginning, I didn't realize that Chul existed only in the comics. I thought that Yeon-Joo's father had created a webtoon based on the real-life exploits of the former Olympian, who was living in a different timeframe — kind of like in "Il Mare." When it came to light that he only existed as he was drawn, I was surprised (in a good way).
Kim Eui-Sung is superb as Oh Seong-Moo. An alcoholic whose career was resuscitated by the success of "W," he loses his purpose in life when he realizes he no longer has control over the webtoon's storyline. Rather, it has taken on a life of its own and he is shocked to see that his daughter is now traveling between the parallel universes.
Seong-Moo had absolute control over his manhwa characters' lives for almost a decade. It was only after his daughter entered that world that he began to worry about how his actions were affecting others. What happens when you try to alter free will?
In this case, absolute chaos.
The concept of this series is incredibly clever. Both lead actors are stunning to look at and the animation for this series is just as beautiful. The artists did a stellar job in capturing a world that mirrors the Seoul that Yeon-Joo lives in, with the panache that can be represented in a manhwa.
When her father is unable to draw, because he's under the control of the webtoon villain, Yeon-Joo takes over to try to save Chul's life.
We learn in a backstory that it was actually Yeon-Joo who came up with the concept of Chul -- her dream boy -- when she was a high school student.
Lee Tae-Hwan plays Chul's bodyguard, Seo Do-Yoon. I've only seen him in two roles so far, and each time he has successfully played characters much older than he is in real life. In "What's Wrong With Secretary Kim," he played Park Seo-Joon's older brother. Here, he plays Lee Jong-Suk's older bodyguard. He is younger than both actors by 6 and 5 years, respectively.
Not for nothing, but I thought a-ha's video for "Take On Me"— in which a young woman falls for a handsome cartoon man — was clever way back in the 1980's. It looks like childplay compared to what appears in "W":
Violence: This isn't a series to watch with young children. Characters are shot in the head, stabbed, beaten to a bloody pulp and tortured.
Airdates: Sixteen 70-minute episodes aired on MBC TV from July 20 to September 14, 2016.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
“Go Back Couple”
고백부부 ☆☆☆½
Ma Jin-Joo (played by Jang Na-ra)
Choi Ban-Do (played by Son Ho-jun)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
If you could go back to your past, would you? And, if so, what would you change?
That's the premise for "Go Back Couple," a thoroughly-enjoyable drama filled with charismatic leads and a plot that is both funny and touching -- especially for those of us who are already parents.
Jin-Joo and Ban-Do are tired. He works long hours selling pharmaceuticals to doctors who treat him like dirt. Jin-Joo is a stay-at-home mom who has no time to shower, much less use the toilet without a baby clinging to her.
Before I was married and became a mom, I used to think it was gross when my friends took their babies into the toilet with them. Why couldn't I just hold their child for them while they did their business?
Then, I became a mom and understood. When I literally locked my baby out of our bathroom (there was a baby gate outside to keep him safe!) for a minute so I could have a moment alone, his sobbing grew so intense that I thought my heart would split in half.💔I'm only slightly exaggerating here.
Back to the series. In the first episode, we see that Jin-Joo and Ban-Do have been married for 14 years and have a toddling baby. Jin-Joo wakes up on her wedding anniversary and ogles a pair of ear rings that surely must be for her. But it turns out that her husband bought them for a big client's wife, so that the doctor would remain as his customer.
Through much misunderstanding and lack of communication on both parties, Jin-Joo threatens Ban-Do with divorce. Frustrated at how they are both so unhappy, he agrees.
After throwing their wedding rings away, they wake up one morning separately. They have gone back 18 years in time and are now 20-year-old college students living back at home with their parents.
At first, they are ecstatic that they have their care-free youth back. They vow to meet and marry other partners and lead more satisfying lives. Jin-Joo also wants to remain in the past, because her mother is still alive during that time period.
But as the series progresses, they realize that if they remain in the past, they will never see their baby, Seo-Jin, again. And that's something that neither of them can bear.
"Go Back Couple" navigates the challenges of long-term relationships heartachingly well. Young people often think of love as something that is natural and should come easily. Love shouldn't be painful, but it requires work to maintain a healthy relationship.
Airdates: 12 episodes ran on KBS2 from October 13 to November 18, 2017.
Spoiler Alert: It isn't until they go back to the past that the couple talks about the difficulties each faced in their relationship. Ban-Do warns Jin-Joo that the 26-year-old med student who is pursuing her is one of his clients (in his middle-aged life), who married his wife because she is rich. He has a string of mistresses and is only interested in Jin-Joo as a plaything. Jin-Joo says they should prevent the rich girl from marrying this awful boy. She comes up with a scheme to pretend that her grandfather is a Samsung CEO and that she's richer than rich. Her theory is that the cheater will break up with his girlfriend to pursue Jin-Joo.
When Ban-Do is impressed with her plan, she tells him that he should never make fun of her watching K-Dramas -- that you can learn more from them than any self-help book. 😂 PREACH!
Both Jin-Joo and Ban-Do have the opportunity to see each other again through fresh eyes, before the mundane and difficult aspects of everyday life beat them down.
Before going back to their present lives, Jin-Joo talks to her mother one last time. Her mother says that she's not sure how this all happened, but that a parent dying first is the way life is meant to be. And that Seo-Jin needs her. She needs to get back to her baby. Hearing her mother say this provides Jin-Joo the strenth to let her go, knowing that she will never see her again.
TVXQ’s Yunho makes a cameo appearance as a handsome man who flattered Jin-Joo during her ajumma years. As it turns out, he flirted with all the women, hoping they would buy his merchandise.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
“Marry My Husband”
☆☆☆☆
Kang Ji-won (played by Park Min-young)
Yoo Ji-hyuk (played by Na In-woo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
Ji-won is just a mess. Meek and used to being overlooked by everyone except her bestie, she accepts her fate as the wife of a callous husband and the daughter-in-law of a witch of a woman who mistreats her. Work is no better. Her ideas are stolen and her weasel of a boss hates her because, among other things, she’s not pretty enough (in his sorry-ass opinion).
For instance, she will turn in work, which he throws back at her each time, telling her each version is worse than the previous one.
This reminded me of a teacher I had in high school. All students were required to take electric shop. No matter what I turned in, he would tell me to re-do it. My brother had been in his class a few years previously and told me that if I just kept re-submitting the same project without making any changes, he’d give me an A. And that's exactly what happened.
Like that teacher, Ji-won’s boss is on a power trip and enjoys creating drama when there isn’t any.
Before Ji-won can be liberated from her husband and boss, she has to free herself from her preconceived notions of herself. As I wrote in my TODAY.com review:
The K-drama queen Park Min-young plays a mousy woman who’s bullied by her cheating husband (Lee Yi-kyung) and gaslit by her best friend (Song Ha-yoon). She dies, but mysteriously wakes up a decade earlier. She figures out soon enough that she can change her destiny by transferring her misery to someone else. In this case, she needs to get another woman to marry the man she married. There is a subplot involving a wealthy and handsome man (Na In-woo), who has secrets of his own. But the best part of the series is watching our heroine use what she knows from the future to rectify her past and, by doing so, creating a life worth living.
Though Ji-won’s physical transformation is showcased with each new outfit change and makeup application, it’s really her inner self that was liberated from the shackles of the pathetic life she thought was the best she could ever have.
Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on tvN from January 1 to February 20, 2024. (I watched this on Prime Video.)
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
The King: Eternal Monarch”
더 킹: 영원의 군주 ☆☆½
“The King: Eternal Monarch” was Lee Min-Ho’s comeback drama after finishing his mandatory military service in 2019. Beautifully shot and well acted by the lead actors, the series nonetheless is a bit of a hot mess when it comes to the meandering plot.
The K-drama is set in two parallel universes where each person has a double. The Kingdom of Corea is a united country with its capitol located in Busan. The country is ruled by a monarch and a prime minister. The other universe is modern day South Korea.
As a child, Lee Gon witnessed his uncle kill his father, the King. Before his time-traveling uncle could kill the boy, he is rescued by someone not only from the future, but also a parallel universe.
It’s this incident that sends the now adult King Lee Gon on a mission to find his savior. But what he finds first is love with Tae-eul, a South Korean detective who is somehow tied to his childhood.
The series started off with great promise. But mid-way, I began to lose interest, because the storyline became repetitive. The overall series feels much longer than 16 episodes. I do think this could’ve worked better as a two-hour movie that cut out some of the superfluous minor characters.
Though Lee Min-Ho and Kim Go-Eun are wonderful as the couple that literally is separated across the universe, why didn’t they make better use of technology? Other time travelers carried two phones: one from their world, the other from the world they were traveling to. Why didn’t the King give Tae-eul a phone from his world so that they could talk to each other, even while separated?
Woo Do-Hwan added much needed levity in his dual role as the King’s fearless protector and a fraidy cat currently serving his mandatory military duty working for the police department. (I’m not clear how that works, to be honest.)
In order for the King and Tae-eul — who he has announced as his future Queen — to be together without death looming over their heads, his traitorous uncle has to be killed.
With “Descendants of the Sun,” “Mr. Sunshine” and “Goblin: The Lonely and Great God,” Kim Eun-sook has written some of the best K-dramas in recent years. (Lee starred in her 2013 series “The Heirs” as well.) Unfortunately, the actors could only do so much with “The King: Eternal Monarch,” which doesn’t live up to the promise of her earlier work.
Airdates: Sixteen episodes — ranging in the 75-minute range — aired on SBS from April 17 to June 12, 2020.
Spoiler Alert: Early on, the series implies that the young Lee Gon was saved from being killed by Luna, Tae-eul’s doppelgänger in the Kingdom of Corea. But he was saved by … his grown up self.
ETA: A reader said she and her boyfriend made a diagram of who’s who and what’s happening when. It’s actually very helpful in keeping track of the goings on.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
“Again My Life”
어게인 마이 라이프 ☆☆☆
I loved this show until the finale, which didn't tie up some major plot points that had been delved into for almost the entire series. Whyyyyy?
#SonOfJae refers to Hee-Woo — the character played by Lee Joon-Gi — as someone everyone is in love with. Kind of like Vincenzo in that titular series. And he's right. Handsome, charming, smart and an expert martial artist, Hee-Woo is the entire package.
This isn't really a spoiler because it happens at the start of the series and is addressed in the trailers etc. but be forewarned ... Hee-Woo dies early on and is somehow given the chance to go back in time and get revenge on his nemesis, corrupt political manipulator Cho Tae-Sub, who apparently has all of South Korea under his despotic thumb.
Cho is portrayed by Lee Geung-Young, who was arrested in 2002 for the prostitution of a minor and was banned by some Korean networks from appearing on their shows. Apparently, the Korean entertainment industry has forgiven him and he has been cast in a slew of prominent recentish K-dramas ("Hyena," "Vagabond," "Misaeng: Incomplete Life" and "Vincenzo" — though I honestly don't remember him at all from the latter) where he basically plays the same role: the seemingly kindly old man who's the brains behind some diabolical plot. I suppose his real-life baggage serves the necessary purpose of making viewers recoil at the sight of him. Or the Korean showrunners honestly don't care about the trafficking of underage girls.
Anyhow, just as in the present (where Hee-Woo died), Cho Tae-Sub in the past is a formidable and dirty foe, who stops at nothing to get his way.
While the thrust of the story is between those two, some of the most intriguing storylines center on poverty, social injustice, the elite and the manipulation of the downtrodden. One of the series' most sympathetic characters is an elderly gentleman who has made a small fortune buying foreclosed property. But no one seems bothered much that he then kicks out desperate and indigent tenants to support his bottom line.
I'll talk a bit more about this series in the Spoiler Alert below. And then it's back to sleep for me. But to sum it up, this compelling series ended on a flat note. The finale is kind of like being promised a delicious gourmet dinner and being served stale fast food instead. It's edible, but hard to digest.
Airdates: Sixteen episodes — each between 60- and 70-minutes long — aired on SBS from April 8 to May 28, 2022.
Spoiler Alert: The ending seems to hint at a second season to come. But let's deal with what we've got.
Near the start of the series, Hee-Woo is killed by Cho Tae-Sub's robocop-like henchman who is seemingly indestructible. He is brought back to life by a woman in red, who we later learn is Cho Tae-Sub's trusted assistant. She and the henchman are siblings who almost died decades ago during an orphanage fire, but were miraculously rescued by Cho. Coincidence? Nope. His staff committed arson so he could rescue them and appear to be a hero.
I expected the finale to tie up a few things, but no such luck. For instance, how did she morph from Cho Tae-Sub's assistant into an omnipotent being who's able to revive the dead? Just howwwwww???!!! Why does her brother have no memory of her? Was it from the trauma of the fire? Why did Cho trust her to be his assistant but turn him into a killer?
And this one caught me by surprise: Cho knew about Hee-Woo's having been given a second chance at life. But how did he know this? And if he knew all this, why wasn't he better at thwarting Hee-Woo's strategy to take him down?
Honestly, the finale was a disappointment to a series that deserved better.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
"Sisyphus"
시지프스 ☆☆½
Gang Seo-Hae (played by Park Shin-Hye)
Han Tae-Sul (played by Cho Seung-Woo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.
"Sisyphus" has an intriguing premise. Tae-Sul is a cocky genius inventor who's indebted to his older brother, Tae-San (Heo Jeon-Seok). After their parents die, the young orphans fend for themselves, with Tae-San sacrificing his own future to work and educate his little brother. Seo-Hae is a kickass young woman from the future, whose goal is to stop Tae-Sul from inventing a time travel machine, which will ultimately result in South Korea being annihilated from Earth.
The series starts off strong, with some awesome fight scenes, courtesy of Park Shin-Hye, and a compelling storyline that keeps viewers engaged. But the second half of the series loses momentum, as prominent characters disappear and new ones appear to chew up the scenery.
Cho Seung-Woo plays his part with easy charm, turning his Tae-Sul into a combination of Stephen Hawking and MacGyver, with a bit of a petulant brat thrown into the mix. And Park is steely perfection, especially when delivering her punches and signature line, "꺼져" (get lost)!
As with many time travel stories, you have to suspend your belief in reality to really enjoy this production. And it's the plot holes — not the acting or CGI — that mar "Sisyphus." The characters travel back and forth though dimensions at a dizzying pace, which can make it difficult to keep track of which era they're in. Present day? 2020? 2032? Somewhere in between?
Still, the chemistry between the lead actors is warm and believable. And Seo-Hae's take-charge attitude rubs off on Tae-Sul, which makes him not only more likeable, but also more relatable than when we are first introduced to him.
Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired from February 17 to April 8, 2021 on JTBC.
Spoiler Alert: Tae-Sul's tormenter is Sigma (played by the wonderful actor Kim Byung-Chul), who had been his elementary school classmate. Abused at home and a loner, he grows up shunned by society and unable to eke out a living as an artist. Because he believes no one has ever shown him kindness, he hatches a plan to destroy Korea with nuclear bombs from the future. He plays a game of cat and mouse with Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae throughout the series, which ends with a non-ending. (Tae-Sul and Seo-Hae literally fly off happily into the sunset.)
Meanwhile, a seemingly rehabilitated Sigma stares into a mirror, making it clear that he still has vengeance on his mind. He's not the only nemesis, though. Tae-Sul ultimately is betrayed by his best friend, Eddy (Tae In-Ho), whose jealousy of his genius friend rivals that of Sigma's.
As for Tae-San, we have no idea what dimension he is stuck in ... or if he's even alive. Since reuniting with and saving his brother was one of Tae-Sul's raison d'être, it felt incomplete that the writers didn't give viewers closure in this subplot.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
“Tomorrow, With You”
내일 그대와 ☆☆½
"Tomorrow, With You" is Lee Je-Hoon's second consecutive K-Drama that deals with elements of time travel. In the superb 2016 crime procedural "Signal," he played a police profiler, who works with a detective from a different dimension to hunt down a serial killer. And in this series, Lee portrays a man who — after escaping a near-death experience — is able to transport back and forth into the future via the ... subway (as in the train, not the sandwich chain).
During his numerous trips into the future, So-Joon sees wonderous things that allow him to purchase land that makes his real estate company millions of dollars. But he also forsees his own death, as well as that of a woman who's a bit of a hot mess.
Song Ma-Rin is a former child star, who has been unable to parlay that fame into anything notable in her adulthood. The series never explains why strangers recognize — and mock — her where ever she goes. Since she was a one-hit wonder who stopped acting in her youth, what is it about her that makes her identifiable as a 30something?
The only ones who know about So-Joon's secret are his best friend and Doo-Sik — an older gentleman who suggests that marrying Ma-Rin and having children with her could protect both their futures.
Say what? Never mind. They get married and are actually quite the sweet couple.
The series has so many wonderful elements — especially the adorable chemistry between the two leads. But the frustrating part was watching just about everyone in the series keep integral secrets from each other in an attempt to change — and protect — their future.
Ma-Rin says it best when she tells him to stop worrying about the future and what might happen and, instead, enjoy what they have together now.
Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on tvN from February 3 to March 25, 2017.
Spoiler Alert: So-Joon and Ma-Rin were both passengers on the same train — but they got off a stop before a freak accident killed all the passengers, including So-Joon's parents. We find out near the end of the series that Ma-Rin's estranged father, Doo-Sik (Jo Han-Chul), had been on the train as well. But when he saw his daughter, he followed them off the train.
Which begs the question: Why are the men able to time travel, but not Ma-Rin?
So-Joon and Doo-Sik both know how Ma-Rin will die. Yes, telling her would've freaked her out. But not telling her just created a mess that could've been prevented. There is a whole subplot with one of So-Joon's disgruntled employees set on killing everyone who gets in his way. He kills So-Joon's de factor father figure and, according to the future, will kill Ma-Rin next.
Why let the murderer go when they had their chance to have him locked away for a different crime (embezzlement)? When they know that the latter will kidnap Ma-Rin, why not stay with her on the day it's supposed to happen? Instead, So-Joon sends her home in a cab by herself -- and she is kidnapped.
The ending is bittersweet. Just as So-Joon and Doo-Sik had witnessed in the future, Ma-Rin is about to be hit by a car. So-Joon goes after her to protect her. But neither dies. With moments to spare, Doo-Sik drives his car into the pathway of the vehicle that was destined to kill his daughter and son-in-law -- and dies in the process. His action changed the future, as the ending's flash forward showed.
© 2024 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
ICYMI:
° Go Away With … IVE (Tribune Publishing)
° The real loss in "Past Lives" isn't love (Salon)
° The best time travel K-dramas — and why there are so many of them (TODAY.com)
° Exploration of unrequited gay love in K.Will’s MV (Substack)
° Korean diaspora’s blended identity [I was quoted in this Huffington Post essay]
I like revenge dramas mixed with the time travel theme. Reborn Rich and Marry My Husband were both good that way. I thought Lovely Runner was very enjoyable. Two cute protagonists, trying to fix something in an older timeline. Lots of questions on how the watch worked. W is very creative. I liked that slip into a parallel universe of webtoons.
Just rewatched Lovely Runner and was wondering if Jae Ha Kim had wrote something on it, haha. Tbh I love to watch time travel media, sci-fi specifically, and even tho Lovely Runner was quite frustrating at times and had a few loop holes iirc, it ended up being my favorite K-drama from 2024.