The Time We Were Not in Love (2015)

Ladies, if a male friend confesses his feelings to you, and you to do not return them, the best thing you can do is to tell him to “F--- off!” Do not sugar coat it, be as blunt as possible. The worst thing you can do is tell him that you want to be “JUST FRIENDS!” Those are the two words most young men dread to hear (they are the ultimate kick in the nuts The only phrase that hurts more is “You’re like a brother to me.”)  This may seem harsh, but you will be doing him a favor in the long term – he can move on with his life and it will save you from being put in an awkward situation later on. Just keeping him around can give him false hope that you might change your mind.

The Time We Were Not in Love is simultaneously a fascinating and frustrating romantic comedy that highlights the problems of being “just friends” with the woman you are in love with. Ha Ji-won and Lee Jin-wook star as Oh Ha-na and Choi Won, two best friends since high school, who live next door to each other, and are both 34 years-old and single. Oh Ha-na leads the marketing team of Tandy, a shoe company.  Choi Won is an airline attendant and trains all the new hires. Oh Ha-na still lives with her parents and younger brother while Choi Won lives with his older cousin, Choi Mi-hyang, who is the head attendant at the airline.

Choi Won has been in love with Oh Ha-na for seventeen years but has never confessed his feelings, for various reasons which I will get into later. He has settled on being “just friends” with her. The problem is that his entire world revolves around Oh Ha-na – his blind devotion to her has sabotaged potential relationships with other women and career opportunities. One of those potential relationships is Lee So-eun, a young, pretty airline attendant who takes an instant liking to Choi Won. She throws out all the signals, but Choi Won just shrugs her off. Initially it seems that Choi Won might give Lee So-eun a chance – they go on a few dates together – but eventually his devotion to Oh Ha-na gets in the way.  In fact, the few times So-eun and him go out together, he spends most of the time talking about Oh Ha-na. This is a good example of “this happens because the script says so” logic – the only reason Choi Won rejects Lee So-eun is because the script needs him to be single for the story to play out. Even after Oh Ha-na gets back together with her ex-fiancé, Cha Seo-hoo, Won still ignores Lee So-eun. It is irritating!  “I must be there for Oh Ha-na just when she gets hurt.”

He is also given a golden opportunity to advance his career – he is selected to do overseas training that will likely result in a promotion. The catch – he will be gone for two years. His immediate response after hearing the news, “What about Oh Ha-na?” ARRRRRGHHHHHH!!!  Again, this is a golden opportunity to advance his career and since Oh Ha-na is getting googly eyed over her ex-fiancé there is honestly no reason for Choi Won to stay in South Korea. His cousin, Mi-hyang, even points out his moronic behavior but he won’t listen to reason and rejects the offer. This leads to conflicting emotions – he can’t leave Oh Ha-na because he loves her so much, but he also can’t be with her because…uh…..reasons. In high school, he flat out told Oh Ha-na that he would never fall in love with her, which naturally confused the teenaged Ha-na. I initially believed that there would be one of two reasons for this rejection – he was about to confess his feelings to Oh Ha-na when he overheard her talking shit about him to her female friends, or it was due to “noble stupidity.” It turned out neither was the answer – Won told Ha-na he “would never love her” as a form of punishment. In high school, one of his best friends, Dae-yeon, fancied Ha-na and asked Won to give her a letter. Won agreed to deliver the letter but his jealousy got the better of him and he kept it in his backpack. His best friend was later killed in a car accident and Won was so consumed with guilt that, as penance, he vowed never to get romantically involved with Ha-na. MORON!!!  

One, it is stupid of Won to spend nearly two decades punishing himself over an immature act he did in high school. It never occurred to him that by constantly pushing away Ha-na he was also hurting her feelings. Two, it is extremely inconsiderate and rude of Dae-yeon to use Won as his own personal delivery service. He is also taking advantage of Won's friendship with Ha-na to hook up with her. This is the logic that is at work, “If Won, Ha-na's best friend, gives her my letter, she will believe I am an alright guy.” Plus, Dae-yeon could have bypassed the middleman and just gave Ha-na the letter himself.

 Personate note: When I was in college, I was working at North Shore Cinemas, and this female customer gave me her phone number and then asked me to give to it to my handsome co-worker. In a span of a second, I went from being elated (“A GIRL GAVE ME HER NUMBER!” to being completely destroyed. After she walked away, I tossed it in the garbage. I should point out that my handsome co-worker was in a happy relationship with an attractive girlfriend, who he later married and had kids with. The female staff at North Shore also had the hots for my handsome male co-worker and, because they knew I was friends with him, they would frequently walk up to me and asks me questions about him. I would always shoot them down by saying, “He has a girlfriend!” They would then bash his girlfriend (who they didn’t know) and say things like, “He could do so much better!” So, I can actually relate to Won in this scene – it always annoyed me when people tried to use me as the middleman for their workplace romances.

This begs the question: If the goal was to punish himself, why the hell did live next door to Ha-na for the last seventeen years? There is the old saying “Out of sight, out of mind.” Won could have easily moved to another part of the country and put Ha-na out of his mind. Hell, he works at an airline, which means it would be easy for him to transfer to another airport.  Instead, he opted to live next door to the woman he has deep feelings for (but won’t confess them) and allow his jealously to get the better of him when he sees her with another man. He can’t be with her, but he can’t live without her. IDIOT!!!!  Don’t listen to movies/television, there is nothing romantic about unrequited love. It is painful!

Though, Oh Ha-na is no better! It should be obvious to her that Won has feelings for her, but she is either stupid or deliberately chooses to ignore them. What’s worse is that she is totally dependent on Won - every time she encounters any hardship, she immediately runs to him. She knows everything about Won, except the fact that he is in love with her. In the seventeen years they have been friends, it has never occurred to her set boundaries with Oh Ha-na. Like when he gets involved in her love life, maybe tell him to mind his own business. 

It is established early on that Ha-na is a poor judge of character – especially when it comes to men.  In the first episode, Ha-na finds out that her boyfriend (and co-worker), Yoo Jo-hoon, is two-timing her with another co-worker, Yoon Min-ji. He tells Ha-na that he is going to marry Min-ji, because he got her pregnant. This shatters Ha-na’s world but rather than use this as a chance to self-reflect, she almost immediately jumps into another relationship. Won and her make a bet with each other – whomever gets married before the age of 35 owes the other one five thousand dollars. The opportunity for both of them to find a significant other immediately presents itself – Won meets So-eun and Ha-na finds herself attracted to an intern, Ki Sung-jae, who is nine years her junior. They even become the subject of rumors in the workplace – Ha-na’s co-workers accuse her of seducing Sung-jae. She invites Sung-jae to go on an overnight business trip and it looks like they might spend the night together until Ha-na overhears him on the phone with his mother – it turns out he was only using Ha-na to get a full-time job at the company.  Ha-na is heartbroken and then calls up Won so he can take her home.

Won accurately points out that she falls in love too easily – all it took for her to fall for Sung-jae was for him to get close to her, whisper a few empty nothings, and make the occasional chivalrous gesture (like offering her his umbrella during a heavy rainstorm).  If she hadn’t overheard the phone call, chances are she would have slept with Sung-jae that night. This leads to an interesting dichotomy between Ha-na and Won – she is too trusting, and he is too cautious, both extremes lead to misery. I also find it interesting that show abandons its initial premise – the bet between Ha-na and Won is immediately forgotten about. Again, this would be a golden opportunity for Ha-na to take a break from dating and figure out what she wants to do with her life, instead she decides to get back together with her ex-fiancé, Cha Seo-hoo, the man who abandoned her three years earlier.

The Cha Seo-hoo character is the absolute worst – he is a famous pianist, who has return to Korea for two reasons: to play a couple of show and to get back together with Ha-na. It turns out that Ha-na’s company is sponsoring the tour and, since she is team leader of the marketing department, that means the two of them will be working together. At first, Ha-na is adamant that she will not get back together with Seo-hoo, but eventually she can’t help fall for his charms, despite the best efforts from Won, and her female friends, to dissuade from going down that path. She decides to give him the benefit of the doubt and believes he is being sincere with his efforts. Cha Seo-hoo is the maestro of gaslighting – he even manages to blame Won for him abandoning Ha-na. Seo-hoo put Ha-na in an embarrassing situation – he failed to show up at their engagement party and this left Ha-na feeling dejected. Won, acting as a true friend, did his best to cheer her up. Well, it turns out that Seo-hoo did show up to party, but he was extremely late – by the time he arrived all the other guests have left, and the only two people remaining were Ha-na and Won. When Seo-hoo saw Won trying to comfort Ha-na this made him jealous, and he ran away. Yes, Seo-hoo cites Ha-na seeking comfort in Won’s arms as the reason he left. Of course, the only reason she was seeking comfort in the first place was because Seo-hoo failed to show up to their engagement party. Won did want any true friend would have done in that situation. Also, if Seo-hoo was going to be late for their engagement party, why didn’t he call Ha-na and let her know? It is implied that the reason he was late was because he was fooling around with his agent, Min Ji-soo. I say implied, because this plot thread is never truly resolved – when Seo-hoo is acting up, Ji-soo threatens to reveal the real reason he was late to his own engagement party, and that is last time we hear about it.

Given how I have spent the last few paragraphs dunking on the two leads, you would probably believe that I disliked the characters and the show but, I assure you, that is not the case. Most of my complaints are reserved for the first half of the series, because in the second half the characters, and the show, manage to redeem themselves. The event that triggers the change is when Won decides to take a month’s long vacation overseas. He finally works up the courage to tell Ha-na how he feels about her, but she basically rejects him. The timing is all wrong – at this point in the series Ha-na has a lot on her plate – Seo-hoo has come back in to her life and her work has been complete chaos; a project that she had spent years working on has been taken away from her, and she is constantly bickering with the design team, whose team leader, Hwang Bit-na, keeps spreading rumors about Ha-na. So, it is not surprising that she is overwhelmed by Won’s confession. Won, to his credit, realizes he has put her in an awkward situation and then suggests they spend a month apart from each other, so they can clear their thoughts and figure out things for themselves. When Won comes back a month later, he learns that Ha-na has gotten back together with Seo-hoo. In one of the oddest decisions made by the showrunners, Ha-na and Seo-hoo get back together offscreen. I think the writers recognized their relationship wasn’t very convincing and resorted to the good old “time jump” trope to explain Ha-na and Seo-hoo’s reconciliation. Also, it seems the real reason Ha-na got back together with Seo-hoo was that she was lonely and, on impulse, believed it was better to be with Seo-hoo than be alone.

Nostalgia also plays a role in her decision to get back together with Seo-hoo - she openly admits that when Seo-hoo came back into her life, she could only remember the good times they had together. Their relationship is doomed from the beginning – Seo-hoo believes that they could pick up from where they left off but then is shocked to learn that Ha-na is a different person. In their previous relationship, she had a slavish devotion to Seo-hoo, this time she is more assertive and calls him out on his bullshit. Seo-hoo constantly goes behind Ha-na’s back – he shows up at her house and begs her parents for their approval. He even tells him that he plans to marry Ha-na. Her parents, and her younger brother, are less than thrilled that she got back together with Seo-hoon, so imagine their shock when they learn he wants to marry their daughter (after abandoning her for three years). Despite Ha-na’s insistence to her friends that she is happy, her facial expressions and body language tell a different story. She always looks uncomfortable around Seo-hoo, but rather than admit that it was a mistake to get back together with him, she tries to force herself into loving him, which makes her even more miserable. She finally comes to her senses and breaks it off with Seo-hoo – largely because she, rightfully, resents him trying to interfere in her life. Plus, it is apparent that she truly loves Won – the look of joy on her face after he comes back from his month-long vacation says it all.   

Seo-hoo resorts to one last Hail Mary to win Ha-na back – Ha-na is given the opportunity to train in the Paris branch of Tandy for one year. This would take her one step closer to her goal of being a global marketer. This also comes after Won and her have officially become a couple, so she is hesitant to go, but Won encourages her to go – as he says, the most important thing is that they have finally revealed their feelings for each other, and they can afford to be apart for year (after waiting seventeen years to get together). Plus, they can always talk with each other online and, since Won works for the airline, he will be able to visit her frequently. It seems like Ha-na is going to leave for Paris when she learns, from Seo-hoo’s agent, that the only reason she was considered for the Paris training is because Seo-hoo recommended her to the company. When she confronts Seo-hoo about this, he admits it. Seo-hoo lives, and first met Ha-na, in Paris and hoped that by separating her from Won, he could win her back by appealing to nostalgia. Even though this is golden opportunity, Ha-na turns it down – because this is opportunity was not earned but given to her. She still has pride and doesn’t want handouts.  This is the final nail in coffin with her relationship with Seo-hoo.

Won returns from his vacation a changed man – he  gives Ha-na her space and, even though he doesn’t approve of her dating Seo-hoo, he doesn’t try to talk her out of it, either. He realizes that scolding Ha-na will not make her change her mind – it is best she figures things out for herself.  Won is a film buff and his original aspiration was to be a film director – he gave up this dream when he realized he didn’t have the talent for it (though, there is plenty of evidence that refutes his claim). Though, I did find it odd that a film buff like Won would have the poster for the 1998 remake of Psycho hanging on his wall – one of the greatest abominations in cinema history. He has other Hitchcock memorabilia hanging on his wall, so how could a film fan like him not know the difference between the poster for the original film and the 1998 remake?

Any ways, back to the review…. In high school, Won wrote a scenario for one of his classes that was heavily praised by his teacher. The scenario was based on his relationship with Ha-na – it was about the first time they kissed, albeit accidentally. The lights had gone off in the library and Won, while trying to find Ha-na, accidentally kissed her on the lips. This made her heart flutter. Won never finished the scenario – he ended it on a cliff hanger (“I will never love you.”)  He bumps into the teacher on a flight and his teacher tells Won that he still has the scenario. The teacher later dies from cancer and Won, Ha-na, and their other high school friends, show up to pay their respects. The teacher’s son is grateful for the kindness Won showed his father during the flight and he returns the scenario to Won – he also gives Ha-na and the other students pictures that his father took of them during their high school years.

Won tells Ha-na about the scenario and she asks to read it. Meanwhile, Won is inspired to finish the scenario and starts to write again. After she finishes reading Won’s script, she finally understands why Won rejected her in high school. Ha-na has always loved Won but his constant rejections left her with no choice but to seek affection elsewhere. The two of them are FINALLY on the same wavelength and confess their love for one another. This makes all the people around them happy – Ha-na’s parents spent years trying to convince her to marry Won. Ha-na was initially hesitant to get romantically involved with Won – one, she was still getting over her break up with Seo-hoo and she needed time to sort out her feelings. Two, if her relationship with Won fails, there is that risk of losing her best friend. However, after reading Won’s scenario and thinking it over, she realizes that he is the only one for her. There is even a nice pay off for Won’s scenario – Ha-na’s younger brother, Dae-bok, comes across the scenario in his older sister’s room and adapts it into a webtoon, and it becomes a huge success – to the point that is being adapted into a movie.

I mentioned before how Won believed that he didn’t have the talent to be a movie director, but the all the visual evidence proves quite the opposite. In fact, the reason why Dae-bok was inspired to adapt Won’s scenario into a webtoon was because Won encouraged him to start drawing again. Dae-bok spends most of the series living an aimless existence – he spends most of his time playing video games and lazing about the about the house. After he falls in love with Hong Eun-jung, who is Ha-na’s subordinate at Tandy, he is determined to change for the better – he initially gets a job at a convenience store, but the pay isn’t very good, and he wants to be financially secure before he marries Eun-jung. After Won’s encouragement, he drops everything and spends days working on the webtoon – he is so focused on the webtoon that he misses Eun-jung’s calls. After endless hours of hard work, he emerges from his room triumphant. The webtoon becomes a hit and he makes amends with Eun-jung, but had it not been for Won’s encouragement, he probably would have continued working at the convenience store.

Won is also well liked at the airline, especially by the trainees – he is incredibly patient with all the new hires and communicates with them in a clear, straight forward manner. Later, he takes part in a training program in Paris and shows that he is adept at communicating in different languages. He is able to diffuse tensions on the airplane – an obnoxious woman passenger keeps insisting to So-eun to let her antsy dog out of its kennel, even though it violates regulations. The woman keeps berating So-eun and even plays the “Don’t you know who I am?” card. So-eun is still wet behind the ears and doesn’t know what to do – she is about the open the kennel but Won intervenes. He is able to silence the dog by picking up the kennel and walking it around the airplane, while talking to it softly. This pleases the woman passenger and the day is saved. At another point, an obnoxious male passenger who insist So-eun pat his bald head to bring down a fever but Won intervenes and tells So-eun she is need somewhere else. He saves So-eun from an awkward situation without it devolving into a huge scene. Later, he is invited to attend Alumni Day at his old high school. He has a lively Q & A session with the students and offers advice and words of encouragement. All these examples I have listed prove that Won would have been an ideal film director – he not only knows how to give instructions, but also how to make people feel comfortable.

There are the usual “B” and “C” subplots that solely exist to pad the show’s running time. The romance between Dae-bok and Eun-jung is pleasant enough. It gives Dae-bok a nice character arc and the actress who plays Eun-jung, Bae Woo-hee, is extremely cute. It’s not groundbreaking television but it doesn’t get in the way of the proceedings, either. The “C” plot – the romance between Choi Mi-hyang and Seo-hoo’s mentor, pianist Park Jong-hoon is less successful. The problem is that Jong-hoon is introduced so late into the proceedings that he barely registers as a character – there are multiple incidents where he popped up on screen and I forgot who he was. Mi-hyang isn’t aware of his existence until she sees him in concert. The two of them later bump into the street where Mi-hyang, in a half-awake state, acts rude to him after he accidentally bumps into her. Later that afternoon, Jong-hoon is giving out autographs to fans and Mi-hyang shows up – he immediately recognizes her and ribs her about their encounter earlier. He autographs her CD and writes his number on the inside of the CD.  The relationship is defined by Jong-hoon’s devil may care attitude and Mi-hyang constantly getting annoyed with him. These scenes might have worked if more time had been spent on developing their relationship, but it feels contrived – the writers desperately needed to something to do with Mi-hyang, so they introduced Jong-hoon and got her pregnant. I like the actress who plays Mi-hyang, Jin Kyung, but she is often let down by the material given her (she was better served in The Innocent Man).

There are a few clever directorial and writing touches scattered throughout the series; there are multiple times there is a close up of Won and Ha-na's feet and they are in step with one another - the perfectly foreshadows the ending of the series when they finally confess their love for one another. They also have a habit of bumping into each other at the popular hang outs. They later make a pact with each to avoid familiar places for a week and walk in different routes; the idea is if they bump into other then it is fate at work. Won even walks in the opposite direction of Ha-na and he still manages to bump into her at a park. In East Asian culture, it is believed that two people destined to be lovers are bound together by an invisible red thread; this seems to be the case with Ha-na and Won - they always find one another regardless of the distance that separates them. They are inevitable. 

The show, thankfully, avoids the mistake of waiting until the end of the very last episode to couple up Won and Ha-na – the final two episodes are devoted entirely to Won and Ha-na being a couple, and they are easily the two best episodes in the entire show. They are so good that they nearly redeem the entire first half of the series. This is because of incredibly chemistry between Ha Ji-won and Lee Jin-wook. In fact, the ending is bittersweet to me – why did we have to endure so many awkward episodes of Lee Seo-hoo dating Ha-na, when we could have had more of Won and Ha-na?  In my alternate universe, Ha-na kicks Seo-hoo to the curb after Won confesses his feelings to her, and the second half of the series centers entirely around her relationship with Won. Along with Shin Min-ah (who I will talk about in later review) Ha Ji-won is becoming one of my favorite actresses. She has the ability to adapt to different genres – she has acted in romantic comedies, historical dramas, disaster spectacles, actions movies, and suspense thrillers, and never misses a beat. She also doesn’t age; she was 37-years-old when she made this drama but convincingly plays a teenaged Ha-na in flashbacks. I will also point out that many of the projects she has starred in are often unworthy of her talents, but her presence livens up the proceedings (the Charlie’s Angels knock off, The Huntresses, is a great example of this).

This is the third time that I have written about Lee Jin-wook (he also appeared in I Need Romance 2012 and Doona). Like Ha Ji-won, he is becoming another favorite actor of mine. Though, Won is very similar to the character he played in I Need Romance 2012, Yoon Seok-hyun. Both characters live next to door to lead female; have been in love with the lead female since they were teenagers; and push away the lead female because of a stupid personal reason. The only difference is that Seok-hyun actually dated Yeol-mae while Won keeps his feelings hidden from Ha-na. A show that best showcases Lee Jin-wook’s talents is the time traveling drama, Nine. It is a terrific series but I’m hesitant to write a review because it would be the length of a novel.  I also enjoyed The Time We Were Not in Love significantly more than I Need Romance 2012; the lead characters often make questionable decisions, but they didn’t annoy me as much as the characters in I Need Romance 2012.

If you plan on watching The Time We Were Not in Love, I recommend you forward through the Ha-na/Seo-hoo scenes (except when she breaks up with him) and soak in all the Ha-na/Won scenes. Seo-hoo will annoy you (though, I’m sure there is a fringe element out there that ships Ha-na and Seo-hoo), while watching Won and Ha-na together will bring a smile to your face. The one downside to this show is that it might give a false sense of hope to a poor bastard who has been friend zoned by a female. He will watch the show and think, "Well, Won waited seventeen years for Ha-na and the two of them got eventually got married. If I just wait patiently by Vicki's side, I will eventually be given my turn." DON'T FALL FOR IT!!!! Once a woman has imprisoned you in the FRIEND ZONE, you will never escape it. It is extremely rare for a woman to change her mind. You have a better chance of winning the lottery than you have of a woman releasing you from the Friend Zone. If you look like Lee Jin-wook, then you might have a chance. 

Cast: Ha Ji-won (Oh Ha-na), Lee Jin-wook (Choi Won), Yoon Kyun-sang (Cha Seo-hoo), Choo Soo-hyun (Lee So-eun), Jin Kyung (Choi Mi-hyang), Shin Jung-geun (Oh  Jung-geun, Ha-na’s father), Seo Ju-hee (Kim Soo-mi, Ha-na’s mother), Lee Joo-seung (Oh Dae-bok, Ha-na’s younger brother), Kang Rae-yeon (Kang Na-young), Bae Woo-hee (Hong Eun-jung, Dae-bok’s girlfriend), Kim Myung-soo (Ki Sung-jae), Choi Jung-won (Joo Ho-joon, Ha-na’s two timing boyfriend), Go Won-hee (Yoon Min-ji, Ho-joon’s wife), Woo Hyun (Byun Woo-sik), Hong In-young (Hwang Bit-na), Park Doo-shik (Eun Dae-yoon), Seo Joo-hee (Kim Soo-mi), Park Tam-hee (Min Ji-soo), Lee Ah-rin (Jung Mi), Jeon Jae-hyung (Chang Soo), Park Jong-hoon (Pianist Park Jong-hoon), Choi Dae-chul (Mr. Yoon, Seo-hoo’s manager).

Director: Jo Soo-won
Writers: Jung Do-yoon, Lee Ha-na. (Based on: In Time with You by Mag Hsu)
16 episodes ~ 60 minutes

Doona! (2023)

 

One of the biggest inconveniences to befall humanity is the inability to control who you fall in love with. We are often haunted by the "what ifs" and lament "the one who got away."  But you can’t help who you fall in love with, even if that person might prove to be a bad match for you. In Doona, college sophomore, Lee Won-jun, would probably been better off dating Kim Jin-ju (his high school crush), because they not only have a shared history but the same values.  However, while he likes Jin-ju, she no longer makes his heart flutter and, instead, he falls hopeless in love with Lee Doo-na, a former idol who went into hiding after a disastrous performance with her girl group, Dream Sweet.

Doona often feels like the second season of a series – it begins when Doo-na has reached her lowest point. The first season would focus on her rise and fall, and the second season would focus on her redemption. We get a few flashbacks to Doo-na’s time as an idol – she was the face of the girl group, Dream Sweet, much to chagrin of the other members. She also carried the group – when the remaining members attempt a comeback without Doon-a, it ends in complete failure. The pressure of having to carry her group, and having to deal with the media, fans, and haters, eventually proved to be too much for Doo-na and she had a panic attack onstage. She lost the ability to sing. The anti-fans used her meltdown as useful ammo and successfully turned the public against her. It also didn’t help that her mother was busted defrauding fans out of millions of dollars. Her agent (and crush) Park In-wook puts her up in a share house and tells her to lay low until he can contact her.

The anti-fans are one of the fascinating (and toxic) elements of K-pop. These are people who are more dedicated to bashing a group they don’t like than supporting their favorite group. They will often troll the fan sites and leave all sorts of derogatory comments. They will often scour the internet in hopes of find some dirt on their hated group and post an out of context video that supposedly show these idols behaving badly (the most famous incident were the videos that allegedly show T-ara bullying Ryu Hwa-young). 

It just so happens that Won-jun moves into the share house – he is an engineering major, who is in his sophomore year of college, and moves to Seoul so he no longer has to commute from home. His best friend from his hometown, Song Tae-rim, runs a seafood restaurant and is a huge fan of Lee Doo-na – he has her picture hanging from the rearview mirror in his car.  When Won-jun moves into the share house, he recognizes Doo-na but can’t quite place her face. This leads to multiple occasions where Doo-na catches him looking at her and she, understandably, believes he is a stalker. Therefore, Won-jun’s first few interactions with Doo-na are not pleasant ones. When she isn’t accusing him of being a stalker, she flat out dismisses him. He finally puts two and two together and promises Doo-na that he will no longer look at her – he even puts up curtains in the window of his second-floor room to avoid the temptation of looking down at her (she lives on the first floor). 

Doo-na is a hot mess – she spends most of her time chain smoking, eating junk food, staring at her cellphone, waiting for In-wook's call, and watching television. She lacks direction in life and is on the path to self-destruction. One night, Won-jun comes home from the university and finds Doo-na sitting outside in the cold, without a jacket and in sandals with socks, staring at her phone. When he tries to get her back into the house, she passes out. It is his quick action (he calls an ambulance) that ends up saving her life. While Doo-na is in the hospital, he looks after her and even buys her a pair of socks for her to wear. After this incident, it is Doo-na who starts stalking Won-jun – she always knocks on his door and asks if he wants to get something to eat. She even shows up at his classroom, sits next to him during a lecture, and asks him if he wants to grab something to eat. Won-jun’s classmates recognize Doo-na and this leads to all sorts of gossip.

Won-jun’s feelings towards Doo-na are conflicted – it is obvious that he is interested in her (most dudes would be) but he still has feelings for Jin-ju, who has come back into his life. They attend the same university and Woo-jun runs into her at the bus station. Jin-ju was Won-jun’s high school crush. They were the two top students at their high school and were inseparable – to the point where their classmates suspected they were secretly dating. Finally, after months of speculation, Won-jun finally confessed his feelings to Jin-ju and…she rejected him (well, kind of). After he told Jin-ju he liked her, she cut off all communication with him. However, it turns out that Jin-ju didn’t reject Won-jun, she just didn’t have the courage to act on her feelings. She had a huge crush on Won-jun and when he confessed his feelings to her, she was initially elated. Her euphoric state quickly transformed into absolute dread, because she was afraid of her father’s potential reaction. What further sealed the deal for her is when she got home, she walked in on her strict father chopping off her sister’s hair, because he found out she was seeing a guy. To avoid the chopping block, Jin-ju decided to cut off all communications with Won-jun. Her father is the type of man who would scold his daughter for “fooling around with guys” and then later scold her for not giving him a grandchild. It is a “damned if you and damned if you don’t” situation. She always regretted her cowardice in the face of her douchey father.

It's only after she escapes her father’s tyrannical grasp that she can confess her feelings for Won-jun. Doo-na hits it off with Jin-ju after a night of drinking and later, when she is looking for a roommate, invites Jin-ju to move in with her.  Jin-ju accepts this offer because it kills two birds with stone – it allows her to move away from home and gives her direct access to Won-jun. However, by the time she confesses her feelings to Won-jun, it is too late – he has fallen in love with Doo-na. To Jin-ju’s credit – she handles his rejection well. She is disappointed and, understandably, tells Won-jun that she needs some time away from him to get over being rejected. She wastes no time moving out of the share house and into a one-bedroom apartment. This is the correct reaction! After a few months have passed, she is ready to be Won-jun’s friend. She also doesn’t bear an ill will towards the Doo-na (the two of them remain friends). There was that part of me that wanting to see Won-jun end up Jin-ju. She is not high maintenance like Doo-na, and she has more in common with Won-jun, but unfortunately that window of opportunity closed some time ago. For Jin-ju, Won-jun is the one who got away.

Normally, the premise of a rube falling in love with an idol would be a romantic comedy, but the relationship between Doo-na and Won-jun is played entirely straight. There are occasional humorous moments, but most of them come courtesy of the character, Choi I-ra. The structure to Doo-na is a bit awkward at times – I-ra is one of the main characters, but she doesn’t first appear until the middle of the series. Even her introduction is a bit awkward, Won-jun and Jin-ju witnesses her publicly breaking up with her Brazilian boyfriend. Won-jun recognizes her and walks away before she can see him. His housemate, Yun-taek, talks Won-jun and their housemate, Jeong-hoon, into going on blind group date with three college girls and Won-jun gets paired up with I-ra. She immediately recognizes him – though, he, at first, denies knowing her. It turns out they have a long history together – they were born in same hospital, on the same day, and their mothers decided to arrange for them to get married. They spent the majority of their childhood hanging out together – something that Won-jun dreaded. Won-jun describes her as being his “greatest enemy,” but the truth is their personalities didn’t gel – Won-jun was a timid, introverted child while I-ra was an extroverted, bossy child. She always managed to talk Won-jun into doing things he didn’t want to. She is also really loud.

At the age of eleven, she moved to Brazil with her family and Won-jun was convinced that he was rid of her. It turns out that she is a fashion major at the university that Won-jun is attending. Won-jun is apprehensive towards her at first, but he eventually warms up to her and the two of them become close friends. She also becomes romantically involved with Jeong-hoon who, like Won-jun, initially find her annoying, but eventually is charmed by her upbeat demeanor. She also befriends Jin-ju and Doo-na. In fact, she immediately forms a bond with Jin-ju, because they grew up in the same town and were both involved with Won-jun.  She also moves in with Doo-na – after she broke with her boyfriend, she needed a place to say and Won-jun told her that Doo-na was looking for a roommate. There was also the other part of me that hoped Won-jun would end up with I-ra.  Either Jin-ju and I-ra would have been better matches for Won-jun

A feeling of uncertainty hangs over the entire series. In the first half of the series, Won-jun’s relationship with Doo-na is defined by uncertainty – they both like each other but neither of them really wants to make a move. Their early interactions are awkward and often intense – one minute they will be getting along, the next minute Won-jun will say something that will cause Doo-na to snap (she cusses up quite a storm).  There also a few interesting stylistic choices by the director to emphasize the tension – in early stages of their relationship, the soundtrack is dead silent. In most K-drama, when the two romantic leads are together there will be a love ballad blaring on the soundtrack – this is used to signify their feelings the two leads have for each other.  In fact, the love ballad can be overbearing at times, to the point that it drowns out the dialogue (it also is played ad nauseum throughout the series).  There is a love ballad in Doo-na and it is played ad nauseum, but only during montages or scenes where two leads are separated. Whenever, Doo-na and Won-jun exchange dialogue, the only sound we get is diegetic – it comes from within the world of the narrative. The lack of a soundtrack helps add to the uncertainty – without the overbearing love ballad to clue us into the characters feelings for one another, we are not certain what Doo-na’s feelings are towards Won-jun, or if their relationship will work out. 

The moment that casts the biggest doubt on Doo-na relationship with Won-jun is when her agent, Park In-wook, walks into the picture. Won-jun and Doo-na have gone on a romantic getaway – they are staying at a beach house that Doo-na owns – and are walking down a road, holding hands, when Doo-na notices In-wook’s car parked in front of the house. When he gets out of the car and looks at Doo-na, she immediately let’s go of Won-jun’s hand. He begs with her not to go, but she ignores his pleas and drives off with In-wook, and leaves Won-jun all alone, in the middle of nowhere.  However, the reason she goes off with In-wook is to set the record straight and give him a good scolding. When she gets back to the house, Won-jun has left and taken a bus to his hometown to visit his friends and family. When Won-jun returns to the share house, she tells him that she didn’t know who she would miss more – In-wook or Woo-jun. It is only when she was with In-wook that she realized how much she missed Won-jun.

The question is: Does Doo-na really love Won-jun or was he just at the right place at the right time? Doo-na has been alone for months and Won-jun is the first person, in quite some time, to show genuine concern for her, so it’s not surprising she would have feelings for him. However, is that enough to sustain a relationship, especially given their different goals in life.  Won-jun wants to live an ordinary life, but Doo-na would never be content with an ordinary life – show business is in her blood.  The show never really answers the question. It ends on a rather ambiguous note – I won't completely spoil the the series, except to say that there are multiple interpretations of the ending 

I don’t know if I would recommend Doo-na, it is a fascinating but ultimately frustrating experience. The two leads, Bae Suzy and Yang Se-jong, are solid and have great chemistry, but the writing often lets them down. Bae Suzy was certainly well cast as the title character – like Doo-na, she was an idol, who debuted at young age, sixteen (in American years), and was essentially the face of the girl group, MissA – she is  regarded as being one of the most beautiful women in South Korea (if not the entire world). There are a lot of good moments scattered throughout the series (Jin-ju is given a nice character arc) but the parts are greater than the actual sum and end result is kind of a letdown. 

 

Cast: Bae Suzy (Lee Doo-na), Yang Se-jong (Lee Won-jun), Ha Young (Kim Jin-ju), Kim Do-wan (Goo Jeong-hoon), Park Se-wan (Choi I-ra), Kim Min-ho (Seo Yun-taek), Lee Jin-wook (Park In-wook), Kwon Han-sol (Song Tae-rim),  Kim Sun-young (Doo-na’s mother), Kim Yoo-mi (Agency rep), Bae Ji-hye (Eun-joo), Go Ah-sung (Im Ha-yeon), a member of Dream Sweet), Simeez and Rian of Lachica as members of Dream Sweet), Kim Hyun-mok (stalker).

Director: Lee Jeong-hyo
Writer: Jang Yoo-ha (based on The Girl Downstairs by Min Song-ah)
9 episodes (~40 – 45 minutes)

Second 20s (2015) / Familiar Wife (2018)

 Second 20s and Familiar Wife are, on the surface, two very different series – one deals with a middle-aged woman who, after being housewife for the entirety of her adult life, decides to attend to college and, through the support of old and friends, moves onto the next stage of her life. Familiar Wife is about an immature male who is stuck in an unhappy marriage and is given the chance to travel back in time and change the present – he is now respected by his co-workers at the bank and is married to his first love, who comes from a wealthy family. Both shows are about a second chance in life and the responsibilities that come with it.

Second 20s stars Choi Ji-woo as Ha No-ra, a middle-aged housewife who enrolls in college in a desperate attempt to save her crumbling marriage to Kim Woo-chul (Choi Won-young). The two of them have already signed the divorce papers but have decided to wait until their son, Kim Min-su, has started college to finalize the process. No-ra’s logic is that by attending college she will be able to communicate with Woo-chul (who is a professor of Psychology) at his level, and he will be so moved by her effort that he will cancel the divorce. 

She is unaware that the main reason Woo-chul wants a divorce is that he has already found another lover, Park Yi Jin, who is in an instructor at the university No-ra is attending. No-ra does this all in secret – she wants to surprise both her husband and son. However, it proves to be difficult to keep the secret, because her son is a student and her husband is an instructor at the same university she is attending. To further complicate matters, her friend from high school, Cha Hyun-seok, is also an instructor at the university.

I will admit it was difficult for me to get past the first episode, because of the amount of disrespect that is shown Ha No-ra – Woo chul looks down on her; Min-su is an ungrateful little shit; Hyun-seok acts cold towards her; and the student body ridicule her because of her age. There is also a tragic quality to Ha No-ra – she studied dance in high school but got pregnant at a young age (18) and was forced to give it all up to raise Min-su. We also later learn that Woo-chul was very controlling of her – she was forced to travel with him to Germany, for his Psychology degree, and was alone in a foreign land, and was rarely allowed to leave the house. On her first day of college, she is a fish out of the water. The show effectively puts us on No-ra’s side, so that when she finally makes a new friend at the university, we are genuinely happy for her. When her dumbass son finally realizes that his mother is pretty awesome, we shout at the screen, “It is about time you figured that out, you moron!”  This all aided by Choi Ji-woo’s first-rate performance – she starts off the series uncertain about herself and often makes mistakes but slowly finds her confidence. It is hard to imagine another actress in the role, because Choi Ji-woo’s performance is perfection. 

Cha Hyun-seok is a famous stage director, who also teaches an acting class at the university. When No-ra bumps into him, she is elated (it has nearly twenty years since she has last seen him) but he acts very cold towards her.  She can’t figure why he gives her the cold shoulder, considering how close they were in high school. Their relationship doesn’t get any better after he publicly scolds her for being late to his class. It is revealed the reason he initially acted so hostile towards No-ra is that he never forgave her for missing her grandmother’s funeral. No-ra was raised by her grandmother and after she moved Germany, Hyun-seok would often stop by her grandmother’s tteok-bokki stand to keep her company. He became very close with No-ra’s grandmother and was devastated after she passed away. When No-ra failed to show up, he became disenchanted with her. However, despite his disagreeable demeanor, he still has feelings for No-ra; she was his high school crush, after all. 

No-ra’s motivation for attending colleges changes after she is diagnosed with cancer and told that she only has six months to live – initially she was hoping to save her marriage, but after the diagnosis, college life is something she would like to experience before she passes away. She carries a planner with her and makes a bucket list. Her list isn’t anything ambitious, she just wants to experience the things she missed out in her youth, like seeing a midnight movie and going to a club with friends. The point of emphasis on her list is mending her relationship with Min-su. She accidentally leaves her planner in Hyun-seok’s classroom, and he reads through it. He is shocked to learn about No-ra’s cancer diagnosis and when he comes across her bucket list, he is determined to help her experience all of these things. Unbeknownst to Hyun-seok, it turns out that No-ra has been misdiagnosed (they mixed her up with another No-ra) and has a long life ahead of her. 

On her first day of college, it isn’t just Hyun-seok that gives her the cold treatment, but most of the student body as well. They are shocked to see a middle-aged woman attending a college (it must be a Korean thing, because it is fairly common in the United States). One of her classes is a Marriage & Dating course, which is coincidentally taught by her husband’s mistress, Park Yi Jin. Part of the class requires a female student to pair up with a male student and one of their assignments is to go on dates and post pictures on their social media accounts throughout the semester. No-ra is paired up with Na Soon-nam, who is initially annoyed being partnered with an older woman. He, understandably, was hoping to be paired up with one of the young hotties in his class. While walking through the hallways, No-ra notices a sign for a dance club and decides to join, only to discover the president of the club is none other than Na Soon-nam. He is apprehensive about letting her join, but eventually gives in, especially when he learns she was the woman who was recorded dancing with a flash mob at the Freshman orientation. His attitude begins to change towards No-ra and the two of them become very close friends. It is also a nice touch that he is the first person to publicly stand up for No-ra after he overhears his classmates saying derogatory things about her – the two of them haven’t officially become friends at that point, but he is beginning to understand her.

The other new friend that No-ra makes is Park Seung-hyun, who is also a student in Hyun-seok’s acting class. She is, at first, indifferent towards No-ra – she doesn’t give No-ra the cold shoulder, but she doesn’t exactly embrace her senior, either. The two of them become friends after they join forces to take down a lecherous college professor. The college seniors (in the Humanities Department) throw a party for the freshmen in their department, and a middle-aged professor shows up and starts getting handsy with all the female freshmen.  The seniors are uncomfortable with this and try to diffuse the situation by asking the professor if he would like to go bar hopping with them. He declines the invitation and continues to grope the females. No-ra has seen enough and calls him out on his boorish behavior.  He gets offended and stomps out of the restaurant. At first, the freshman girls view No-ra as their savior, but once they fear the potential repercussions that might come with being No-ra’s friend, they give her the cold treatment. The seniors are also angry at No-ra – they are worried about the retaliatory actions the professor might take and demand No-ra apologize. The only person who defends No-ra at this point is Na Soon-nam, who is disgusted by the cowardly behavior of the seniors.  They want No-ra to apologize for being in the right.  However, it turns out that Seung-hyun recorded the entire incident on her phone but doesn’t know what to do with the damning video. Hyun-seok noticed that she was recording on her phone and persuades her to share the video with No-ra.  After discussing it, the two of them decide to use the video to blackmail the professor into resigning. No-ra emails the video the professor and gives the ultimatum: quit or the video gets leaked online. The professor acquiesces and announces his retirement, to the bewilderment of the student body. After he has officially stepped down, No-ra’s peers start to acknowledge her again. Personally, I think No-ra and Seung-hyun should have leaked the video online and used it to smear the professor’s reputation – forcing him to resign doesn’t prevent him from going to another university and doing the same thing over again. This cements Seung-hyun’s friendship with No-ra and, along with Soon-nam, the three of them become inseparable. 

The most commendable aspect of No-ra is that she refuses to play the victim – even though she is initially met with hostility from the student body (with calls for her to drop out) she sticks to her principles and weathers the storm. It would have been easy for her to throw in the towel, but she is determined to see it out. She even manages to fix her relationship with Min-su – when she learns that he has a girlfriend, Oh Hye-mi (played by Apink member, Son Na-eun), she is elated. However, Min-su also broke the agreement he made with his father – he signed a document that said he would focus solely on his studies and if he broke this promise, like getting a girlfriend, he would have to join the army. So, he is forced to date Hye-mi in secret – it proves to be difficult considering his father is a professor on the campus. Min-su and Hye-mi meet at an isolated spot on the campus and No-ra sees them together. She also spots Woo-chul heading in their direction (he is secretly meeting his mistress) and gives Min-su a head’s up – she spirits him away before Woo-chul arrives. Once Min-su realizes his mother is on his side, he begins to open up to her. By the end of the series, the two of them become extremely close while Min-su and Woo-chul drift apart.

One of Second 20s most impressive feats is that it doesn’t depict Woo-chul as a total villain. In fact, Choi Won-young manages to humanize the character by spicing up his performance with humor. He is not a bad guy, just incredibly arrogant – he is incapable of putting himself in another person’s shoes. His marriage to No-ra was done more out of convenience than actual love – he got her pregnant at a young age and figured he had no choice but to marry her. Their loveless marriage turned him into a resentful person, but he believed he was doing No-ra a service by keeping her around.  However, once No-ra becomes popular on campus (and regains her confidence) he begins to have second thoughts about their divorce and is determined to win her back. At this point No-ra wants to go through with the divorce, but he keeps coming up with excuses for not finalizing the procedure. 

This also leads to a misunderstanding between No-ra and Hyun-seok – after he learns that No-ra has been misdiagnosed, he once gain pushes her away. He learned from No-ra’s best friend, Ra Yoon-young, that No-ra’s reason for attending college is to win back Woo-chul and decides that he should step aside so the two of them can work out their differences. He even tries to help Woo-chul get back together with No-ra – often by arranging for the two of them to meet in the same place. Hyun-seok is working on a play and has hired No-ra as his assistant – they two of them meet as his studio, and on multiple occasions he invites Woo-chul over. He is oblivious to the fact that No-ra no longer wants to reconcile with Woo-chul and genuinely believes he is doing her favor.  When he sees Woo-chul putting forth an effort to win back No-ra, he is convinced that they have gotten back together.

Hyun-seok was a victim of bad timing – No-ra befriended him (and Ra Yoon-young) in high school. She was a dance major while his dream was to be a stage director. They form a dance troupe with Hyun-seok acting as the director. When Hyun-seok learns about a competition that is being held by the lakefront, he persuades No-ra and company to enter it.  They spend months rehearsing the dance number and, on the day of the competition, while the troupe is walking onstage to perform the number, Hyun-seok gets a call from his mother, who tells him that his father has suffered a stroke, and he is forced to go home. He was going to reveal his true feelings to No-ra after the performance, but his father’s stroke prevents that from happening. Coincidentally, the same time Hyun-seok left the talent show, Woo-chul and his buddies showed up, and he was immediately smitten with No-ra. The rest is history – No-ra got pregnant and spent the next four years of her life in Germany. She lost all contact with Hyun-seok, and it would be twenty years before they bumped into each other again.

The real turning point in No-ra’s life is when she is forced to perform in the dance number at a college festival. Na Soon-nam’s dance club is set to perform at the festival, but one of the female dancers sprains her ankle. No-ra is hesitant to get on the stage and dance – she was content with being a part of the dance club and helping them set up.  After receiving encouragement from Hyun-seok and Soon-nam, she finally agrees to perform. The audience is initially skeptical towards her, but she absolutely slays it on stage and them over. Min-su happens to be watching her and can’t believe his eyes – he had no idea his mother was this awesome! No-ra also she puts the skills she learned as a housewife (yes, it does require skill to be a housewife) to good use – when a group of college students running a food booth are having a hard time making pancakes, No-ra steps in and gives them pointers on how to make the proper pancake. She often makes lunch boxes for the dance group and her friends, as well. While she does find a new life, she also doesn’t reject her past entirely. She is grateful that her marriage to Woo-chul gave her a son. 

Min-su’s relationship with Hye-mi comes with its own set of problems – not only does he have to keep their romance a secret from his father, but from his fraternity, as well (one of the conditions of joining the fraternity is that Min-su can’t have a girlfriend). This because increasingly difficult, because Hye-mi constantly wants to go out and party.  The two of them have a different philosophy when it comes to college – Min-su is there to study while Hye-mi is there for the social aspect. As a result, Min-su is a position where he needs to serve two masters at once – his father (who demands good grades) and Hye-mi (who, to quote Eddie Murphy, wants to “party all the time”).  Hye-mi persuades Min-su to go to a dance club and he is a total stick in the mud – he sulks at the bar while Hye-mi and friends are cutting it up on the dance floor.  It’s only after another male makes a move on his woman that Min-su gets off his ass and begins to bust a move on the dance floor. Much to his (and everyone’s) surprise, he is quite good at dancing (must have inherited from his mother).  I initially believed this would set up a subplot where Min-su decides to follow in his mother’s footsteps and major in dance, but nothing really comes of this scene. In fact, my biggest criticism of Second 20s is that Min-su’s storyline is underdeveloped – the resolution to his romance with Hye-mi is rather disappointing and is left ambiguous. He also never formally introduces his girlfriend to his mother – she watches their relationship from afar, but the show desperately needs that scene where Min-su confesses to Hye-mi that No-ra is his mother.

One of the flaws of most K-dramas, is how quickly the protagonist gets into a new relationship after breaking up with their former partner – very little time passes between the old one ending and the new one beginning. One of the strengths of Second 20s is that after No-ra’s divorce from Woo-chul is finalized, she doesn’t immediately run into Hyun-seok’s arms. This probably frustrated many viewers who wanted to see Hyun-seok and No-ra become a couple, but from a character perspective it makes sense. No-ra has spent the entirety of her adult life being completely dependent on other people and, while she likes Hyun-seok, she also wants to take some off and figure out what she wants to do with her life. Does she really want to get into another relationship? After the divorce, she moves into an apartment and cuts off all contact from Hyun-seok. Though, she asks their mutual friends, Ra Yoon-young and Seo Dong-chul, to keep an eye on him (he also them to keep an eye on No-ra). She goes four months without seeing Hyun-seok and during that time she has strengthened her bond with Min-su, Soon-nam, and Seung-hyun. She also works part-time at the Tteok-bokki stand that Dong-chul inherited from her grandmother. She happens to bump into Hyun-seok at a bookstore and is about to say hello, but he walks right past her. She is taken aback by this – though, I’m not sure why given Hyun-seok’s behavior in the past. She is supposed to visit her grandma’s grave with Ra Yoon-young and Seo Dong-chul, but they both end up cancelling on her. She is waiting at the bus stop when Hyun-seok pulls up and offers her a ride. She grudgingly accepts his ride. The two of them arrive in her grandma’s hometown and, while walking around by the lakefront, No-ra remembers that Hyun-seok and she buried a time capsule (when they were 18) that was supposed to be opened twenty years later. They both wrote down predictions for each other and they were going to check to see if they came true. Hyun-seok points out the location to No-ra, and she digs it up. She gets teary eyed after reading the predictions and, finally, realizes that she loves Hyun-seok. The two of them kiss, and they are finally a couple.

If there is one word that describes Second 20s, it is PLEASANT! It’s a pleasant experience that cheers you up. It is a well-written series with a first-rate cast and direction. There are even a few surprises thrown into the mix, which I dare not spoil here.

 

Familiar Wife

Familiar Wife, much like Second 20s, is a show that gets a huge boost by its two likable leads, Han Ji-min and Ji Sung. There have been multiple K-dramas that deal with time travel – Nine, Tunnel, Tomorrow, With You, Marry My Husband, Signal – to name a few, but Familiar Wife is the only one that comes up with a pseudo-scientific explanation for the time travel. The explanation is that a neutron star has an effect on earth’s gravity, which results in gateways to the past being opened up. The other dramas didn’t bother with an explanation, it was implied that the time travel was either supernatural in nature (mystical incense sticks in Nine) or it was divine intervention at work (in Marry My Husband, it is implied the female protagonist’s deceased father was the one pulling the strings). I wish Familiar Wife would have dropped the pseudo-scientific rationale, because it is irrelevant to the proceedings. Not to mention that in order to travel back to the past, Cha Joo-hyuk must throw money into a magical tollbooth – it will only accept coins from the year he wishes to travel to (2006). Before Joo-hyuk travels back in time, he meets a stranger who gives him coins minted in 2006.

Joo-hyuk is in an unhappy marriage with Seo Woo-jin – they have two children and, in order to get by, they both must work unsatisfying jobs. Joo-hyuk works at a bank while Woo-jin works part-time at a massage parlor. However, Joo-hyuk often shirks his responsibilities as a father and often leaves Woo-jin holding the bag. He has worked at the bank for some time but always gets passed over for a promotion, because his work ethic kind of sucks. He also constantly does things behind his wife’s back – when his old game video game system breaks down, he searches for a replacement online and finds a seller who is willing to sell a brand-new unit for a reasonable price. He makes this purchase behind Woo-jin’s back, because he knows she will scold him, and even hides the system from her. Though, he chooses the worst hiding spot imagine – he hides it in the closet behind a stack of diapers. When Woo-jin grabs a diaper, she notices there is something behind it and finds the video game system. She throws a fit and even injures Joo-hyuk when she throws a lobster claw at him.

The two of them met by pure chance in 2006 – Joo-hyuk was on his way to meet the pretty Lee Hye-won (the most popular girl on campus) for a date, but got sidetracked when, while on the bus, he noticed a stranger groping Woo-jin’s rear. She confronted the pervert, but he denied her accusation. When she asked if anyone else saw the man groping her, Joo-hyuk verified her story. The two of them went to the police station to file a report against the sleazebag. By the time Joo-hyuk finished giving his testimony, he was late for his date with Hye-won, and she held it against him. In the present, he happened to run into Hye-won and she admitted that she had a crush on him. He often imagines what might have been if he had not met Woo-jin on that fateful day. Joo-hyuk is incapable of seeing things from Woo-jin’s perspective and is legitimately afraid of her because of her short temper. However, when Joo-hyuk first met Woo-jin, she was a very positive and upbeat individual. After he vouched for her on the bus, Woo-jin kept following him around – she asked him to tutor her for the college entrance exam. Joo-hyuk eventually fell in love with her and the two of them got married. He is baffled by how much her personality has changed. 

On a fateful night, he goes for a drive, comes across the magical tollbooth, and then wakes up in 2006. The time travel in Familiar Wife is more metaphysical in nature – he doesn't physically travel back to 2006, but rather astrally projects to the past. This isn’t the normal time travel paradox where there are two of him in the past, and he needs to avoid his past self. The first time he travels back into the past, he is overwhelmed by the experience and doesn’t know what to do. The other rule that the show establishes is that he can only stay in the past for a limited amount of time – after his time has run out, he wakes up in the present. The second time he travels in the past, he knows the rules and makes the most of his opportunity. This time when he takes the bus, rather than speak up for Woo-jin, he ignores her pleas for help. A woman ends up verifying Woo-jin’s story and the bus pulls over. Joo-hyuk catches a taxi and arrives in time to meet Hye-won.

The next morning, he wakes up in the present and finds that he is married to Hye-won. On top of that, Hye-won’s father is incredibly wealthy and the two of them live in a spacious house. Best of all, Hye-won is okay with Joo-hyuk playing video games. It seems he has hit the jackpot. At his bank, because of his father-in-law, the management kisses his ass, while the rest of the staff look up to him. It also turns out that not only did he change his present but that of his best friend, and co-worker, Yoon Joong-hoo. In the original timeline, Joong-hoo was married with two children, but in this new timeline he is single and desperately looking for his significant other. In the past, when Joong-hoo was dating his wife, he nearly lost her after the two of them had an argument and she was about to leave South Korea on an airplane. Joong-hoo waved down a taxi, headed to the airport, and stopped her from leaving. In the new timeline, Joong-hoo was about to enter the taxi when Joo-hyuk cut in front of him and took the taxi to meet Hye-won.

At first, Joo-hyuk enjoys his new life and then he realizes that he has willed his two sons out of existence. Joo-hyuk focused solely on the bad memories of Woo-jin that he forgot about all the good ones. Still, he realizes that there is a little he can do about and presses on.  Meanwhile, Woo-jin’s life has also radically changed – she is also a single but has found a successful career working at the headquarters of the bank chain Joo-hyuk works for. When Joo-hyuk’s bank needs another person to work in the transfer department, headquarters sends Woo-jin to fill that spot. It would be an understatement to say that Joo-hyuk is surprised – he is, in fact, mortified by the sight of his former wife standing in front of him. Joong-hoo, on the other hand, is charmed by the newcomer and starts to believe that she might be “the one” he has waited for. Despite Joo-hyuk’s initial cold demeanor towards her, Woo-jin is drawn towards him – there is something familiar about him, but she can’t figure out what it is. Despite being attracted to Joo-hyuk, she agrees to date Joong-hoo – she is hesitant to do so, but he convinces her to give it a trial run for one month. If she doesn’t feel anything, then she will be free to call it off and there will be no hard feelings.

On the surface, Joong-hoo is the ideal man for Woo-jin – he is a genuinely good guy and handsome, on top of that. She genuinely enjoys his company but there just isn’t any spark there – there is no fluttering of the heart with Joong-ho, like there is when she is around Joo-hyuk. She is also baffled by how Joo-hyuk seems to know so much about her – when their co-workers go out for coffee, Joo-hyuk informs them that she doesn’t drink coffee. When Woo-jin gets sick, Joo-hyuk knows which medication to buy for her. It becomes increasingly difficult for him to explain how he knows so much about her, but his co-workers buy his explanations. The two of them are often on the same wavelength - they both thwart a bank robbery just by giving each other a series of signals. Woo-jin distracts the man long enough for Joo-hyuk to disarm him.

At first, Joo-hyuk is elated that Woo-jin and Joong-hoo are dating – it means that she will leave him alone. However, the more he sees the two together, the more jealous he gets. He doesn’t even understand why he is acting this way. After all, he is already married to an ideal wife and in their former lives, he was afraid of Woo-jin.  However, in this new timeline, Woo-jin is back to her old cheerful self – she is very personable and adapts well to her new work environment. When Woo-jin and Joong-hoo are sent out of town to attend a training seminar, Joo-hyuk can’t help himself and shows up to thwart Joong-hoo from putting the moves on Woo-jin. After making a fool out of himself, he realizes that his behavior is irrational – he had his chance with Woo-jin and he blew it. After a moment of self-reflection, he decides to be supportive of Joong-hoo’s relationship with Woo-jin – when the manager asks Joong-hoo to stay late, Joo-hyuk volunteers to take over so Joong-hoo can go on a date with Woo-jin.

To further complicate matters, Woo-jin’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, remembers Joo-hyuk being her son-in-law. Whenever she sees him, she greets him as her son-in-law and even makes him a few dishes to take home. Woo-jin chalks this up to her mother’s senility, but Joo-hyuk knows differently. Woo-jin’s mother is more relaxed when Joo-hyuk is around – she often wanders out of the house and gets lost, and on multiple occasions it is Joo-hyuk who finds her and persuades her to come home. The other hitch is that Woo-jin begins to have dreams of her previous life with Joo-hyuk.  When her month’s trial with Joong-hoo is over, she has no choice but to break up with him.  She feels terrible for her decision, but she can’t help that she isn’t attracted to him. He tries to put on a brave face, but it is clear that he is heartbroken by her decision. This is understandable – women like Woo-jin don’t come around too often.
The deciding factor in her decision to break it off with Joong-hoo is when she got drunk and ended up kissing Joo-hyuk. How can she be in a relationship with Joong-hoo when her heart belongs to Joo-hyuk?

It is also not surprising that Joo-hyuk’s marriage to Hye-won disintegrates – it was never that great to begin with. You can describe Hye-won in two words: superficial and vindictive. Even before Joo-hyuk begins to rekindle his feelings for Woo-jin, she finds herself attracted to the younger, Jeong Hyeon-su, and the only thing the prevents her from having an affair with him is that he is exposed as a hustler – he poses as a college student when it in reality he is a parking garage attendant. She is also doesn’t like Joo-hyuk’s family and avoids them at any cost – when Joo-hyuk insists that they visit his parents, she comes up with a bogus excuse why that is impossible. When Joo-hyuk’s father is hospitalized, his younger sister, Joo-eun, asks him if he can watch over their dad, because she has to take care of her son. This enrages Hye-won, who is upset that Joo-hyuk would rather stay with his father rather than support her father at a business conference. The final straw for Hye-won is when Joo-hyuk spends the entire night helping Woo-jin find her mother, who has once again wandered off. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that Joo-hyuk lied about his whereabouts by claiming he was attending a work-related funeral. It is only a matter before Hye-won finds out truth – Joo-hyuk overlooked the fact she knows his co-workers – and without a moment’s hesitation she demands a divorce and Joo-hyuk, realizing that their marriage is over, obliges.

Woo-jin breaking up with Joong-hoo, and Joo-hyuk’s divorce from Hye-won, leads to all sorts of gossip, and their friends/co-workers begin to suspect that Joo-hyuk stole her away from Joong-hoo. Oh Sang-sik, Joo-hyuk’s brother-in-law and friend from college, also blames Joo-hyuk for the breakup and punches him in the face, before telling Joo-hyuk he never wants to see him again. Joo-hyuk feels guilty over his failed marriage to Hye-won and Woo-jin naturally can’t help to feel bad for Joong-hoo, but neither of them can deny their feelings for one another and begin to date. While Joong-hoo is angry at both of them, he still remains Joo-hyuk’s friend – after the divorce, Joo-hyuk is forced to move out of his house and Joong-hoo offers Joo-hyuk shelter at his apartment. After Woo-jin breaks up with him, Joong-hoo blames Joo-hyuk, but he also doesn’t have the heart to throw his best friend out into the streets. He also realizes that Woo-jin and him were never meant to be together. 

However, Woo-jin’s and Joo-hyuk’s happiness is short-lived after their bank is scammed out of millions of dollars by Joo-hyuk’s father-in-law. His father-in-law requests a loan from Joo-hyuk’s bank to help start up a business he is investing in – Joo-hyuk gets the okay from his superior and authorizes the loan – but it turns out the business is a shell company, and his father-in-law has laundered the money overseas. Joo-hyuk notifies the police about the embezzlement, but they suspect he was an accomplice in the scam. In the end, he clears his name and gets the money back, but that doesn’t stop headquarters from firing him. He concludes that Woo-jin would be better off without him and starts to distance himself from her. Woo-jin disagrees and tries to convince him they are destined to be together. Joo-hyuk confesses to her about traveling in the past to alter the present and that he was the reason for their failed marriage in the original timeline. Once Woo-jin learns about the mechanism for time travel (it can only be done on a specific date and she must need a coin from 2006 in order get past the tollbooth), she decides to travel back in time and set thing back to the way they originally were. Joo-hyuk is determined to stop her and follows her in his car – they both end up in 2006. While in 2006, Joo-hyuk can predict her next move and avoids her at all cost. She does manage to set a few things back to the original settings – Joong-hoo is, once again, happily married with two children, but Joo-hyuk has dropped off the face of the map. He has gone on an extended vacation from the bank, but he also can’t stay away forever. Woo-jin works at the bank headquarters and is determined to transfer to Joo-hyuk’s branch. Despite Joo-hyuk’s best efforts, she manages to get the transfer, and he is put in the awkward spot of working with the woman he wishes to avoid.

Normally, the “noble sacrifice” is something that gets on my nerves in K-dramas but in the case of Familiar Wife, it feels organic to the storyline – more importantly, the writers give Joo-hyuk the proper motivation for pushing Woo-jin away. Bad luck just seems to follow him around wherever he goes – his father-in-law scamming the bank out of millions of dollars, is just one example of this happening. In the original timeline, he was in such a hurry to meet the seller of a game console that he approved a loan without proper identification. He asked the woman to bring her ID the next day before his superiors found out, only to discover, after waking up, that the bank was being audited. This got him into trouble with his superiors, and rightfully so. Amazingly, he didn’t lose his job. He also feels guilty about being responsible for not one, but two failed marriages, and believes he doesn’t deserve a second chance with Woo-jin. After multiple rejections, Woo-jin decides to honor Joo-hyuk’s wishes and go her own way. The next day, Joo-hyuk sees her get on the bus to work and then a memory from the previous timeline pops in his head – it was on this date that a bus got into an accident with a truck, killing many of the passengers onboard, and Joo-hyuk realizes that Woo-jin is a passenger on that ill-fated bus. He chases after the bus in his car and is determined to prevent the accident. He is able to prevent the accident by cutting in front of the bus with his car (acting as a buffer between the truck and bus) and the truck driver slams on the brakes, avoiding a major accident in the process. Woo-jin wonders what the commotion is all about and sees Joo-hyuk sitting in his car. She gets off the bus and the two of them reconcile – they get married and have two children. This time around their marriage is a happy one.

The reason why Familiar Wife works so well is that time travel is the McGuffin – it’s what sets the plot in motion, but it’s not what the story is actually about. The main theme of the story is second chances – Joo-hyuk believes he has been given a second chance at life, but in reality, he has been given a second chance with Woo-jin.  More importantly, it assures the viewers that people can change for the better – Joo-hyuk goes from being an irresponsible manchild (who blames others for his misfortunes) to a responsible adult, who takes responsibility for his actions. The alternative timeline he created allows him to see things from Woo-jin’s perspective and he realizes that it was his immature actions that led to their marriage failing.  He also takes responsibility for his failed marriage to Hye-won – he later approaches her and offers her a sincere apology for failing her.  Woo-jin herself changes – in the original timeline, she had a short temper and was verbally, and physically, abusive towards Joo-hyuk. She never listened to what he had to say and, in the process, made him feel small. The fact that he had to sneak away at night to play video games is a good indicator of their marriage. In the new timeline, she is a better listener and occasionally indulges his childish whims – she buys him a new video game console but also gives him a thirty-minute time limit. When it looks like Woo-jin might be late in picking their children up from school, there is no panic, instead they are able to coordinate with each other, so that Joo-hyuk picks them up on his way to work and then pick a meeting spot so that the children can be transferred to Woo-jin’s car. The better time travel stories use it as a springboard to explore deeper themes, and Familiar Wife falls into that category – the science fiction elements take a backseat to the characters.  I would also like to single out Han Ji-min’s performance as Woo-jin – she plays three different versions of the character (teenager Woo-jin, bitter housewife Woojin, and the new, confident Woo-jin) and doesn’t miss a beat. 

 

Credits

Second 20s
Cast: Choi Ji-woo (Ha No-ra), Lee Sang-yoon (Cha Hyun-seok), Choi Won-young (Kim Woo-chul), Kim Min-jae (Kim Min-su), Son Na-eun (Oh Hye-mi), Ha Seung-ri (young Ha No-ra), Kim Hee-chan (young Cha Hyun-seok), Han Sung-yun (Hyun-Jung), Jung Soo-young (Ra Yoon-young), Im Ji-hyun (young Yoon-young), Kang Tae-ah (young Woo-chul), Noh Young-hak (Na Soon-nam), Woo Ki-hoon (Woo-hun), Park Hyo-joo (Kim Yi Jin), Choi Yoon-so (Shin Sang-ye), Ji Ha-yoon (Min-ae), Jin Ki-joo (Park Seung-hyun), Kim Kang-hyun (Seo Dong-chul), Ban Hyo-jung (Seo Woon-hae, No-ra’s grandmother).

Director: Kim Hyung-shik
Writer: So Hyun-kyung
16 episodes ~ 60 minutes

Familiar Wife
Cast: Han Ji-min (Seo Woo-jin), Ji Sung (Cha Joo-hyuk), Jang Seung-jo (Yoon Joong-ho), Kang Han-na (Lee Hye-won), Park Hee-von (Cha Joo-eun), Oh Eui-shik (Oh Sang-sik), Lee Jung-eun (Woojin’s mother), Son Jang-hak (Cha Bong-hee), Park Won-sang (Byeon Sung-woo), Cha Hak-yeon (Kim Hwan), Kim Soo-jin (Jang Man-ok), Kim So-ra (Joo Hyang-sook), Gong Min-jeung (Choi Hye-jung), Kang Hui (Jung Min-soo).

Director: Lee Sang-yeob
Writer: Yang Hee-sung
16 episodes ~ 60 minutes.