Heavy topic handled better in a lighter way!
This series may not be the best among the ones I watch. But I would definitely recommend this to everyone.It's about how we should live freely in present, to the fullest rather than getting stuck in our miserable past. And the story succeeds in conveying that message.
Once a bright and happy 17 yo Ha Ni enters into the life of guilt-struck and miserable 37 yo Ha Ni, we were able to witness a great journey of self realization and self appreciation. All along the way, I loved how they handled the serious topic lightly with a subtle comedy in it. The comedy in the genre surprisingly, fitted well with the story and was never over the top..
The romance is so subtle but enjoyable and realistic. As the main focus is never on romance, I'm completely ok with that. Everything got compensated by our cutest ML. He is like a cute teddy bear and the sunshine of this drama.
I loved almost all of the characters and everyone did their roles perfectly.. The dialogues are deep and insightful.. It's a pillar of the drama.. Made me move many times.
Still why it's not a 10?
Though the ML needs some importance, his company plot at the end looked forced and unnecessary (which I didn't mind a lot because of some cute character interaction but it could have been short.) The pace was perfect at the beginning but kinda slow towards the end and also pretty predictable. Though it's a supernatural / fantasy drama with a time travel plot and no need of any logic, some things are hard to ignore for me..
That being said, still it's one of the favorite series for me and will have a special place. Nothing can change the fact that it's such a heartwarming drama with a wonderful story line and refreshing comedy. This is the perfect drama for those who want to watch a slice of life drama with a deep meaning but afraid of sadness in it.. With a deep heartwarming message and a perfect humour, this drama easily became my favorite. ^^
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Heartwarming story
What happens when the only person who can save you is you....I think that's the shortest summary one can write about this drama.
Genre : Rom-com, Slice of life, fantasy
Story: A middle aged unmarried lady get's fired over some misunderstanding. However she motivates herself to get back in the game, motivates her past admirer, motivates her friends, motivates her employer, her sister, her team etc etc. As the genre suggests it is a slice of life that deals with issues that a lot of grown ups deal with generally. On one side is the happy go lucky male lead, a rich unemloyed idiot and other side is a faded hallyu star (not going to waste time on debating who gets the girl).
What i loved about this show is the story that kept us hooked and how they portrayed each character from the past and showed their growing up. What i hated about this show are the main leads. No chemistry, unrealistic innocence and unnecessary slow acting. There are moments when you get really frustrated and want to watch the video in double speed. Sorry, not sorry. It's not bad for a girl's night, one time watch, nothing more than that (definitely not for binge).
Acting :
I don't like Choi Kang hee's acting of the innocent and sweet girl to be honest. I watched a few older dramas before and it was more about her firey side like in Protect The Boss that makes her less boring.
Kim Young Kwang is the cutest tall guy you will ever see with a knack for good characters. (may be his character was not written that well, but then he has had great opportunities before). Anyway i was a little dissappointed.
Remember the bob haired gangster from Feiry Priest? well Eum Moon Suk is like an acting bomb and i will follow his career with great interest.
Will i watch it again? Probably no because the impact of the story was not that great.
Will i recommend it to anyone? Definitely no. I'll personally write you a small one liner gist for each episode because the 1 hour is so not worth it.
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An Amazing and Heartwarming Story
This drama was honestly one that I didn't plan to love as much as I did. I'd been scrolling past it on Netflix for a while and finally decided to give it a chance a few days ago. Although it was a bit predictable, it also had a few plot twists that I didn't expect. There were times when I laugh and even more times when I cried. It's a wonderful story about a woman finding herself years after trauma. It was very well written and I honestly wish that I could experience the whole thing over again. This drama has made its way to being one of my favorite dramas of all time. A comfort drama, if you will. I do plan on rewatching this in the future once I've forgotten most of what happens. I'm so glad I decided to check this drama out. I genuinely so happy with it.Was this review helpful to you?
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a sweet twist in a cliche story
I loved their time traveling concept, I don't think anyone did it before, they either travel and become their future/past or they act like different people. but this was a sweet story about self love, forgiveness and dealing with loss, whether it's a family member or a dreamthe romance started off as promising but the moment he changed cuz he knew "they met as kids" just ruined it, it took away any chance of development and just jumped into the last stages of "love", honestly even when they stood by each other I never saw them as anything more than sweet friends so I wasn't happy with the abrupt ending
Anthony was useless from start to end, he was such a waste of time, he starts off as a selfish jerk and suddenly he's thrown under a buss by using the current event of "celebrity bullying" and they ended it by ruining his career, making him retire then give up all of his money and opening a restaurant... that's not the answer. he was never in it for the acting so that fact alone makes his arc useless, that whole thing about him "finding" his passion for acting and chasing the writer for his role, all of it was gone
you can't just end it with that. his problem wasn't his past, he was a tiny looser bully that was beaten up by a girl, he was no threat, but worse he grew up and he always disrespected his staff and yet that all just disappeared and then they made the manager just like him. that sort of treatment to the staff is as bad as bullying ;/
anyway, even though KYK was a sweetie, the only good points were the hani's story and the OST.
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Approved
First time to write a review here..I really like this k drama. The storyline is amazing. I love the concept of the young bah ha-ni who travel in the present time (for some reason) and meet herself which is the old bah ha-ni. They are so funny. I also love the male lead role. :) I love the character and ofcourse the actors, they really portrayed the character. Every episode is amazing :). You will laugh and cry . I cant wait to watch the next episode. No dull moment.
I have nothing more to say but this k drama is a must see. You guys check it out :)
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Awesome Relationship Drama
I watched this one based on a recommendation someone sent me when I was lamenting a kdrama slump. So I didn't go in knowing anything, or watching because of a certain actor. Which is kind a weird, lol.The premise of this one really makes one think... what would your younger self think if they could see your life now (assuming you are old like me). My younger self would be absolutely aghast at how some things have turned out. And surprised and perhaps even proud about lots of stuff too. It would be interesting if we met each other. I think we are totally different people now and it would really be weird.
Anyway. There's a cute ML in this one ...and he really likes our girl... but they barely even hold hands. Nary a kiss in sight! WAH. So sad...
And there's an actor whose storyline takes a weird turn into the whole "bullying from your past" issue that seems to be a thing these days. Weird because it didn't have a whole lot to do with the story... but I guess it was something they wanted to address.
Anyway, cute drama. It made me weepy in parts.. .just the relationship between these two characters, the main lead and her younger self. Also, the relationship the dude has with his dad. It's all quite powerful.
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Find Your Happiness Again
If you're looking for a light, easy-going Kdrama, this is for you. The plot is fairly predictable, nothing much plot-wise would excite you or look forward to each episode. I am not a fan of ahjumma-young rich guy love stories but since I like the male lead (I love him from On Your Wedding Day opposite Park Bo Young), I can give this a pass. However, I did not find the romance between the leads heart-fluttering. Their romantic chemistry did not reach me. But I find it a bit appaling when she suddenly gave him attention as soon as she finds out that he is the son of the chairman, which would make me doubt her intentions if it happens in real-life.I have no complaints with the acting. The cast delivered well. The story is just so-so. Hello, Me! will just be one of the many dramas on my shelf, nothing extraordinary or an important drama to miss out on.
I love the father-daughter story though and the Lily of the Valley. If you're looking for a light, no-brainer drama, you can give this a shot. One thing I will remember though when I hear the name of this drama is the Joa Exercise routine. That was hilarious!
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The heart makes up for the plot, I swear.
Hello Me is the perfect example of a drama not necessarily needing a well-written plot in order to be memorable. During a season filled to the brim with suspense thrillers, murder mysteries and dark-themed dramas, this little romcom was my oasis. It re-energized me in the middle of weeks filled with murder, betrayal and frustration. Without it, I probably wouldn't have made it through the other shows that aired.The story for this drama is actually pretty simplistic, and more than a bit convoluted. BHN is a woman who, after the death of her father, essentially gave up on life. Blaming herself for his death, she was never able to get her feet off the ground. She was a fixed point in time. While the world around her kept changing, she refused to change with it, and her inability to adapt found her living off of her sister's success in exchange for housekeeping, with a job that didn't give her much of an income. At 37-years-old she had nothing to show for herself. But on her worst day, she gets a second chance as her 17-year-old self appears from the past and gives her the push she needs to reinvent herself. This concept has been done before in many different ways and variations and isn't anything new. A lot of the drama's shortcomings stem from this premise as they try to think up ways to explain - or avoid - the time travel and the convoluted nature of how things ended up this way, and it only gets worse when they try to send 17-year-old BHN back to her time.
Despite the lacklustre plot, it's worth a watch. It makes up for its shortcomings with a powerful message, heartwarming moments and great characters. Hello Me tells a story of loving yourself and accepting who you are, no matter your faults, where you came from or how you got here. We follow BHN's journey as a sad, guilt-ridden woman at the end of her rope as she regains lost confidence and learns to stop blaming herself for the past. Through her own will, she finds a career and reconnects with friends and family with whom she had grown distant over her 20 years of grief.
I wouldn't be doing the drama justice if I ignored the supporting cast. HYH as the male lead was amazing. Following the theme of BHN herself, many of the other characters go through their own growth period throughout the story and the male lead is one of them. HYH begins his journey as an immature, indecisive young man with a good heart. He has no direction in life and no interest in the family business so he spends his days learning new skills and collecting very niche licenses that he says will be useful when working in the future, even though he's never had a job. After losing a bet against his father, he's kicked out of the house and has no choice but to try to make it on his own. The chemistry between HYH and BHN is amazing. They genuinely feel like they care about one another as they grow close and every interaction they have, while oftentimes silly and over-the-top, is natural and fluid. There's no sudden forced romance like you usually get with romcoms. Everything is slow and they go at their own pace, forming a close bond before anything more than HYH's crush is brought into the spotlight.
YCS is a former school-bully-turned-actor hiding his past behind his new name Anthony and a lot of plastic surgery. Pretty topical, given the past few months. I honestly hated his character in the early episodes, but at some point he did start to grow on me. We follow him as he struggles to regain his lost popularity and to make amends for his past wrongdoings, and the journey was better handled than I expected it to be, honestly. Even smaller characters are given their own personal journey's, whether it's BHN's family finally coming to accept her again after 20 years without support, HYH's father worrying that his son will never grow up or even the younger BHN maturing and coming to love her future self as her future self learns to accept her in turn. Everyone has a story and these are just a few.
So if you hate plot holes, maybe avoid this. There are plenty, especially towards the end. But if plot doesn't matter to you as much as the heart and soul of a drama does, give it a shot. There are some wonderfully written characters and a beautiful message in every one of them, and if that's not enough then the relationship between the leads is incredibly adorable. It's funny, it's sweet, and it holds a special place in my heart.
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Very dragged and uninteresting. This could have easily been a movie.
I think the drama had an ok concept that was made so much worse by the execution/writing of that concept. The original idea was probably two pages long and basically the rest is a massive uninteresting filler.I've just finished watching it and if you asked me to explain what happened in X or Y episode I wouldn't be able to, because there is so much nothingness that it automatically got erased from my mind as soon as I watched it.
I think one of the main problems is that they decided to make FL and her younger self complete opposites and under a very specific set of circumstances with the accident so it's not something many people will relate to. I could feel connected to the lost present time FL but not to her younger self nor the dynamic they had going on later. If there had been more introspection into the first part of FL's character I would have found it more interesting. I also still don't understand how having her past self there helped her to get anything she managed to get. Her younger self is selfish, spoiled and kind of annoying. The dynamic they have later of mother-daughter also I think made it quite a lot worse because by their actions and words they pretty much worked as such and made you even believe it at times and personally it's not how I would treat my younger self... but then again, my younger self was not that childish nor it was that different to how I'm now so I think the relationship would probably be more like we're sisters or something in those lines, what I think kinda makes more sense and probably would be more true to most people, especially considering her younger self was 17, not a 6 year old.
To this we add an overabundant amount of scenes of side characters that add nothing to the main story nor are they that interesting. FL's sister appears multiple times yet I don't know much about her, also she was quite bad in the beginning yet later is just sweeped under the rug. Anthony's scenes bored me sooooo much, I don't understand what the point of him being there was. It was just a filler since his story was not even that related to hers, not even in the end. I kept thinking there was going to be some connection that justified him there but there wasn't. I don't think his story was bad per se, it's just that it's not worth 16 episodes of a few scenes per each one. He's main character but why???? He really adds nothing to the story. His arc could have been done in like one episode and done.
I always find it unrealistic when a main character starts working in a place and turns out they knew someone in there from the past, like how small is your city? Here it's not only the best friend, but also Anthony and Han Yoo Hyun. Too many coincidences and, at least when it comes to Han Yoo Hyun specifically, very sloppy reasoning.
I enjoyed the character of Han Yoo Hyun but it was very forced how his father kept him out of the business because "he's not interested" but wouldn't even give him a chance when he was the one showing an interest, it was just pushed again just to drag the story more until the last episodes. It also got tiring he kept calling FL "old woman" even when they were closer.
There is no romance here and it's only in episode 14 that Ban Ha Ni mentions having butterflies when interacting with Han Yoo Hyun... so you're just told because scenes we had none and maybe we got a few looks from him that let me know he likes her and him saying it to Anthony, but her to him? zero! She looks like a rock in that sense the whole series, even at the end when they say they're together, the chemistry is zero and I'm again being told and not shown (that kiss was appalling, especially for people in their 30s, what was that!!!!??? hahahaha). This show shouldn't be classified as a romance, it's not.
This brings me to the fact that had they focused a lot more in the romance throughout the series they would have had enough extra content to not have to have so many fillers of people walking here and there, or talking very slowly about uninteresting things and so on.
The main plot is, well, very sloppy. It was ok and interesting in the beginning but it's kind of forgotten for most of the series till the later episodes that it's brought back. Once they know what the mobile phone message with the days meant and they were doing nothing I started rolling my eyes, especially considering I was already fed up with the show at that point. They look at the phone and see D-7, they panic for 5 minutes and then they have some nice meal and go somewhere and then they show D-6, and then panic again and two seconds later they're eating beef. It was so difficult to take this seriously. Also the father gives that criptic message through the old phone "quickly quickly, you're running out of time", but considering where she had to go in the end to go back that it's nowhere related to anything she would have been able to know on her own and "quickly quickly" but the dream message was only received one day before the expire date. Bad writing, that's all.
I'm going to nitpick here as well because I was also rolling my eyes at the whole dream/past sequence, you're in a field of dead grass and you find a lily of the valley there eventhough they mostly grow in woodland, humid shaded areas? I was laughing, even more when in the tunnel sequence they find one and they're holding it with the hands (it's very toxic and can produce rashes) until I realised it was a plastic one, what fair enough, but I mean, there was no reason whatsoever really that it couldn't have been another flower the one picked for the whole idea instead of a lily of the valley...
This also brings me to how utterly useless that phychic was, I get they wanted to make the quirk of him being a modern one what was fine, but he would give half messages even when he knew what was happening. You can't tell people something is very serious and life and death and urgent and at the same time withhold information... he only appears twice in the show eventhough at one point he says to FL that he'll be looking for a way to make her past self back, next scene he appears that matter is not discussed.
Not sure why this is also labelled as a comedy, I only laughed once, and that is when Sung Woo is giving some food to past Ban Ha Ni and his mother, FL's sister, has a go at him. It did make me chuckle, but other than that I didn't find anything funny.
The whole drama in the company was ok but kind of cliché and I don't like how they dealt with ML's aunt in the end, she's kind of forgiven and it's not only what she has done with the company but the fact that her son never addresses the way she treats Oh Ji Eun. She had been said horrible things multiple times and yet nothing happens. In fact I don't even know the point in terms of plot of Oh Ji Eun getting pregnant since we didn't even know until that second that she had been trying nor she has a change of character at any time that makes her stronger or more confident or stopping taking that kind of treatment from her mother-in-law.
Points go for FL having freckles and having scenes when later on she has started using makeup for work but she's still shown with the freckles at times when she's supposed to not be wearing makeup, I thought it was a realistic touch I appreciated.
Overall is just boring and dragging and writing is not great. The message is there but you don't need that many episodes to tell it.
Considering as well that there isn't really a progression in terms of work, romance or much else of anything, this could have prefectly worked as a movie and it still would have given the same message.
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If you're watching for Romance...
this is NOT the one for you. I generally start dramas for romance but I also don't really read synopsis or watch trailers. I came into this for romance but gained so much more.The leads have ABSOLUTELY ZERO chemistry but the story pulls you in. I will also say, I am 37 and this show is great for someone around my age and older. I think we would appreciate it more. I also heard this mentioned in a podcast "Talk K-Dramas with Bruce and Alice" and since I also had this thought, I am really glad they brought it up! I don't really have much to say just wanted to point out the chemistry and the fact that this can be appreciated by an older audience, though I am sure there are younger people who could love this as well.
It would be a perfect 10 if the chemistry or connection was there or if they didn't have the romance at all. But because they tried to add in romance as part of the story, it did not work for me. 7.5 overall.
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Just Keep Going
I started watching this after True Beauty and wanted something new to watch on my Wednesdays and Thursdays so I was not expecting much at all lol. I’m also usually not a fan of Time Travel series, but this blew my all my expectations and before I realized it was coming back each week for new episodes!Story: I think they did a great job executing the time travel but there were times I did get a little confused and wish it was written a little better.
There was also a lot of life lessons in this drama I feel like each episode had one but it flowed through the story really well.
Choi Kang Hee had amazing chemistry with Kim Young Kwang & Lee Ra even with the age difference. Cutest lil family vibes!
Acting: I loved the character development for everyone, and all the crying scenes were amazing. Overall the actors had great chemistry with each other; from the support roles to the guest roles in my opinion (I love the lunch ladies lol).
Lil rant because people found Young BHN annoying:
I can see why people were very annoyed with Young Ban Ha Ni but her character is supposed to be spontaneous and “reach for the stars” type of girl. She didn’t really have a sense of reality and was living in her own world that’s why the death of her father hit her soooo hard she never thought that could happen to her, let alone be the cause of her own fathers death! I used to be the same way when I was younger no filter at all which can hurt a lot of people along the way which they also executed well through her relationships with Anthony and Oh Ji Eun. I was happy with Young Ban Ha Ni’s character development at the end because she started caring for others. All in all if she kept you on the edge of your seat every time she snuck away lol she did a good job portraying her role.
I’m also happy with the ending had me in all my feels I haven’t been satisfied with a drama ending in a while. I feel like a lot of dramas I watch have open endings which has me stressed lol so I appreciate a good solid ending!
Definitely and must watch and a little underrated in my opinion!
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Underrated Masterpiece
Heard about this drama only when netflix picked it up. Watched when airing and was hooked right from the first episode. The plot is unique. Though time travel plots are not uncommon but this is a cute timetravel drama with the cutest time traveler. In a way, its a healing drama. Everyone does some adventures in their teens, make some mistakes but some mistakes can have tragic consequences. The plot revolves around this. 1 mistake of 17 year old Bahn Ha Ni Completely changes her life, shatters her morale, will to live life the way she wants to. After 20 years 37 year old Bahn Ha Ni meets her 17 year old self unaware of the tradegy which changed her. They both together travel towards healing, moving on from their past and living life to the fullest. Alot of life lessons in every episode. Cast is Ordinary but still everyone did a good job. The young Ha Ni was very cute. The business part was cliche, quite boring, But not part of the main plot. Romance is almost nil and it suited the story. The chemistry between male and female lead is good. One thing which makes this drama different is the character of male lead. He is not a superhero who rescues the FL like in a typical cliche drama, but he walks with her and comforts her. Will definitely rewatch it whenever I feel down.Was this review helpful to you?
