To start, this story is about a woman who reincarnates and remembers her past lives. In her life just before the story's present day, she's a kid who gets killed in a car crash; the male lead, also a kid, is in the car with her and witnesses her die, which seriously traumatizes him as the sole survivor. FL reincarnates and makes it her mission in her current life to find him. She falls in love with him and, in the present day, uses her collective experience to become qualified to join his family's company and his department. The original story breadcrumbs the reincarnation reveal, which is the core of the storyline; this story does not do that well at all.

This is an adaptation of one of my favorite manhwa, so I think my expectations were too high and specific going in. While not terrible, there were a few things I found unacceptable in adaptation. For one, Shin Hye Sun is totally miscast. . Ban Ji Eum needs to exude specific qualities for the story to work: wisdom, implacability, mystery, self-assuredness beyond her years, flippancy, and mature flirtatiousness. Shin Hye Sun doesn't have the gravity or strength of character for the role--she seems more suited for more straight-forward roles; all efforts to make her seem older are conveyed through dialogue--she does literally nothing as an actor to convey that she's like hundreds of years old. Honestly, I thought the kid actors did a way better job being precocious and true to character. I also didn't like the costume and makeup choices for her at all; her outfits and dyed hair evoke youthfulness and work completely contrary to associations that would fit the character. Speaking out of her ass about being part of some historical scenes did not work at all. Characterization needs to be conveyed through facial acting, posture, costuming, vocal tone, etc., but here, basically all of her characterization as an adult comes through dialogue and the flashback child acting. I love the manhwa so I'm biased obviously, but if you compare the character design for each, the live action version here seems kind of random when it comes to making decisions about her character.

I was happy to see Ahn Bo Hyun get a lead role and I think he fits the male lead well. I've always thought he was a more dynamic actor than his supporting roles would lead one to believe and 19th Life shows that's true. Unfortunately, the plotting and female lead are far inferior to the source material. Maybe I would've enjoyed this more had I not been familiar with how excellent the webtoon is.