"My Perfect Stranger" drama: Episode sixteen(final!) of sixteen recap

 

 Air Dates: May 1st until June 20, 2023 on KBS 2, Monday and Tuesdays nights at 9:45 pm

Director: Kang Soo-Yeon, episodes are 65 minutes in length and subs done by iTs

Rating for this episode: 5.7%, not high ratings as KBS2 is a cable network which means the numbers are actually very respectable and were very consistent. This was the highest rating of all sixteen episodes.

Main Cast: This drama was originally scheduled to air in the Autumn of 2022 but got pushed back twice. Have been looking forward to this series as it stars my second favorite Korean actress who is Jin Ki-Joo and hasn't seen her in any show for two years. Writing much of this up after viewing the first episode, there will be a lot of editing to the characters and more of them will be added in. This is a time travel drama, it began off in 2021 when the main male star Hae-Jun found a car that can travel in time either forwards or backwards! But think most of the drama will be set in 1987 and it could be nostalgic for any older K-drama fans who may visit here. 

**** When Yoon-Young was transported back to 1987 it was the evening of May 9th, dates will be important as a serial killer murders his first victim on May 14th.... or will he be stopped???? No, but history was changed as the first murder took place on May 16th.

Kim Dong-Wook as Yoon Hae-Jun.... 32 year old KSBC anchor who one night happened to find this time travel car at the entrance to a tunnel! He believed in only facts but thought why not read the user manual to see if this car could travel in time... it could as Hae-Jun went to the year 3089! Shortly after returning to the year 2021 Hae-Jun took another trip and this time to 2037, what he found out is one of the main stories to this series. Hae-Jun discovered he was murdered in 2022 by a serial killer and went to visit this killer in prison upon returning to 2021. This man Go wasn't the true killer of many people way back in the year of 1987 but had been framed for the killings, Hae-Jun believed this man and to clear his name and also to save his own life Hae-Jun went back to the year 1987 to find out who the killer really was and to possibly stop the murders. The location will be the smallish country city of Woojung.

**** Did learn in the 14th episode that in Korean Hae can mean Greeting while Jun can mean Happiness. 

 Jin Ki-Joo as Baek Yoon-Young.... Editor in chief for a very popular woman author of murder novels though Yoon-Young seems to do most of the work. In the first episode she was fired by this author who was named Mi-Sook and it had to be a relief to be fired! Right around the time of Yoon-Young being fired her mother killed herself and she blames herself for the death, also her alcoholic father. A few days after her mother's death Yoon-Young was wandering near a tunnel when the time travel car driven by Hae-Jun came close to hitting her, at the time the machine was set to travel to 1987 which is where the pair ended up at. Of course Yoon-Young thought it was a dream but when she realized she had travelled back in time she was thrilled! The second main story will be of  Yoon-Young stopping her parents from meeting each other and getting married, if so what will happen to her???? Like Hae-Jun's story it will be set in the smallish city of Woojung. In the third episode Yoon-Young began to impersonate as a high school student to get closer to her mother. Yoon-Young is around thirty in age but claimed to Hae-Jun she could pass for being 22, she told everyone she had to stay back a few years because of family problems.

**** The above two are from the year 2021 but most of the action will take place in 1987, here are the main characters from that year. The location is a smallish city named Woojung-ri.

Seo Ji-Hye as Lee Soon-Ae.... In 1987 she was 18 in age and the top girl in her senior high school class. However she had no true friends and spent her time writing stories as she was such a fan of novels. Soon-Ae is actually Yoon-Young's mother and now that she somehow ended up in the year 1987 she's trying to prevent Soon-Ae getting married to Baek. So you have to wonder if Yoon-Young is successful would that mean she never existed?

 Lee Won-Jung as Baek Hee-Sub.... Yoon-Young's father though he too was only eighteen in 1987. He was a bit of an innocent lad and actually was quite nice back in 1987, Hee-Sub loved music but never began a band. He eventually became such an alcoholic and that was one of the reasons for Soon-Ae committing suicide in 2021. Hee-Sop is also a new transfer student at Woojung high school, he began on the same day Yoon-Young did.

Hong Seung-An as Baek Yu-Sub.... Hee-Sub's older brother who attends college in Seoul where he lies in a boarding house and also works PT at a leather factory. He does visit Woojung on the weekends to see his brother and is another suspect in the killings, the pair of brothers have quite a colorful past.

Park Soo-Hyung as Hyung-Man.... Soon-Ae's father who owns a combination tea shop, general store and bus stop for travelling to and from Seoul.

Kim Jun-Young as Ok-Ja.... Soon-Ae's mother and has two other children.

Hong Na-Hyun as Lee Kyung-Ae.... Soon-Ae's 22 year old sister who works at a hair salon. She loves to party and for so long had dreams of being in the Miss Korea pageant! In the seventh episode Kyung-Ae was supposed to be the second victim of the still unknown killer but that was thwarted by Hae-Jun, besides that show she may not have much screen time.

Kim Ye-Ji as Kim Hae-Kyung.... Friend of Soon-Ae's, like Hae-Kyung the other girls Soon-Ae hangs out with none of them are 'true friends' and all love to party which at times has gotten Soon-Ae into trouble. On the left below is Hae-Kyung, the other two are her cronies Eun-Ha in glasses and Yu-Ri, all bully Soon-Ae.

Ji Hye-Won as Ko Mi-Sook.... Another 'friend' of Soon-Ae's who we met near the end of the second episode. She's the same woman who became a popular writer many years later and of all things Yoon-Young was her editor in chief! Mi-Sook's first novel was a huge hit but she had actually stolen the story from Soon-Ae who never said a word. Mi-Sook was such a creep back in 1987 and was even worse in 2021! Mi-Soon does come from a very wealthy family so her snobbery began on the day she was born!

Kim Yeon-Woo as Ko Min-Soo.... Mi-Sook's older brother and the same man Hae-Jun met in 2021. In that year Ko had just been released from prison after serving 34 years for murders he never committed. Though innocent for those crimes Ko is still such a creep who may have raped some girls back in 1987 and almost did so to Yoon-Young! He was arrested for the murders in episode eight but released in the 14th show. 

Choi Young-Woo as Dong-Sik.... Hee-Seop's tough uncle who is a detective. We learned in the third show Hee-Sop's parents are dead and he's now moved in with his uncle. Baek is married with two young children.

Joo Yeon-Woo as Yoo Bum-Ryong.... High school student who became Hee-Sub's first friend in Woojung and we didn't meet him until the third episode. Bit of an oddball who is on the suspect list of some upcoming murders! Sadly he was murdered at the end of the twelfth episode by the unknown killer but he did save Soon-Ae in the process.

Jung Ga-Hee as Lee Joo-Young.... We met her in the fourth episode, she's attending school at Seoul University. Joo-Yung arrived in Woojung on May 12th, that's her below on the right. She's going to be a student teacher at the high school working with Hae-Jun. He knows that on May 14th she'll be the first victim of the killer, can he possibly prevent it? That happened and on May 15th Lee returned to Seoul.

Kim Jong-Soo as Yoon Byung-Gu.... Principal of the Woojung high school, on the left above and his son was attending school in America but returned to Korea in episode eight.

Jeong Jae-Kwang as Yoon Yeon-Woo.... The son of the above man who has just returned to Korea after attending an American university for three years. Yeon-Woo is very intelligent and has been asked by Hae-Jun to fix his Time Machine car, he's on the right below. There's one other common link between them which is that he's.... Hae-Jun's future father!

**** The below group of characters we met in the first episode who are from the year 2021, unsure if we'll be seeing much more of them as most of the drama takes place in 1987.

Lee Ji-Hyun as Lee Soon-Ae.... Yoon-Young's mother and the pair didn't get along so well, it was a reason for Soon-Ae committing suicide in the first episode.

Lee Kyu-Hoe as Baek Hee-Sop.... Yoon-Young's father who is such a waste as all he does is drink, him and his wife lived off what their daughter sent them in cash and he's the other main reason Soon-Ae killed herself.

Kim Hye-Eun as Go Mi-Sook.... Popular writer of murder mysteries, Yoon-Young was her editor who seemed to do most of the work until she was fired in the first show. Mi-Sook also lived back in Woojung in 1987 and had known Yoon-Young's mother, actually she stole the story for her first novel from her!

Im Jong-Yun as Ko Min-Soo.... Man who was accused of killing many people in the small city of Woojung back in 1987. However Go was innocent and after 34 years is about to be released from prison. No one had listened to Ko's pleas for all those years until Jae-Hun visited him the day before his release and has vowed to discover who the real killer was. 

 Whew, big cast and sure more characters will be introduced so that section above will be increasing for the first few shows and of course will also be updated.

Links to the previous recaps, may help to read a few of them and especially the first.

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

Episode nine .... Episode ten .... Episode eleven .... Episode twelve

Episode thirteen .... Episode fourteen

Short promo video for the sixteenth episode.

 

 For the second time there was no promo for an episode so the video below is of this show's opening scene when the two heroes were unable to travel back to 1987.

 

 

Thanks if you've been reading these recaps for this fine series. Know they can be a bit long at times but think they're easy to read and zip through, that is if you've been following the series. Will take a few days off and then start on the "Actress" drama that finished airing in June and starred members from the three '46' groups. That series just had eight episodes plus they were only ~32 minutes in length so should be able to zip through it. Know the second season off "Taxi Driver" will be done soon too but would rather wait until September so need to find another semi-shortish drama and was thinking of "DIY", let me mull that over for a while.

 On to the final episode and am going to miss viewing this series. Will give my final grade now which will be a 9.1/10 and for me that's a high rating. There was zero negatives with this drama as it was interesting all the way through and for a series that was over a thousand minutes there were very few slow scenes. Did help that I'm a huge Jin Ki-Joo fan, will do a regular post for her soon and may also be recapping her 2022 drama. Only semi complaint was that we didn't hear enough about the outcomes of some characters such as what happened with the killer Yeon-Woo? Or Ko who served 34 years in prison for the killings but now that didn't happen, he was a creep and did he remain one? Sure you read the above recap and you know that our two main characters failed to return to the year 2021, that's right above. So of course most of this episode was devoted to them trying in vain to return to the future but still wonder what would happen if they remained in the year 1987? This ending episode wasn't as intense as others but was rather interesting and there were a few surprises that occurred. 

 So as mentioned the two main characters of Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young are stuck in the year 1987 but of course you know they will eventually make it back to 2021, much more on their plight coming up. In the top two screenshots above Hae-Jun's future grandfather Yoon was trying to apologize for the actions of his son Yeon-Woo to the Lee family. The son had killed their daughter Kyung-Ae back on May 17th, the date now is June 14th though dates don't matter as much. Yoon's apology went nowhere, he's a respected man in the small city of Woojung but the residents now despise him bitterly though it was no fault of Yoon's for what Yeon-Woo had done. The outside of Yoon's house had even been vandalized though an old friend eventually cleaned things up for him. As far as Yeon-Woo goes there was very little mention of him in this episode. He's currently sitting in the Woojung jail and we never did learn what the outcome was for him. The same goes for Ko who had wrongly served 34 years for the murders, if you've been reading these recaps you know what a creep he is but his name was never mentioned in this final episode.

 As Hae-Jun says above least he and Yoon-Young still have a house to live in but of course the main thing is how will he ever get the Time Machine car working properly? The car itself runs but the time machine itself isn't working and Hae-Jun did continue working on it through this episode but to no avail. He did confess to Yoon-Young a future problem could be is a shortage of money as he's spent almost all he brought back from 2021, wasn't he getting paid as a teacher? Yoon-Young did make a funny comment which is why didn't Hae-Jun find out what the winning lottery numbers were in 1987! She also had another key question and one that hadn't been brought up until now, where did the Time Machine car come from and why would it be left at the entrance to a tunnel? That had baffled Hae-Jun too and he did reveal to Yoon-Young about a call he had received just before he almost hit her with the car on May 9th, the date both were whisked back to 1987. The caller said Hae-Jun was the only person that could set things straight which confused Hae-Jun, the caller wasn't too easy to understand due to static and that was the only time Hae-Jun had heard from this mysterious man. Which does make sense as there were no cell phones back in 1987, was this caller the owner of the car?

 If the pair are stuck in Woojung for a while they may as well take advantage of it and still wonder what may have happened if they never returned to 1987? Above Hae-Jun is getting nowhere with fixing the time machine and during that scene Yoon-Young did say living in 1987 wouldn't be a bad thing though she'd rather get to know Hae-Jun better in 2021. So the pair did take advantage of their predicament as they tried to get closer to their future relatives. As you can also see above Soon-Ae's first book was published and if you remember the story had been stolen by Mi-Sook three episodes ago. That book was pulled from the shelves and eventually there was justice for Soon-Ae as she has become more well liked in town due to the book. Say that for when this series had began she used to be bullied by a trio of lowlifes who after the book was published are now trying to become friends with Soon-Ae.

 Above you can see what was done to the outside of Yoon's house, he didn't even realize it for he's quickly become a recluse. Yoon and the detective Baek are the only ones who know that Hae-Jun came from the year 2021, being stuck in 1987 meant this could be the best time for Hae-Jun to set things straight with his future grandfather. So Hae-Jun brought Yoon out fishing and the two really cleared the air about things, especially Hae-Jun. Originally he had been abandoned by his father Yeon-Woo who this time around will be spending many decades in prison. Hae-Jun had also been abandoned by his mother Chung-A shortly after his birth, it was mainly because she couldn't bear living with the killer Yeon-Woo. So Yoon raised Hae-Jun but for the most part ignored his grandson, Hae-Jun told him what the future would be like and Yoon has vowed to change his ways. So at least there were some positives that took place being stuck in 1987 but only if the pair can return to 2021. 

 Trying to zip through this final recap a bit quickly, not as much took place but it was a solid ending show. Hae-Jun did meet his future mother Chung-A for about a minute after that afternoon fishing with Yoon. Of course Hae-Jun couldn't reveal he was her future son but was satisfied with why she had left Woojung as it was to escape from the killer, Hae-Juns's father Yeon-Woo. Yoon-Young too kept trying to make sure the future would be brighter as she spent an afternoon with her future parents Soon-Ae and Hee-Sub. They had such a fun time, in the future those kinds of days were seldom for the family but if Yoon-Young can ever return to 2021 then life just may be so different. She even learned how to ride a bike thanks to her father Hee-Sub which is something she had never done before so all in all the extra time spent in 1987 was an enjoyable time for the two main characters.

 Staying in 1987 won't be going on for too much longer as a very key scene soon took place and one that was totally unexpected. That young man above later on that day, by now its June 17th, showed up at Hae-Jun's house and guess who the owner of the Time Machine car was? This man who was unnamed but in real life his name is Jun so will call him that. As you can see in a shocker he revealed to Hae-Jun that he's his future son(!) and it appears he was born in 2023. So I'm thinking that Jun invented this Time Machine car over twenty years later, say around 2045-50! Jun knew of his family's past and knew that the only person who could change things was Hae-Jun which was why he left his future father the car in 2021. That does raise some questions such as how did Jun leave the year 2021 and travel back to 1987, was there another car? Originally Hae-Jun had been killed in 2022 and perhaps Jun was raised only by his mother so he had a good reason for wanting the past changed and it did work out perfectly. It wasn't too long of a scene and Jun was able to repair the car, at the time Yoon-Young had no clue that Hae-Jun had received a visitor and when she returned that evening Hae-Jun said the car was fixed and let's leave right now!!!! So though not too long of a scene it was such an important one and what took place was so unexpected.

 We're getting close to the end as there's less than ten minutes to go in this series. There was SUCCESS as the Time Machine car did work, the pair returned to 2021 where the rest of the recap will take place. Myself, along with Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young, wondered if the changes made in the past will change their lives dramatically in 2021 and it did, all for the better! The date of return was June 17th, Hae-Jun's grandfather Yoon had circled the date on a calendar and he was the only person in 2021 to know of the time machine. Some things are the same as Hae-Jun is a reporter and weekend announcer for KSBC. The biggest change was in Yoon-Young's life and her parents were so different. Soon-Ae has been a popular writer for thirty years and with Hee-Sub live in a very elegant house. Hee-Sub has really changed as he's no useless alcoholic and owns a very successful bar/club, he also doesn't walk with a limp. When Yoon-Young had left 2021 she had been an editor, she still is but this time around it's for her mother Soon-Ae and what a different life this family led thanks to the changes in history.

 Originally in 2021 Yoon-Young had been an editor for Mi-Sook and she ran across her in a bookstore. Thanks to the changes in history Mi-Sook is no longer a popular author and Yoon-Young was so curious on how her life turned out which we never learned. The bottom two screenshots above are from the final minute and we did discover that the Time Machine car has only one round trip left. Yoon-Young suggested why not go back in time to 1987 again and make sure everything ended up perfect such as preventing the three murders. Of course the main one to prevent would be of Kyung-Ae's  murder as she was Soon-Ae's older sister, Hae-Jun said why not do it and the series ended up on that note. But I was thinking why not leave well enough alone, perhaps a few other things would change in the past and all may not be positive ones. It also appears Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young are now dating, think they get married in 2022 and the following year is when their son is born! So that wraps up this drama which is one I enjoyed immensely and did give it a solid grade in the intro. Will take a mini break of about a week from dramas and also in the intro mentioned what shows I would be viewing next, as usual will leave you with many screenshots to help you follow the story a bit better.