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 the first episode: 4.5%, not high ratings as KBS2 is a cable network which means the numbers are very respectable.
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. As is the case for most of my dramas will do two recaps at a time, the second episode is the next post.
**** 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.
Kim Dong-Wook as Yoon Hae-Jun.... 34 year old reporter 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.
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.
**** 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.
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.
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.
Choi Young-Woo as Dong-Sik.... Hee-Seop's tough uncle who is a detective.
Kim Jong-Soo as Yoon Byung-Gu.... Principal of the Woojung high school.
**** 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.
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.
Video for the drama's theme song which also features highlights from this episode.
Had started to recap the "Delivery Man" series which also ended recently, did two posts for it at the beginning of June. However I was a bit burnt out from recapping so many dramas and variety shows the last few months and needed a break from them. So aborted that project but kept on viewing the drama, up to the eighth show and it's been a decent watch though thought it would be better. Another reason for not continuing on with the recaps is because I was looking forward to this drama and wanted to dive head first into it right after it ended it's run on June 20th. The main female star is Jin Ki-Joo and to say I'm smitten with her would be an understatement! She looks so darn good, better than ever and the next plan is to have a regular post for her which hasn't happened in over two years.
So if you read the above you know this is a time travel show, for now have only watched the first episode. It appears our two main characters could be stuck in 1987 for a while and neither had ever seen one another until the very end of this episode. Their two stories for now seem to be completely different so will keep what happens to them separate in this recap and see how it works out after this episode. Once I finish this recap will view the second show, the post below this is for that episode and know the above section will be seeing some editing and new characters added. Let's finally get to what took place and that above takes so long to write up for the first time.
He arrived at a mini celebration some of the leaders of the small city Woojung were having near a river bank. The reason for the get together was because for the fifth year in a row they were chosen as the safest place in Korea to live but as Hae-Jun soon let them know it's not as safe as it appears. Hae-Jun popped up out of nowhere and strolled over to the party and laid some disturbing facts on the group who included the mayor and high school principal. Did they know at that exact moment there was a group of four girls in the woods getting high on glue(!) and perhaps some other drugs, if they don't hurry two of the girls may die!!!! So with the help of Hae-Jun the residents of Woojung tore into the nearby forest to save the girls though it was secretly Hae-Jun who was the savior. We only saw these four girls in one other scene a bit later so won't talk about them too much in this recap, two of their names are in the character section. But one of the young girls, who are all seniors in high school, is named Soon-Ae and it just so happens she's the future mother of the other major star of the show. Hae-Jun is now a hero to the local citizens, who is he and where did he come from? Of course he couldn't say the year 2021 so Hae-Jun replied he was new to the area and looking for a teaching position. As mentioned one man at the celebration was the high school principal and as you can see above Hae-Jun quickly did become a teacher though he had never done that kind of work before.
Hae-Jun quickly settled nicely into life in Woojung, he's now a respected teacher and has even bought a house. The car he drives around is the Time Machine and so far don't know what kind of car it is. The vehicle is still being used by Hae-Jun in his spare time as he's gone back and forth between 2021 and 1987, mainly to deal with the above man. His name is Go Min-Soo and the first time they met Ko was set to be released from prison the next day. He's been in prison for 34 years or since 1987, Go had been charged with committing many murders in the city of Woojung. For all 34 years Ko has constantly said he was innocent and had been framed for the murders which always fell on deaf ears. That is until now for Hae-Jun believes that Go is innocent and why would that be? It's because when Hae-Jun took a trip to the year of 2037 he had gone to see if his dream of retiring at the age of fifty had come true. It hadn't for Hae-Jun had been killed in 2022 by the same man who had killed all of those others in Woojung back in 1987, now you know why Hae-Jun had gone back to that year. He knew that Go wasn't the killer of those people nor of himself because the day before Ko was to be released from prison he had hung himself in his cell! That meant Ko hadn't killed Hae-Jun in 2022 and was innocent of the 1987 murders, hope it's not too confusing.
So once again Hae-Jun was able to alter history as he was able to talk Ko out of hanging himself. The pair met up again after Ko's release but it was a short meeting and don't think Hae-Jun was able to get much info out of Go. But he has vowed to discover who the real killer was and why Ko was framed, if Hae-Jun is successful that means he won't be killed in 2022 plus that Go never spent 34 years in prison for killings he never did. So things with Hae-Jun's story are now clear and he did confess he's only saving others to save himself! We don't see much of Hae-Jun again until the final few minutes as the rest of the episode was devoted to the other major character. That's her in the second to last screenshot and her name is Yoon-Young. She's 31 in age and is(was) the editor in chief for the woman in the bottom screenshot. Her name is Ko Mi-Sook who is a popular writer of murder mysteries, it was mentioned slightly at the end she herself came from Woojung and lived there in 1987. Min-Sook may be popular but it seems Yoon-Young does most of the work through her editing and that's a common trend in dramas where the editors do much of the work but get no credit.
Min-Soon is in her young fifties and what a brutal woman she is to work for. She does appreciate all that Yoon-Young has done for her but that doesn't stop Min-Sook from constantly berating her. With her fame Min-Sook always dresses in the finest of clothes and eats at such elegant restaurants, that's the opposite of Yoon-Young who for some reason never has money for the finer things in life. We only saw Min-Sook in one extended scene but it was important, wonder if her character in 1987 will also be key to the story? Someone we only saw for a few seconds was her daughter Eun-Ha, she's about twenty in age and is the complete opposite of her mother as she's so kind. Did say that Yoon-Young never seems to have enough money, she makes a decent salary so where does it go to? Back home as her mother doesn't work and her father is an alcoholic, Yoon-Young has to pay for their rent and food along with her father's high liquor bills! Yoon-Young really despises her father which is why she hasn't gone home for years, while she still loves her mother Soon-Ae the sight of her does make Yoon-Young ashamed of her background and is there anything that she can do about it?
There may be a way and how will be near the end. So after attending an event with Min-Sook Yoon-Young noticed her mother at a mall buying shoes but ignored her when she was spotted. However on the street Yoon-Young did approach her mother and that get together didn't go so well, who knew then it would be the last time Yoon-Young would see her mother alive! That mini meeting on the street really upset Soon-Ae and think the words her daughter spoke were the words that broke the camel's back. Add in what Soon-Ae's life is like with her husband Baek and to keep living in hell was just not worth it. The following evening Yoon-Young received a call from the hospital in Woojung, she had been living in Seoul. Her mother had jumped to her death from a cliff and Yoon-Young had to identify the body, she thought to herself why had her mother killed herself in a small city like Woojung which she had never heard of? Soon-Ae had left a note for Yoon-Young apologizing for embarrassing her and that did leave Yoon-Young in tears as she knew she was a reason for her mothers death. In the bottom two screenshots above Yoon-Young was talking to her drunk father Baek and does she hate him! It was the only scene we saw him in and this man is truly one lowlife, hope Yoon-Young never sent him any more money. Almost forgot to mention that after Yoon-Young heard the news of her mother's death she received a text from Min-Sook saying she was fired(!), that may be a relief to Yoon-Young.
No it wasn't as some odd man whose named was never revealed told her the year truly was 1987 and to Yoon-Young is she dreaming all of this? This all took place with just a few minutes to go and sure the next episode will be of Yoon-Young finally realizing she did travel back in time! Above are two screenshots of some young girls who are all seniors in high school. The trio I don't know much about yet as they only had a few minutes of screen time but think they will be important to the story. The other girl above happens to be Soon-Ae, the future mother of Yoon-Young and when she heard the name tried to greet her. But Yoon-Young was pulled back by the recovered Hae-Jun who dragged her into an alley and said he would explain everything. That will take place in the next episode as this one came to it's end but had the feeling Yoon-Young already has a plan worked out if the year really is 1987. Her ultimate wish is that her parents never got married, this could be her chance to make sure it never happens! Solid first show and have he feeling I'm really going to enjoy this series, haven't viewed the next episode yet and that's the following post. Few more screenshots below to help you follow the story better and think many more characters are going to be introduced.
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