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: 4.7%, not high ratings as KBS2 is a cable network which means the numbers are actually 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.
**** 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????
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.
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.
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!
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!
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 is attending school in America.
**** 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.
Short promo video for the eighth episode.
The rating of 4.7% for this episode was the second highest of the series, only the final show topped it. KBS-2 is not a major network or at least compared to others so the ratings for this drama have been decent. Was going to talk about Jin Ki-Joo to open this post but will have to wait until the next recap as there's something from the last show that needs to be discussed which I didn't mention in the previous post. In the final thirty seconds Hae-Jun had just arrived at home with Yoon-Young, he had been able to save a second person from being murdered in 1987. Shortly after his arrival at home which is the above three screenshots Hae-Jun had received a call from his student Bum-Ryong, he's in the middle screenshot. He was calling from a payphone and you can see what muttered to Hae-Jun, "She's dead Mr.Yoon"!!!!
The episode ended on that note and didn't know who Bum-Ryong was referring so didn't mention the incident as I figured this show would begin off with that scene which it did. So though Hae-Jun has prevented two murders one did take place, not just one but two! We're at the halfway point of this series and to say things took a 180 degree turn would be an understatement! Will get to everything in the recap and more happened in this show than any other one. All along Hae-Jun has worried about what may happen if he or Yoon-Young changes history, two lives appeared to be saved but could things be worse because of that? The answer is YES and if you've been following these recaps you will be shocked with what takes place, we'll begin off with what happened after Bum-Ryong's call.
Sure it will in the next show and while Hae-Jun was figuring out what to do next a squad of police cars approached and the trio was at a loss on what to do! However the cars didn't stop but continued on, Hae-Jun told Bum-Ryong to flee and keep his mouth shut while he and Yoon-Young investigate where the police went to. When the pair arrived at the scene it was morning(!) and that baffled me as how did seven hours pass in less than a minute(?), bit of a continuity error. At this new scene was yet another dead young woman, this was Kyung-Ae who had also been saved by Hae-Jun from being murdered the previous night. Both her and Lee's killings were so similar, they both had been beaten badly plus had been tied up by some red rope. Also the pair both had a matchbox from the Bong-Bong Teahouse, inside of it was the message you can see above 'Women who read are dangerous'. That message was also in a matchbox found near Yoon-Young's dead mother Soon-Ae in 2021. Hae-Jun had brought home Kyung-Ae safely the previous night, say about 11:00 pm or so. After that Kyung-Ae must have snuck out of house to hit up a bar or to meet someone, these were the days of no cell phones or internet. Noticing the matchbox lessons was the detective below wo is Baek, more on him later and he's a tough character to figure out.
Who we hadn't seen much of the last 3-4 shows was the trio of bullies above led by Hae-Kyung in the yellow shirt. We just saw them in one scene in this episode which is okay as they don't add much to the story and the person they bully the most is Soon-Ae. But for some odd reason they get along well with Mi-Sook, in the year 2021 she's a popular writer of murder mysteries. **** I could be way off with my opinion but for the last few shows to me Mi-Sook has become the most likely suspect in the killings and let's see if that pans out. Kyung-Ae's body had been found at an abandoned house on the outskirts of Woojung that morning. The student teacher Lee may have been killed first but the police didn't discover her body until after they found Kyung-Ae's. The reason they found it is because Mi-Sook had called the police with the info(!) but of course never left her name, more on Mi-Sook coming up. In the third screenshot above you can see what Hae-Jun's comment was when returning home after visiting both murder scenes, it's now the morning of May 17th. While he prevented Lee and Kyung-Ae's original murders he couldn't stop them from being killed, does that mean he's powerless to stop what Fate had planned for the young women?
Hae-Jun is really down on what's taken place, if he's powerless to prevent anyone from being killed why stay in 1987? Certain things about history can and have been changed but none have been positive and as a matter of fact changing history almost led to the deaths of Baek's two young children. That Time Machine car which transported Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young to 1987 was damaged during the last trip. Hae-Jun had tried to fix it but hadn't been working on it too much lately as there were those two murders to prevent. But if events can't be changed in 1987 what's the sense of staying there and told Yoon-Young it's time for them to travel back to 2021 even though Hae-Jun knows he'll be killed in 2022 if he can't find the 1987 murderer! In the bottom screenshot on the left is a man of about 22 whose name is Yoon Yeon-Woo, he's the son of Yoon who is the principal of Woojung High School. Yeon-Woo's father had picked him up at Gimpo Airport as he had been studying for the last three years at an American university and is so extremely intelligent. Hae-Jun knew that Yeon-Woo would be returning that day to town and asked Yoon if he could send his son over to meet him. Coming from 2021 Hae-Jun knew how smart Yeon-Woo was and he figured that he was the only person who could repair the Time Machine car. However when Yeon-Woo visited Hae-Jun's house he had locked himself in his garage and wouldn't see anyone. Yeon-Woo told Yoon-Young he would return to help Hae-Jun fix whatever it is that needs fixing, there was one condition which is that Hae-Jun had to solve the Rubik's Cube in five seconds!
Hae-Jun did save Ok-Ja's life as she truly would have jumped from the cliff but if Fate intervenes again does that mean she may die a different way in the near future? Who knows but for now there are more pressing matters, one is that there will be another murder in three days and that person's identity hasn't been revealed. The other which is more important is to find the killer of Lee and Kyung-Ae, in the second to last screenshot you can see who Hae-Jun has as his prime suspect. He's in agreement with me as Hae-Jun feels that it could be Mi-Sook and the police never once suspected her. But in her future murder novels she has written about the Woojung killings and knew so many details that no one else knew about. Plus it was her that gave the key testimony at her brother Ko's trial and he had served 34 years in prison for murders he never committed! There's a few other suspicious things about Mi-Sook but for now Hae-Jun has no solid evidence, of course he can't use her novels as they were written decades later! While that scene was taking place in an unexpected twist Mi-Sook had been meeting with Hee-Sub at the teahouse, haven't mentioned him up until now. To the police he could be the prime suspect in the two murders and Mi-Sook had been telling Hee-Sub she can cover things up for him and they should work together! That was too short of a scene and Mi-Sook was so vague about what she was talking about but did have his brother's Yu-Sub's blue cap and what other evidence does Mi-Sook have to possibly blackmail Hee-Sub?
Final segment and a bit of an intense ending. Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young had been at his house where they were discussing what steps to take next in their investigation. Hae-Jun then blurted out that in thirty minutes the police would be be arresting Hee-Sub for the two murders. But obviously that didn't stick as Ko was the man who eventually was sentenced for the killings but then again if history has changed who knows what could happen? Hee-Sub is staying with his uncle Baek who is a detective, his brother Yu-Sub is also staying with the uncle and he's also a suspect in the killings. Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young dashed to Hee-Sub's place and arrived before the police did, they truly did want to help the young man out. What was found was a bloody rag and it could be from one of the two murders, though Hee-Sub said it was his Hae-Jun felt he was covering up for his brother. But in a twist which you can see above Hee-Sub confessed to the pair of murders which stunned Hae-Jun and especially Yoon-Young for Hee-Sub is her future father! After that confession Hee-Sub broke down badly and was mumbling odd things, seems as though he went over the edge. Listening outside of Hee-Sub's room was his uncle Baek who is a detective and he had heard plenty.
Baek entered the room and though it pained him to arrest his nephew justice had to be done and dragged Hee-Sub away. But not before giving Hae-Jun the evil eye as Baek was so confused on what Hae-Jun had been doing there and why do their paths constantly merge? By now there's only two minutes to go in the episode, after the arrest Yoon-Young took a stroll down to the same riverbank that her mother Soon-Ae was found dead in 2021. It was reported as a suicide but Hae-Jun felt it was the work of the true 1987 killer. He followed Yoon-Young down to the river and she was beyond upset plus very confused. Yoon-Young's main goal when she arrived in 1987 was to prevent her parents from ever marrying, with Hee-Sub's arrest she may have fulfilled her dream. But as Hae-Jun told her once again if Hee-Sub and Soon-Ae never get married that Yoon-Young herself would never be born and she's willing to accept that! But in the final ten seconds Hae-Jun began to wander away, he looked back at Yoon-Young and said he felt that Hee-Sub was innocent! That finally ends this recap and what a change in the storyline which is a positive as it keeps everything so fresh and interesting. Plenty of screenshots as usual to help you follow the action a bit better and hopefully can be back in four days with the next pair of recaps.
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