"My Perfect Stranger" drama: Episode five 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: 3.8%, not high ratings as KBS2 is a cable network which means the numbers are very respectable. This was the lowest 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????

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.

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 Young-Yoon!

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.

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?

Kim Jong-Soo as Yoon Byung-Gu.... Principal of the Woojung high school, on the left above.

**** 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

Short promo video for the fifth episode.

    

 Not as much editing was done for the characters, seeing as how we're a third of the way through this series probably won't have to do it all that often and don't know if any new characters will be added in. That above screenshot as you can see is for the Bong-Bong Teahouse, for a while was confused with the name. When we first saw the teashop it was referred to as H and that's because much of that sign was out of order. But it was repaired in this episode and that place could be key to the story as the killer would leave matchboxes at the murder scenes from the teahouse. However those matchboxes are very popular in the small city of Woojung as many teens use those boxes to send their crush a love note, using the boxes is supposed to bring good luck. That means so many have those boxes so will they remain a key clue to the upcoming killings? 

 Dates are very important as the killings haven't begun yet though will very soon, can our 'Hero' from the future Hae-Jun stop them from taking place? It's currently the night of May 12, 1987 and it's a Tuesday, the first murder will take place on Thursday the 14th. The last episode ended up with Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young running into each other outside of the Woojung General Store which is near a riverbank. Because Hae-Jun comes from the year 2021 he knows who the first victim will be, it's a new student teacher at the high school named Lee Joo-Young. She's not supposed to be killed until the 14th, two days from now, but Hae-Jun had heard from the principal that Lee was nowhere to be found. Hae-Jun wondered if because he had changed a few events in the past did the dates of killings also change? In the year 2021 Yoon-Young was the editor in chief for a popular writer named Mi-Sook who also happened to live in Woojung in 1987 and was a senior in high school, Yoon-Young is posing as a student to get a bit closer to her future mother Soon-Ae and stop her from marrying her father Baek Hee-Sub!

 In her bag Yoon-Young had a partial manuscript of a novel Mi-Sook was writing in 2021, it was titled "The People I KIlled". Mi-Sook's story was about the killings that took place in 1987, she knew so many details Yoon-Young thought she may have been the culprit. So Hae-Jun was looking for Lee, Yoon-Young for Mi-Sook when they met up and for now Lee is the key person to find for did the killings begin that night? No they didn't and Yoon-Young suggested going to the riverbank as that's where Lee was found in Mi-Sook's story and it was exactly where they found her! Lee was scared out of her wits and babbling about how she didn't do whatever, was she being chased or threatened? Hae-Jun noticed at the time they were being spied upon by a mysterious man in a blue hood, he gave chase and was about to nab this unknown person but a car got in his way, Hae-Jun never did see this man's face. He and Yoon-Young eventually tailed Lee home to make sure she arrived safely which she did, she has an apartment three blocks from the Bong-Bong Teahouse. Two of the screenshots above are with the detective Baek, it was his car that got in the way of Hae-Jun's chase. So of course he was upset about that but Baek didn't know what had been going on. What really infuriated Hae-Jun was that the police had released Ko Min-Soo earlier in the day, the man who ended up being charged for the murders though was probably innocent.

 Have talked about the man Ko enough, he was probably 22 back in 1987 so that means he was 56 when he was released from prison in 2021. Hae-Jun did a lot of investigating about the killings when he was in 2021 and was convinced that Ko was innocent, if so who is the killer? The police in 1987 had three suspects, Ko was one and if he was locked up in jail when the first murder took place he would have proved his innocence, will discuss the other two later. Baek told Hae-Jun he too wanted to keep Ko locked up but the higher ups at the station ordered him to be released, why Ko was in jail was talked about in the previous two recaps. Ko is the older brother of Mi-Sook, their family is quite wealthy as their father is the director of the city hospital and obviously has some pull with the police chief. After seeing Lee arrive back at her shabby apartment safely Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young visited the teashop once again where they finally spilled their reasons for travelling back to 1987. For Yoon-Young it was an accident that sent her back to that year but when she discovered her parents were teens then and hadn't began to date she knew it was her only chance to prevent them from getting close!

 As Hae-Jun says above while that may all be good as it may save her mother's life doesn't Yoon-Young realize she'll never be born???? Of course she did but if she can do one major thing in her life she will, that something is to make sure her mother leads a happy life and doesn't kill herself in 2021. Hae-Jun told Yoon-Young all about the three killings that will soon take place, he left one killing out which is that he will be murdered by the killer in 2022 if he can't find the real culprit!!!! Yoon-Young did show him the manuscript Mi-Sook had been working on in 2021 and it described the events so well it's as Mi-Sook was there for the killings! So to Yoon-Young it probably meant Mi-Sook was the culprit and to me it is very possible she could be the killer. But Hae-Jun said to slow down with those thoughts, of course Mi-Sook would know all about the events that took place as she lived in Woojung back in 1987. Plus the person that was spying on them when they were helping Lee was a man, to Hae-Jun this is the person most likely to be the killer! Also at the teahouse was her future mother Soon-Ae who for the first time was out on a mini date with her future husband Hee-Sub, that date was quickly ended by Yoon-Young who still wants to make sure the pair never get close. 

 Soon-Ae then said it was okay for this mini date to end as she had a regular one that evening with of all people Bum-Ryong! So far he's Hee-Sub's only friend in town but then again Hee-Sub has only bene there for a few days. Both are high school seniors and both also ended up on that list of suspects for the killings! Hee-Sub may have ended up as an alcoholic in 2021 but back in 1987 he seemed to be a decent guy, on the other hand Bum-Ryong who is in the third to last screenshot above seems to be a bit creepy but enough to be a killer? Since the second half of the previous episode I had a thought about something though it was never mentioned so was I the only one thinking about this possibility? No and that's because around the 25 minute mark Hae-Jun also brought up what I had surmised could have happened in 2021.... that Yoon-Young's mother Soon-Ae didn't kill herself but was murdered by the same fiend who killed three in 1987! The real killer was never caught so it is a possibility that he struck again but why did they wait for 34 years? That's what Hae-Jun was thinking and that was the only time it was discussed in this show but it appears it may become an important part of the story and should I be a script writer???? That top screenshot above was a note Yoon-Young found in a matchbox near the river where her mother's body was found, was it a threat to Soon-Ae in 2021?

 As time went on Yoon-Young had drifted apart from her mother which is very common. She never knew how smart Soon-Ae was and as you can see above she was number #1 for the grade rankings at Woojung High School, that infuriated Mi-Sook to no end. Yoon-Young had never known about that nor that Soon-Ae had wanted to become a writer and as it turns out she never did attend college. The date is Wednesday May 13th, the first killing will take place tomorrow who will be the new student teacher Lee. Hae-Jun wants to prevent it, along with what he learned from the police records in 2021 and what Mi-Sook was writing in her novel he knew of Lee's movements the next night. Some is above and at 10:00 pm on the 14th Lee left school(!), from there she went to the Bong-Bong Teahouse. From witness accounts it appeared Lee met that mysterious man in a blue hood, they had a mini spat and Lee left. From there to her apartment at the Woojung Inn was only about three short blocks or a four minute walk, she never made it to her place as Lee was killed behind an alley next to the inn. So if Hae-Jun can get to the teahouse shortly after 10:00 pm the next night he'll learn who the culprit is and perhaps stop Lee from being the first victim.

 That's Hae-Jun in the top screenshot explaining his plans to Yoon-Young, he doesn't want her involved as it could be a dangerous scene. Below that screenshot is the detective Baek, he knows the new teacher Lee is hiding something but what? He was informed by his chief that Lee has had three prior convictions, the next day he wants Baek to nab Lee at the high school. During this time Lee has been receiving some mysterious phone calls but never once heard any names or concrete details but those calls have made her so frightened. So now it's Thursday May 14th, the day when Lee will be killed at night and also when Baek is supposed to arrest her! Hae-Jun had no idea about Lee's prior arrests and for now we don't know what crimes she may have committed. Lee did notice the police before they saw her, she scampered away but close on her tail was Yoon-Young and soo Hae-Jun was also in pursuit. Lee seems like a nice woman but one who is terrified of something, there's no way she can be brought in by the police and as you can see above put a knife to Yoon-Young's throat! That took place at the Woojung General Store and luckily Hae-Jun arrived in the nick of time. He talked some sense into Lee, neither he nor Yoon-Young want anything to happen to Lee and they're on her side. The owner of the store is Soon-Ae's father who allowed the trio to hide out in a small room and when the police arrived he said Lee had taken off on a bus to Seoul!

 With the police after Lee and her murder scheduled to take place that night there's no way Hae-Jun can let her go back to school or her apartment. Yoon-Young took Lee away and hid her out at Hae-Jun's house, have to presume the police were still searching the town high and low for her. Hae-Jun's plan is to be at the Bing-Bing Teahouse a little after 10:00 pm, that's when the she met that unknown man in a blue hat and he may not have known what took place with Lee that day. It's now down to two minutes to go in this episode, Hae-Jun is at the teahouse and the time is about 10:10 pm. The front door of the shop opened and entering was that mysterious man, Hae-Jun couldn't make out who this man. That is until there were five seconds to go and above in the bottom screenshot is the possible killer of three women! That's Yoon-Young's future father and the new boy in town Hee-Sub, Hae-Jun was so shocked at who this man was and so weren't us viewers! So that ended this episode and would the true killers identity be revealed so early in the series? Don't know that yet as I haven't viewed the next show which is the next post, bit off a thrilling and puzzling conclusion to this show.