"My Perfect Stranger" drama: Episode seven 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: 4.2%, 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. 

**** 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.

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

Episode five .... Episode six

Short promo video for the seventh episode.

 Did edit the above character list a bit but not as much as I thought it would need. There's one character who hasn't been added in who is Soon-Ae's older sister Kyung-Ae and she's the main focus of this show as she was the second murder victim in 1987! She's had so little screen time up until now, after I view the next show will decide if she'll be added in to the above massive list(did add her in). One huge positive about this drama is that it's never been confusing, now that I've said that watch me jinx things! What it means is I can view an episode such as this one and then write the recap up, when dramas are a bit confusing often have to watch both episodes before beginning on the recaps. Will try to pick up the pace a bit, after these two posts today am halfway through this series. The goal is to finish it up by the end of the month which means eight recaps in a little over two weeks which will be tough but will try my darndest. At the beginning of August want to begin on the "Actress" drama which I hope happens, whenever this is done is when that next show will be started and after that will be the second season of "Taxi Driver".

 Do recommend reading the previous recaps if you're a newbie to the series, links to all shows are right above. Do talk about previous incidents and details but so much has been happening can't discuss too much of what's been taking place or these recaps would be much longer. Coming in knew this would be a fine series but it's actually been much better than I was expecting. As mentioned in most of the previous three recaps the timeline is very important. The setting is the year 1987, Hae-Jun is trying to prevent three murders that took place on May 14th, 16th and 20th of that year. The last two episodes took place on the 14th and 15th, Hae-Jun was able to prevent the first murder who was a student teacher named Lee, she was sent back to her home in Seoul. As this show begins off it's the night of the 15th, the following evening the second murder will take place and said above who that would be. That should be enough off an intro and let's finally get to what took place in the seventh episode.

 Wasn't a cliffhanger but the key development to end the previous episode off revolved around the wearer of a blue cap which is in three screenshots above. What made Hee-Sub a suspect in the killing of Lee, which of course never happened, was that the man she met up with at the Bong-Bong Teahouse had been wearing a blue cap. While Hae-Jun was inside the teahouse on the night of the 14th in walked Hee-Sub with that cap and he's been seen wearing it before. However it's not his cap but one that belongs to his brother Yu-Sub who is about four years older or 22 in age. Both are currently staying in Woojung with their uncle Baek who is a police detective, he's married with two young children. Yoon-Young has seen Yu-Sub wear that blue cap which Hae-Jun wasn't aware of, outside the teahouse Yu-Sub had given his brother the cap to avert suspicion on himself(?). So now the list of suspects has grown by one to five, when Hae-Jun had checked the police records in 2021 that was created in 1987 three names were on the list. Hee-Sub, his high school friend who is slightly creepy Bum-Ryong and the man who eventually was sentenced for the murders, Ko. Now Hae-Jun has added Yu-Sub's name to the list and the woman above in the middle screenshot could also be considered a suspect, she's Ko's younger sister Mi-Sook. In an odd twist at the hospital her parents operate she noticed Hee-Sub throwing that cap away and picked it though for what purpose?

 Five suspects though none have been caught red-handed doing anything against the three that were murdered. Ko has been caught in two melees but both times Hae-Jun gave him a severe beating, he's the most obvious suspect but often they end up being innocent. Most of that above were of discussions Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young had on the night of May 15th, it's now the 16th when killing #2 will take place. Hae-Jun has been teaching at the Woojung High School, Yoon-Young has been impersonating as a student to get closer to her future mother Soon-Ae, the goal was to stop her from getting married but that's become a minor story for now because of the potential killings. Both called in sick to school that day in order to follow the second victim around as the police had so little on what took place before the killing. The victim is in the bottom two screenshots above, she's Soon-Ae's older sister Kyung-Ae. She's such a free spirit who works at a hair salon and spends much of her free time partying it up. Kyung-Ae's ultimate goal is to enter the Miss Korea beauty contest, not that she's ugly but would stand no chance of ever qualifying. Kyung-Ae needs $500 to enter the contest through some sleazebag and she had no clue at the time she was being taken for a ride. Above she discovered where her father secretly hides money and took a bit for her entry fee to the contest.

 At home that morning Kyung-Ae was still asking for money to enter the Miss Korea contest, of course for the umpteenth time her parents said to take a hike! Also being refused money was Soon-Ae who wanted it for the right reasons, to get a tutor to help her with math. Can't say that the family is poor, there's also a brother, but they're far from rich and can't afford things such as a tutor. But later on which is above Soon-Ae's father Hyung-Man did corner her and said he would save his money up for her as Soon-Ae wants to attend college so badly. She may struggle with Math but Soon-Ae does have the highest grades in her senior class, as her future daughter says above Soon-Ae never did attend college. However wonder if she may for when events are changed in the past it also means things in the future are changed so perhaps Soon-Ae going to college will happen. On her way to school she was joined by Kyung-Ae, Soon-Ae had tried saving some money up for a tutor but would never have enough. She had that small amount of cash hidden in a book which she gave to Kyung-Ae who soon discovered the money and seemed her attitude really changed after that. As mentioned Kyung-Ae works in a hair salon but called in sick that day so no one knew what her activities were leading up to her death that night. Of course she's the aunt of Yoon-Young who never met her for she is scheduled to be murdered that evening!

 In the top two screenshots above is the high school principal Yoon who told Hae-Jun not to come into school and to get Yoon-Young to a hospital if she was that sick. With him is the detective Baek and Hae-Jun wanted to have a conversation with him at school and probably to talk about his nephews but that chat never took place. In a few of the above screenshots you can see Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young trailing Kyung-Ae from a distance as they can't let her see them. The murder won't take place until after 9:00 pm but maybe there will be some incidents that took place prior to that, if those are stopped perhaps Kyung-Ae's murder will also be prevented. In town that morning Kyung-Ae met up with the scammers who claimed they could enter her into the Miss Korea contest. There's a trio of men who are led by a creep named Ki, in their van were four other young woman who they had scammed saying they could enter them into beauty pageants. Kyung-Ae gave this man Ki $500, he then said to jump into the van and join the group. But as mentioned something changed about Kyung-Ae when her sister gave her the money, right at this moment is when Kyung-Ae knew she was being scammed and demanded her money back! Which Ki refused to do and tried zooming away in the van but Kyung-Ae hanging on to the door thwarted that escape. Hiding in the shadows watching all of this was Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young, of course you would think they would jump into action to stop this van!

 However in the last show Hae-Jun learned the hard way what could happen by changing events in the past. While he was able to prevent the student teacher Lee from being the first murder victim he put the lives of two young children in danger. They were the two young children of the detective Baek and had history not changed he would have been with his children, all turned out well at the end but those kids came oh so close to dying. Which is why Hae-Jun was a bit leery about jumping into this fracas and prevent the van of three scammers leaving the scene. But things got so out of hand he had to jump in and save her, so didn't Yoon-Young who gave this creep Ki a hard kick where the sun doesn't shine! Hae-Jun is a solid fighter but it was two against one and soon these goons were roughing him up badly. But in such a surprise arriving on the scene was Yu-Sub who Hae-Jun thought could be the main suspect in the killings. Yu-Sub himself is an excellent fighter, now that the match was even the two handled these scammers quite easily. Also coming onto the scene was Baek who didn't ask Hae-Jun why he wasn't at the hospital with Yoon-Young for after all they were both so sick! Baek arrested the trio of scammers and during the melee Hae-Jun was able to get that $500 back that Kyung-Ae had given to Ki. 

 But he didn't have a chance to give the cash back to Kyung-Ae as after the arrests she had managed to slip away and where could she have gone???? That her two possible saviors Hae-Jun and Yoon-Young did not know, they better find her quick as time is ticking away quickly and it's now the afternoon. The exact moment of Kyung-Ae's murder wasn't known but it was after 9:00 pm that night, the date is May 16th. Hae-Jun felt that because they interfered with the scamming incident history changed and that Kyung-Ae probably wouldn't be at the Bong-Bong Teahouse that night, that was the last place she had been seen living. The pair searched everywhere in Woojung but with no luck, as Hae-Jun says above it's 9:10 pm and are they too late to save her? Yoon-Young said that perhaps history may not have changed and maybe Kyung-Ae did go to the teahouse that night, why not check it out as they have nothing to lose! We did see a bit here and there of the other major characters Soon-Ae, Hee-Sub and Bum-Ryong but not all that much as the main focus in this show was preventing Kyung-Ae's murder but the trio will have one minor scene coming up. Yoon-Young was correct with her guess as Kyung-Ae was at the Bong-Bong Teahouse, so wasn't the main suspect Ko who is right below. We did learn from Hae-Jun at this time that when Ko was framed(?) for doing the killings it had been his sister Mi-Sook who was the main witness against him!!!!

 Ko is the only one of the five suspects at the teahouse, if they stick like glue to him then Kyung-Ae should be safe. However Yoon-Young noticed something from the window, her future mother Soon-Ae walking down the street with Bum-Ryong. She told Hae-Jun he's on his own for now as Yoon-Young needs to find out what is happening and it's a good thing she got involved. Soon-Ae was never serious with Bum-Ryong but they had gone out on a few dates, that was enough for her as Soon-Ae has eyes for Hee-Sub and wanted to break things off with Bum-Ryong. He felt that he deserves something in return and was about to bring her to the Woojung Inn where her just may have his way with her! But Yoon-Young was trailing the pair and also popping onto the scene was Hee-Sub, he too has eyes for Soon-Ae. He gave Bum-Ryong quite a beating and said they're no longer friends, this happened right near the end so more of what took place may be talked about in the next episode. Meanwhile back at the teahouse Kyung-Ae had enough of her partying ways and began to head home, she was followed by Ko and trailing them was Hae-Jun. 

 Who actually didn't save the day as Kyung-Ae was able to defend herself. When they were going over a bridge Ko dashed up to her and was getting quite pushy, he's been known to have his way with women and would Kyung-Ae be another victim? Before Hae-Jun could arrive to save the day Kyung-Ae had pushed Ko rather hard, so hard he fell over the bridge to the bank of the below river! Ko is alive and rushing up to the scene was Hae-Jun who told Kyung-Ae not to call the police, off course Ko wouldn't call them for he would have to admit what his evil plans were! Hae-Jun won't say a word as he witnessed the entire sordid scene, he told Kyung-Ae his mouth was shut and escorted her home. There he gave Kyung-Ae back her $500 and her ways changed so much in one day, she said the cash would go to Soon-Ae to help pay for her schooling! All of that is above and what a day for the pair of sisters, also the second murder was prevented but does that mean some other incident may take place because history was changed again? Now off to view the eighth episode and the recap for that is the next post. The first five screenshots below are from a very short scene where Hae-Jun was describing to Yoon-Young his murder in 2022! It appears he was trapped in ice(?) and there could have been many more killings too, sure we'll be hearing much more about it.