The webtoon adaptation I have been waiting (impatiently) for has finally arrived, and (so far) this rom-com — with a dash of magical realism — is living up to my expectations. Our new heroine remembers all her past lives, and after entering her 19th life, she seeks out her first love and, rather forcefully and with a lot of flair, inserts herself into his world in a way that’s uniquely her own.
EPISODES 1-2
For once, in the latest trend of webtoons-turned-Korean-dramas, I am familiar with the source material, and to say I have been eagerly waiting for this K-drama to air would be an understatement. Perhaps my fondness for the webtoon makes me a bit biased and a little too forgiving, though, because I have zero complaints with the premiere week of See You in My 19th Life.
Right out the gate, our story sets the fantastical tone with a majestic shot of BAN JI-EUM (Shin Hye-sun) looking like an ethereal goddess gazing out over the ocean. She explains that, between the ages of eight and twelve, the memories from previous lives hit her all at once, like the turbulent waves crashing at Ji-eum’s feet, and then our story transitions to the equally tumultuous childhood of Ji-eum’s 19th life.
Born into a poor household, young Ji-eum (played by the extremely talented Park So-yi) regains her memories just in time to watch — with the solemn wisdom and understanding of someone who’s lived hundreds of years — her mother abandon Ji-eum, her brother, and her alcoholic, gambling-addicted father. This 19th life isn’t going to be easy, she realizes, but Ji-eum’s first thought when she regains her memories is of MOON SEO-HA, the boy (played by Jung Hyun-joon) she befriended in her 18th life as YOON JU-WON (Kim Shi-ah).
Desperate to find out if Seo-ha lived through the same car accident that killed her when they were children, Ji-eum monetizes the skills she’s learned over the culmination of her past lives, but her father, who pimps her out to talent shows and nightclubs, gambles away all her earnings. When the remaining change she’s squirreled away gets stolen by her brother, Ji-eum seeks out KIM AE-GYEONG (Cha Chung-hwa), her niece in her 17th life.
Luckily, while living (and dying) as Ae-gyeong’s uncle, KIM JUNG-HO (Lee Jae-kyun) prepared his niece for his his imminent death by consoling her with the knowledge that he would be reincarnated, and he promised to return to her in his next life. So, after a short trip down memory lane, Ae-gyeong is a believer, but before she loans Ji-eum the money she’s requested, Ae-gyeong curiously wants to know why Seo-ha is so special to Ji-eum.
As Ji-eum recounts her 18th life, we officially meet Seo-ha, the young chaebol whose dying mother arranged for Ju-won, her friend’s daughter, to be Seo-ha’s playmate. Although the two initially butt heads, they develop a close friendship with time. Seo-ha’s rough edges softened, and old-soul Ju-won, who had started feeling bored with life, found a renewed sense of energy. For the first time in a long time, she felt her physical age.
But Ji-eum is in her 19th life now, which means her time as Ju-won was cut short, and — in true K-drama fashion — her death was tragic and left our male lead emotionally scarred for the rest of his life. On Seo-ha’s birthday, Ju-won and Seo-ha were riding in the back of a car when they are hit by a deadly truck of doom (oof!), and now that Ju-won has reincarnated as Ji-eum, she wants to confirm that he’s still alive.
Of course, once she’s borrowed money from Ae-gyeong, traveled to Seo-ha’s house, climbed the fence and tree outside teenaged Seo-ha’s (Ahn Bo-hyun) window, Ji-eum doesn’t stop at one visit. What follows instead, is a cute little montage of Ji-eum stalking Seo-ha. When he disappears on her (presumably off to boarding school or college), she vows to be the best version of herself so she can join his family’s company, MI Group, and be reunited with Seo-ha in the future.
And so Ji-eum grows up in Ae-gyeong’s care, becoming a talented young woman whose resume not only includes the PhD in engineering she earned in this lifetime, but a myriad of other skills she curated over the course of her previous reincarnations. She’s a formidable woman, indeed, and as a talented member of MI Group’s automotive division, it’s no wonder that LEE JI-SEOK (Ryu Hae-joon) from the rival Daehwan Group is trying to poach her.
Ji-eum has no interest in leaving — but she does briefly contemplate moving to the Germany branch, because that’s where Seo-ha has been stationed the whole time Ji-eum has been working for the company. But then she overhears that he’s transferring to South Korea and will be heading up the new strategic planning department at the floundering MI Hotel — the very hotel Seo-ha’s mother ran before her passing.
Ji-eum applies for a job on his team, but Seo-ha, who is admittedly impressed by her resume, finds it suspicious that someone so overqualified — and in the wrong area of study — would want to transfer. However, as Seo-ha’s right-hand man HA DO-YOON (Ahn Dong-goo) points out, it wouldn’t look good on them to completely ignore such an impressive applicant. They should at least interview her.
Once Ji-eum comes face-to-face with Seo-ha, she can barely contain her excitement as she drinks in his face. Meanwhile, Seo-ha, who is completely oblivious to her admiration, tries to explain that she is overqualified for the position and that he doesn’t think she’s the right fit. Ji-eum is unaffected by the rejection. In fact, as an alternative, she offers to date him instead, causing poor Seo-ha to nearly choke on his drink. (If that’s the kind of assertiveness one has after living multiple lives, sign me up for the post-life reincarnation package, please!)
Seo-ha is shocked by her forwardness, assuming he misheard her because he’s had trouble hearing ever since the car accident. But no, Ji-eum definitely offered to date him as kind of an extended interview that would allow her to prove she can be useful to his team. Seo-ha objects — “How can you ask out a stranger?” — to which Ji-eum counters with, “But what if we aren’t strangers?”
Ji-eum enters Seo-ha’s life like a wrecking ball, and although Seo-ha doesn’t recognize her as the reincarnation of his childhood friend, she leaves quite the impression. First, she playfully whisks him away and successfully distracts him from a panic attack (thanks, writer-nim, for all the childhood trauma), and then she randomly proposes to him — not seriously (well, maybe somewhat seriously). The proposal is actually a hint to their childhood connection, but it makes Seo-ha even more confused.
Next, she flamenco dance-fights Ji-seok when he tries to bully Seo-ha, and shortly after that, in yet another bid to win a spot on his team, she shows him her drawing of the MI Hotel lobby as it looked when Seo-ha was a child. Seo-ha eventually hires her, but because of her diverse skill set, she’s assigned to do miscellaneous tasks as needed. Although this would normally be insulting for someone with her educational background, she takes it in stride and finds ways to make herself useful — and if that means slipping YOON CHO-WON’s (Ha Yoon-kyung) landscaping portfolio in with the rest of the applicants, then so be it. What are sisters from previous lives for, amirite?
With each new encounter, Ji-eum shows a curiouser and curiouser side to her personality that makes it even harder for Seo-ha to believe that they’ve met before — because how would he have forgotten someone so unique? However, after some underwater isolation, Seo-ha finally remembers Ji-eum — just not in the way Ji-eum had hoped. Instead of recognizing her as Ju-won’s reincarnation, Seo-ha recalls when he met young stalker-Ji-eum, who asked him to marry her and then promised she would grow up well. When realization hits, he calls Ji-eum, and she comes running to his side.
Although she is pleased to see that Seo-ha kept the handkerchief she tied around his injured hand while she (adorably) scolded him like an ajumma, she’s a bit disappointed he doesn’t recognize her as Ju-won — which makes her wonder if he remembers Ju-won at all. The truth, however, is that Seo-ha misses his childhood friend dearly, and when he can’t get in touch with Do-yoon — because he’s being bribed by Seo-ha’s father MOON JUNG-HOON (Choi Jin-ho) to keep an eye of Seo-ha — Seo-ha reluctantly calls Ji-eum to drive him to Ju-won’s grave.
Ji-eum has experienced a tremendous amount of grief and loss over the course of her many lives, but as she watches Seo-ha place flowers on her grave, it dawns on her that this is the first time she’s witnessed the sadness her death has given others. Although this is a sobering note on which to end our premiere week, there’s no doubt in my mind that the overall tone of this drama will be lighter — and I’m not just saying that because I’ve read the webtoon.
Of course, this drama does have its fair share of makjang craziness directed at our poor male lead. Seriously, though, the writer laid it on thick: a dying/dead mother, a cold and aloof father with an evil mistress on the side, a best friend with questionable motives, and on top of the emotional scars that came from witnessing his childhood best friend die tragically, he’s got hearing loss and PTSD. It’s a lot, but you know what? So far it works for me because Ahn Bo-hyun has managed to find a balance between being a hunky beef-cake and a vulnerable chaebol who just needs a big ol’ hug.
Enter: Ji-eum to do the literal and metaphorical hugging. With a character like Ji-eum — and being portrayed by comedic genius Shin Hye-sun, no less — there’s no way there won’t be lots of humorous moments mixed with all the character healing that’s bound to happen as Ji-eum becomes a new ray of sunshine in everyone’s lives.
While the plot, in theory, does kind of make Ji-eum out to be a sort of Manic Pixie Dream Girl — a female character whose sole purpose is to show her male counterpart how wonderful life is —Ji-eum’s pursuit of Seo-ha is part of her story and ongoing search for happiness in world that once felt dull after retaining hundreds of years of memories. I, for one, can’t wait to learn more about her past lives, and how they’ve shaped her into becoming the “weird” woman doggedly pursuing Seo-ha’s heart.