Released: 2008
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Melodrama
Synopsis: When Son Il-gun died, his daughter, Young-in, inherited a mountain of debt, and in a desperate attempt to make up for his shortcomings as a father, Il-gun began possessing Cha Seung-hyo’s body and abusing the younger, richer man’s credit card to shower Young-in with expensive food and gifts. As Seung-hyo tries to make sense of his recent blackouts and figure out why he’s drawn to Young-in during the gaps in his memories, he starts to piece together the events the lead to Il-gun’s death, which had previously been ruled a suicide.
Why You Should Watch (Or Shouldn’t) Who Are You?:
It’s Spooky Season (my favorite time of the year), so I thought it would be fun to revisit the first ghost-themed K-drama that I ever watched. Who Are You? — not to be confused by the 2013 drama of the same name and genre — is a (mostly) lighthearted story that has stuck with me over the years. I’ve considered it a long-time favorite, but I haven’t rewatched it since my initial viewing. So this particular Friday Flashback feature was a true test of my nostalgia. Would Who Are You? live up to my memory and expectations? Or would the rewatch leave me cringing from the realization that this was the kind of romance story I gushed about when I was in college?
I’m not going to beat around the bush, Beanies. I’m feeling a wee bit embarrassed. Now, that isn’t to say this is an awful drama that should be avoided at all costs, but — and maybe this will come as no surprise to you based on the drama’s synopsis — I swear the the writers looked up the definition of “father complex” in a psychology textbook and thought, “Yeah, that sounds romantic, but what if we added a ghost?”
Like all Candy-centric K-dramas, our story opens with a crash course in our leading lady’s financial situation, and it ain’t pretty. Son Young-in (Go Ara) is a high schooler on the cusp of graduation, but instead of celebrating and looking forward to college, she’s burdened by her father’s debt and hounded by loan sharks who threaten to take her body as payment for what they’re owed — Yikes! And this is where the “daddy issues” start to come into play because, while Young-in was running away from debt collectors, her happy-go-lucky father, Son Il-gun (Kang Nam-gil), was ballroom dancing with his girlfriend.
Although it’s unclear if he’s paying for said dancing lessons with money he has no business spending (given his crushing debt), his carefree activity is a jarring contrast to his daughter’s harrowing experience, and already his qualifications as a father figure come into question. One would hope, given the important role Il-gun plays in the ensuing story, that he’d be likable enough to keep us invested in his character growth and redemption, but being a well-meaning and loving father doesn’t wholly negate the fact that he’s irresponsible.
So what does the drama do to counteract his immaturity and provide Young-in with some stability? It inserts Young-in into a love triangle with not one — but two — significantly older men. Admittedly, Shin Jae-ha (Jin Yi-han) isn’t actually a legitimate contender for Young-in’s affections because, as we quickly learn, he had an indirect role in the accident that caused Il-gun’s death. And if aiding her father’s murderer wasn’t a large enough strike against him, he’s also masquerading as a Daddy Long Legs type of character in an effort to endear himself to Young-in and locate Il-gun’s missing paintings, which sky-rocketed in value right before his death.
The other man vying for Young-in’s attention is Cha Seung-hyo (Yoon Kye-sang), a perfectionist corporate raider with OCD, and to his credit, he doesn’t set out to woo a woman eleven years younger than him. Instead, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her because, unbeknownst to him, he’s being periodically possessed by her father’s ghost. In seeking an explanation for his blackouts and his uncharacteristic behavior, he becomes entangled with Young-in — and the mysterious circumstances of her father’s (supposed) suicide.
I said there were some daddy issues, but thankfully, this drama doesn’t blur the line between Seung-hyo and Il-gun so much that it feels like she fell in love with her dad’s ghost (ewww), but there are some pretty awkward moments where the writers do play around with this not-quite-incestuous arrangement to create some (debatably) humorous dramatic irony. And just when you think the secondhand embarrassment can’t get any worse, Il-gun’s girlfriend figures out that Il-gun’s spirit is occasionally hanging out in Seung-hyo’s body, and the two women — who never got along to begin with — start competing for Seung-hyo’s time.
There’s definitely a basket full of craziness going on, but in rewatching this particular story, I also couldn’t help but compare it to the more recent Ghost Doctor (for obvious reasons). There’s a lot of similarities in the characterizations and physical comedy, which makes me feel fairly confident in saying that Who Are You? partially provided the inspiration for Rain and Kim Bum’s iconic bromance.
If writers are still referencing this drama, does that mean it has stood the test of time? Well, I think it’s safe to say it did not live up to my memory, but I still enjoyed the re-watch because Who Are You? has reached the point that it’s so bad it’s good. I wouldn’t recommend watching this drama if you’re looking for a quality story, but if you are the type of viewer who can watch trash TV and laugh at its absurdity, then I think you can sit through this drama and have a good time. If you’re still on the fence, though, I suggest watching the first episode, and whether or not you’re amused by the comically timed Truck of Doom will be a pretty good indicator of how much you will enjoy the rest of this particular K-drama.