Director Kim Hyung-shik, who helmed Twenty Again, is returning to dramaland with a new project for tvN, tentatively titled About Time. The station is still in negotiations over when to air the upcoming fantasy romance, but there’s a good chance we could see it on the airwaves as early as this fall.
There hasn’t been much revealed on the plot, and it sounds like the producers themselves are still working out the details of the story, but the general narrative will revolve around the concept of moments of true love, and the magical quality about them, though in this case, the “magic” might be more literal than figurative. Our heroine will have the unfortunate ability of seeing the “life clocks” of everyone around her, including herself, and the hero will somehow be able to stop her “time” without lifting a finger. This story will follow time that is stopped, extended, and even erased through the love they have for each other. When I first saw the title About Time and its time-bendy premise, I thought this would be a remake of the Richard Curtis film with the same name, which was a surprise hit in Korea, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.
I really enjoyed Twenty Again, so I’m happy that Kim Hyung-shik is returning with a new show, but I do think the quality of his dramas fluctuate pretty drastically depending on the writer: Aside from Twenty Again, one of his earliest projects was co-directing 2005’s Lovers in Prague, which is a sentimental favorite of mine, but he also directed I Am Legend (2010) and Secret Door (2014), which were… not so great. So, I’m hoping that About Time’s unnamed writer, who is a rookie and will make his or her debut with this show, will write a strong, compelling romance that Kim Hyung-shik can translate to the screen.
The producers haven’t started the casting process yet since they’re still in the planning stages and working out the scheduling kinks, but if they do intend to air the show in September after Bride of the Water God 2017 as some reports speculate, they’d better get a move on because time’s a-ticking.