18 Again

It was a pretty good show

I have only one complaint. They should have let the kids find out that Woo Young was their father. They should know that he was there for them in their hardest moments. That alone would have made it 9.0 star drama instead of the 8.0 star that I gave it. That's why I didn't like the last episode. Compared to the rest of the drama it was so mediocre and cliche.

I really liked the Younger Couple. They looked so good together and I wanted to see more of their romance. We only got two or three happy romance scenes from them. I really hated the adult Dae Young and I think that was the intention.

I liked everything eelse. It wasn't a groundbreaking show but it was pretty good.

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Mostly Boring

the drama had a good start. At first I liked the story and I was so curious about a nice family drama, without screaming . I like profound, meaningful messages in dramas. I thought that will be the case here too. But as episodes fly I got bored, the character Hong Dae Yeong, as a Teen was unbearable, like a stalker, insistent and only considering what he was missing, he had no overview for his family wishes... it felt like a stalker, it was everywhere and not in a likeable way. Even with his daughter, for me was irritated, lack of boundaries, insisting. stalker. So many things that where not a good example for mental health and harmony. Hong Dae Yeong actor as an adult didn't have any chemistry with the FL.

The FL character was so strange also... she was always understanding, calm and in a false way... she suppressed her emotions completely. but with her husband she was not understanding... the ML literally had to give up on his dream to be with the FL and his babies, he worked his ass off and was humiliated daily at work and everything she did was to nag him. the lack of communication was unbearable... and in the end I did not felt that they learn something from...

Did not like that the FL did not support ML dreams and encourage him in life.... instead she expect ML to support her to do everything for her and she did nothing for him ... like what the fuck... you have to support each-other, to communicate, to see if you can resolve the problems ... etc...

with every drama that I watch and and with my documentation of Korean family and relationship culture, i find out it's mega toxic.... live in a delusion, falsehood, comparison, discrimination, misogyny, control, invation of privacy, loss of boundaries...


I think I finish this for Lee Do Hyun, as I like him. Otherwise I would have given up long before the end.
The drama had also many good moments, some parts with good laugh but I will not lose my time to see this never again.

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Moving, binge-worthy and a brilliant performance from Lee Do Hyun

They took an ok movie and turned it into an amazing drama. 17 again is a fun little film, but despite the seemingly deep story it tells, it is mostly just fun. With a lot more backstories for the characters, several more side-plots, a gorgeous OST and superb actors, 18 again is deeply moving.

Lee Do Hyun's performance is outstanding and he made me cry several times. My two favorite scenes being when his son hugs 18yo him for the first time and when his father comes to watch his basketball game and he communicates with him in sign language. He is a brilliant actor and completely had me believe that he is a 40yo man in a 18yo body.

It's overall a great drama with a talented cast and good writing but Lee Do Hyun and the OST are what make it outstanding. It also has well-chosen ending scenes that will make you click "next episode" immediately.

The only reason I didn't give this a ten is that there were one or two unnecessary side-plots that went nowhere (like the stalker).

I want to write a longer review but I haven't really sorted out all my feelings yet.

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They could have gone for marriage counselling, beautiful drama nonetheless

Story: Pretty simple and beautiful, minus few minor subplots that goes nowhere/pointless (*docks points*). I really enjoyed the themes of parent/children relationships and marriages in this drama. Especially on re-evaluating in retrospect how the son (ML) became like his father (which was not what he wanted) and not regretting over the past decisions (of becoming young parents). Both ML and FL have good character development, realising what went wrong in their relationships and the process of reconciling. I also liked the second ML's story and kinda wished he got hitched with somebody (well, at least he has his 'daughter' :)). I think this drama was relatable in the sense that I am grateful, in retrospect, of my parents' relationships as a couple, which I thought was not perfect and not very romantic (*tmi tbh*), but in hindsight they were open and honest with each other (which what the main couple lacked). As mentioned, the themes of parent-child relationships kinda hit close to my heart, as such experience happens to me. (*very typical: my dad being nagging and both my parents and I not willing to be open with each other*)
Acting: Lee Do Hyun really carried this drama on his back, although some credits should go to Yoon Sang Hyun, for some of the more emotional scenes. He really sold the ahjussi trapped in a young person and the romance between his character and Kang Ha Neul's character (*SHE'S SO PRETTY*). (*imo their kissing scenes did feel a little uncomfortable to watch, as the main male character is a minor, although LDH himself is not*) I really think the LDH's casting was perfect, as they needed somebody old/mature enough who can pull off as a mentor-like figure to the students (e.g: his children) and of course young enough to make it believable that he is a high schooler.
Music: hello hello hello hello~... lol ok its pretty good for a romance drama and not that annoying despite that repeated 'hello'. It created melodramatic moments and raised the swooning romances.
Rewatch value: Honestly, my interest in this drama was piqued through a compilation of funny moments in the drama. I would probably rewatch those funny moments very soon. (*especially LDH being ahjussi and such a dad, IT IS ICONIC*)
Conclusion: *TLDR* 18 Again tells a story of a couple re-evaluating their relationship, the misunderstandings and miscommunications, such that this drama would not have started if the couple went for marriage counselling. It also *kinda* tells the story of how children and parents can misunderstand each other and the importance of parents being supportive of their children.

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easily better than the movie, beware of filler

As a fan of the original movie but hating the weird incestuous age-gap parts of it, I was excited to see what the drama had to offer.
This one is amazing beyond compare. It delves into themes of family and love. It's a heartwarming romance with real struggles. The acting of Lee Dohyun is essential to the series, and he does amazing at both having that dad energy and youthful energy when necessary. Kim Haneul also does her acting well of having to balance the real weight of these struggles but bearing through it. All the main characters feel genuinely kind to each other which makes them easy to root for and helps with the heartwarming feeling.
However, you really feel the sixteen episode length. They're adapting a 90 minute movie into sixteen episodes that are around an hour long, but they definitely could've cut down to maybe 12 episodes or even more. Some of the sideplots are pretty insightful and nice in their parallels, but some are just pointless and resolved way too neatly. In some ways, the main characters are too perfect so the 'bad guy' tends to be someone we don't really know or all the problems are focused on them.
That being said, would still recommend. Umbrella scene lives rent free in my mind.

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Nostalgic

The plot and message of the drama is very touching. Really encourages me to enjoy my youth more instead of worrying so much about the future. Most importantly, seeing the family slowly come together again is so heartwarming. Also the concept is funny and interesting, which is what got me into the drama in the first place. I mean the father becoming young again, experiencing school life. The entire cast did an amazing job portraying each of their character,and I love the comedy, it is not cringy or over the top. This is good if you don't want too much drama and messy plot and just want to relax a little after work

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AMAZING

I decided to watch '18 Again' because I'm a huge fan of '17 Again'. Needless to say, this is more enjoyable than 17 Again. I loved everything about this. I love how they incorporated different things to make it even more enjoyable but not once allowing the viewers to get sidetracked. The acting was amazing (probably a few cringy moments here and there but every movie has that so I can forgive those). The OST was great.. i found myself getting emotional every time I heard it. i found it to be very beautiful and very fitting.
If you haven't decided whether or not to give this a try this is your sign. DO IT.

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Family fantasy that's also about individual growth and change

It's difficult or impossible to root for the leads of most kdramas to reconcile because the writing simply does not do the work to allow them to learn and confront the core problems that drove them apart in the first place, just skipping through romantic moments and calling it a day. This drama thankfully does have the main characters fully separate so they can gain a new point of view and move forward in their lives before finally understanding and see eye to eye. Da Jung delayed her schooling and working in her dream job in reporting/hosting while Dae Yeong completely abandoned his childhood dreams of becoming a professional basketball player in order for the two to become teen parents to twins. They both aged from still looking like their teen selves through their 20s to looking like they are in their 40s (as their actors are) even though they are supposedly 30s. within a few years (like John and Mary from Supernatural). At least she's pursuing her dream despite, while he's deeply embittered at his dead end job that he turns to drinking away his sorrows and saying the most unforgivable thing he could to his wife in public at their school reunion, blaming her for how his life turned out and forgets about it while being black out drunk. It takes two to conceive and was contraceptives even involved? This snowballs with his other bad behavior into being served divorce papers by Da Jung.

Dae Yeong caches in all the good karma he accumulated in his life both when he get given some magic tea that's implied to be perhaps a mix of science and magic by an mysterious elder that turns him back to his young charismatic handsome self and he has a very rich best friend Deok Jin who can house and pretend to be his father. All the scenes with him makes me wonder if this show was partially sponsored by Disney/Marvel. Deok Jin keeps pursuing Ms. Ok despite her constantly saying no until she agrees to date him at the end. It doesn't matter if she's also a fellow nerd, this is just awful. This storyline is awful when they did the other ones pretty well. Ji Hoon the baseball player was always respectful of Da Jung's space and wishes from beginning to end, being a fantastic friend to her even when she doesn't return his feelings. She in turns gives him observant and experience advice to raise his niece/adopted daughter. He was always the mature adult when ever Dae Yeong was being jealous territorial too and only got stern with him when Dae Yeong looked to be getting inappropriate and violent with a fearful Da Jung. He also had to learn that he can't force people to become parents when they don't want to. Him forcing his daughter's unwilling bio mom to meet her was cruel to both regardless of what she chose to say. It turns out that he had been looking for Dae Yeong as well as he was the one who was able to save the niece's life with his handyman tools by breaking the car window and taking her away from the car before a big truck careened fatally into her father and Ji Hoon's brother's car. It's pretty convenient that they are connected this way, but I'll chalk it up to part of Dae Yeong's magical karma.

Dae Yeong initially self serving wish to become young again to do what he missed out on became a way to understand his estranged family members. He finally sees all of his negative behavior towards them while his loving actions as Woo Yeong makes them think of Dae Yeong's caring side. His twins Si Ah and Si Yu seem to have zero interest of ever looking at his photos or videos of him when he was young, while in contrast Si Ah's boyfriend who has fond memories of Dae Yeong stepping up to race with him when he was young does and is the only one other than the adults to figure it out. It took Dae Yeong to transform into the body of his former self to stop yelling so much and be a more communicative person, finally getting to know his children fully as the people they have become. His stereotypical macho father outrage at boys being interested in his daughter was awful though, as Si Ah is more than capable of handling herself on that front. I hope both his kids are fully informed about contraceptives though. It's really lovely how the parallels were done between Da Jung and Si Ah's personalities. Da Jung was actually a bad ass that kicked a girl gang down to save the girl that bullied her, turning her into a life long friend and continues kicking ass with further self defense classes with Si Ah. Si Ah is a bit too old to learn the hard way to avoid dark alleys and picking fights in alleys no matter how good a fighter she is, but better late than never.

It was really interesting the way the drama dealt with the various bullies. Both the lawyer and the young anchor were saved by Da Jung fighting people that picked on them like the other bullies and the upskirt filming producer creep. The coach that bullied Deok Jin in high school took bribes due to his father never believing in him and paying his way onto the team. He became an example used by Da Jung to compel the parents to whistleblow together for their kids. This actually made the parent of Ja Seong that was bullying Si Yu for witnessing the bribe become a better dad and so his son becomes a better person too. Dae Yeong's dad didn't give into the bribe because he believed his son's abilities speak for itself. This storyline connects to the all the characters so well. Deok Jin appearing on the news and the anchor describing his incoherence in speaking as evidence of how badly he was beaten up by the coach was so funny. Dae Yeong reunites with his father who also turned to drinking and hitting him after Dae Yeong's mother died. With time and distance, his father had recovered from his grief and was able to change as well. Dae Yeong watching the back of his aged father, both sitting in the senior seating on the bus to driving the bus for work was heartbreaking. He interacts with him a for a few times, before finally revealing himself to his father through the sign language they both learned for Dae Yeong's mother. It's the most moving scene in the series.

I liked that Da Jung got to date Dae Yeong in his young form for a bit. The chemistry between the actors is very nice. Because there was so much change between the characters, it wasn't too disappointing that he switched back to true age after he made the decision to abandon a basketball career a second time, reaffirming what he wants is just life with Da Jung and their family. He even becomes her manager for a while before he becomes a teacher to little kiddos once his own kiddos have gone off to college. I assume it's because she made enough money in her flourishing career to afford to hire a team. The series is only a about 1hr4m most episodes, but each one feels longer than that, but in a good way. It packs in a lot of interpersonal connection and growth than dramas with episodes over 90minutes long. This is why years later when Da Jung and Dae Yeong have found their identities and have learned healthy ways to communicate after disagreements, it makes sense for them to tie the knot once again. Their guests include the mysterious magic elder who also offered Da Jung who helped him across the street a wish, but she didn't take it. I wonder if he offers everyone who helps him a wish, there might be a whole connected universe of magical mayhem stories because of him.

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"18 Again" is a drama about Dae Young, a man that regrets his life's choices and makes a wish, to go back in time and unexpectedly that comes true, Dae Young wakes up being 18 years old again. He tries to do everything he couldn't with his youth, but realizes how much his family meant to him and that his old life is exactly what he really wants.

The romance of Dae Young and Da Jung is really good, they really shared everything in life, good and bad moments, sweetness and sorrow and it's been like this since they were teenagers, Dae Young only took a while to realize that. Initially his wish was granted because he regretted his life, of giving up basketball, he wanted to go back to being 18, to follow his dream, since Da Jung and the children were sort of a "mistake", put only after seeing his life with another eyes, Dae Young sees what he's missing.
The scene where he's crying in court, trying everything to go back to his body and nothing happened, it really hurt, to see his desperation. In that moment Dae Young runs to Da Jung and says he wants to be with her no matter what, that he didn't regret his decision to choose her and that was the purpose of the switch. This whole sequence is just perfect!

The second lead syndrome was really hard in this drama, since Ji Hoon is wonderful, how can someone not fall in love with this man? But this time I can't see that I root it for him, since Dae Young had already stole my heart. You can see that his words wasn't true, he was just frustrated with life, but his love for his family never changed.
I loved all the moments of jealousy of Dae Young, being with Da Jung or with Si Ah! HAHA'

Kim Ha Neul is really an spectacular actress. She has chemistry in scene with both Yoon Sang Hyun and Lee Do Hyun, that's really not an easy thing. The drama is amazing, the story is fun, light and easy to watch, but at the same time, has a very strong dramatic charge.

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An entertaining watch

Well, truth be told, I watched this drama after witnessing the amazing performance by Lee Do Hyun in 'The good Bad Mother'.
I loved LDH's acting (tears roll down my cheeks, whenever I see him cry, he's just too good).
Everyone did a great job at acting.
It's got a nice story, what I didnt like was how there were so many moments, where he was on the verge of getting caught , but didnt in the end, it was fine for the first and second time, but it became annoying later in the show. There were quite a few repetitive scenes, that felt a little boring.
Humor was just amazing. Deok Jin, Ae Rin, and the people at JBC added much fun to the drama.
Overall it was an entertaining watch, with ample slice of life scenes, which I believe many can relate to. It could have been cut short by 2 episodes ( felt it was a bit lengthy). But that's okay. It's a great watch, comedy, emotions, everything pitched in perfectly fine.

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A MUST WATCH SHOW

this is not the drama you will forget for a long time. a well acted and produced drama.
the character growth most very good. the acting of whole cast made this drama very good too. the story of ML and FL was with tons of ups and down. the plot seems average but each episode will live you with many things to remember.
the show was full of comedic scene which will make you laugh like hell...
the supporting leads done a very well job too. there is a very good surprise for superhero fans too.
the second lead male make me cry and that make me laugh too.
you will never forget the performance of the cast especially when their is comedic scene .
the ost of the show was just icing on the cake.
a must watch drama which will you never forger for a long time and remembering this for it's performance.

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