A Time Called You

Bucking the trend

I'm going to buck the trend and say that I watched the Korean version then decided to watch the Taiwanese version to see what I missed. Turns out I didn't miss anything! So far, the reviewers of this remake can be classified into two camps - those who didn't watch the original and loved it vs those who watched the original and hated this. I'm going to buck the trend and say that I watched the Korean one first and liked it but after watching the Taiwanese one, I like the Korean one even more that I've actually increased its rating!

Why? When I watched the first 2 episodes of this Korean version, I found it draggy but OMG, the first four episodes of the original are even worse! The Korean remake keeps much of the same plot highlights but removes the bits I find super annoying in the Taiwanese version - the annoying attempts at comedy, the super annoying side stories and characters (gosh I really hate the colleagues). Like what's the deal with trying to inject comedy into a tragedy?

This remake just gets to the crux of the relationships between the main leads and important friends. The only thing that bugged me was the Seo Ji Won song - I loved it at first but it got very repetitive and tiring by the third episode. In contrast, the soundtrack of the original Taiwanese was fantastic and well-suited to the plot elements throughout. The Wu Bai song never got old.

In short - just want to watch for the mystery? Watch this Korean remake which has much better editing and is a professional production. Want to indulge in emotions - the sweet love story, the tragedy of love then loss, and endure annoying attempts at comedy which aren't funny - then watch the original which is raw, unpolished (for goodness sakes, mic the actors and remove all the echoey background noise!) but sentimental.

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Time traveling to the past to see a lover

Greetings, everyone! I am thrilled to be back with another K-drama study. In my previous review, I shared my thoughts on the second season of The Uncanny Counter, which I found to be an enjoyable watch. Today, I am excited to share my review of A Time Called You, a recently released Netflix drama I binge-watched in just two days. It's been a while since a show captured my attention to the point where I contemplate it even while working. Thus, I'm eager to dive into the drama and explore my thoughts in greater detail.

Disclaimer: There may be spoilers, so read at your own will

Story:
A Time Called You has an enjoyable story that kept me wanting to see more of it. I loved how the case tape would take Han Jun Hee back to 1998. Ahn Hyo Seop from Business Proposal starred in the show, and I loved his acting as he fits well with the whole story. I did like the mystery aspect that the show throws at us occasionally. It was nice to see them portray two characters in the show as the male lead, and the female lead did an excellent job with those two. The time-traveling stuff was executed perfectly, making me wonder what would happen next. At some moments, the story was hard to understand.
One scene I like is when Min Ju and Nam Si Heon lie together under the tree. It looks so cute. I have never seen the original version, but this remake was all right. I've seen a couple of time travel shows before, but this might be the best I've seen. The show's final scene made me tear up a little as the two main characters meet each other.

OSTs:
I loved all the OSTs that this show delivered. The piano-driven song from Kim Min Seok, who provided killer vocals that kept me coming back for more. Lim Kim had an acoustic ost one that was another one I kept listening to on repeat. Kei has to be my favorite artist who released a song for this show, as you can feel the emotion from the singer's performance. The only OST I wasn't crazy about was Newjeans, as it felt lifeless to me, but I still returned to it a few times. I have still been having these Osts on repeat since they were released.

Overall, A Time Called You is getting a B from me for being a great show, but not one that thoroughly blew me away. The Acting and music fit well with the overall vibe of the show. I was excited about this show, and it was worth the wait. I'm excited to see what the next drama will be bringing to the table for me. I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you are.

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Just watch the original if you have the opportunity!

This is a hard one to explain. Obviously 'A Time Called You' is the adaptation of something amazing, that much is probably clear to most MDL users by now and what makes hard writing this review is that it really is in many ways a fantastic adaptation. They have changed the ending, but that was literally the weakest point of the original, most other things are incredibly faithful to the source material. Most of the time when a kdrama is not an original work, the writers try to add their "personal touch", which more often than not leads to the ruination of the script. Recent examples that come to mind are 'See You in My 19th Life' and 'Kiss Sixth Sense'. Both of these are webcomic adaptations & all changes the writer has made from the source material made the scripts worse, pretty much every single one of them. However as I said this drama is different, the plot most of the time is identical to the original, with the dialog being identical as well, the changes are extremely minimal up until the later episodes. One could even say that this is a far more authentic adaptation than the Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings movies.
As for the casting, most actors fit the original Taiwanese casting down to a T, the similarities are quite eerie actually, I have never seen something like this before. I may not be a big believer in Ahn Hyo Seop's acting ability, but he tried more than hard enough & he is visually a very good fit as well..

So then it begs the question, why is this not amazing?
I think this is the first kdrama I have ever seen where the script was -in a practical sense- perfect, yet I did not really like it. I'm just going to list the big issues one by one:

⌲ The cinematography is too pretty and vibrant, it does not fit.
⌲ The 'song' is a terrible pick and yes this is VERY detrimental in this drama. (if you have to listen to the same song 20 times in a drama, they gotta do better than this, is there even a melody?)
⌲ The OST outside of the cassette song is completely lifeless & could be described as 'nothing'.
⌲ The FL may have had the same lines, but the production team has somewhat ruined her characterization, there's not enough contrast between her two roles, the "switch" is not impactful enough! (YeoBeen acted amazingly well, this is not on her)
⌲ The chemistry could've been better.
⌲ Some of the most impactful scenes of the original are very inferior and some of them are missing, which is weird, because of how closely the adaptation follows the plot. (I think it's not a FF button malfunction, the Piano scene & the bullying of the bullies scene are missing from this? Please do tell me in the review comments, if this is a problem with me falling asleep at those critical moments and I'll just adjust my review & apologize for being stupid)

Ultimately it comes down to this adaptation being redundant, it's just unnecessary! There is no Korean touch here worth mentioning, It's a pointless adaptation. (perhaps it's all about the new product placements within a show that should be a guaranteed success, since it's a copy of something very few ppl know in Korea, but is already proven to be amazing?)


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Not trying to bash the songwriter here at all, songs that are basically just poems sang with a soulful voice can be amazing, having an impactful melody is not a requirement, it's merely a bad fit for this drama, that's all.
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edit 1: It kept bothering me, so I rewatched the last 15-20 minutes of the drama in a less medicated state than before. My conclusion is that while I'm not very happy with how the original drama ended, this just feels low effort, I don't know. Considering how one of the few changes they made is related to young Han Jun Hee's story, I sense this might be because they wanted to avoid something that can be considered risque. This I can understand, it's just that the result is much more lifeless & lacking in impact, than the original.

edit 2: There are a large number of positive reviews on MDL that criticize people like myself for not evaluating this drama correctly & that we have too much bias since we watched the Tdrama first. This criticism has merit, however I think even if we ignore the redundancy thing there is just such a huge difference in emotional impact between these two dramas. I have rewatched some select scenes from the original this afternoon & It's fascinating to see how much better those are. (The Birthday Cake scene, This is our First day scene.. generic banter & liveliness etc etc) I think someone has to dislike Mandarin or Taiwan a lot to not see this.

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My brain hurts...

Don't hate me because I didn't love it. It's a personal taste thing. I liked the acting in this. I also like that this has convinced me not to go back and try to watch Some Day or One Day. I'm apparently a superficial watcher and don't want to have to think too much. It's a shortcoming, I know, but there you have it.

I love me a good destiny show, but this is the first time that I felt like the universe was trying to tell them that they should NOT be together. Together, tragedy, together, tragedy. I guess the ending had to be the way it was, but I was disappointed in the lack of payoff. Though it did border on a happy ending, which I appreciated.

And what was with her telling everyone that she was time traveling?! Her telling the murderer guy was random. I didn't get the impression that they were that close, and just why?

I actually made a flow chart to try to keep up with this while I was watching it, and even that confused me. My biggest problem was when the two versions of the ML met. That just didn't make any sense to me. Also, the random gay storyline (though seeing Rowoon and Ahn Hyo Seop together on screen was a treat!) was confusing, because weren't the two versions of the ML the same in each timeline?

I now need to find me a simple love story to watch. Since I'm WAY in the minority here, you might want to read everyone else's reviews and give the show a try.

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It makes sense in the end!

I left a review on this show 9 episodes in and it was basically about how I loved the feel of the show, especially when in the 90s but I was just so confused and felt like the timeline was hard to keep up with. Now that I have finished the show, there are still some things I don't understand but the main storyline I get now.

Like I said I really enjoyed the 90s vibes, the cinematography, and the sweet relationships between the main characters. It made me happy that in-gyu had a chance in the end with min-ju and that even though they can't remember the time travelling, her getting in the accident benefited her in that she felt more at peace and almost had a new beginning at life. Also how Si-heon and Jun-hee did meet eventually in 2011, and how it ends openly and optimistically. Every episode I watched ended with so many twists and turns that it really makes you want to continue watching to know what it means and how it changes the future. Although it did make me sad and happy at the same time in the end lol.

Sure the twists and turns in the show were good and really captivating, but it also left me confused often and still now I don't get certain things. Because of this, I was tempted to drop the show but stuck it out and I'm glad that I did. It's crazy to comprehend most of the things that we saw over the course of the years in the show ended up never happening, specifically with si-heon and jun-hee.

I think the cast was great too, with Vincenzo being one of my favourite dramas, I'm super fond of Yeo-been and seeing this new side of her in this show was really cool to see.

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they made it so complicated that it ended up not making any sense

the cast and their acting was amazing but i'm gonna be very honest and say, the story just got worse and worse as the episode went by. they made it so complicated by making the main couple and even the psycho killer be able to time travel. the romantic scenes lost its spark for me because 99% of the time i didnt know who's who. it icks me to think that junhee (or was it minju? lol) might be kissing somebody else that isnt her lover which to be frank at episode 10 i dont even know anymore if it was yeonjun or siheon that she fell inlove with in the first place. i get it that maybe they were going for the "even if we're two worlds apart we will find each other and love each other" trope thats why both junhee (minju) and siheon (yeonjun) can time travel but when it was revealed that the psycho killer can time travel too and on top of that chan hui wasnt actually the killer but actually it was chanyeong his little brother who happens to look exactly the same as chan hui even if they arent twins???? jesus christ its all just nonsense at that point. anyway, the ost gather my tears by seo jiwon was good tho, i loved it. also, i didnt watch the taiwanese version so this opinion is solely based and about the korean one.

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Comparison to the original is inevitable, but this show stands on its own and is incredibly charming

The original Someday or one day is incredible. From its portrayal of mental health struggles,to the romances and friendships, as well as the soundtrack, it absolutely enchanted me.

When a remake was announced, I was dubious of how they’d recreate it, how I’d want them to keep every scene as it is and have the same atmosphere, but then what would be the point? Why not just watch the original show?

I have never been against remakes. So many stories have been retold in different forms of media and it’s all about the approach taken and paying respect to the original. A remake is not a replacement but rather a companion piece and I truly think this did SOOD justice.

While watching this, I could tell there was respect and love for the original involved. Relationships between characters were given more depth. The diagolue was fresh,well thought out, and there were very few direct quotes from the original.

Kang Hoon, Jeon Yeonbeen and Ahn Hyo Seop were amazing as the main characters and made me fall in love with them all over again. The soundtrack was beautiful and fitting for the setting and I’ll definitely have gather your tears stuck in my head for a long time.

I HIGHLY recommend this and would urge fans of the original to either go back and watch the original version, instead of hating on this without giving it a chance, or have an open mind and get to experience the story they love in a different take.

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male lead only reason to watch

So first things first, I haven't watched the original drama....I've read quite a few reviews of how the remake doesn't to justice to the original but I personally really liked it.....
Tbh I only watched this because Someday Or One Day had amazing reviews and well because of ahn hyo seop...
So the story line is amazing and the way they've portrayed and executed everything was the cherry on top....
It made me feel a whirlwind of emotions and the acting was really great (tbh I'm not really a fan of the FL but she did a really great job here)
So for me this was a pretty satisfactory drama in terms of all aspects and it did check most of the boxes for me...
The only complain i have is that they should've showed how all the characters ended up in their lives......Now we don't really know what happened to min ju or if in gyu and min ju's ship ever sailed.....
Probably a great watch if u haven't watched the original...
P.S.: Did not know rowoon and hyo seop together was something i was missing out on TvT
P.S.P.S.: Newjeans slayed their ost..... such a beautiful songggg

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Stuck it out for Jeon Yeo-been

There are many remakes that bring a special touch to the original story - changes that add value or flesh out relationships that were under represented in the original. Take F4 Thailand for example. That's a worthy remake of Hana Yori Dango.

A Time Called You is nearly a shot-by-shot remake of Someday Or One Day. The only thing it's added is a higher production gloss to the story. What it's taken away though is tension, subtlety, intensity, and depth of feelings.

It's also cut out many slower moments that had helped build out the world and relationships. But most egregiously, the writer and director chose to cut scenes that fleshed out Min-ju and In-gyu's perspectives.

The time Someday Or One Day spent on those two helps viewers understanding why the ending was what it was.

ATCY treats them as secondary characters, rivals getting in the way of fated lovers. And that's a real loss for viewers who will only watch this K-drama version.

Finally, this was a waste of Jeon Yeo-been's abilities. She has already shown in Be Melodramatic that she can play a depressed, reserved character with amazing impact. But it felt like she was never allowed to tap into any depth as Min-ju in ATCY. With the exception of one scene, which just proved to me that she was holding back throughout.

Ahn Hyo-seop was just mis-cast. I love the guy, but this role was not for him.

Loved the Rowoon cameo though!

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I haven't watched the original...

...and this was ok, not great but also not terrible.
I think the premise is interesting at the beginning and the story of her going back to 98 becomes more of a classic romcom what was ok for me.
I think it was around episode 8 when it started to go a bit downhill for me, it started to drag and felt slower at the pacing. Still, the thing I found the most annoying at that point was the overall introduction of him also as a time traveler, and mostly the fact that the story at that point is shown in a very scene by scene way and becomes confusing. Until that point you're wired to think all the time in her going back to the past, but then he's doing the opposite and instead of showing the story in a linear manner like it happened with her, and what would have made this a lot easier to follow, they keep showing things simultaneously and I got a bit confused a couple of times. Later this seems to improve again, but once they show who is the real culprit....well, I started yawning, it became so melodramatic and so cliché. Motive? who needs one when you can just introduce a psycho that just does things because yes.
It definitely got less interesting for me from that point onwards and I found episode 11 the most dragging of all, especially also with Kwon Min Ju. Sure, I felt bad for her and I could understand where she was coming from, but she was using victimism and suicide to hurt others at the end of the day. She "doesn't hate" Han Jun Hee but tries to basically hurt her and everyone else. The reason for her to get better later is weak as well. Overall I was not very satisfied on how that was portrayed and tackled.

Jung In Kyu was very melodramatic at the end of the original timeline, it was just bad in my opinion in taking the blame for something he didn't do. He certainly didn't think enough there and felt like an impulsive regreatable teen reaction and all I could think was "this is lame".
The ending is ok but also leaves many questions about all the other characters since it only shows the main two. Funny enough the main question I had is what happened to Oh Chan Hee, did he go on a killing spree and was never caught in the new timeline? As a child he already was showing an interest in Min Ju because of his brother's photos, did he try to kill her later on? Or maybe no because she was not depressed and so not an "easy" prey anymore? did he kill someone else instead? (obviously I assume even if he tried he didn't kill Min Ju because Nam Si Heon mentions her in the bus like she's still alive). Did his brother become a stalker of Kwon Min Ju? I mean, he kind of already was with the photos and all.

The moments of resolution in this drama generally felt a bit anticlimatic for me, when FL manages to get control of Min Ju's body again before the jump I was not impressed, the way they meet back again in the end didn't impress me either. Maybe they didn't have that much chemistry so it left me a bit flat? Maybe because other than the story we don't get to know much about each of the main characters nor they do share that many bonding moments? not sure if that's the reason, I can't fully pin point why.
Something that also bugs me is the fact that only towards the end we learnt that Jun Hee and Min Ju can communicate with each other, like what? shouldn't this have been a thing during all the drama then? it would have changed the whole thing in my opinion, so to be honest I do count this as a plothole, and if there was a reason only then it was possible they didn't explain it at all. Is it just to be more melodramatic? Otherwise they could have met, communicate, raise concerns and helped each other along the way, what would have made the whole story a complete different thing.

Overall I think this would have been interesting and a bit different if the series had been longer and they had also focused on the characters relationships in the new timeline, or had even introduced the idea of paralel timelines because of the change. I find it a bit unsatisfactory when shows end with a reset.

The reason why they could time travel is not really even suggested either so the whole idea of the time travel is kept superficial, I'm ok with it in general but if someone is expecting more in-depth in that respect this is not it.
The song chosen to be the one for the cassette very annoying after a while.

Generally it's an ok watch but forgettable.
I know people will tell me the original is so much better, it might be but I've also read here in the comments this one generally follows the plot of the original very close, meaning, I'm going to find the melodrama and the culprit as annoying as in this one so I'm probably going to give it a miss for now, I might watch it at some point when I don't remember this one at all.

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