A Time Called You

Decent Remake

As a fan of the original drama, I would actually say that what made this adaptation lacking was specifically the directing or script. I'd like to compare some points.

For Jeon Yeobeen's character here, its the script/lines that did her character here dirty. She was supposed to have some lines like calling Siheon and Ingyu "kids, brats etc." showing how she talked/acted like a boomer or someone older than them but it wasn't portrayed well here. Her lines here are also somehow repetitive. Her sorrow performance though was well done. Out of the main casts, she did the best.

For Ahn Hyoseop, unfortunately, he wasn't able to embody Li Zi Wei's mischievousness. Li Zi Wei's a very naughty and funny character. He gave different kinds of cheeky expressions/movements which made his character lovable. You could say he owns that role but I wasn't able to see that from Hyoseop. His acting here felt so flat. Don't get me wrong, I love Ahn Hyoseop's previous works but out of all his roles, this one didn't do justice.

As for Kang Hoon, his character here didn't really give emphasis on someone who has hearing disability. It lacked compared to the original. Nothing really special about Kang Hoon's acting here either. I'm sorry.

The cinematography was outstanding, I would say even better than the original but the OSTs didn't give that "WOW" factor. The iconic Wu Bai's Last Dance wasn't given justice. As the intro/opening song "Someday or Oneday". I'm not sure which song in the korean adaptation resembles that and gave off that feeling. As for the styling, they really did Ahn Hyoseop dirty with that ugly hair style. Aside from that, props to the production and editing team, they did a really good job with the vibe of the adaptation. Just my two cents, I felt like it would somehow be better if another actor portrayed Nam Siheon/Koo Yeonjun and the actor that comes to mind is Chae Jonghyeop. If you watch Unlock My Boss, Love All Play, Sisyphus you will understand why I think he fits perfectly.

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Don't dwell too much in the timeline, simply enjoy the story!

For starters, the original story Someday or One Day is a pure 10/10 masterpiece and I had some worries how they would interpret it in the Korean version, but the overall feeling was carried very well.

Also, for those who already wathed the original - comparison is inevitable! Since it was such a great production everyone would be curios how the remake turned out!

It was difficult to get into at first tbh. The story felt way too rushed and I could not help but compare with the Taiwanese version and how the writing there had a very natural flow to it, which really made the watchers a part of everything that was happening. After ep. 3-4 it definitely got better for me. The portrayal of the attacker wasn't done as well as it should have, here it was a lot weaker and it killed the suspense imo. Also, the family situation of Min Joo wasn't nearly as desperate as it was in the original, which would have attributed better for her development later on in the series...
Unlike the Taiwanese version, I liked how they did the ending some justice in this remake! Not that it didn't leave my heart wrenching a bunch of times т.т

No one can surpass Greg Hsu and Alice Ke, but the actors did quite a good job! FL did pretty well as Min Joo, but as Han Jun Hee there were a lot of moments where her emotions did not match the vibe. ML was very charming as always, but not his best role either. I guess it's just my expectations after I watched Greg Hsu :D They got better at the second half of the series for sure!

OST: It was ok, grew on me with the episodes. Taiwanese was way better and memorable, and still is on my spotify drama playlist ~

Many viewers decide to leave the series because of the complicated timeline, but at the end of the day, in order to enjoy the show properly, you just have to go with the flow and feel what is happening there. There are a bunch of versions which timeline is the most accurate, however the journey is what matters the most.

It's a nice watch, not too many episodes to drag out the story too, so don't hesitate to give it a try! But most definitely watch the original if you haven't already!!

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I did not like the plot because it kind of depressing, but the acting was exceptional.

A Time Called You - a Kdrama recommended by a friend, and I fell asleep watching it. So far, I have not enjoyed this drama. It is too slow, and the flow of the story is not engaging me.

The Synopsis: Han Jun Hee's boyfriend, Koo Yeon Jun, died one year ago. She still hasn't gotten over his death and misses him a lot. One day, she time-travels back to 1998 and finds herself as a high school student, Kwon Min Joo. There, she meets high school student Nam Si Heon. She is surprised to see how much Nam Si Heon resembles her late boyfriend, Koo Yeon Jun. Nam Si Heon is outgoing and attractive; girls adore him. His best friend, Jung In Kyu, develops a crush on Kwon Min Joo.

I went back and watched it again, and I didn't like the story that much because it dealt with dark issues with mental health and suicide. The acting was exceptional, especially the actress Jeon Yeo Been, who played both Han Jun Hee & Kwon Min Ju characters.

Overall, I enjoyed the acting of this drama, but not particularly the plot. I give it an 8.0 anyway because the acting was so good.

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How to Ruin a Timeloop Concept in the Finale aka The Dog Dies I Guess

Just in case the spoiler warning above was not noted, this review is almost nothing but spoilers for the final episode so be warned and proceed with the appropriate caution.

Briefly, "A Time Called You" has eleven very solid, consistently paced, smartly acted, lushly photographed and skillfully directed episodes. Jeon Yeo Been is better as Jun Hee than as Min Ju. Ahn Hyo Seop is as good here as he's been in any show. He's not an easy sell as a teenager, but in K Drama Land, that's just the part of the terrain that we trod. There's some other nice casting for supporting roles. In fact, there isn't a below the bar performance to be found. It is somewhat disappointing that Seo Ye Hwa and Jang Hye Jin don't figure more prominently in the meat of the narrative. But that is somewhat made up for by Rowoon's cameo.

And props to the writers, director and editor for setting up the finale with a deft minuet between the time periods where characters are hopping back and forth. Although familiarity with the source material seems to have dampened some reviewers enthusiasm, having no such background found this production to be one of the more consistently enjoyable ones of recent vintage.

Until the finale.

The finale is when the timeloop malpractice bomb explodes.

Grievances:

1. A timeloop is already a do-over. Once you get a single do-over, that should be it. No do-overs of part of the first do-over. But after the excruciating exposition of exactly how Min Ju dies which is directly tied to Jun Hee's time travel, Jun Hee gets to try again and this time saves Min Ju.

2. Once Min Ju is saved, with the aid of In Kyu by the way, these two have about twenty seconds of resolution where Min Ju seems to have been won over by In Kyu and like everything is just jolly even though she was suicidally depressed earlier in the episode.

3. While Min Ju and In Kyu get short shrift, there are painfully extended scenes in the past era of Jun Hee in Min Ju's body and Si Heon traveling to and cavorting at the beach in the sand and in the water and watching the sunset. It's a necessary part of the narrative, but it feels like it consumes the entire second half of the finale.

4. Well, except for the showoff sequence of CGI dissolves that follows that goes on and on and on.

5. So the leads reunite for a moment of silence (yes, no words are exchanged in the street as the snow falls) and credits roll. It is quite the anticlimactic moment.

6. Where are Min Ju and In Kyu in this new future? No idea.

7. Did Park Hyuk Kwon's uncle character still open a cafe in Seoul? No idea. If he did, are the two leads somehow connected to it? Obviously no idea.

8. If nothing else in the future matters, why does it matter that Si Heon is now running a webcomic startup? No idea.

9. The real gear grinder is that of all the dramas where there is a completely unnecessary, unsatisfying and unconvincing rehabilitation arc of the villain at the end, this is the show where THE CONTEXT COMPELLED FOR SUCH AN ARC TO HAPPEN. IS Min Jin Woong's Oh Chan Young still a psychopath? Presumably Oh Chan Hee doesn't end up committed to an asylum, but his fate is completely left up to the viewer to determine. And as Oh Chan Young before the magic CGI dissolve had already killed the family dog before his journey via cassette to the past, we have no reason to think that he didn't still do it in the new post no-suicide-timeline. And since Chan Young killed the family dog, then that means that the family Mom is still going to freak out and since Chan Young is a psychopath, does Chan Young eventually move on to killing his mom? Is that how the universes balance out? Min Ju lives but Mrs. Oh dies?

But after careful consideration, the only conclusion can be that the dog is definitely dead.

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ambiguous ending

I was honestly expecting so much from the drama. I haven't watched the original Taiwanese version of the drama but I saw on the reviews that it was better, so if you wanna watch this, I think it's better to watch the original version.

I had too many questions left unanswered at the end of the drama. Like what happened to the original Koo Yeon Jun's soul if both of the souls in the body belonged to Nam Si Heon? And they showed only the place where Kwon Min Ju soul hid when Han Jun Hee took over but what about Oh Chan Hee? he was the elder brother but in the past, the elder brother's body had Oh Chan Yeong's soul.

The time loop was confusing and ambiguous. I liked the direction that the story was meant to go, but I didn't like the way it was shown in the drama.

We also didn't get to see what ending Jung In Kyu and Kwon Min Ju got. I mean, if they really ended up dating, then did the two best friends end up dating doppelgangers with the same face or what?

I liked the songs and the acting , and I felt like Ahn Hyo Seop had more chemistry with Rowoon than Jeon Yeo Been. I was invested in their cameo story.

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A truly captivating story

I was skeptical and did not watch this for such a long time due to everyone's complaints. Mind you, i tried watching the Taiwanese version a long time ago but for some reason dropped it after the first episode. Most likely not the fault of the drama, I am just not use to Taiwanese dramas and I can understand Korean so i just decided to watch this version.

If you are hesitating to watch it like I was, having not watched the Taiwanese version, I say ignore everyone and watch it. I don't see a point in watching this if you already watched the Taiwanese version though. This is a time travel, mystery and thriller kind of drama, it will obviously be less enjoyable if you already know everything that is going to happen? duh! I think people need to stop blaming the Korean version for their lack of interest in this one if they already watched the Taiwanese version.

The acting here was so good, I honestly had to remind myself that the roles of Junhee and Minju were played by the same actress, because that's how good she was! It really felt like different people, and that says a lot because it is so difficult to change character and actually have the audience feel the difference in a way that is not overacting and silly. She was natural, and the emotions felt so real.

The only down point of this drama, which i am sure the Taiwanese drama had too, is the romance. I just wish we understood more why the 2023 junhee was so in love on koo Yeonjun. They just showed a very simple and basic girl meets boy university story, but for one to want to go through all they did to be with each other, there needs to be more of a special connection than just what they showed. This is was most lacking part of the drama for me, but since the story is so interesting and captivating, I was able to forgive it and still say this was a great watch. The kiss scenes are also very Taiwanese drama coded...lol if you watch c-dramas you know what I'm saying.

But anywho, if you do not know what to watch, watch this! But please start it on a Friday night caused you will want to binge it.

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What a Mess!

I've learned to suspend reality when watching certain Kdramas and so I just went with most of the super-confusing timeline crossovers and issues. Yeah, so what if it didn't make a whole lot of sense until the end. I didn't know it was a remake until I got here to write a review and found out from other reviewers. I somewhat regret slogging through this series so I'm certainly not going to watch the original. And the main reason I'm bothering to make this comment is that I'm wondering what happened on the bus at the very end of episode 12. We hear the magical music and and ML asks FL if she is Min-ju and based on the subtitles and her reaction she seems to acknowledge as much. If I got that right--and I went back to watch it a 2nd time--then why didn't she recognize the ML as her former classmate and friend? They were on the same timeline and he remembered enough to ask her name. Why didn't they say like "Hey, haven't seen you in years! How are you?" or whatever folks in South Korea say when they bump into a former friend? It would have made a lot more sense if he had suddenly remembered and asked if she was Jun-Hee. Then she could say "Yes" and he'd have a reason to follow up to figure out how he remembered her. After all, it was to Jun-Hee that he promised he would find her one day. Also, and while it made for good optics to have all of Jun-Hee's and Yeon-Jun's stuff disappear before her eyes--since that timeline wouldn't have occurred--it didn't make sense to me to have her disappear too, unless Jun-Hee was never real to begin with. Which would mean there wasn't a promise to meet again, no great last scene--unless the last scene is just a meeting of two former acquaintances with no other meaning.

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Two Worlds, Two Stories, One Fate

It is not unusual for Netflix to release Korean remakes of popular shows. Money Heist and Designated Survivor have already recently proved that the formula works; a decent story is a decent story in any language, and the trademark quality of acting and production found in Kdrama tends to provide a little uplift overall. But A Time Called You is riskier territory, as it’s not just a remake, but a remake of a beloved Taiwanese classic titled Someday or One Day.

There’s a lot of intrigue from the get-go, as the names of the characters who resemble each other aren’t revealed until the end of the first episode. Given the constant back and forth, body swapping, and parallel timelines, writer Choi Hyo-bi remains largely consistent with the sharp, pacy writing throughout the show. There’s a steady build-up in intrigue, especially with regard to the whodunit element. Every plot point in this show’s complex narrative finds a place in a time loop, and the effort that has gone into the writing is evident from how it all unravels neatly.

The pace also, in a way, becomes this K-Drama’s biggest enemy as it robs the show of much of its emotional nuance and depth. The show instead constantly shifts focus, and proceeds to march forward in an inexplicable hurry. While it goes without saying that A Time Called You requires a willing suspension of disbelief given the paradoxes of the world it is set in, the writing in the last two episodes stretches this to the hilt. Nevertheless, for a show that’s packed to the brim and has a convoluted plot towards the end, the writing remains taut, and manages to nearly tie up all its loose ends. Music plays the most important and positive part in this 12 episode drama.

For a show which started with great promise in the first half, felt a litte flat in the second half with loosen grip in writing and focusing more on romance between the leads, rather than expanding the friendship of the trio. Nonetheless, it's a good one time watch.

My Rating : 7/10

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I went into this not having seen the original so this is my first time seeing the story. There is a lot to like about this show. The cinematography, wardrobe, and production were all beautiful, The actors all did well with their roles especially the two main leads where they played 2 characters each with variations of those characters as the circumstances changed. The OST was nice though not very memorable and the story and pacing kept you guessing through out.

Overall I enjoyed this show and would recommend it, especially if you like a mystery or magical aspects. The writers weaved the story well so as to keep you interested in the telling but also put all the pieces together by the end. While the overall experience was good I will say that the first and last two episodes were harder for me to get through. The first episode did not pull me in and make me want to continue watching, it took that second episode to get me interested. And the last two episodes had me skipping sections. While the story was wrapping up well I did feel like it was dragging on and I was just ready for it to get to the point. Those two episodes are the only two where I fast forwarded.

You really have to commend the actors here. While the main leads did not pull off the look of high school students well, they did however do a great job of distinguishing between characters and changed with the story well. They especially carry the emotional moments well. And while this is a highly emotional roller coaster of a show I never connected to the level of crying along with the characters which makes me feel like something was missing.

I do recommend you give this a watch and enjoy the fantastical story as it unfolds.

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Started out well…

I enjoyed the beginning of this drama very much. I love Ahn Hyo-seop and my girlie from Vincenzo. I’ve seen a fair share of time travel pieces and goodness, what a mess. It started with little questions that turned into larger ones. The timeline ended up becoming more confusing, and I’ve seen Tenet, and someone else mentioned this is the K-Drama version.. I can’t disagree!

By the last 3 episodes, I was checked out. It was outstretched and felt like it hit a standstill. Wish I could’ve liked this more. New K-Dramas have been very hit or miss this year, with most of them hitting then missing halfway through.

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