Miss Night and Day (2024)

A Journey Through Night and Day..

Miss Night and Day offers a refreshing twist on the classic curse trope.. Jung Eun Ji was really good in her role.. She had a magical yet challenging double life.. Which she potrayed very well.. The fantasy part was straight forward nothing complicated and nothing extraordinary.. Mystery part was okayish i would say..

The drama was going very well until ep 8.. It was funny, interesting, and had a refreshing vibe that I genuinely enjoyed.. But then the writer decided to give the annoying SML more screentime.. Even though his screentime was considerably less than the support characters his behaviour was very annoying.. I dont know why he is included as main role when he actually had a minor role..

The SML quickly turned into a borderline stalker.. He started crossing boundaries in ways that were uncomfortable to watch.. Curiosity is one thing but his behavior went far beyond that.. It was invasive and showed a complete disregard for others privacy.. He kept touching her ignored her clear discomfort.. I dont know how anyone would like such a charatcer..

The romance was part was lacking.. They took too long to get together.. Lot of misunderstandings which could have been avoided.. And she should have told him the truth about her double identity when they both started their relationship.. Its a huge mistake on her part.. And she broke up with him once the case was solved and her curse was revealed.. That was completely avoidable.. I really liked the MLs character.. He would have supported her if she had told him the truth about herself..

A standout element of the drama for me was the role of the FL’s parents.. Her friend and the investigator too were fun to watch.. I liked that they didnt try to overly complicate the storyline..

The subtle hint that she started studying again so that she could go to Seoul and be with the ML was a nice touch.. It was a thoughtful choice by the writers.. Infusing the romance with a sense of quiet determination and growth which it clearly lacked..

One aspect where Korean writers often fall short is in crafting satisfying endings.. They honestly need a crash course on how to write truly fulfilling conclusions.. Especially when it comes to happy endings..

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Body-Swapping and Missed Opportunities

This drama kicks off with a really intriguing concept: a woman in her twenties transforms into a fifty-year-old during the day. Jung Eun Ji and Lee Jung Eun shine, especially in the hilarious early scenes, but unfortunately, the plot doesn’t quite deliver.

Even with a serial killer and a murder mystery, the pacing feels slow, and the story often seems disjointed. The resolution of the serial killer plot in episode 15 lacks depth and thrill, leaving us wanting much more! The male lead's flashbacks get old pretty fast, and the romance takes forever to blossom, often overshadowed by a complicated body-swapping storyline and an unnecessary breakup.

What really frustrated me was how the female lead cracked the body-swapping mystery. After 15.5 episodes of build-up, it just gets resolved in a dream? Seriously?!

Despite the talented cast and the promising premise, the plot falls a bit flat and feels underwhelming. It’s a shame because there was definitely potential for a fantastic story!

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The concept & Choi Jin Hyuk brought me here but both lead actresses stole the show.

Ep 1: I have wanted to see Choi Jin Hyuk as a lead in a rom-com for a while so I eagerly put this on my watchlist when I first came across this. I also loved the concept of the drama. Both the lead actresses are terrific, especially Lee Jung Eun. Wow, she made the drama so much fun to watch. Her dance moves were just amazing and comedic at the same time. She definitely has more energy than I have ever had in my life. The scene where Mi Jin falls in the well is so visually good. The cat now, half of the time I thought that it was going to take a big chunk out of her & turn this entire thing into a horror show. Wow, finally there are shows that I can look forward to this month. For a while, there was only Lovely Runner.

Ep 2: Im Sun is clearly the star of this drama and it shows! The serial missing/killer cases make the drama more interesting, going from laugh out loud to being worried if your favorite character is gonna die. Gye Ji Ung brings the mystery the drama needs whereas Lee Mi Jin makes it palatable to watch. Her aunt will probably be on the missing person list if they ever recorded it and Ji Ung might help solve the mystery of what happened to her. Mi Jin's mom is so damn crazy, she wants her grandchildren now. The ending with cliffhanger was done just right! I wonder if the killers is Ko Won or one of the old guys from the Im Sun's workplace.

Ep 3 & 4: It was a nice episode. I have changed my mind about Ko Won, he isn't the killer. Mi Jin's friend is such a cutie, poor Mi Jin gets slapped and can't even blame her for it. Imagine someone showing up at your door like that and you live alone, it could be a lunatic. The next episode's preview shows that Ko Won might discover Mi Jin's secret. At this rate, it seems like our prosecutor will be the last to find out. The way they were trying to get her to quit backfired on them and it was fun to watch. Poor Mi Jin though, she finally has the job she has wanted but how long will she be able to keep it. I just love when Im Sun dances.

Ep 5 & Ep 6: They had me for a while, I thought whoa, they are doing the reveal so soon? It would have been nice. But no, gotta wait for at least the second arc of the show for the ML to find out that the FL & the ahjumma he is trying to get rid of are the same person. I like that Ko Won has someone to talk to, someone who's a bit carefree now. It was sad to see Im Sun brought down to tears because of Ji Ung. He can be a real ass. The headbutt serves him right! First a headbutt and now a kick in the face. Gotta love Im Sun. The next week's preview look exciting! Can't wait!

Ep 7 & Ep 8: Ko Won is fast and smart. He trusted his gut and found out Mi Jin's secret. I am bit confused about the real Im Sun's past. Was she Mi Jin's aunt? If so, how did her mom fail to recognize her on the first morning when they chased her out of the house. They need to give us more romance and screentime between Mi Jin and Ji Ung. That was barely a kiss before the episode ended. Pretty sure Ji Ung was surprised as hell. I have come to appreciate Mi Jin's personality, which shines through when she is Im sun as well.

Ep 9 & Ep 10: Turns out it wasn't really a kiss, boo hoo! They had me! It was nice to see more of Mi Jin and Ji Ung. It was even more fun to watch Byeong Deok going crazy over the idea of a guy dating a older woman. Ep 10 was a bit boring but not that bad. Things were more focused on the case, which is not really that interesting.

Ep 11 to Ep 14 : Mi Jin's friend is such a weirdo but still fun to watch. Both the leads frequently ending up at each other houses because they were passing through is so funny! The parents are so weird, someone stole their food and they are not even scared. I mean, I would be afraid of sleeping in the same house not sure when someone would come in! Okay, although I suspected initially that the killer would be someone from the old interns, I never thought it would be that lady. Ep 14 was much more interesting than the 11 to 13.

Ep 15 & Ep 16: I was afraid that the slump created by Ep 11 to 13 would drag down the whole drama, but Ep 15 saved the day for me at least. To be honest, the killer was caught too easily, the suspense part of the drama didn't easily mix well with the romance and fun part. But it is not a turn off for me. Now coming to the good part, I thought that they had left the reveal for too long between Mi Jin and Ji Ung, but the way it came to light was just about perfect for me. I am so glad that he was the mature person about the whole thing. I understand why Mi Jin wanted to breakup as well, but should have thought that one through before getting together with him. I liked that she confessed about her situation to her parents and didn't have worry about it all alone. Even though her friend was always there supporting her, it would have felt like a huge burden had lifted. I felt like Ko Won's character was underutilized and barely present in the last few episodes. Well it ended on a good note, all I can say is that Ji Ung is solid person and Mi Jin definitely found someone she could depend on.

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haven't had as much fun with a romcom in a long time

I usually don't write reviews, because most of the times my opinion is already depicted in some way or another.

yet, i find this drama/comedy to be highly underrated in comparison and just wondered why. i admit, i edited this review after the final episode, deducting 0.5 points solely for the last episode (chantal_789 does have a point). up until then i still think it's a near-10.

i've had my fill of kdramas (check my watchlist), especially comedy romances, which is one of my favourite genres and so enjoyable when done right. but a lot of times i left only somewhat satisfied or even dropped the show altogether, not even bothering with ratings. why? because the experience i'm looking for is something, i can sincerely relate to. as a very average person in a very average life, with it's very unique situations. and i believe it's the same for the majority of the audience. that means, it needs to be a mature, but light hearted enough romance to be comedic at times and to be able to resolve all day life's natural twists and turns without the need to bloat up the story, install extra drama to justify the run time or the extra good looking leads.

this show is exactly that: a very well written, acted and executed romcom on the backdrop of a good-enough crime story with a breeze of magic. and it took me by surprise, how enjoyable it turned out!

why the surprise?
* the matrix for your usual romcom is expected to be quite formualic. and it absolutely is.
* too many genres mashed up (comedy-slash-romance-slash-crime-slash-fantasy)
* the magical aspects of story lines to me are always like wild cards, because often they're just end up being used to cover for badly written stories or superficial characters
* lastly and strongly, the male lead to me is neither very attractive (not sure, what the people in the comment section mean by him being excused by his good looks...) nor is he depicting a very likeable character. he's definitely not one of my fav actors nor characters to begin with.

yet, as mentioned above: when done the right way, such generic settings or unlikeable characters still allow great romcoms. and here we are!

the comedy aspects are so spot on in so many ways, that this show turns out to be genuinely funny: the usual quirky sound effects are supporting, not disturbing, all the usual over reacting is contained to a matching situation and grounded in character so it's - apart from maybe in the final ep - kind of naturally funny by design and not already annoying or completely unbearable, the comedic awkwardness of the unlikely love interests is backed up by enough sincerity and authenticity, so that resolve easily happens through the context of the situations they find themselves in.

the actors easily stretch that scope of at times awkwardly silly character traits, arriving at the sincerity of their own individual personalities just right on time to ground their act into a human one and the story setting into a believable one. that only works with the right chemistry (although the male lead hides it well :D)

the female leads switching act is absolutely fun to follow. they must've had a blast while filming this!

some people seemed to have a problem with the pacing. i am easily bored and hate waiting for weekly episode releases. stuff that doesn't add up or lacks gets dropped or skipped. the shows where i did neither are 9.5 and up on my list. this one i found spot on and totally loved it like that. because - in all actuality - such a stiff and somewhat slow hearted male character gradually easing up, matched up with a situation like the female lead's one turning her rather outgoing personality all shy-ish and hesitant ('cause who in their right mind would think it'd be fair to drop a 60-year old self with all the consequences on someone they love and would possibly spend the rest of their life with!) - made it all the more believable and resolved the story in a much more natural way than a lot of comparable situations i have seen on screen. so i actually enjoyed the story running in circles at times with so many funny details - like that totally random blue knit sweater with the cat logo in ep 13. gotta love the hint!

the magical aspect is offering a supportive and fun background for some of the comedy related aspects and character development, yet is not misused to cover up unbelievable stretches to make things work. i admit, up until the last few ep i wasn't really sure, what the cat-thing was all about. but neither was the lead on her journey to understand exactly why all this had happened to her. so we kind of were put in her shoes by that, which i also really liked as a detail =^.^=

unless stuff like music or cinematography and such really stands out, i don't even realize it while watching. but in this one the music really matched the whole experience. totally fun use of recurring, very distinct themes.

so, if you're looking for a good one to laugh hard at times, but want the love story to be a believable one, the suspense not to be cheap and you don't mind some groundhog-day magic or that generic mismatch-love-triangle, dig in. and forget, that you have seen this a 1.000 times before. because you haven't :)

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many good ideas, horrible execution

it started out so good, but last few episodes were painful to watch. this drama biggest struggle was sticking to the plot. at first, it was portrayed as typical fantasy/comedy series. after that drama's genre become a slice of life/comedy which didn't bother me. however, i started to question the outcome of the story when they introduced serial killer storyline (I hate that trend in general). last 2 episodes felt like a series on its own. it had all the previous genres mixed together. the character who suffered the most because of it was the FL. LMJ was a person with quite high motivation until she pretty much became suicidal in episode. distasteful comedy in ep 15-16 didn't help either. I'm so bummed because I loved this drama to tiny pieces

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A show that can do with lesser cast and episodes

The show premise in the first half is interesting, from 8 to 11 it survives on humor aspect's very well only to fails to deliver the conclusion. The body swap magic thing is explained to some extent (importance of youth and living to fullest, her aunt murder coming into light), it tries to highlight the older people and young people facing the prejudice in society only to abandon in half point to focus on serial killer plot that doesn't have any impact on the story. As if the plotlines are not enough, the show trend to shed light on Idol life problems in the form on SML whose sole purpose is pointless love triangle (any sane women would pick him, and he does have questionable stalking tendencies). The Love story is weakest of them all plots, you don't get to see why ML and FL are in so love, when ML doesn't know about body switch until the last but one episode.

The Show survives on acting and humor by capable cast assemble - shout out for Lee Jung Eun, Yoon Byung Hee and Choi Jin Hyuk. The way lee Jung Eun plays Im sun is one of the best portrayal of 2024, she deserves an award. All other cast members are good too.

Overall the show could defiantly be 12 episodes one, and one time watch

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Fun and Satisfying

I picked up Miss Night and Day with 0 expectations and it has been a fun ride. I especially liked that the female character was shown as a smart capable person who unfortunately was struggling due to other circumstances and shined when given an opportunity.

Jung Eun Ji and Lee Jung Eun both portrayed the FL character well especially the veteran actress. Enjoyed all her fun moments and she made me forget the outer appearance and made me believe this was a 29 year old woman. It is definitely difficult to perfect two people playing the same role but they definitely did well.

Both male leads did well but I often got second lead syndrome because of his helpful yet unimposing nature.

Though the leads share chemistry, they aren't given too much time to explore it. So there isn't much romance. But I enjoy mixed genres so it wasn't an issue for me but it could be for some people who prefer more romance.

I also enjoyed the roles of the supporting characters. They did great!

One thing I found strange is the leads did not discuss the connection they discovered at the end. And they also decided to write the leads apart when they would need each other the most emotionally. Withholding the secret for so long would also be one of my main gripes.

Overall I found the ending wonderful and satisfying. The series is a good source of entertainment.

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absolutely incredible, definitely reccomend

this drama was originally something i was uninterested in even after seeing multiple promotions of it online and on netflix. but as an avid knowing bros watcher, i saw that they had appeared on it and decided to watch the first few episodes that was out already. and when i say this was the best choice i made i mean it. this was honestly such a fun, sad, interesting drama with a new concept that really worked.

if ur someone who doesnt really enjoy these supernatural themes in kdramas, i promise you now you need to try this drama. its not very centered on the supernatural element at all and more focuses on the crime part of the story which i really loved.

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Ideas are there but underused and execution is very amiss

I wanted to give this series at least a 5, there are some concepts and ideas there that are interesting but they're so massively underused or the direction they took was so amiss that writing this review I just couldn't bring myself to. Also taking into consideration I found myself fast-forwarding moments and at some points even nearly falling asleep.

In things I liked there was the fantasy element between younger and older FL as well as the bits of social commentary relating to age discrimination in both groups. The struggle of the FL in the beginning was relatable at times and I was interested in seeing how the story would unfold. The disappearances of the people in the past were also an interesting plot and although the murder mystery was kind of cliché in many aspects from the very beginning it could have made for an interesting plot anyway if they had bothered to properly work on it. Lee Jung Eun's character as Im Sun/older Mi Jin was also the best of the show.

The main issue with this series is the fact that it feels they didn't bother with anything enough to make it stand out in any way, in fact it felt they wanted to make it so plain and average that they ended up not having enough plot to cover the whole of the episodes and as a result it's very dragged and many episodes are very uninteresting, I found myself fast-forwarding bits here and there, especially as the episodes got towards the end of the series. At times it felt like I was just watching FL going to and back from work with the little bells in-between for the change and not much else. And talking about the bells, what were the point of it? You can clearly visually see the change so I just simply don't understand it, and I know it's a very small detail but they started annoying me a bit as episodes passed. I think this series would have worked much better as 12 episodes, even more considering their lack of regard towards developing the story in an interesting or meaningful way.

Starting with the plot, the murder mystery is anticlimactic and pretty obvious from early on. Sadly they didn't bother in making multiple characters suspicious enough and with a possibility of two and knowing that the first one going by the clichés won't be the culprit you know it will be the second. It doesn't feel like they tried or wanted to even try to make that part of the story interesting enough, the small flashbacks of ML's past are repeated multiple times, as are the images of the aunt and so on, but they add nothing to the story, the research is not engaging nor they bring you along for it and the reveal and subsequent developments are very lackluster, with a killer that is because yes, as usual. I'm very tired of watching thrillers were the bad guys are just simply mentally unstable psychos that kill because yes and at random. It's getting old.

On the other hand the "fantasy" element is pretty pointless. It's somehow the backbone of the series but it's massively underutilised and reduced to simply FL is that way during the day and during the night, there isn't even a real exploration of why and the ending of it it's a big disappointing mess. I can't either even start to understand why she would see her older self and talk to her as if it was a separate entity in the last dream. Sure, we could argue she was talking to her subconscious or inside her mind but it's treated too much like a different person, also at the end when ML sees her under the blossoming trees would also suggest this considering FL cannot see her at that moment either. It makes you wonder then if in a way FL was possessed by her aunt more than she becoming old, but clearly that was not the case as she couldn't hear her aunt inside nor we see her aunt in her older self to start with. This actually brings me to another problem I had with all this, and it's the fact that the FL's parents don't recognise her as the aunt physically when she's older but there are other people that think she is her, it was confusing and honestly quite sloppy, as it was the fact that the issue of the parents not believing it was her could have been solved from the start by talking to them when she was Mi Jin instead of Im Sun, or strategically showing them. This could also have been applied to pretty much everyone, including the ML, what makes this hide and seek get old very quickly and makes the FL look quite dumb.
Another thing that annoyed me a lot when it comes to the fantastical element is that when she's changing the time is shown as going very fast, what was that about? They would always fast forward the sunset and the sunrise like if they don't exist. It's almost like they couldn't decide when she actually transforms nor they could bother in animating a slow transformation. The line was more clear with sunrise but with sunset is like they didn't know what to do, so they would fast-forward like an hour of time in one second and we would go from the sun starting to set to completely night sky. It had my eyes rolling.
But anyway....how is the cat even related to the transformation? Who is the cat? Was it all indeed because of the aunt? why the aunt doesn't appear at any point in voice, spirit or in some sort of clue to know? Was she actually an old Mi Jin or was she looking like how they want us to believe the aunt would have looked as old? if the aunt was behind this, why not making it more obvious and make Mi Jin transform as her, why an older her that we haven't ever even seen?
To be honest this is just one more drama in a series of others I've seen in more recent times that use some fantastical element and it's either very underused or completely a background feature. Let's stop please, it only becomes frustrating more than anything and usually they never have a conclusion for that part of the story, it just is.

I found FL's parents pretty annoying towards the beginning, very nosy, big meddlers in her life while also saying some pretty rude things to her. They got better when they became more background characters (I say "they" but here the problem is mostly the mother). When it comes to the FL, I preferred her Im Sun persona than Mi Jin and so many times I just wished they had skipped the whole "fantasy" thing and just made Lee Jung Eun the main character of the story. Mi Jin in her younger self was annoying at times and the writers couldn't decide if she was independent and strong or damsel in distress so they changed as the plot needed, at some points she would be screaming so ML could save her, at some points mostly when alone she would deal with it herself. It's quite expected also that there will be differences between the two actresses portrays of the same character but sadly at times they did indeed feel too much like different people.

ML is a character that almost feels like they wanted to make nuanced but at the same time present as the smart prince in the shinning armor. I was not a fan of him, most of all because he was very rude and abusive in the beginning of employees, very ageist as well and him looking at FL in the kitchen and thinking of his mother was kind of the cherry on top. But overall the worst for me in terms of the character is that duality between presenting a nuanced character but also giving him to me in a platter of gold like he's supposed to be a role model or a romantic interest for the viewer as well as the fact that in the end she was the reason he changed after-all what it's just not real and sends the wrong message . Sure, I'm going into details when in fact his character is not very explored but I feel it still applies. We got more insight of FL's psyche than him. I get his past is haunting him but that can't be his whole personality and even in that sense we don't get a lot of depth into his past, only the same 4 scenes recycled. His mother was clearly not great either but there is no thought, conversation or even mention on his thoughts about his mother at any point. Because of the superficiality of it all, when the remains of the mother are found in the end the scene of him crumbling doesn't have the emotional depth it should for me. People around him keep repeating how much time he has spent on the case trying to find the people but we're always told and not shown the depth of it in a meaningful way so it was difficult for me to relate. I think Choi Jin Hyuk did his best with what he had but that scene of him crumbling has more depth than the entirety of what we have been shown of him, it's very disjointed because the plot didn't care enough up to that point.
In fact, we could argue that until around episode 15 the plot didn't care much about anything and then the whole plot and reveal is dropped in a few scenes because "we got to get on with it". It's just such a sloppy execution.

When it comes to the romantic development of the main leads the plot is disappointing. It's very plain and I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why they even liked each other since except for a few moments of revelations they didn't seem to share much. I could understand her crush on him based purely on the fact she would see him as this cool and composed prosecutor with a great job, but the other way around? We're introduced to his crush to her in a slow yet weird manner and in general it feels like their relationship is quite detached at the same time. Either way, the worst of it all is the cliché of "ending it" an episode to the end what adds absolutely nothing as always and it was awkward and very pointless. Now, if for example they had decided to go another way with solving the fantasy element of the show then it would have been more interesting he would have helped solve the mystery of it maybe.
The dynamics between them could have been hilarious had they stuck to more comedy throughout the whole series (and if he had found out earlier about her changing even) but the comedy aspect is dropped early on and then the few moments that try to be more comedic just end up being embarrassing more than anything.

When it comes to side characters Ko Won is extremely pointless and the attempt to make him second romantic interest was laughable. They actually had great chemistry as sidekicks but they obviously HAD to try and cross the line, it was very awkward, especially considering Ko Won had most of his interactions with Im Sun and not Mi Jin. Yet at the end they try to refer to it in flashback as friendship and camaraderie like if he confessing his feeling hadn't happened. Weird.
Why didn't they pair Ko Won with Do Ga Yeong? I get the not wanting to cross the line of fan to lover or something but it would have made for a cuter story in my opinion. The love story between her and Ju Byeong Deok tries so hard to be comedic relief but it was quite embarrassing and unappealing and not going to lie a lot of it has to do with both the age gap and also that Ju Byeong Deok as a character came across a bit as a perv at times in his buffoonery ways.

I'm not sure I can recommend this drama even to pass time if you have nothing to do because of how draggy and slow it is, I generally found it boring. It's watchable yes, Lee Jung Eun is great in her role, has some endearing moments of camaraderie and the murder mystery although very cliché and predictable is not exactly unwatchable, but 16 episodes it's just too much in my opinion and there are better dramas out there to pass the time.

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Interesting amalgamation of an old storyline, unique-ish fantasy element and brilliant acting

I held off watching this show because of the mystery tag as I usually do not do well with long cliffhangers and only started watching this before the Finale aired so that I could binge-watch this and finish with the final episode, and oh my god, what fun these last two days have been!

First, the story. It's nothing new. This serial killer-like genre has been quite popular with Korean dramas and as somebody who has watched way too many of such shows, I wasn't necessarily impressed with the story per se. Just like other thrillers, it has some major plot holes and things that realistically don't make sense but they are very easy to overlook because you're so hooked onto the story. It did not have anything new but still, it stood out for me because of the fantasy element. It was very nicely done, unwrapped and wrapped up again without making me go mad. Unlike a lot of people here, I wasn't getting annoyed at the late reveal (caveat: maybe that's because I saw it in two days and did not have to actually wait for long week after week). I'm not a fan of fantasy elements and I was still able to enjoy it which means it has been nicely done.

But I think the credit for that goes to one and only Lee Jung Eun. Don't get me wrong. Everyone from the male and female leads to the supporting cast (especially Jung Young Joo) has worked beautifully and done their best, but what took this show to another level for me was the stellar acting by Jung Eun. I've watched her works before, so her brilliant acting is no surprise. What a character, what amazing comic timing and such great feels. She's given her all to the show and it really shows. She brought so much light to this otherwise heavy theme and dark-ish vibe of the show. I absolutely loved the vibe her character was oozing throughout.

One thing to note (only because it rarely happens with me and I was very very surprised) was the second lead syndrome I got in this show, until the very last episode. I'm very happy for our lead couple, they really suit each other and there was never any ill-intention by any of the characters, but omg, my heart was going all out for our Ko Won. It was my first time seeing Seo Hoo and I'm so impressed with his skills, love it! I just love how supporting all the characters in this show are shown: Ko Won, Mr Ju, Ga Yeong, and the parents. Brilliant writing of the characters!

It's a nice show with lots of light-hearted scenes. I wouldn't rate this as a romance though but even that bit has been good in the show. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching it and would definitely recommend watching it.

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