A surprisingly thrilling and engaging show [I wrote his review in my notes 3 years ago]

The wittiness and playfulness of the characters intermixed with the heavy and intense main plot was done very well. It was one of those dramas that I started watching expecting to just skip through everything but ended up getting hooked and interested in the story. I hate Moon Chae won’s hairstyle so much but was surprisingly able to overcome that while watching it because she is an amazing actress. [FUTURE EDIT: lol girl what] The actors playing the villains did very well because they very much pissed me off with their evilness. Cha Ji won being one step ahead of the villains was very satisfying to watch but one could argue that they overplayed that card.

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[I honestly don't remember much, I wrote this review in my notes 3 years ago]

Unlike most people, I take it for what it is - an exuberant early 2010s romantic comedy drama. And honestly, I found it quite enjoyable with the lame jokes and dry humour. I watched this to see the chemistry between Lee Chung-ah and Lee Ki-woo (IRL couple) [FUTURE EDIT: rip @ this being a 3 year old review] and was not left disappointed in terms of the scenes they had. BUT I was hella disappointed (even though i definitely anticipated it) that their characters did not end up together. I love Jung Il-woo but his character was not it in this drama. Cha Chi-soo (the male lead) is the most stuck up and annoying character and did not deserve to end up with the female lead. Removing biases towards the couples aside, I'm pretty sure I would have still liked the second lead male over the first male lead. Totem pole boss was kind, nice, and attentive while Cha Chi-soo was a rude spoiled little brat. I'm sad that not enough people acknowledge how much better the second lead male was. However, despite this disappointment, I am at least glad that the female lead mutually had feelings for the second male lead for majority of the drama. I really liked this aspect of the drama because you don't really see that often. But I would like to argue that this does make it somewhat unrealistic and illogical that she ended up with Cha Chi-soo (but i should preface that this COULD have been due to the fact that I only watched the wife and hubby couple scenes but I still watched other aspects of the drama tho so I still think it's a valid argument I have). I give it a fairly high rating than what I would usually because I am in love with the chemistry between wife and totem pole hubby boss.

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Fresh and iconic romantic comedy

One of my all time favourite dramas. Very funny and comedic. It is refreshing to see characters that aren't rich or are labelled as poor, but live a life that is clearly dramaland's definition of poor. ALSO to see an unapologetically confident female lead was awesome. For most of it, it was enjoyable and entertaining, but I do remember that it got a bit dragged on towards the end of the series. In particular, they kept reusing the female lead's disapproval of the male lead's decision to fight as a means of conflict for them to seemingly fill the last few episodes. Another thing to nitpick that kind of bothered me was how I sometimes felt that Park Seo-joon was always consistent with his character? Overall, the character was dumb and loveable, but when it came times to the dramatic romantic scenes, it felt a bit off and didn't always feel like it was the character "Dong-man" but "Park Seo-joon acting out a romantic scene", if that makes sense? I'm talking about particular scenes where he is meant to leave the female lead flustered in his acts of bold romance. Overall, it is an iconic drama and plus points for being Kim Ji-won's first leading role.

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Don't yuck my yum - one of my go-to comfort rom-com dramas

It is a fun and entertaining drama. I would say the set up and first half of the drama is very entertaining and comedic. Some may consider the female lead to be somewhat of a wet blanket, but for me it's tolerable that I can accept her and still root for her. Additionally, I think Lee Min-jung does well in making her character likeable despite this. Gong Yoo is so funny and entertaining in this drama. His versatility is really on display here in how he is able exude different auras for essentially polar opposite characters with the same face. I think the drama starts to lose itself in trying to rectify the tricky circumstances it set itself up in. Of course, the whole idea is that the soul in the body of this adult man is actually a teenager, so the possibility of having the female lead end up with him is difficult. The romance between the two leads definitely got convoluted in how they would get their "happy ending" because of this. Lee Min-jung and Gong Yoo's chemistry is *chef's kiss*. There's just something about this drama that I just really love because for the most part, it's funny and entertaining.

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[I honestly don't remember much of this drama, I wrote this review in my notes 3 years ago]

Having mostly watched for the Jae Hoon and Han Joo storyline, I am somewhat disappointed in their ending. Perhaps, rewatching this drama when I am in my late 20s or 30s will bring about a more enlightening perspective to fully understand and relate to the drama’s issues. While I understand the creative intention of the way their storyline was ultimately concluded, I find myself struggling to accept it due to some issues I have, but this could be to biases and my inherent desire to escape from reality by watching idealistic rom-com shows. From what I gathered, Jae Hoon’s implied reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend somewhat rubs me the wrong way (wanky) in that it fails to understand the true nature of alcoholism and toxic relationships. The depiction of Jae Hoon’s contribution to the decay of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend was not executed that well in my opinion. Having just watched 500 days of summer with its themes fresh in mind and similarities to this, the execution wasn’t done as well. My honest opinion of this drama is that on the outer surface, it claims and portrays itself as a fresh and groundbreaking drama with the issues it tackles, when in reality it’s execution of these important and significant issues are subpar. However, this is specifically what I gathered from mainly being invested in the Jae Hoon-Han Joo storyline. Going beyond my focus of that storyline, it fails to really go deep into the struggles of Hyo Bong and being an openly gay male in modern-day Korea. The exploration of same-sex relationships and homosexuality made only a speck of the plot, but in a very outer-perspective and outer surface manner. Another thing is being a young, single mother. These issues that go beyond my initial reasoning for watching this drama were barely explored and poorly executed. I’m not so much upset that Jae Hoon and Han Joo didn’t end up together even though I was rooting for them, but it was more the disappointment of the endings they were given, more so Jae Hoon, and the final conclusion of the nature of their friendship in an attempt to subvert typical kdrama tropes and expectations.

The drama seems to only scratch the surface of the serious issues it intends to explore. While I have rated dumber dramas higher, the distinction is that this drama intends to be groundbreaking and so I must rate it on that basis - on how it executes their intention. As opposed to dumb and exaggerated rom-coms, those should be taken as what they are as their intention isn't to spark some sort of relatability like this drama attempts to. However, I do give it a relatively high rating despite my dissatisfaction with the ending because I love the refreshing characters it presents us with. This really distinguishes itself from other dramas and made it an enjoyable watch.

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Sorry but it's a no from me :(

Female lead was so unlikeable. The fact that this drama came out in 2019 and the story consists of a girl chasing after a guy who is deemed "too good for her" is dumb and outdated. I just...I hate it...so much. In defence of the trope (because some shows I've watched have done this and I've still enjoyed it), it can be executed well in a way that isn't too jarring, but I think this drama unfortunately fails to do that. I initially watched this for the second lead couple after seeing an edit of them because I am a sucker for the "she fell first but he fell harder" trope, but found myself disappointed. I think the second male lead was kind of too mean to the second female lead for me to truly like them together.

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Such bs and disservice to a woman who was cheated on

Started off strong but got sick of it due to very unlikeable characters. I was completely done with this drama once it was clear that they were going in the direction of Seol-ah and the cheating asshole reconciling instead of her and the nice chef getting together grrr. Like what kind of precedent does that establish??? He literally shamelessly cheated on her and let his mother treat her like trash??? Like there is no way that can be redeemable in any way, no matter how much you try to sugarcoat all the shit that happened. And it’s even worse considering how Seol-ah was characterised (at least initially, idk about the later episodes) that I find it hard to believe that she would take back his lame sorry ass??? I'm still so upset at the lost potential. The chef literally made her a better person. I can't help but yell out misogyny because it is so ridiculous. Totally thought this was going to be another weekend drama that I could enjoy and be a nice simple watch but was thrown this bullshit curveball. I know weekend dramas tend to sometimes be unrealistic and bizarre but never this much.

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Engaging and fresh fantasy drama that stays true to its source material

It was airing at the same time as 'King the Land' and I initially did not know about this drama prior to it airing, I only learnt about it after viewers of 'King the Land' made comparisons to it due to the similar setting of the 2 dramas. Whilst I started dedicating 'King the Land' for my weekly Sunday and Monday dose of K-dramas, I ended up captivated and hooked to 'See You in My 19th Life'. I was so hooked that I binged read the original manhwa. I love me a drama that has me invested and captivated spontaneously rather than me pursuing to watch a drama due to my likeness towards the cast, which is why I rated this drama so high.

Whilst I was disappointed that it was only 12 episodes, extremely short for the typical 16 episodes for kdramas, it enabled the drama to conclude the story at a nice pace. Overall, it wasn't rushed despite its short length. However, I wouldn't have mind some filler scenes of the 2 couples. It was particularly a shame that there wasn't more scenes dedicated to Do-yoon and Cho-won, which would have maybe stopped me from being disinterested in them towards the end. It also would have been nice to see more of Do-yoon progressively accepting his feelings for Cho-won.

This drama was a breath of fresh air from the cheesy romantic dramas or the ultra serious dramas that are currently ubiquitous in the K-drama scene at the moment. It presented a strong and confident female lead that felt organic and not as if it was trying to be progressive and showy about having one. Whilst I am in love with Ji-eum and Seo-ha's relationship, I think the star relationship of the show was definitely the two sisters and I believe that it is secretly the heart of the show.

Having finished the original manhwa well before the show finished airing, I did not mind the modifications made. Being a K-drama adaptation, it is inevitable that changes would be made to the original manhwa to add a sense of intrigue and suspense to viewers that have already read the original source material. Unlike some K-drama adaptations of manhwas, 'See You in My 19th Life' does not lose essence of the original manhwa in its changes.

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