A Time Called You

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Synopsis

Han Jun Hee’s boyfriend died a year ago. One day, she travels back in time. In 1998, she is a high school student and meets Nam Shi Heon who looks exactly like her boyfriend. 

My Opinion (No Spoilers)

A Time Called You is a mix between a melodrama, a romance, and a crime drama. These 3 genres are extremely well intertwined together in the story making it almost impossible to predict what will happen next – and I loved this feeling. The back-and-forth between the timelines may appear confusing at first, but I think it was explained well enough to let you follow the intrigue properly. Characters are well written, and you empathize a lot with their situation. As for the romance, I just found it beautiful and heartwarming. Both leads play wonderfully well their part (especially Jeon Yeo Bin who embodies 2 distinct characters), and you want to learn the truth as much (if not more) as Han Jun Hee. The attention to detail, the touch of darkness here and there, and the emotional roller coaster of emotions make this drama a must-watch for me.

Analysis

Characters: Through the characters of the drama, a few interesting themes are tackled.

Han Jun Hee, all roads lead to you: Han Jun Hee (Jeon Yeo Bin) only has eyes for Ku Yeon Joon (Ahn Hyo Seop). They’ve been together for years and know each other in and out. So, when he suddenly dies in a plane crash, Jun Hee loses her soulmate, her best friend, but also a part of herself. Her grief turned her into a gloomy person who doesn’t enjoy life anymore. She feels guilty and is eaten away with remorse. Her only goal throughout the entire drama is to right the wrongs. Not only does she wish to change her last conversation with her fiancé, but she also wants to modify the past to set everything back on the right track. In 1995, she enters Min Joo’s body and gives off a very different vibe. She’s the sun, when Min Joo is the moon. Moreover, Han Jun Hee is determined, stubborn, and outspoken. She has a bright personality and easily connects with people. These qualities allow her to push through any obstacle and to solve the mystery behind Min Joo’s murder. However, Jun Hee’s devotion to Yeon Joon is also her greatest weakness. She is so focused on changing the past, that she becomes oblivious to other characters’ pain and uncertainties, especially Min Joo’s. Nevertheless, Han Jun Hee openly admits when she’s messed up and always tries to find a solution. She gets carried away by her emotions every time, but it’s what makes her succeed in the end.

Kwon Min Joo, descent into Hell: Kwon Min Joo (Jeon Yeo Bin) is a high school student in 1995 who unexpectedly strikes a friendship with Nam Si Heon (Ahn Hyo Seop) and Jung In Gyu (Kang Hoon). Personality-wise, she’s the exact opposite of Han Jun Hee with whom she’ll later share her body. Min Joo is a shy and silent teenager. Her unobtrusive personality is the result of a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence that she’s carried for years now. Indeed, Kwon Min Joo has always felt rejected by her parents who always favored her younger brother – the son. They even fought for his custody during their divorce, while forgetting to mention Min Joo in the discussion. At school, Kwon Min Joo is an outcast. Her gloomy face is rather off-putting for other students who find her weird and hard to approach. So, they just ignore her instead. Despite all that, Kwon Min Joo holds on. She’s resilient and accepts all the hurt thrown at her by her entourage. When Si Heon and In Gyu – the popular guys of the school – start talking to her, Min Joo is taken aback. She’s afraid that they are in fact trying to make fun of her. Yet, these two prove to be genuine. At last, Min Joo feels like she can breathe a bit. But this was without counting a major life-changing element: Jun Hee’s time travel. Kwon Min Joo ends up trapped in her own body. She powerlessly witnesses Jun Hee living her life – better than she ever did before. Han Jun Hee makes friends in a split second and even manages to steal Si Heon’s heart. For every time travel, the scar gets bigger for Min Joo. She thus starts wondering if she’s not the problem after all; if the reason why life was so hard before is not because of her shortcomings. Once again, Min Joo’s self-esteem drops and hits rock bottom. Worse, she’s not even capable to imitate Jun Hee’s personality properly, as she’s uncovered by Nam Si Heon. This mixed with the plead from other students for her not to go back to how she was before – aka before Jun Hee – is the last blow for Min Joo. She’s lost her identity, she hates herself and has entered a deep depressive state. Hence, her (attempted) suicide. At the end of the drama, it becomes clear that the real reason behind Min Joo’s death is in fact Jun Hee’s time travel. Her presence annihilated Min Joo’s slightest ray of hope to be liked for who she is. This character tackles a very interesting theme: mental health and how people can impact your life and actions – positively or negatively.

Nam Si Heon, ‘All I need is you’: Nam Si Heon is an ordinary student in 1995. He’s popular, kind, and best friends with Jung In Gyu since early childhood. Si Heon embraces every student no matter who they are. Hence his friendship with Min Joo when he realizes she’s an outcast. He’s warmhearted, honest and upright. He never judges or criticizes, nor does he want to hurt anybody. At the beginning of the drama, Si Heon is the matchmaker between In Gyu and Min Joo. He’s noticed that his best friend is smitten with this shy schoolmate. Knowing his friend’s reserved personality too, he takes matter into his own hands and forces the encounter. All in all, Si Heon is a helper in Min Joo and In Gyu’s relationship. However, things get complicated when Jun Hee appears. She first calls him Yeon Joon and gazes at him very differently. It doesn’t take long before Nam Si Heon believes Jun Hee. And of course, he also falls in love with her. From that moment on, Si Heon becomes the epitome of devotion. His perceptive eye allows him to distinguish Jun Hee and Min Joo quite fast, while his love for Jun Hee made him do all necessary sacrifices to find his way back to her. Han Jun Hee is and remains his top priority. She’s the light at the end of the tunnel. She’s his destination. Nam Si Heon and Ku Yeon Joon have also been only one person. Si Heon’s longing and yearning for Jun Hee are his driving force that enable a final reunion, despite not remembering their story.

Ku Yeon Joon, finding Mr. Right: Ku Yeon Joon becomes a side character mid-drama. When it is revealed that Si Heon has been Jun Hee’s deceased fiancé all along, we get to see glimpses of the real Ku Yeon Joon’s past. The latter was in love with his (male) classmate Tae Ha (Rowoon). Upon revealing their feelings to one another, both died in a car accident. This allowed for Si Heon to take over Yeon Joon’s body and live his life. Though this character only appears for a short amount of time, he brings two societal topics on the table. The first one is homosexuality, and how it’s still difficult to confess your love for someone of the same gender in South Korea (though it’s opening up a little, sexual orientation remains a big topic in the country). The second is less serious in my opinion and has to do with danger on the road. Indeed, Yeon Joon and Tae Ha’s accident is the result of a lack of attention while driving. This negligence led them to their deaths.

Jung In Gyu, the power of love: Jung In Gyu may be a quiet character, but he turns out to be a game-changer at the end. As mentioned before, he has a crush on Kwon Min Joo. Yet, he can’t bring himself to confess his feelings to her. At some point, it seems like Min Joo is attracted to Si Heon. So, he doesn’t push things and witnesses their blooming romance. Of course, he’s hurt inside. But his affection for his best friend is greater than anything else. Si Heon and In Gyu have been friends since childhood. Si Heon has been his only friend and his protector all his life, after seeing how other kids ill-treated In Gyu for his hearing impairment. Though people called In Gyu ‘Si Heon’s sidekick’, he’s been grateful towards his friend and never resented him for anything. Tension arises between friends when Min Joo gets stuck in the middle, but misunderstandings are cleared when Jun Hee reveals her real identity to the boys. In Gyu’s feelings have never shifted. That’s why he confesses to Min Joo that he liked her past self more than the actual one. About to commit suicide, In Gyu finds Min Joo on time and talks her out of it. In a first version she kills herself, leading In Gyu to confess for a crime he had not commit and then die at the same spot 9 years later. In a second version, he manages to save Min Joo which ultimately changes his tragic future as well. His conversation with Min Joo is pretty convincing and shows the depth of his feelings. His pure love is what saves the desperate teenager in the end. When everybody else turned her back on her, he proved to be a strong shoulder to rely on.

The timeline: The timeline in A Time Called You requires focus in each episode. Indeed, it’s really easy to lose the red thread if you do not pay attention. However, I accept the challenge and will try to walk you through the development of the story the best I can, so that you can understand the twists and turns that punctuate the drama and their impact on the overall narrative.

2023, the loss: When the drama begins in 2023, Han Jun Hee and Ku Yeon Joon have been together since university. Both have successful careers, especially Jun Hee who’s just received an offer for a dream job in New York. She hesitates to inform her boyfriend, knowing that accepting would imply being in a long-distance relationship. On the other hand, Yeon Joon is about to propose to Jun Hee. But her sudden change of jobs puts a halt in his project. Like any couple, they argue and leave their apartment on bad terms. That’s when tragedy strikes. Hoping to make up with Jun Hee, Yeon Joon embarks on a plane to New York that ends its journey in the middle of the ocean. After his death, Han Jun Hee is devastated. She’s only the shadow of herself, feeling guilty for letting him go after a ‘stupid’ fight. Alone and grieving, she’s stuck to a time when her lover was here. That’s when she receives a mysterious cassette playing Seo Ji Won’s tune ‘Gather My Tears’. The old object also contains an inscription from the sender saying that (s)he hopes this song will take her to her happiest time. Upon hearing it, Jun Hee is transported back into the past. She ends up in the body of Kwon Min Joo, a shy high school student, who resembles her trait for trait. As if this were not even, she meets Min Joo’s friend Nam Si Heon who looks exactly like Yeon Joon. From then on, Jun Hee starts a series of back-and-forth between past and present in order to find out what happened to Kwon Min Joo, who died in 1998, and to understand the link between Si Heon and Yeon Joon. She’s certain this time travel may be her chance to save her lover and get him back.

1998, when it all started: When she wakes up in Min Joo’s body, Jun Hee is at the hospital. The student apparently was in a coma after being attacked and left for dead. Unbeknownst to Jun Hee, Min Joo is still there, stuck in her head. She can see and hear everything that is happening. Unfortunately, the only way to get her body back is if Jun Hee goes back to her own time. In that timeline, Han Jun Hee embarks on a quest that will shape her future. First, she encounters Min Joo’s friends at the hospital, Nam Si Heon (Yeon Joon’s doppelgänger) and Jung In Gyu. Both are shocked when they discover how much Min Joo has changed. Her personality is totally different. This switch surprises the two men who are keen on understanding what happened to her. So, together they team up and investigate the night of Min Joo’s accident. In Gyu is first incriminated because his hearing aid was found at the crime scene. Yet, Jun Hee believes him and testifies in his favor. Later on, another student dies abruptly at school. The trio believes this has something to do with Min Joo’s attack, but can’t find solid evidence to back up the claim. By the end of the drama, it turns out that another student named Oh Chan Hui (Min Jin Woong) is the culprit.

As for the romance, 1998 is a pivotal time for the love story between Jun Hee and Si Heon/Yeon Joon. Though he only considered her a friend, Nam Si Heon starts falling for Min Joo’s new self whilst Jun Hee can’t help but draw parallels between her lost lover and this high school student. However, it’s impossible for Si Heon to be Yeon Joon as the latter exists as a young child in this timeline. 1998 is the year when it all started for Jun Hee and Si Heon, because it’s actually only been him all along.

1998 and 2023, investigation in parallel: I will be as concise as possible in the explanation, as 1998 and 2023 are deeply intertwined. Just know that the cassette is the key element that allows for events in the past to occur depending on the actions of the protagonists in the future. In 2023, Han Jun Hee finds the cassette and travels to 1998, thus disrupting Kwon Min Joo’s life. Meanwhile, she also looks for clues in 2023. Helped by Nam Si Heon (I will explain later what happened!), she is about to discover the identity of the killer. That’s when her college friend, Oh Chan Young, comes into play. She unwillingly reveals everything to him, from the cassette to the time travel and murder investigation. But Jun Hee wasn’t aware that Chan Young is Chan Hui’s little brother, who used her cassette to travel to 1998 to kill Min Joo. Indeed, Chan Young is the real psychopath who’s been obsessed with Min Joo’s shy and reserved personality. He used in older brother’s body to commit the perfect crime, letting his brother endorse responsibilities. Not everything turned out well for both Jun Hee and Chan Young in 2023. The latter killed Si Heon, but was arrested before he could actually take Min Joo’s life. So, he destroyed the cassette. Meanwhile, Jun Hee managed to fix it one last time and go back to prevent the murder. Yet, she didn’t expect Min Joo to also play against her. Because the cassette was damaged, she could only enter Min Joo’s head. But she had no control over her body. That’s why, she could not stop her from killing herself right in front of In Gyu.

All along, Jun Hee reveals to be the one at the origin of Min Joo’s death. Her presence in 1998 destabilized Min Joo mentally. She had low self-confidence already, so seeing how much Jun Hee was appreciated in her body – and not her – reduced it to none at all. Jun Hee was not aware of the impact of her actions, but they are in fact the reasons why the story unfolded as such. Morale of the story: Do not try to change the future by disrupting the past. It will always lead to catastrophic results if you don’t do it cleverly.

2002, the accident: Kwon Min Joo dies in 1998. Jung In Gyu who was found next to the body in an abandoned building confessed the crime. He thus received a 9-year sentence. Nam Si Heon has now lost his best friend In Gyu, his friend Min Joo, and his lover Jun Hee whom he believed to be someone from the future. As planned, he leaves for the US with his family. He comes back to Korea in 2002 during the World Cup. He tries to visit his friend in prison, but his request is denied by In Gyu. On a rainy day, he takes the bus and listens to the cassette Jun Hee offered him a while ago. While asleep, the bus swerves off the road and ends its course in a ravine. Nam Si Heon’s leg is badly hurt and he is transported to the hospital between life and death. When he wakes up, he’s not in his body anymore. His body as Nam Si Heon is in a coma. He will regain consciousness after his plane crashes in 2023.

2007, the re-encounter: When Si Heon wakes up, he’s stuck in Ku Yeon Joon’s 18-year-old body who’s just been in a car accident in 2007. Though overwhelmed at first, Si Heon takes this as a second chance to be with Jun Hee. He actively looks for her, and eventually enrolls to her university. From then on, he will try to seduce her and steal her heart under the traits of Ku Yeon Joon. Best part is that Jun Hee had revealed all the details of her relationship with Yeon Joon to Si Heon in 1998. From 2007 to the plane crash, Jun Hee and Si Heon (as Yeon Joon) will love at their fullest. Before hopping in his plane to NY, Si Heon from 2002 (in his real body) warns him that he will die and wake up in his body in 2002. Yet, his other self refuses to save his life as this would mean that he’d never be able to meet Jun Hee again. For her, he decides to sacrifice himself and to die as Ku Yeon Joon.

2011, a time called you: The last episode finally breaks the cycle of time travel for our characters. In a desperate attempt to be reunited with Si Heon, Jun Hee tries to listen to the cassette one last time. Luck (or destiny) is on her side. She manages to get back to Min Joo’s body a few minutes before she actually commits suicide. Now in full control of Min Joo, she is rescued by In Gyu before Min Joo does the irreparable. Saving Min Joo is synonym with changing all the events that happened thereafter, among which meeting Si Heon. All of Jun Hee and Si Heon’s memories together disappear, while they promise that they will find their way to each other. They have broken this endless cycle of pain and separation. Now, they can hope for a fresh start. And that fresh time happens in 2011. Si Heon is living his life as a webtoon editor. On a winter day, he passes by Han Jun Hee and has the feeling that he knows her. The final words of the drama supported by the protagonists’ unexpected re-encounter mark a new beginning: ‘I promise, I will find you. It doesn’t matter when or where you are. We will definitely meet again. I will come and find you in a time called you.’