Tu tiempo llama (2023)

Parallel Realities: A Roller Coaster Ride of confusion and intrigue in K-Drama Land

As a devoted fan of both K-Dramas and C-Dramas, I couldn't be happier that Netflix released all the episodes at once. The idea of enduring suspense, cliffhangers, and plot twists on a weekly basis? No, thank you!

Watching this drama evoked memories of my four years in undergrad, studying Electronics & Communication engineering. Despite the intense coursework, I found myself in the same boat—struggling to differentiate between a diode and a transistor. Similarly, with this show, I couldn't resist watching, thoroughly enjoyed it, and can see myself revisiting it. However, did I entirely grasp every nuance? Maybe not...

Having not seen the original Taiwanese version, I embarked on this journey with fresh eyes. The narrative and pacing gripped me, though I must admit, I felt a bit like a lost puppy during those time jumps. I greatly appreciated the inclusion of the year, though it did get a tad convoluted at times.

The actors and their performances were a true highlight. Many a time, I found myself doing a double take, questioning if it was indeed the same actor playing the various roles. I even had to consult the cast list for confirmation. The character development was a joy to witness, and some of the portrayals were deliciously diabolic.

Impatience got the best of me, prompting a leap from Episode 7 to Episodes 11-12. I simply had to know if it culminated in a happy ending, so watching the show is the only way to find out. I did eventually come back and watch Ep8-12...

For me, this mirrors the experience of watching the film "Inception." It didn't fully click on the first or second viewing, requiring multiple watches to grasp the intricacies. It's earned a spot on my permanent watch list.

Lastly, this drama is akin to a mind-bending roller coaster ride. I can't determine if it's due to my non-native Korean proficiency or if the plot is genuinely a labyrinth for my humble brain to navigate.

Note: This review is written by me, edited by ChatGPT for readability.

Leer más

Time Travel

I never saw the original version several people have discussed. I do however enjoy time travel dramas. This one was too much for me. Especially the part when the women were discussing rectifying the originals personality problems. The whole person in a room thing I didn’t care for. Since they were actually two different people why couldn’t she show up as herself. He was time traveling to the future. Rowoon showing up as a gay man was the best part. I can’t believe you guy’s haven’t discussed him. It was a nice break from the whole time travel thing. One other thing, why would she cut her throat and jump out of a window. She is committing Suicide not committing murder.

Leer más

Time Travel fast track to understand the meaning of the Time Travel Loop Fantasy Drama.

A Time Called You ⚡️⚡️Spoilers⚡️⚡️

The whole crux of this drama pivots around this little girl who played video games with the high schooler Nam Si-heon. Her importance was not clarified in the Korean Drama ‘A Time Called You’ .

With respects the Korean Drama ‘A Time Called You’, maybe I could help some fully understand the ending.

The Korean Drama ‘A Time Called You’ did not explain the importance of this little girl. It was left out of the drama. ‘A Time Called You’ is a remake of the Chinese Drama ‘Someday or One Day’. It is explained in the Chinese version who this little girl is at the very end, in a simple flashback. I even missed her importance until the end too. While some may have caught it, I sense that because this is a complicated drama, most persons probably missed that this little girl is the pivotal force of the whole drama. Who is she? Let’s get the background first.

The storyline revolves around two people in this drama Universe who have doppelgängers who exist in the same timeline. We meet Han Jun-hee (Jeon Yeo-been) and Koo Yeon-jun (Ahn Hyo-seop), who are lovers. He dies. She misses him so much she wills herself to travel back in time to where she thinks that he is alive.

When Han Jun-hee travels back in time, she inhabits/shares someone else’s body, the body of her older doppelgänger, high schooler Kwon Min-ju. Han Jun-hee’s mystery is “Why does Nam Si-heon (The doppelgänger of her love Koo Yeon-jun) look like Koo Yeon-jun, her lover who dies?”

Han Jun-hee/Kwon Min-ju, Nam Si-heon/Koo Yeon-jun, Jung In-gyu

The Mystery

This is a double time travel!!! In the actual timeline, Kwon Min-ju dies. The actual teenager/adult (Nam Si-heon), misses the future Han Jun-hee. He met and fell in love with her when she inhabited/shared the body of Kwon Min-ju before Kwon Min-ju’s death. After the death of Kwon Min-ju, teenager/adult Nam Si-heon wills himself to travel in time to be with Han Jun-hee in the future, using that music tape and cassette player. However, he does so through his doppelgänger Koo Yeon-jun, a younger gay man who dies in a car crash. Nam Si-heon starts this journey when he inadvertently travels to his doppelgänger in the future and decides to become him after the death of Koo Yeon-jun. Nam Si-heon inserts himself into the timeline of Koo Yeon-jun. Nam Si-heon/ Koo Yeon-jun is the one who gives Han Jun-hee the means to travel back in time to the past. It is through the music tape and cassette player he used to travel to the future. It is Nam Si-heon/ Koo Yeon-jun who starts this time travel loop, to try to fix time so that he and Han Jun-hee can be together, as time keeps turning in on itself or looping.

Korean Drama ‘A Time Called You’ and Chinese Drama ‘Someday or One Day’ .


Who is who? Who are the players?

Han Jun-hee (Jeon Yeo-been) is 6/7 years younger than her doppelgänger high schooler Kwon Min-ju. They both grew up in the same town.

Koo Yeon-jun (Ahn Hyo-seop) is 6/7 years younger than his doppelgänger, the high schooler Nam Si-heon. He does not live in the same town as Nam Si-heon. Koo Yeon-jun is the gay man who dies in a car crash. As he traveled through time, Nam Si-heon takes over the identity of Koo Yeon-jun.

Kwon Min-ju (Jeon Yeo-been) is the doppelgänger of Han Jun-hee and is 6/7 years older than Han Jun-hee. She is the one who loves Nam Si-heon, but Nam Si-heon is not attracted to her. The best friend of Nam Si-heon, Jung In-gyu, is in love with Kwon Min-ju.
Nam Si-heon (Ahn Hyo-seop) is the high schooler in the past and the doppelgänger of the younger Koo Yeon-jun. He encounters Han Jun-hee when she travels back in time and inhabits/shares the body and life of high schooler Kwon Min-ju.

Jung In-gyu (Kang Hoon) is the best friend of high schooler Nam Si-heon. To explain why Jung In-gyu confessed to the murder of Kwon Min-ju, this was because of his love for her. Kwon Min-ju wanted to die at the hands of a killer, because she felt that her pathetic life would be glorified in the news if she died this way. She asked Jung In-gyu to kill her, but he would not. She ended up committing suicide. He took the blame, because while he could not kill her he could give her a glorified death by being her “killer”, instead of her just committing suicide.

The Killer Oh Chan-yeong (Min Jin-woong) is 6/7 years younger than his brother, and is the younger brother of the classmate of Kwon Min-ju and Nam Si-heon. In the future, he steals the time-travel cassette. When he goes back in time (In the form of his brother) to kill Kwon Min-ju for fun, he is thwarted by the Police before he can kill Kwon Min-ju. He successfully kills her in the first original timeline.

Who is the little girl who played video games with high schooler Nam Si-heon?

Nam Si-heon finds out who the little girl is in the future. They were always destined to meet in the past, no matter through what timeline. That timeline was not disturbed be all the future fixes. If there were no interferences in the future, these two had met already, and in the Chinese version the little girl told high schooler Nam Si-heon that he was her future husband. These two fixed the most important part of the timeline, getting rid of the killer. Both knew to avoid that fated plane flight which crashed. The Universe was righted, making way for their eternal love.

Korean Drama ‘A Time Called You’ 9.0/10 and Chinese Drama ‘Someday or One Day’ 10/10.

+

She is Han Jun-hee. The little girl tells Nam Si-heon to remember her name the next time they meet. How could you leave this explanation/clarification out of the drama? Koreans most likely caught that the little girl was Han Jun-hee. Americans are too busy reading subtitles, trying to keep everything straight. The simple Chinese drama flashback was all it would have taken for clarification.

Leer más

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

Leer más

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.

Leer más

Everything and more

This drama right here is a masterpiece. It’s one of those very good dramas that come once in 6-7 years . It may sound like I’m exaggerating but honestly I felt a lot of emotions while watching this .

It wasn’t perfect though as there were some loopholes here and there but not enough to deny or distract us from how much of a good drama it is .

I’ll totally recommend this drama to anyone and I’ll add it to my 2016 list of best dramas released . All the actors did a great job .

It’s a solid 9/10 for me .
For the best watching experience I’ll suggest you watch it on 1.5x speed but watch it on normal speed when the main leads hyo seop and yeo been are together in a scene ❤️
Their chemistry is everything and more ❤️

Leer más

Someone decided to make a Kdrama out of Tokyo Revengers, Steins;Gate, Erased and Your Name combined.

So someone watched Tokyo Revengers, Steins;Gate, Erased and Your Name and decided to make a KDrama out of these shows and I love it. The plot sounds simple, and in a way it is simple and generic, in terms of the time travel trope. I think the brilliance lies in how this trope is executed; after all every kdrama utilizes a subset of the already established tropes and what makes the memorable ones so good is how the trope is utilized and made effective. Perfect execution with the best parts of the shows without the drawbacks of each of them. However to understand what elements of each and in what linear combination, give rise to this show, you will have to watch it for yourself!

Leer más

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.

Leer más

A beautifully-depicted drama

First of all, i should say that i haven't watched the Taiwanese version and don't have the intention to do so. Even though i love Cdramas very much, i don't think juggling between the two versions and comparing them is ok. I loved how this version depicted a time travel story.

Story:

Time travel at the core with a very heart-warming romance. It can get a bit complicated, especially for binge-watchers, but if you pay attention to the years mentioned in each episode, you will get how the relationships are. I personally didn't find it confusing and we got to figure out who the main protagonists were and who were their counterparts.

Acting:

AHS, He is such a fine actor. have seen him in the past few dramas and i dare say he is getting better and better.
JYB, First time seeing her. She is very talented and presents a very true and believable character. The rest of the cast was also proper too. There are no voids here overall.

Writing:

The story is indeed complicated, but the writers didn't make it extra complicated. You have to pay attention to names and dates shown and there wouldn't be issues.

OST:

beautiful choice of songs. Each song matches the mood and scenery shown in each episode.

Overall, a very beautiful and romantic fantasy drama. Def a muct-watch!

Leer más

DON'T WASTE TIME IN TRASH

A cringe, trash, horrible adaptation of the Taiwanese masterpiece"Someday or one day".
The drama fails to be equal in the OST, charm, strength, intensity, acting and cinematography of the original masterpiece. The actors lack chemistry and are unable of getting into the character, the two protagonists in particular, where the change in character is almost not noticeable. FL is a psychopath, both adult and girl. Bad choices for the OSTs that are not strong enough to leave some impression , excessively modern
The bond between the three protagonists is non-existent, both shallow and lacking depth, with actors without charm. The flow of the story is totally altered, focusing on the love story rather than on intrigue and mystery, altering the balance of the original story. Balance that is missing until the end.
We can say it's not actor's fault, but they were a mismatch, and they were totally unable to feel the complexity of their characters.
And someone should explain to me, why the pro lgbt message from the original one, becomes a lovey dovey BL fairytale...
Don't waste time and watch the original.

Leer más