My Perfect Stranger is the Perfect for Time Travel K-Drama Lovers

Korean scriptwriters often come up with some very interesting time travel plots.  My Perfect Stranger is a perfect time travel K-drama.   

Two perfect strangers end up traveling back to 1987, both with two completely different objectives they wish to accomplish.  But as they begin to unravel certain events, they discover that their purposes are connected.  

However, it's the past.  Everything has already happened.  Can they really turn back the clock?  If they could it would be wonderful,  Especially since turning back the clock would result in preventing a serial killer from ever committing the crimes in the first place.

Hae Jun (played by Kim Dong Wook) works as an anchorman at a news station. One day as he is driving his car, his GPS starts acting weird and the voice announces that the directions have changed. Why do weird and strange things always happen on dreary rainy nights? Following the GPS directions he drives into a tunnel and is blinded by a bright light. He stops his car, gets out, and finds an abandoned car. At least …??? It looked like a car. It was actually a time machine. So he did what anybody else would do if they found a time machine. He got inside and tested it to see if he would really travel through time. First, he went to the future and then he went to the past. It was a blast!

But then he decided that since he had already made plans for what he would be doing once he retired, might as well travel to the future life to see if his life had worked out just the way he planned it. His future was not the way he planned it. He had been murdered! That was not a blast. It was a shock!

So! What would be your next thought? Time machine? My murder?

Go back in time to prevent the crime from happening!

Since he had successfully tested the time travel machine, going back and forth between the past and the present was easy. Just get in the car, set the year, and voila! You're there. But this one time, as he was driving through the tunnel, he sees a young woman standing in the pathway. 

The woman is Baek Yoon-young (played by Jin Ki-joo), an editor who works at a publishing company. He swerves to try to avoid hitting her but somehow they both end up in the year 1987. She is from the same time period that he was from, i.e. the year 2021.

But why was this woman brought back in time with him?

To him, she's a perfect stranger. For her, the feeling is mutual. She doesn't know him either!

They both have two different purposes for wanting to go back in time. However, as they begin to unravel certain events, it turns out their objectives are intertwined. 

• The death of Baek Yoon-young's mother was recorded as a suicide, but it is possible that it was murder. She needs to know the truth.
• Hae Jun is trying to find a serial killer in the hopes of preventing his own murder 30 years later. 

The first murder occurred in 1987 and it took place in Woojeong Village.  He and Yoon-young begin working together to unravel the mystery. They have a clue that is rather cryptic. There was a matchbox from the Boong Boong Cafe found at the scene of the first crime and it contained a note: “A woman who reads is dangerous.”

What could that possibly mean?

My Perfect Stranger is an extremely believable time travel drama and the murder mystery is a riveting crime thriller. The Viki viewing audience rated My Perfect Stranger, 9.5 out of 10 stars. I agree.

Korean Drama TV Series: Live Up to Your Name (2017)

Hello to all my K-Drama fans out there!

I watched “Live Up to Your Name”, a series is on Netflix, but it is NOT a Netflix Original. So you might be able to find it at other streaming sites. 

Medical dramas seems to be gaining popularity. Time-travel dramas have already become popular. Romantic comedy has always been popular. This TV series is a romantic comedy time-travel medical drama. It's clear that the purpose is to show both Eastern and Western medical practices are good, but combining techniques used in Eastern and Western medicine could be even better. Well! That's my takeaway. Although … I'm still scared of needles. So if someone were to perform acupuncture on me, I would have to be totally passed out or in such a state where my body was paralyzed and I couldn't move. There's no way I would see a needle coming towards me and stay still. To this day, when I have to get shots, I always close my eyes.

OK. Back to the show! The two main characters are Heo Im (played by Kim Nam-Gil) and Choi Yeon-Kyung (played by Kim A-Joong). Even though this series is historical fiction, Heo Im is a real life historical figure. Heo Im is an acupuncturist from Joseon who fell off of a bridge into the water, and when he comes up from the water to breathe, he finds himself in modern day Seoul, South Korea. The first person he crosses paths with is a female doctor who is a skilled surgeon and her speciality is heart surgery. Both medical practictioners are “the best” in their fields. Although when they first meet, Choi Yeon-Kyung thinks Heo Im is a crazy quack pretending to be a doctor of oriental medicine, and Heo Im is shocked to learn that females can actually become doctors.

What makes this series different from other shows that I have watched is that they cross the time barriers several times. First, Heo Im comes to the modern-day Republic of Korea. Then Heo Im and Choi Yeon-Kyung pass through the time portal and they both end up in Joseon. Then they pass through again and end back up in Seoul. This happens a number of times.

During the course of their time-travel adventures together, they fall in love. However, because they are from different time periods, the questions that must be answered are:

~ Are these lovers destined to be together OR must they choose to live separate lives because they are from different time periods?

~ If they choose to be together, will they live in Joseon, 400 years in the past OR in modern-day Seoul South Korea?

The main characters and the supporting cast worked well together and created a very believable unbelievable story.

Additionally, I learned an interesting tidbit about the history of Korea. Usually when I watch historical period dramas, I latch on to an interesting person or place and do a little research to find out more. “More” meaning “did this person really exist” or “is this place for real”? In a few of the episodes, a character was introduced name Sayaka.

For contrast: nobody disputed that Heo Im is a real historical figure. However, regard the man named Sayaka, some say that there is no historical proof that such a man ever existed. There is a story or maybe you would call it a “legend” or “tradition” or “myth” that during the Japanese invasions of Joseon that occurred from 1592 to 1598, there was a Japanese general named Sayaka who defected and served in the Joseon army. It is said that he helped defeat the Japanese forces and was given the name Kim Chung-seon. He continued his miltary service and even fought against the Qing troops during the Manchu invasion of Korea.

One of the reasons given as to why there is a dispute over the existence of this general because they claim there is no name for such a commander in the Japanese historical materials.

To me, there is an easy explanation for that. The Japanese got pissed, considered him a traitor, and erased him from their records. Please! Erasing records happens a lot in various countries. There is no record in Egyptian history that a Jewish man named Joseph served as second in command to Pharoah either! Just sayin'.

As far as Korean historical records, if I were a Korean historian, and I was going to create a hero of the people who fought against foreign invaders, why would I make up a story about the country's military victories and give the credit to one of the foreigners who betrayed his own countrymen and helped us defeat the enemy invaders? If I were going to create mythical hero, I wouldn't write the “history” that way. I'm just thinking, this dude must be real! Why make that story up? That's all I'm sayin'.

Anyway! I give Live Up to Your Name (2017), 5 out of 5 stars.

Star 1: All the characters played their parts well.

Star 2: Heo Im (played by Kim Nam-Gil) and Choi Yeon-Kyung (played by Kim A-Joong) made a perfect couple.

Star 3: The scenery in both Joseon and Seoul was beautiful.

Star 4: Watching acupuncture being performed was very educational.

Star 5: If that guy named Sayaka was not real, you sure wanted him to be! 

Here are a couple of related links to reviews by others of this TV series:

** K-Drama Review: 'Live Up to Your Name' A Medical Melodrama Combine with Romantic Presence by Kim Nam-gil | Channel-K

** K-Drama Review: Live Up To Your Name, Dr. Heo (2017) by Kim Eun-hee

Original Source: Medium.com