KDrama 2018

About Time (KDrama Review & Summary)

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• Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Supernatural
• Date Released: May 2018
• Origin: South Korea
• KDrama: 16 Episodes

Cast:

• Lee Sang-yoon as Lee Do-ha
• Lee Sung-kyung as Choi Michaela
• Kim Dong-jun as Jo Jae-yoo (Musical Director)
• Im Se-mi as Bae Soo-bong (‘Fiancee’)
• Han Seung-yeon as Jeon Sung-hee (MiKa’s Best Friend)
• Rowoon as Choi Wee-jin (MiKa’s Brother)
• Kim Hae-sook as Oh So-nyeo (MiKa’s Mother figure friend who can see her digital clock tattoo)
• Na Young-hee as Jin Ra-hee (MiKa’s Mother)
• Jung Dong-hwan as Lee Seon-moon (Do Ha’s Father)
• Kim Sa-hee as Kim Hye-young
• Jung Moon Sung as Yoon Do San (Do Ha’s illegitimate middle brother)

Apparently this story centers around Michaela Choi, a musical actress, who possesses a supernatural ability to see how long a person can live.

Episode 1 & 2

First few minutes of the first episode showed Michaela or MiKa being involved in a motorway pile-up.  She walked through the chaos and we see people she passed by showing a digital time invisibly tattooed on their arms (only MiKa can see these and of course us the viewers LOL)

There was a couple where they seemed to be okey one minute and the next we can see the husband on the point of death as his digital tattoo says he has 00:00:004:50.  MiKa just stood watching as the clock moved to 00:00:00:00 and the man dies.

We then find out that Mika’s time clock showed that she only have 165 days left.

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She was just leaving an older woman friend she was visiting in the hospital when she was knocked down by a car.

The car happened to be driven by Lee Do Ha, a chaebol, who suffers from anxiety attacks.

MiKa is a musical actress.  She was on her way to her audition when this minor car accident occurred.  Do Ha insisted on taking her to the emergency ward for treatment.  Fearing that she would be late, she asked Do Ha to give her a lift but ended up driving the car herself, and she was a very accomplished driver as well, worthy of Formula 1.

During the audition, she was impressive.  She had the voice, the skill, the look, but she was deemed lacking in depths when it comes to emotion about being in love.

She was asked to choose someone from the audience to seduce.  She spied Do Ha, who was looking for her as she mistakenly took his car keys.  She kissed him but he was so annoyed.

The next time they saw one another was in China.  Do Ha had been challenged to do extreme sport like scuba diving.  Do Ha was a bit nervous about the whole thing as panic attack and extreme sport do not really go together.

It so happened that MiKa was in between theatre jobs and was part-timing as a scuba diver trainer.

During the diving, it all went well initially until they had to come up to the surface.  Everyone was accounted for except for Do Ha, who was in the middle of an anxiety attack in the bottom of the sea.  MiKa jumped into the water to save him.

The next scene was seeing him again and she noticed that her digital tattoo clock had stopped.  She then found out that every time she sees him or be near him, her clock stops.

She had, therefore, made her mission to stalk him, get a job that would entail being near him and in the end, she offered herself on a plate to him.

Do Ha actually has an unofficial girlfriend/fiancee but he was now beginning to waver towards Mika.

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Episode 3-4

Awww Do Ha was reluctantly attracted to Mi Ka.   He took stock of MiKa’s begging him to be near him so he hired her to be his personal driver.

As much as he was becoming more and more into MiKa, she was nonchalant about him.

However, Do Ha got it into his head that if he is with MiKa all the time, he will lose interest with her after three months as per his records with the things that he becomes obsessed with.

Mika found out that her digital tattooed clock does not only cease to tick when she’s near Do Ha, when she touches him, she actually gain time.

The end of the episode has the ‘fiancee’ treating MiKa like the hired help that she was, which annoyed Do Ha.  He was also upset with MiKa for having no pride and allowing the ‘fiancee’ to ‘belittle’ her.

He then confessed to MiKa that he likes her, he said he will kiss her, hug her and sleep with her until he gets tired of her and if she knows what is good for her, she should run away now.

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Episode 5-7

MiKa said that she was ok with the kissing, the hugging and sleeping together but when it really came down to it, she went shy.

There was an incident when a mentally disturbed man burst in into Do Ha’s session with his friend psychiatrist.  The man was armed with a knife, which he was brandishing to MiKa and ended up stabbing DoHa instead who heroically stood in front of Mika.

When Do Ha quizzed her about her presence in the clinic as well, she confessed about her digital clock tattoo.  She then tried to prove to him the authenticity of her ‘power’.

Do Ha said he believed her and convinced her to move in with him, which she did with such alacrity.  Actually, she lives with Do Ha and his older brother, who was a travel writer.

MiKa did not always know or see her own digital tattoo.  She first saw it when she was out and about with her best friend.  She then bumps into someone (it was Do Ha) and then she noticed her clock which at first showed that she had a year to live.

Anyway at first Mika and Do Ha were finding living together giddily exciting.  But their happiness did not last long as there was the matter about the ‘fiancee’ whom Mika feels rather guilty about.  Then came Do Ha’s first love on the scene.

She was a Broadway star, who will be the lead of the show, where MiKa will be her understudy.

This is not all, she also had an encounter with the half-naked Do San.  She saw that he only has 29 days to live.

It was traumatic when she had to tell Do Ha what she found out about the brother.

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Episode 8

This episode is a rather gentle tragedy which will make you cry so much.  Do San spent the last days of his life trying to build bridges with his family, who treated him as an outsider until the end, except for Do Ha.

As he lies dying in bed beside Do Ha, Do San told him to not hate the family.

This episode also sees MiKa finally finding out that Do Ha has almost 61 years to live yet.  As she was near him, she noticed that she is getting a lifeline from him.  His time is decreasing while hers is increasing.

Episode 9 -10

MiKa felt so guilty taking away time from Do Ha’s lifespan that she broke up with him.  She decided to go back home only to see that her immature mother found her savings account books.

MiKa had been working diligently to save money for her mother and brother in view of her impending death.

The mother, not knowing of Mika’s secret death date, went on a spending spree.  Buying an expensive handbag and food including delicious macaroons. (Actually, I too would buy bags LOL)

Obviously, MiKa was upset and frustrated with her irresponsible parent.

Meanwhile, Do Ha refuses to accept MiKa’s decision to walk away.

MiKa was then forced to tell him a lie that she never really loved him and that she was only there to increase her lifespan.

Do Ha still won’t give up.  In the end MiKa used some drastic measure.  She directly appeals to his sense of what is right.  She told him the opposite of what was happening.  She said that being with him is shortening her life.  He was killing her.

She declared that when they first got together, he was prolonging her life, adding seconds, minute, hours, days to her lifespan.  But somehow this changed and she is no losing time by being with him.  These are all lies, of course, to ensure that he doesn’t go near her anymore.

Episode 11

I have to admit that I had a literal ‘about time’ moment with this episode.  It was so boring, a non-happening one, so watching it was like watching a kettle boils.

There were no stand out scenes; what I can remember was going to and pro into the timeline on the bottom of the screen to see how many more minutes I have to waste my evening on.  🙂  sad!

This episode was an hour of utter nonsense.  It is obviously a filler to make up for the ultimate 16.

The thing though is I am losing sympathy with MiKa.  What is she living for anyway?  Her mother and brother are a waste of space.  And she can’t fall in love with Do Ha.  So what is her life all about?  Just waiting to expire miserably?  Way to go Mika!!!

Why not take a chance?  Do Ha must be in his 30s  already and it seems he is destined to live for just over 60 years more.  He will be in his 90s. Why not stay with him for at least 6 months to a year and give him the time of his life and in so doing MiKa can enjoy herself as well.

Instead, she is living her last few months in utter misery and discontent and she was rubbing the feeling to DoHa.

If this a melodrama then it was not dramatic enough.  I would probably need to pinch myself very hard to produce tears, but why would I when I am at the point of dying from ennui.

Honestly, the only really watchable character in this episode was the old lady in the nursing home and she was not in the drama long enough.

I hope the next episodes are so much better.

Episode 12

Su Bong had a haircut and doing everything to force Do Ha to marry her.

Do Ha have had it with the business of the business.

The director was being such a diva, he thinks everything should be done absolutely according to his way including taking his time choosing the main lead in the musical.  He then said the lead will be chosen from the group already training under him.

Do Ha was annoyed, delay means money wasted.  He was also particularly concerned about the unknown lead. An unknown won’t sell tickets.

Do Ha finally had enough and called a meeting.  He asked the staff and actors to choose, whether to leave with the director or stay with him.  He also told his Chinese partner that he won’t be doing business with someone he doesn’t trust as the Chinese been blowing hot and cold.

This episode ended with the obituary of the kind nice lady from the hospice.  MiKa was in bits!

Episode 13

The grieving MiKa met Do Ha at the doorway where the wake for Oh So-nyeo was being held.

To their surprise Oh So-Nyeo was still very much alive.  She said that she wanted a fun funeral she can participate in, meet all her friends and hear their kind words before she actually passes on.

Do Ha finally found out that Mika was rather economical with the truth.  He knew that being with him doesn’t really affect her in a negative way.  MIKa told DoHa what his life-clock was.  MiKa, however, refused to tell him that being with him meant that her time clock was increasing by stealing his time from his lifespan.

Episode 14

MiKa won the lead role for the musical.

It was also the pre-wedding lunch between Do Ha and Su Bong’s family.  It was the traditional ‘meeting of the elders’.  Do Ha was late and told them that it seemed he was not clear enough with Su Bong about not wanting to marry her.

After so many confrontations, Do Ha said that he can’t leave Mika because she will die without him and without Mika, he would not want to live either.

Su Bong was pushed to the very brink, she asked him what about her, she can’t live without him.  She went to the rooftop with the intention of jumping.

Episode 15

Su Bong did not jump as Do Ha grabbed her at the last minute.

Su Bong finally realised that she’s too good for Do Ha.  She went to meet with him and returned all the rings that he gave her with his marriage proposals over the years.

Mi Ka had a very successful first show.  Everyone was there and proud of her.  Even Su Bong was there and finally told her to be the best so that it would be less irritating to know that she was dumped in favour of a nobody.

MiKa moved in with Do Ha as they promised to each other before the start of the musical.

To be less obsessed with the amount of time left, Do Ha wore a hoodie all the time to hide his life clock when he was with MiKa and he bound Mika’s wrist to prevent her looking at hers.

But during the first opportunity that she got, she untied the band and saw that her time was increasing exponentially.

Episode 16

Happy Ending but at this point you just want the whole drama to be over.   The leads, both multi-awarded good actors, do not have that sizzling chemistry that could make a mediocre script effervescent.

Do Ha, I thought had more ‘presence’ when he was with Su Bong.

Anyway, it took being on the precipice of death for both Do Ha and MiKa to be together.

They both survived a near-fatal accident.

MiKa left Do Ha again to protect him but her mother finally found out about the truth.  Her daughter had left home to die alone.

After having a heart to heart with MiKa, she then went to Do Ha and begged him to do whatever he can to prevent Mika from dying.

And there in the middle of a busy road, they had their emotional encounter.  Mika was near breaking point watching her life clock gaining all the years that Do Ha should be having.  As Do Ha was losing every minute of his lifespan a large van came careering towards him and MiKa.

It looked like they were both a goner.

But MiKa woke up in the hospital with her life clock gone and her first visitor was a smiling Do Ha.

And they live happily ever,  fated from when they were both children over an earlier car accident.

The ending really is bland.

The End