Title: 어바웃 타임 | Eobaut Taim | 멈추고 싶은 순간: 어바웃타임 | A Moment I Want to Stop: About Time | About Time
Genre: Drama | Fantasy | Romance
Episodes: 16
Broadcast Network: tvN
Broadcast Period: May 21, 2018 to July 10, 2018
Synopsis:
Choi Michaela is an aspiring theatre actress with a great talent and she also have a very special ability of seeing time of the life span of a person. Hers is ticking away in more or less 90 days until she met Lee Do-Ha. He is rich and planned to be married to Bae Soo-Bong, who is beautiful and also a heiress of a big conglomerate. Choi Michaela is press for time until she discovered that Lee Do-Ha can actually stop and reverse back the time she’s left. Desperate to live as she still wants to do so many things and be with her family who’s totally dependent on her, she needs to make Lee Do-Ha to be with her. She won his heart and thought everything turned to be okay until she discovered what she’s actually taking away from him and this time she doesn’t care anymore if she lives or dies as long as he lives.
Characters:
- Lee Sang Yoon as Lee Do Ha
- Lee Sung Kyung as Choi Michaela
- Jung Dong Hwan as Lee Sun Moon
- Min Sung Wook as Lee Do Bin
- Jung Moon Sung as Yoon Do San
- Kim Sa Hee as Kim Hye Young
- Na Young Hee as Jin Ra Hee
- Rowoon as Choi Wi Jin
- Im Se Mi as Bae Soo Bong
- Tae In Ho as Park Sung Bin
- Kang Ki Doong as Park Woo Jin
- Kim Kyu Ri as Kim Joon Ah
- Han Seung Yeon as Jun Sung Hee
- Kim Hae Sook as Oh So Nyuh
- Jang Kwang as Park Sun Saeng
- Kim Dong Joon as Jo Jae Yoo
- Oh Ah Rin as Yoon Ah In
- Yu Xiaoguang as Zhang Qiang
- Lee Dae Yeon As as a Guest on Episode 1
- Baek Ji Won as a Guest on Episode 2
- Kim Kyung Nam as a Guest on Episode 2
- Seo Hye Jin as a Guest on Episode 4
My Review:
I watched this K-drama because of Lee Sang-Yoon. He has been one of my favorite k-actors ever since I watched him in “Angel Eyes”. I also like Lee Sung-Kyung since I watched her in “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Book-Joo” plus got curious about the premise of the story. So, I watched it while it was currently being aired in South Korea. I had expectations, and, unfortunately, I was disappointed in the end.
So, What do I Like About this K-Drama?
(1) Lee Sang-Yoon and Lee Sung Kyung are talented actors and they did their part well in their performance here individually. They tried hard to make sense on a story that seems done just to provide a romantic tv series with not much sense on the plot.
(2) I enjoy watching Kang Ki-Doong as Park Woo-Jin. Though his character is really just a side kick and supporting role but he’s like a breath of fresh air in rather bizarre romcom and made me feel amuse in his antics.
(3) I like the friendship between Oh So-Nyeo and Choi Michaela even with their huge age gap. As well as Choi Michaela’s friendship with Jeon Sung-Hee. Even if one is dying, it is still nice to know that one is well loved. I think this is the best gift of life before you die and that is you know your life made sense because there’s people who truly loves you even if there’s pain of leaving them behind.
(4) I love the OST especially Maybe and Tears Come.
What I do Not Like About this K-Drama?
I must say I really want to like this k-drama, I mean it has my favorite actor Lee Sang-Yoon and a great leading lady plus quite a good ensemble but in the end it totally failed to create a romantic drama that I would love and made sense.
(1) I think the problem of this k-drama is the script. It seems the ability of Choi Michaela to see the clock of how long one will live is just to really create a conflict and form a plot but the hows and whys were never dealt with. The writer seems to be just too lazy to provide certain logic to the conflict she has created and bank on that the audience will just accept this nonsensical premise because the production got good actors to play on it. The more I think about it, the more I actually get pissed off because this could have been better. The scriptwriter think so lowly on the audience that she thought that as long there’s a romantic element, then, she’ll get away with murder.
(2) Lee Sang-Yoon and Lee Sung Kyung as I’ve said are talented actors but there’s no chemistry between them. It’s truly like they are just acting and Lee Sang-Yoon looks awkward delivering cheesy lines. I keep on waiting that I will feel a spark of something or anything when they are both on the screen even in supposedly critical moments but I just feel cringing on how lame they were together. It was truly frustrating. They should have chosen a leading lady who’s near Lee Sang-Yoon’s age, so, the story can be approached in a more matured level especially the physical intimacy scenes. Lee Sang-Yoon just looks too old for a cutesy and typical romantic scenes. I don’t generally look at the age gap of the actors because it does work most of the time like “Something in the Rain” but in here, its just too apparent and they both look like they are just going through the motions. It’s like they are saying “Just get on with it and get it over with”. If the production prefers Lee Sung Kyung to really be the actress, then the production should have just gotten a leading man that’s suitable for her. “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Book-Joo” worked because she has on-screen chemistry with Nam Joo-Hyuk not because that its story is something really special, they just made it work because of their special spark when they are together especially when they are doing romantic scenes.
(3) The supposed 2 climax pivotal to the story fell so flat that when it happened, my jaw dropped and caught myself thinking, “Huh?” The theatre production that this k-drama made such a big fuss about its cost, cast and production ended up looking like a school play and the clock ticking scenario ended up nothing else but just a way for them to meet and fall in love. What a load of crap that is. I just finished it till the end just so I can do my review. If I watched this after it is all done and not while it is airing, I would probably not be able to finish it.
(4) There are so many characters here that’s not well utilized. It is like they are truly there just to have other scenes besides the silly love story between the leads. I felt bad for Im-Se Mi as Bae Soo-Bong who’s character became exactly like a typical caricature of a k-drama she keeps spouting out in her dialogues here. Min Sung-Wook as Lee Do-Bin just to have another villain of the story that didn’t do much except sit and look like an a-hole of a brother. Kim Dong-Joon as Jo Jae-Yoo, who seems the production is still deciding even while the k-drama is already airing if he can be a good fit as a 3rd party wheel on the love story between the 2 leads and then finally decided not to do it anyway.
(5) The second couple is also not endearing. The attraction and love between Jeon Sung-Hee, the best friend of Choi Michaela and Choi Wi-Jin, Choi Michaela’s younger brother is one of those secondary romance that makes one just simply feel irritated especially since Choi Wi-Jin’s character is a shallow leach who seems to be so immature that you wonder how can a reasonable woman like Jean Sung-Hee’s character fall in love with that kind of a guy.
Would I recommend this K-Drama? No. You may be able to bear it like I did but it’s a total waste of time.
My Rating to this Drama
( See My Rating System: ) 2/5 Stars. This is the first k-drama that I will explain my rating considering I finished the entire 16 episodes without skipping any parts of it. I gave it a 2 because even if I watched it all the way, I wouldn’t have watched all 16 episodes if I would do a marathon binge on it rather than while this k-drama was airing. I keep hoping in time it will improve but just like the clock, it run out of time and became a senseless and pretentious romantic k-drama.
OST:
01. Maybe – Hui of Pentagon
Play Me:
02. Tears Come – Mackelli
Play Me:
03. Amazing Thing – Kim E-Z
04. Yesterday – Park Bo Ram
05. My Room – Hong Dae Kwang
06. A Much Better Tomorrow – Lee Sung Kyung
07. About Time – Lee Sang Hoon
08. Air Prepared – Ahn Eun Jung
09. Magic Time – Lee Sang Hoon
10. In The Time – Ahn Eun Jung
11. Kiss Me – Ahn Eun Jung
12. Heart Fluttering – Choi Hye Sung
13. Bagan – JBIE
14. Deep Piano – Lee Sang Hoon
15. Swings – Lee Sang Hoon
16. Confused Man – Ahn Eun Jung
17. Mika’s Swing – Ahn Eun Jung
18. Hoy – Choi Hye Sung
19. Past Of Mika – Lee Sang Hoon
20. Bad – Ahn Eun Jung
21 I Can’t Get Away – JBIE
22. Time Bell – Lee Sang Hoon
23. Love Fall – Ahn Eun Jung
24. Mystery Of Time – Kim Dong Hyun
For Lyrics in English, Romanization and Hangul, CLICK HERE