Il tempo per noi (2023)

ambiguous ending

I was honestly expecting so much from the drama. I haven't watched the original Taiwanese version of the drama but I saw on the reviews that it was better, so if you wanna watch this, I think it's better to watch the original version.

I had too many questions left unanswered at the end of the drama. Like what happened to the original Koo Yeon Jun's soul if both of the souls in the body belonged to Nam Si Heon? And they showed only the place where Kwon Min Ju soul hid when Han Jun Hee took over but what about Oh Chan Hee? he was the elder brother but in the past, the elder brother's body had Oh Chan Yeong's soul.

The time loop was confusing and ambiguous. I liked the direction that the story was meant to go, but I didn't like the way it was shown in the drama.

We also didn't get to see what ending Jung In Kyu and Kwon Min Ju got. I mean, if they really ended up dating, then did the two best friends end up dating doppelgangers with the same face or what?

I liked the songs and the acting , and I felt like Ahn Hyo Seop had more chemistry with Rowoon than Jeon Yeo Been. I was invested in their cameo story.

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Not impressed

Like others I didn’t know it was a remake. I started watching it because of Ahn Hyo Seop and the fact that it was a time travel story.
I have very mixed feelings about this drama though.
On the plus side: good acting, good cinematography, nice ensemble, 12 episodes were more than enough. Thank god it wasn’t 16.
On the minus side: the plot is so complicated and twisted ! I thought it was a bit too much and the time travelling music drove me insane.
I still watched the 12 episodes trying to imagine how the two leads will eventually be reunited. I didn’t see the end coming as I thought Nam Si Hon would have used the Walkman to travel.
Still… it was a bit of a Meh! For me.

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12 hours of really, really dull story telling.

It is a very unremarkable story told in a painstakingly slow manner. The characters are not likeable at all, by the end of it I was wishing all of them a gruesome end. The story could have been told in 6 hours since most of the show is just a dull repeat of the same everyday routine which only adds to the story an occasional interesting item.

The show relies mostly on time travel to resolve conflicts, You would think that this would mean clever maneuvers and interesting back and forth but no. The writing is so lazy the writer just decides to add a final single moment out of the blue to fix everything, an act that has no precedence since the characters are all uninteresting and passive. The characters are either defined by their obsession with another character or lack thereof, a complete one-dimensional cast. To top it off, the main characters are not very bright and despite having the power of time travel just dilly-dally around and wait for things to happen to them.

Save your time and pass on this one.

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Decent Remake

As a fan of the original drama, I would actually say that what made this adaptation lacking was specifically the directing or script. I'd like to compare some points.

For Jeon Yeobeen's character here, its the script/lines that did her character here dirty. She was supposed to have some lines like calling Siheon and Ingyu "kids, brats etc." showing how she talked/acted like a boomer or someone older than them but it wasn't portrayed well here. Her lines here are also somehow repetitive. Her sorrow performance though was well done. Out of the main casts, she did the best.

For Ahn Hyoseop, unfortunately, he wasn't able to embody Li Zi Wei's mischievousness. Li Zi Wei's a very naughty and funny character. He gave different kinds of cheeky expressions/movements which made his character lovable. You could say he owns that role but I wasn't able to see that from Hyoseop. His acting here felt so flat. Don't get me wrong, I love Ahn Hyoseop's previous works but out of all his roles, this one didn't do justice.

As for Kang Hoon, his character here didn't really give emphasis on someone who has hearing disability. It lacked compared to the original. Nothing really special about Kang Hoon's acting here either. I'm sorry.

The cinematography was outstanding, I would say even better than the original but the OSTs didn't give that "WOW" factor. The iconic Wu Bai's Last Dance wasn't given justice. As the intro/opening song "Someday or Oneday". I'm not sure which song in the korean adaptation resembles that and gave off that feeling. As for the styling, they really did Ahn Hyoseop dirty with that ugly hair style. Aside from that, props to the production and editing team, they did a really good job with the vibe of the adaptation. Just my two cents, I felt like it would somehow be better if another actor portrayed Nam Siheon/Koo Yeonjun and the actor that comes to mind is Chae Jonghyeop. If you watch Unlock My Boss, Love All Play, Sisyphus you will understand why I think he fits perfectly.

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if the plot confuses you Just watch the ORIGINAL

Honesty as a fan of original version I can't review this drama without prejudice.
It has been a year after I heard about Korean remake version of Someday or one day. I am excited and looking forward to watching it. But after I finished watching episode 1, I wasn't sure if this was a drama I really wanted to watch.

Of course, in terms of production costs, the Korean version is higher than the original version.
Whether it's the cinematography, the background, the camera angle, everything looks beautiful, but I think it looks like there's too much filtering applied to it and it doesn't look natural.
I know it's normal for Korean dramas to have bright beautiful backgrounds. But I think it doesn't really fit with this drama.

Since it is a remake version so I cannot help but compare to the original version there are many things that I disappointed.

1. Many scenes was cut off
Actually, a lot of scenes at the beginning of this drama show how heartbroken and upset Female lead (Huang Yu Xuan) is after lost her boyfriend in a plane crashed. And why, after two years, she still cannot move on. Some people might think that it was slow and boring scenes but I think it is very important scenes to build up the emotion into the characters.
That's why I didn't feel that emotion from Han Jun-hee.

2. OST
Originally the biggest impact of this drama is OST.
Seo Ji-won's Gather my tears doesn't have strong impact comparing to Wu Bai's Last Dance.

3. Friendship between 3 main characters
Korean version seems to show more of a high school love triangle than a friendship.
Also, they gave less air-screen time for Jung In-gyu so we didn't see the point of view of him that much.

4. The Character's switch
As you know, both the male and female leads must act in different ages and roles.
They have to act in roles between the ages of 10s-40s.
Jeon Yeo-been : Present Han Jun-hee, Young Han Jun-hee, Kwon Min-ju, Han Jun-hee in Kwon Min-ju's body, Kwon Min-ju act like Han Jun-Hee
Ahn Hyo-seop : Nam Si-heon's in Koo Yeon-jun's body, Real Koo Yeon-jun, High School Nam Si-heon, Old Nam Si-heon

But actually I didn't see the difference. Their acting skills aren't bad. But he just doesn't fit the character.

5. The Ending
In my opinion, it's not memorable ending.

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A Time travel story with romance? Depending on where you land.

The time travel piece... HOT MESS! It was so confusing that it became distracting. I went into this series with no expectations, nor had I read the novel or seen the original. With all of that said, this fell flat. Honestly, if I was not a fan of Ahn Hyo Seop, I would have dropped it. There were too many holes within it where you have to 'assume' parts just so the next part could be considered. The ending was open-ended. The 'fix' towards the end tried to close up loose ends and felt rushed. The actors sustained the storyline. However, there were parts of the writing itself that seemed unclear or missed opportunities. Some parts missed the critical thinking and maturity of an adult. The love connection was touch and go. Yet, in the end...Did they really connect? I would ask the same for this series.

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How to Ruin a Timeloop Concept in the Finale aka The Dog Dies I Guess

Just in case the spoiler warning above was not noted, this review is almost nothing but spoilers for the final episode so be warned and proceed with the appropriate caution.

Briefly, "A Time Called You" has eleven very solid, consistently paced, smartly acted, lushly photographed and skillfully directed episodes. Jeon Yeo Been is better as Jun Hee than as Min Ju. Ahn Hyo Seop is as good here as he's been in any show. He's not an easy sell as a teenager, but in K Drama Land, that's just the part of the terrain that we trod. There's some other nice casting for supporting roles. In fact, there isn't a below the bar performance to be found. It is somewhat disappointing that Seo Ye Hwa and Jang Hye Jin don't figure more prominently in the meat of the narrative. But that is somewhat made up for by Rowoon's cameo.

And props to the writers, director and editor for setting up the finale with a deft minuet between the time periods where characters are hopping back and forth. Although familiarity with the source material seems to have dampened some reviewers enthusiasm, having no such background found this production to be one of the more consistently enjoyable ones of recent vintage.

Until the finale.

The finale is when the timeloop malpractice bomb explodes.

Grievances:

1. A timeloop is already a do-over. Once you get a single do-over, that should be it. No do-overs of part of the first do-over. But after the excruciating exposition of exactly how Min Ju dies which is directly tied to Jun Hee's time travel, Jun Hee gets to try again and this time saves Min Ju.

2. Once Min Ju is saved, with the aid of In Kyu by the way, these two have about twenty seconds of resolution where Min Ju seems to have been won over by In Kyu and like everything is just jolly even though she was suicidally depressed earlier in the episode.

3. While Min Ju and In Kyu get short shrift, there are painfully extended scenes in the past era of Jun Hee in Min Ju's body and Si Heon traveling to and cavorting at the beach in the sand and in the water and watching the sunset. It's a necessary part of the narrative, but it feels like it consumes the entire second half of the finale.

4. Well, except for the showoff sequence of CGI dissolves that follows that goes on and on and on.

5. So the leads reunite for a moment of silence (yes, no words are exchanged in the street as the snow falls) and credits roll. It is quite the anticlimactic moment.

6. Where are Min Ju and In Kyu in this new future? No idea.

7. Did Park Hyuk Kwon's uncle character still open a cafe in Seoul? No idea. If he did, are the two leads somehow connected to it? Obviously no idea.

8. If nothing else in the future matters, why does it matter that Si Heon is now running a webcomic startup? No idea.

9. The real gear grinder is that of all the dramas where there is a completely unnecessary, unsatisfying and unconvincing rehabilitation arc of the villain at the end, this is the show where THE CONTEXT COMPELLED FOR SUCH AN ARC TO HAPPEN. IS Min Jin Woong's Oh Chan Young still a psychopath? Presumably Oh Chan Hee doesn't end up committed to an asylum, but his fate is completely left up to the viewer to determine. And as Oh Chan Young before the magic CGI dissolve had already killed the family dog before his journey via cassette to the past, we have no reason to think that he didn't still do it in the new post no-suicide-timeline. And since Chan Young killed the family dog, then that means that the family Mom is still going to freak out and since Chan Young is a psychopath, does Chan Young eventually move on to killing his mom? Is that how the universes balance out? Min Ju lives but Mrs. Oh dies?

But after careful consideration, the only conclusion can be that the dog is definitely dead.

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Remake Woes

I am writing this review as someone who has already seen the OG. The formula for creating a remake has a lot to do with how the production recreates the same plot but with an original essence. Sadly, the actors fail this drama more than the production.

Yeo Been does a fantastic job of understanding the character and delivering as both Jun Hee/Min Joo. I like her interpretation of both the characters. You can feel the difference in the plight of both the characters through her, and she makes the drama more watchable than anyone else.

Kang Hoon also does a decent job In Kyu; however, Ahn Hyo Seop fails to deliver. I think he failed to understand the nuances of his character and oftentimes comes across as stiff. There isn't a major distinction between his interpretations of Yeon Jun/Si Heon. If you have watched the OG, you will find yourself comparing him to Greg Hsu, who did a fantastic job at conveying different emotions/characters. With Ahn Hyo Seop, you will at times find yourself confused about which character of the two Yeon Jun/Si Heon he is trying to portray as the climax approaches.

Overall, this may be a redundant watch for anyone who has already seen the OG; however, you might enjoy it if you haven't seen the OG. There aren't any major changes from the OG plot, which is regretful as at least some changes would've made this watch a lot more interesting. It was as if I already knew what was about to happen at each moment, some plot changes would've made the drama a lot more original to itself. The cinematography and direction, however, do not disappoint. None of the shots look "cheap" or ridiculous, which they did at times in the OG. It is a decent one-time watch.

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A Time Called You - A Perfect Blend of Anticipation and Intrigue

"A Time Called You" is a compelling drama that has captured the hearts of viewers with its intriguing plot, well-constructed time loop, and outstanding performances. From the very beginning, this series masterfully builds anticipation and excitement, leaving audiences eagerly awaiting each new episode.

One of the standout features of "A Time Called You" is its brilliantly constructed plot. The way the story unfolds, threading the concept of a time loop in a logical and coherent manner, is truly impressive. Unlike many time-loop narratives, which can sometimes leave viewers scratching their heads, this drama carefully navigates the complexities of time travel, making sure that every twist and turn falls into place. The sense of anticipation is skillfully maintained throughout the series, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats, eager to see what happens next.

One of the remarkable aspects of "A Time Called You" is its open ending. While many viewers tend to dislike open endings, in this case, it feels like the most fitting conclusion. A neatly wrapped-up ending might have felt overdone and robbed the series of its unique charm. The open ending leaves room for interpretation, discussion, and imagination, inviting viewers to ponder the possibilities and come to their own conclusions. It's a bold move that pays off exceptionally well in this context.

The acting in the series is nothing short of amazing. Even though you may not have seen the male main actors in previous dramas, their performances in "A Time Called You" are truly praiseworthy. Jeon Yeo Been, known for her role in "Vincenzo," has also surprised viewers with her exceptional acting skills in this drama. Her portrayal of her character has a depth and authenticity that captivates the audience. It's a testament to her growth as an actress and her ability to bring her characters to life in a compelling way.

In conclusion, "A Time Called You" is a must-watch drama of 2023 that successfully weaves an intricate plot, keeps you eagerly awaiting each new development, and showcases exceptional acting. The open ending, rather than being a disappointment, is the perfect choice for this story, leaving you with a sense of wonder and contemplation. This drama is a testament to the creativity and talent of its creators, and it's a journey well worth taking for any drama enthusiast.

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Fabulous

Sep 2023
First off; whenever a story has been successfully told once and is then remade, those who LOVED the original shouldn't watch other versions... they'll never compete. Those willing to watch as a drama in its own right, view on. After all, if subsequent productions are only to be carbon copies of an original, what's the point? So, moving on...

I watched this over 2 days and absolutely loved it.
Time travel, fantasy, mystery and a well thought out, gripping story, will make me putty in that drama's hands!

I read a lot of stories where the central theme is often transmigration (souls awakening in another body, which can be years apart from the last life).
This drama is a mix of that and time travel; the latter not being an easy subject to write well, mainly because it can be easy to lose the thread when trying to end the story. I've watched a few dramas where the plot's gone askew, but not this time!

However, this drama does need concentration and watching very closely. It isn't one to have on whilst doing something else and the FFWD button should be taped over. So much can happen in different scenarios, where subtle repetition of words and actions are actually so important.

It can be a little odd in feel, to start with, until the way the story is presented becomes familiar and comfortable ~ but please bear with it, as it really does make sense and come together.

Time can alter at each scene change and initially that threw me. I watched ep 1 & 2 twice! It was worth it though, as I quickly learned the difference in the characters that shared faces.

It is a complicated, but fascinating plot, full of intrigue, questions, frustration and very gripping. It is also so romantic, in the best way; a true love story, yet not at all saccharine. There's wit, angst and tragedy as well.

The cast were bloody perfect ~ all of them.
However, I have to credit Jeon Yeo-been, as how she was able to play 2 characters that looked identical, and managed to portray their totally different personalities, so that they became identifiable as 2 different people, was SO good!
Ahn Hyo-seop was the same ~ he, in effect, played 3 (almost 4 ~ one much more briefly), different roles and, again, brought a noticeable difference to each.
All the characters were such an interesting mix, the story, whilst complicated, did make sense and what an ending! I was so surprised by the whole thing.

The consequences that love has on characters who are so desperate to be together, they're willing to move through lifetimes, is such a surprise and also comes with a couple of shocks.

The soundtrack is mostly great (there was some instrumental background music I wasn't keen on). The main song that repeats through and is an important part of the story, has a sad background though.

The artist is Seo Ji-won, who tragically took his own life in 1996, just over a month before his 20th birthday, due to the pressures of having had such a successful debut album. I loved the songs and learning what I did from Googling the artist, felt the tracks chosen were made even more poignant.

I loved almost every second of this drama.

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