A Never-Ending Inconsistency

Short Review :
"See You in My 19th Life" promised an intriguing and potentially captivating premise with its incorporation of the reincarnation trope. The drama's plot suffered from convoluted storytelling, as it attempted to juggle multiple timelines and reincarnated identities without proper clarity. Flashbacks and time jumps were frequent and often poorly executed, leaving viewers confused and struggling to keep track of the narrative's progression.

The romance aspect, which could have been a redeeming factor, also fell victim to the drama's flawed execution. The relationships between characters felt superficial and underdeveloped, lacking the depth and emotional resonance that a well-crafted love story requires. The drama ultimately stumbled and failed to execute its own logic coherently, resulting in a muddled mess that left viewers scratching their heads.

Positive :
- Aegyeong existence
- The first life backstory is good
- The premise is intriguing
- The OST is really good
- Some of the scene has a really good composition

Negative :
- The plot point resolved in anticlimactic way
- The main couple don’t have good chemistry
- The plot doesn’t make sense in its own universe
- The editing is just for a shock factors
- The background music doesn’t match the scene
- The never ending flashback ever episode
- Second Couple has no screen time (despite having chemistry)


Long Review with Spoiler
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My main gripe with this drama is that it’s not engaging and every episode just negates the previous episode points like the writer make up the plot along the way and forgetting what they’ve been established. The writer will open plot points and forgot about it the next episode.
The audience never get to see what the characters motivations to feel emotionally invested. As example, why is Jieum liking Seoha in the 19th life so much? She doesn’t know him and does that means she likes the 18th life Seoha or it because of “destiny?” The chemistry between the two leads is barely there, you can’t even tell if they supposed to fall in love, it would have improved if they had them working together on revitalizing the hotel but they barely work.
Regarding the 1st life, for a curse to be this powerful , you would expect the backstory must be crafted well and hard hitting but instead the curse feels like random gacha that solved by accepting your fate because “It’s been 1000 years”.
Not to mention, Jieum backstory become tragedy because of herself and why she doesn’t remember the first life until the bells ? What was the dream in ep 1-6 supposed to mean then? What kind of curse makes you forget the very reason your curse origin, it’s also the curse you made for yourself. Aren’t the moment you are forgetting it almost the same as you technically get over it?
The 1st life doctor guy said that the medicine stored for the royals could help and Su/Jieum so she stole lead but on her way to escape, Su said the priest/shaman shouldn’t be too hard on her since the bells could be made again so Su is the stupid one?
Why is that the backstory makes me doesn’t want to root for Su/Jieum. Is the shaman bells both valuable and invaluable?
How’s the forget your memory works? Jieum entire 19th life consist of everything from her previous life? She lives with her 17th life cousin, she works because seoha’s works there, she got high score because of her previous work skills? It doesn’t make any sense.

There is so many question when you finished the show.
- The show spent more time on the murder plot and hotel plot, both get solved in a 10 minutes scene. The car accident that got repeated at least once an episode as flashback was because the uncle want to see the dad looks sad?
It was solved by a sudden confession. Then the stepmother and her son disappeared , what was their relevance in the story again?
- It’s like no one is “actually” bad guy in this drama but the reason is illogical.
- Juwon’s mother forgives the accident because it’s a planned accident that doesn’t means to kill people? Manslaughter is a thing.
- Seoha father acts like he did to shield his son but he has done nothing to his son either way? He is not nice to his son and acts so demeaning all the time until the last episode and we supposed to forgive him?
- Second couple barely get any screen time in the last half of the drama despite having chemistry. Why?
- Why is minki always pop up here and there with no dialogue? He always say some weird stuff like a reference to stuff we know nothing about.
- What about the disease? It's not explained enough.

The acting doesn’t feel coherent between characters. Shin Hye Sun is brilliant when portrayed in the 1st life but awkward at the 19th life. Her tone sound like she is babying seoha’s, like a kindergarten teacher knows it all. She is good at tragic scene but bad at happy scenes, idk how, she is a great actress.
Ahn Bo Hyun is sad expression all the time and just a slight happy at the end but don’t play well with SHS acting, they have bad chemistry.

Now talk about the controversial, liking a child when you were 1000 years old memories.
- This is so problematic because for half of the episode, the audience is bombarded with the idea that 18th life Seoha is just everything in Juwon/Jiem’s life but Seoha was 8 years old and she is mature 12th years old with understanding of an adult. What’s interesting about an 8 years old? At the end they reveal that Seoha was in the 1st life so what was the point in the beginning 18th life obsession then? Does your life is all about predestined relationship? So it's fine if you love and obsess towards an 8 years old because it must be predestined? Even when you act like adult , understanding of an adult and have memories of being adult?

All in all, the lack of consistent rules, muddled character development, and convoluted storytelling resulted in a disappointing drama that left viewers more frustrated than entertained. Unfortunately, "See You in My 19th Life " missed the mark, leaving us with a forgettable and unsatisfying viewing experience.

Note : I can write more but this is already long enough.

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