'Finding Happiness Again'
The New Beginning.Not having some great story, relatively some or to be honest many plot holes doesn't mean that drama wasn't good, there's nothing like perfection. Having some cons is a good thing from my perspective. So now let's talk about drama. Fluffy, comedy, sweet, light with mild romance (Don't expect too much even romance is in main genres) ... it's the full package fluff drama but it also gives some messages which make us think about ourselves our life and the decision we made.
The story wasn't perfect but the execution was done well, kind of predictable still a fun and interesting journey. Really like the character development wasn't just about only one character but about every... the journey of learning something and it was for everyone that at the end you can see not phenomenal but at least a good change indeed!
Talking about the cast and acting... for me everyone was perfect for their respective roles and characters really liked Bahn Ha-Ni's both version the younger and the present one it's always great to see two different sides of the same character though I can't say they both are same haha.. the ML was definitely chocolate boy, adorable, liked the chemistry between them but still I won't say we get much romance here.
So overall it was a good show indeed won't say very good, coz I didn't get answers for some of my questions and had some plot holes but it's really good and light show indeed!
“We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.”
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The guilt we carry
I love the 37 and 17 year old Ha Nis. I canbonly imagine the older Ha Ni feels, the guilt that made her punish herself that completely changed her core. The contrast between the younger Ha Ni and the older Ha Ni is so vast that when the two characters start merging into older Ha Nis character it is an event to look forever to.I enjo watching this drama and patiently wait for 2 episodes a week on Netflix. The change in both Anthony and Yu Hyeon is also amazing. I love Yu Hyeons dad, he is a better character than the dad in Protect the Boss whch also stars Choi Kang Hee (Ha Ni). I like Ha Nis mom too and although Ha Nis nephew is still not as good as young Ha Nis acting, I find him cute
Characters I don't like and almost hate are Ha Nis sister and high school friend. I hate the Auntie aka sister in law of the dad. I also don't like the grandmother but can understand her
The ending is a bit rushed but still good. Happy Ending as the 37 Ha Ni finally moved on
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Marshmallow-Chocoholic
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Cheesy And Typical Tropes To Be Expected, Yet Oddly Heartwarming In Parts...
Novice screenwriter Yoo Song Yi and director Lee Hyun Suk tackle the renowned theme of time travel within their storyline with a conglomeration of staid cliches and tropes, plot holes as well as a mixed bag of characterisation. Nevertheless perhaps one thing which should be said is that even in the world of cliche K-dramas, the premise of “Hello, Me! “is pretty out there .The drama centralises its upon the main protagonist 37 year-old Ha-Ni ( Choi Kang Hee). Once a stunning beauty and popular in her teens, Ha-Ni’s life has hit rock bottom after a tragic event in her life. By a whim of fate, Ha-Ni ends up encountering her 17-year old self ( Lee Re) who has somehow travelled twenty years into the future for reasons unbeknown to both Ha-Nis. As the current Ha-Ni struggles to juggle between keeping the appearance of her younger self from her older sister Ban Ha Young ( Jung Yi Rang) , mother Ji Ok Jung ( Yoon Bok In) and grandmother Lee Hong Nyeon ( Kim Yong Rin), Ha-Ni’s life may just hide a blessing in disguise with a new opportunity coming to rise. In addition to this, the mysterious involvement of younger conglomerate heir Yoo-hyun ( Kim Young Kwang) and actor Anthony ( Eum Moon Suk), reveal their mysterious links and feelings through their shared pasts with Ha-Ni .
The cast of the series were fairly versatile in talents. Whilst main actress Choi Kang Hee admittedly did feel slightly out of place within the series at first, she was able to deliver a brilliant performance which allowed viewers to become attached and feel moved by her character. Arguably, actress Lee Re did feel slightly questionable within her portrayal of Ha-Ni’s younger-self due to certain line deliverances, however, during more angst-ridden moments of the series, the younger actress did capture certainly more heartfelt moments behind her onscreen persona .
Admittedly , Kim Young Kwang and Eun Moon Suk weren’t entirely dire within their performances and did have some genuinely heartbreaking moments onscreen , however as their characters were played more for comedy and as the “ love interests” of the drama, their performances were restricted slightly towards their respected moulds as the “ male lead and second male lead” of “ Hello, Me!” . However, this is not entirely the fault of either actor, as whilst the scriptwriting should be commended for tackling convoluted and realistic subject areas such as bereavement, family , friendship, mental health and the prejudice and difficulties of ageing in South-Korean Society , certain characters felt respectfully moulded into prosaic roles over the course of the series which were hard to renounce.
In particular this can be seen through the younger Ha-Ni. Ha-Ni is supposed to highlight a stark contrast against her older counterpart by her fractiousness , optimism and self-confidence in given situations due to still being young . On the other hand, Ha-Ni respectfully felt overly immature and benign for a 17-year old by her impulsiveness and lacking rationality at times over the course of the series. Whilst admittedly the older Ha-Ni did confess that she was fairly sheltered by her mother and doted on by her father Ban Ki Tae ( Kim Byung Choon) during her younger years, it still felt oddly out of place for a character exposed to social interactions and academic expectations ( which were never really touched upon the series) in high school to not learn to mature slightly as a consequence.
However, over the course of the series and her interactions with her older self, the younger Ha-Ni does learn to become more altruistic by helping others, as well as encouraging the 37 year-old self through acceptance than her earlier snide comments towards older Ha-Ni’s appearance and circumstances. ( Taking “ self-depreciation ” to a whole new level in the beginning of the drama.)Yet this still seems to lead to two possible conclusions; Ha-Ni should have been written as a slightly younger character ( perhaps someone nearer her mid-teens than 17 years old ), or preferably she should have been given more time throughout the storyline to learn to mature slightly from the influences of her older-self.
Naturally, this leads us onto the older Ha-Ni. Whilst the younger Ha-Ni is by default the same individual as the older Ha-Ni, screenwriter Song Yi notably places an emphasis upon the 37 year-old version of the character being strikingly different than her younger counterpart. The current Ha-Ni is more taciturn, lacking in self-confidence and was hinted by her mother and sister to have struggled with depression and loneliness in the past. Annoyingly whilst the series did enjoy placing comic relief upon Ha-Ni’s “ unfortunate circumstances” in the beginning of the series and her naivety for the latter part with the feelings of Anthony and Yoo-Hyun towards her, the older Ha-Ni admittedly did have a lot of character growth from low self-esteem initially towards a more self-assured individual who learns to pursue her dreams in the process.
However, her pairings with the male leads often felt slightly disjointed in the grand scheme of the series. The pairing between Yoo Hyun and Ha Ni felt more fortified admittedly than the more complicated relationship between Anthony and herself ( both younger and older), however, this often resulted in the series struggling sometimes to portray Ha-Ni’s affections and feelings towards either male lead outside of expected plot line and setups.
Perhaps the one element that was tackled well within the drama occurred with Ha Ni’s interactions with her mother, sister and grandmother over the duration of the episodes , shown to grow and developed from slightly estranged ( due to her circumstances) towards more affectionate and trusting over the course of the series. It would have perhaps been slightly more intriguing to have touched upon Ha Ni’s interactions and complications around her grandmother. Although primarily this did serve a major part of the story ( without any spoilers) , this did feel a little underdeveloped towards exposing the more emotional difficulties and challenges ( especially with her mental health ) for the 37 year-old Ha Ni. Nevertheless, it was a refreshing and heartwarming dynamic by the presence of Ha Ni’s interactions with her family allowing her to grow to some extent as an individual, rather than merely an asset for “romantic” plot development.
On the other hand, the two male leads of the series are a little more complicated to address by their debased characterisation in parts. “Anthony” arguably had the most wasted potential as a second male lead and his respected involvement in Ha-Ni’s life due to his “ feelings” for Ha-Ni often being played for comical gags rather than exploring his more complicated reasons, personality and past. The drama did attempt to bring up Anthony’s past haunting him again nearer the ending of the series by this particular storyline (as well of course his earlier interactions with the younger Ha-Ni), however, Anthony never truly felt like a worthy contender of Ha-Ni’s affections due to being severely limited within personal growth and screen time with the main character.
Arguably, against his initial cliche archetype as the “ immature, younger rich male lead” Yoo- Hyun was more well-rounded by his reasoning behind falling for Ha-Ni as well as his primary growth as a character . Without revealing too much about the storyline , there are expected tropes which revolve around Yoo-Hyun over the course of the drama. However against some of his more annoying flaws being his childishness and immaturity at times ( as noted by his father ), he was an incredibly kind-hearted and altruistic individual, making his interactions with the older Ha-Ni fairly sweet. Similar to the older Ha-Ni, however, it was refreshing that the series did touch upon Yoo-Hyun’s heartfelt relationship development and complications from childhood with his father Han Ji Man ( Yoon Joo Sang). Although his relationship with Ha-Ni was undeniably sweet, it did feel underdeveloped for a major proportion of the series, often resulting in their relationship being more “ friendly” than having “ romantic undertones”. Nevertheless, their bond did serve to provide warmth and sincerity into the series.
The side characters of the series were honestly a bit of mixed-bag with genuine development besides our main protagonists. Perhaps the most interesting side character in the series who had notable growth from her initial introduction in episode 1 manifested in Oh Ji Eun. The estranged best friend and shadow of Ha-Ni from her younger years, Ji Eun’s position is reversed in the present by being a successful director as well , in a fairly happy relationship with fellow managing director Yang Do Yoon ( Ji Seung Hyun). However, there’s a lot more than Ji Eun struggles behind the scenes from her initial introduction by struggling with guilt over how she left things with Ha-Ni after they ended their friendship initially, and walking around eggs shells with her mother in law and one of the arguable “ minor antagonists ” of the series, Han Ji Sook ( Baek Hyun Joo).
Whilst it is prominent to see why Ji Eun was forced into the mistakes she made in order to hopefully win the approval of Ji Sook, it felt slightly poorly-tackled how the show left things with Ji Eun. Additionally, the other side characters of the series were mostly played off giggles or to lighten up the mood over the course of the series such as kitchen staff Kang Geum Ja ( Kim Mi Hwa) and Cha Mi Ja ( Kim Do Yeon) , the “ obvious secret couple”, Bang Ok Joo ( Go Na Eun) and Kim Yong Hwa ( Kim Ki Ri) as well as of course the duo Park Jung Man ( Choi Dae Chul) and Min Gyeong Shik ( Kang Tae Joo) consigned as Anthony’s managers also.
On the other hand, the ending for “ Hello, Me!” was fairly appropriate for the genre; predictable, yet nonetheless enjoyable.Ultimately, “ Hello, Me!” was a fairly heartfelt, uplifting fantasy, family story and romantic comedy about self-love and learning to lean on others. It was not a flawless show and some notable implausibilities of character development, a sense of overarching purpose and cliches did ultimately detract from more intriguing aspects of the series. Nevertheless, it was a fairly enjoyable and easygoing watch, perhaps something to easily binge-watch when bored or looking for something to fill-out during a lazy day, holiday or weekend.
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If I'm honest, I think I liked the message more than the show...
"Hello, Me!" is a drama I have mixed feelings about. Although I did love the concept and self-love theme a lot, I could feel myself losing interest in this drama towards the end. In spite of dealing with serious things like grief and guilt, this drama tries to stay lighthearted and "feel good" which I think stopped it from becoming as deep as it could've been. I think playing it too safe and relying on tropes is what made me less excited about what was going to happen, but there was still a lot that I did like, and I'm glad I eventually watched it until the end.I'll start with Ban Ha Ni, played by Choi Kang Hee. I think she is a great actress, and this character reminded me a bit of her role in "Heart to Heart", which I really liked, but one petty thing was driving me crazy. Sorry, but I just couldn't believe she was 37. Since so much about this drama is about her age, as opposed to Lee Re who is Ban Ha Ni at 17, I just kept wishing they bumped the time difference up to 25 years, which would have been way more realistic. Still, I did like the idea of the major contrast between her past self and current self and thought they were a great match. Lee Re is super cute and obnoxious but likable, which is the perfect contrast to Kang Hee's passive and worn-down version of Ha Ni. I won't go into the details of how and why their paths cross, but the idea of not being a disappointment to your past self was an inspiring theme, and what kept me initially engaged. Many of Ban Ha Ni's moments, at both ages, are silly and over the top which stops the story from ever getting too heavy, but I think that also backfired and made the story feel too repetitive and cliché at times. Convenient connections and "fated" situations became this drama's crutch. I appreciate that this drama wasn't too dark, or depressing, but the over the top comedy was sometimes too much.
Speaking of balance, this drama also stars Kim Young Kwang as Han Yoo Hyun, who was my favorite character even if his storyline was all over the place. He also played a similar role in Pinocchio (another favorite drama of mine) as a spoiled rich heir who is still sweet and considerate. In this drama he thankfully isn't the second lead. He's also cute and cheesy in "The Secret Life of My Secretary", so this is definitely his lane, but any romance in "Hello, Me!" is definitely just implied and that was very disappointing. The chemistry between him and Kang Hee is cute but super platonic. They have cute teamwork moments, and the way he supports Ha Ni is like a loyal puppy more than a love interest. I guess I'm glad they didn't force the romance idea too much, but I wish they made them clearly just friends instead. Any small attempts at romance between the two just seemed too awkward, and forced. He did make me smile whenever he was on screen, which was another thing that kept me watching even when I stopped caring. He has such a great smile! More than with Ha Ni I loved his chemistry and banter with his dad, played by Yoon Joo Sang. Some of my favorite scenes in this drama were random moments between the two of them more than any moment between the leads. If romance is your reason for watching this, definitely lower those expectations.
The rest of the cast was also good but because so much of the story lacked depth so did many of their performances. Ha Ni's classmates and family are all great. Eum Moon Suk as Anthony is considered a lead, maybe even an intended 2nd lead, but as much as his story works as a direct counter narrative to Ha Ni's story, I just never cared as much about him and what happened to him. I also didn't really care about the drama in Yoo Hyun's family, beyond his back and forth with his dad, the fighting for company control trope felt really out of place in this drama. Then there is one Shaman character who feels completely unnecessary. A character that weird and random should have had much better scenes. In contrast, I adored the lunch lady duo. In fact I liked them way more than many of the more prominent characters.
Would I watch this again? I don't think so. I didn't even feel motivated to finish this drama but I still wanted to know what would happen to Ha Ni. I do feel like that part of the story ended well, and I was satisfied with that, but the ways that so many other parts of the drama were resolved were extra corny and predictable. I feel like maybe to counter the sad parts they made sure the ending was extra positive, which felt a little like overkill. I only learned after watching that this was a novel so I'm curious which parts were added to fill in the 16 episodes, because that's what a lot of it felt like.
Overall this drama is Ok. I think I liked the message and idea of the show more than watching all of the episodes. Some parts made me laugh, and some parts made me really cry, and I loved the theme of making peace with who you are no matter what. I wouldn't call this a must see drama by any means, but there are enough good things about it to make me recommend this to anyone looking for something that's not too deep or completely frivolous. If you're a scene skipper, this is the kind of drama that has many skippable scenes. Also, if you are on any kind of diet beware! Snacks and snack love are a major factor in this drama, which felt a little overdone, but I can appreciate the sentiment as a snack lover. This drama itself is kinda like a snack more than a meal. It may not be filling but if you're in the mood for comedy sprinkled with nostalgia and self reflection and with just a slight (very slight) hint of romance it might just hit the spot.
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Good show for trying times
First I'm an average american white male, mostly watch sports but have a wide taste for shows both american & other countries. I value a good story, acting to invest in a show.I have not watched many Kdramas but with Netflix putting many out they fill a gap when I'm in the mood for something new. Last year I enjoyed Mystic Pop Up Bar. So Hello Me! Had a interesting concept.
I know much of the world has been isolated & dealing with COVID so I tend to look for TV shows to detach from the pandemic.
Without discussing the plot as part of the joy of this show is seeing where it goes, the week between episodes is hard as you are left wanting to see what happens.
Likes:
- funny and many laugh out loud moments, even with major culture difference this show has humor which in a way helps offset the more serious moments
- at its heart outside of the two versions of the same person is a core of how people deal with family, friends, loss and finding happiness. Sometimes its just in a snack and others finding a friend lost.
- enjoy the multi-connected plot & characters, kind of shows the 6 degrees of seperation. Also the aspect of how people make impacts on other peoples lives, which often may seem minor
Dislikes:
- some of the events are the same old ones you see elsewhere, the romance side of this show is pretty weak with the two leads being there to prop up the two main leads (or one)
I look forward to how the show wraps up and update what I thought. I hope they have a season 2 if Kdramas even do that.
Give the show a chance, if anything it will make you smile.
Update 4/11
Well the series wrapped and came back to update. Overall my rating and like for the did not change. I do agree the aunt / anthony subplots did suck time away from the core story but it was nice to have most of the main storylines wrapped up.
I guess this final two episodes were more bittersweet than outright sad. Overall series kept its touching nature and it does make you pause to evaluate your life & relationships.
While I know K Dramas don't do seasons like the US, however there are story lines that could be explored in each time period.
Past - Ba Ha Ni dealing with her life knowing what she does. Maybe the college years.
Present - Obviously seeing current Ba Ha Ni and making the most of her new (restarted) life. I felt there was more meat between her & the HS BFF. The baby, adult friendship etc. I'd also like to see the Aunt return and be given a sub-company to run so she does not live her life with so much hate. She gave up her whole family, future grandchild due to her envy & greed.
If you are unsure, try the show. It was a pleasant watch.
~chill
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Cliched but its magic works!
Hello Me! is a predictable story filled with clichés like a struggling FL, a immature ML, the random job offering, the truck of doom, unwanted misunderstandings, childhood connections, etc.Yet there are many enjoyable elements in this show. One, the comedy. The scenes between the ML & SML and ML & his co-worker ladies are such a laugh riot. Some of the antics of the Younger Ban Han Ni are hilarious.
Two, the character growth of both Ban Han Nis. Younger BHN is very audacious, outspoken and confident teen. Her actions lead to innumerable troubles. She can come off as an incorrigible person nearly the entire show. But, in odd turn of events, she turns a new leaf and becomes more mature. Older BHN is a broke and ill-fated person. Interactions with younger self, makes her take better charge at life.
Three, the character interactions. Be it interaction of both BHNs with her school friends, and her family, or ML with his "assistant", brother, dad and aunt. Everything is very cordial and warm.
Four, the message "You're doing well. You're the most magnificent star in your life. That is, if you refuse to give up and get back on your feet once again."
Five, the altruistic take on unfortunate events especially forgiving bad people, and supporting family members.
There are hardly any downsides to this show. It keeps you entertained, makes you laugh, makes you feel warm and strive at life.
I had an expectation that younger BHN will mature and change older BHN's life. The story doesn't flow that way which was new take on these past and present self interactions stories.
ML calling FL "Ahjumma" felt comical but it made their relationship more like sister-brother and not romantic. Even romance is barely there.
Anthony's closure felt good but it could have been different. Society requires to "evolve" to be more forgiving. Given the recent events, the social commentary felt coincidental.
The show is well produced. Acting of younger BHN felt a bit dramatic and artificial sometimes. Other actors are really good. Eum Moon Suk's acting style reminds me of his The Fiery Priest character. Music is really good given that the younger BHN is idol aspirant especially the 3!4! song. Rewatch is good for comical scenes.
Hello Me!: Invoke the child in oneself to heal oneself.
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Good Enough
Korean Drama " Hello, Me! " had an interesting story that is not encountered often. The fantasy- time travel element was handled nicely, the family drama was quite impactful and the character development on point. However, the drama didn't manage to leave a mark and it's quite forgettable.The story, first of all, centers around Ha Ni, who's the complete opposite of who she was when she was a teenager. And, even though the reasons why she turned out to be this way were there, the drama failed to explore them properly, though her family drama was strong and supported masterfully by everyone in the cast. The romance, moreover, was slow, a bit silly at first, and was often left out, set aside so that the slice of life will be more on focus. Also, the love triangle was more enjoyable for the bromance rather than the romantic vibes.
In addition, the relationship between 17-year-old Ha Ni and 37-year-old Ha Ni was more like a mother-daughter than between two people of the same person. But that can be easily overlooked, as the slice of life genre often took the lead, with some heartwarming stories added here and there to enhance the main story and older Ha Ni's character. Also, the character development was just perfect, smoothly done and excellently handled. But, the ending was predictable and felt lukewarm.
So, overall, six out of ten.
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Extremely cliched but Surprisingly Refreshing & Uplifting!
Hello, Me is not very creative as its story renders around typical troupe and Kdrama cliches .Its storytelling style also makes it predictable and less suspenseful. the pro side is this makes the drama Light and easy to follow as its development and twist has been foretold (or dropped hints in advance).
What makes the drama works is also what could have harm it (its a double edge sword). For me, I liked how the stress from EP 1 to 16 is centering around FL - Ban Han Ni but is also a little upsetting that ML is basically shoved aside and became a complementary piece. A little unexpected how young Ban Han Ni is dominating the airtime (sometimes even more than the ML) but fortunately for me, I grow to like "Scarlett".
Likes/ Strength
Actors are very good at digesting and expressing their roles, it is not easy to act "innocent as a child" with a mature like appearance. Both Choi Kang Hee and KimYoungKwang nailed their roles perfectly.
I like the respectful interaction between ML and FL all the way to the end. Is annoying in other dramas where ML force their way to win FL heart (especially Noona relationship). That usually rubs me off the wrong way.
Music is very powerful in this drama but in a typical way. Instead of romantic/ emo ballads, I am hooked by its uplifting / uptempo cheering life and freedom type of songs. Bonus, the squid dance and Joa office routine song which are not part of OST totally steal the show.
Dislikes/ Weakness
I think too much attention on side story of ML's aunt company stealing plot and Anthony's career as an actor as both of these didnt really make much impact on BHN life and decision. Is very filler like but glad the writer wrapped the subplot up nicely and clean.
Is light and simple, warm, funny but not too cheesy.
Which is why to me, this drama is quite refreshing despite recycling the old Kdrama troupes/ cliches.
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Hello, Me!
I like that Hello, Me! is simple, funny, and fun all in one. One can never go wrong with Choi Kang Hee in a fantasy rom-com drama. I enjoy her narrating in her head what she wouldn't dare say out loud. It works so well. But what works more is that she's opposite Kim Young Kwang in the drama; I had forgotten how tall he is. He plays the spoiled, bratty 30-year-old who's never worked a day in his life rather well. The drama is off to a fun start. Despite reading the synopsis, I hadn't realized Ji Seung Hyun would have a part in this drama; what a pleasant surprise. However, I did know Eum Moon Suk would, and boy, am I loving him and his knack for the grandiose; it suits him perfectly. He had me smiling from ear to ear. And how about Jang Ki Yong and Lee Soo Hyuk's cameo, and in the first episode, nonetheless. That was a treat.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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What's great about this drama? The number one thing for me this drama shows is character growth. We see this in older BHN. She goes from living her whole life feeling guilty and always shameful/apologetic to a woman who has courage , determination, and one who finally forgives herself so she'll be able to love herself. Of course, she was only able to do that with the interaction of her 17 year old self, which started as someone she didn't like seeing and was annoyed of, to eventually loving and caring for. I saw this as how older BHN struggled so much with her past self due to the accident that killed her dad, which is probably why she didn't like seeing her young self, but as time went on, she began to accept her past self and characteristics, allowing those qualities to return in her older self.
While not as strong as BHN's character growth, we do see character growth in other characters as well, including the ML.
There is romance in this drama, but because character growth is the main focus, the romance is at the minimal, meaning no lovely dovey scenes or big heartfelt confessions, or anything like that. Instead, we see a supportive male lead to the female lead. I didn't mind this at all. It was pretty sweet.
What I could've done without in this drama is the greedy old aunt. This part of the story was not needed. It ruined the light heartedness this drama had. I would like to call her the useless character as she serves no good purpose in my opinion. Without her and her scenes, we would've have a great drama but her scenes made things toxic to a certain degree.
Ending was great and happy but could've been a lot better had they shown more scenes of younger BHN's progress, of how she handles things after the passing of her dad. This would've gave me more of a satisfaction to this drama. This was the only missing piece that I felt like the writers should've gave more screen time on in the final episode.
But overall, it's a good, heartfelt, & underrated drama. Just skip the evil aunt scenes and you'll have a good time watching this.
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well, it's fun but also meh
Ban Hani (Choi Kang Hee) , a single 37-year-old lives her timid life day by day, until one day, she met her spunky 17-year-old self. This 17-year-old Hani is nothing like her now, she’s obnoxious and optimistic, while her current self is passive and worn-down with life. How come they're so different despite being the same person? Is there a guilt that Hani carries in her adult life?It's always interesting to see opposite personalities interacting on-screen. I like the idea of the major contrast between Hani's past self and current self and they were a great match on-screen. I enjoyed the hijinks, comedy and the high energy cast performance a lot in the beginning, but started losing excitement when it starts fleshing out on the trauma. Somehow it didn't feel as emotional and deep, which maybe due to it stays trying to be silly and over the top. I've seen few dramas that handle this emotional / funny tone very well, but here it didn't feel fit together in my opinion. The male lead storyline was a mess although Kim Young Kwang acted very well. I think the banter between him and his dad was better than the romance. I don't think they need the romance in this story, it has enough plotline to focus on. Overall, it was just ok, I had fun at first, but got bored as it ends.
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I'm gonna say right off the bat that this is not a strongly written, tightly plotted drama. It has some obvious flaws that are apparent from the first episode. But it's heartwarming and thoughtful and sprinkled with humor (and some tears for good measure), so I don't think it is without any merit.Of course, because this drama has time-travel in it, we get to see both the modern day and the past, and there are good and bad things to this. Mainly that the present day portions and the past day portions felt like two very different dramas which created a very striking/jarring feeling while watching that took me awhile to get comfortable with. The modern day portion was like a silly, stereotypical, nothing new here, kind of drama, but with genuine heart and thoughtfulness. I was somewhat disappointed and let-down with aspects of this part of the story and would have liked some things to have been done differently, but it's not unenjoyable. The past day portion had a very human, slice of life, Reply series feel to it, and, for my part, I think it was the better portion. Young Ha Ni is a dynamic character, and her relationship with her father is incredibly endearing. We only received glimpses of the past here and there throughout the drama though, and there were next to none in the latter half, which was really disappointing.
The theme of the drama, the affects of trauma, was probably my favorite thing about the story. I really cared about Ha Ni, both young and adult. But while I think young Ha Ni had a mostly good story arc with a very satisfying conclusion, adult Ha Ni got somewhat jipped in the last few eps. There's a lot of focus early on on the difficulty of adult Ha Ni's life and how much she's given up on herself out of shame and regret, and I think the drama does a really good job of exploring this. There's also the start of her growing and changing and giving herself permission to forgive herself for her past. I was very eager to see more of this in the later half of the series as it's really heartfelt and emotional, but adult Ha Ni's story ends up becoming more about corporate business things/saving the company, and I didn't understand the point. None of it serves the main crux of the drama, and it's honestly quite boring and uninteresting.
As far as the time-travel aspect of the drama goes, it ended up being better than I initially thought while also being somewhat non-existent to the plot most of the time. The only time time-travel is ever mentioned in the story is when the writers need to move a certain part of the story along or when it had been awhile since we'd last thought about the fact that young Ha Ni would need to go back to her timeline eventually so the writers threw in a reminder. It's not a super big or important part of the plot, so if you're looking for some cool timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff, you won't get it. And if I were to sit down and really hammer out the problems with the time-travel/shamanism aspect of the story, I could 100% present you with a list of holes that keep it from being accurate or affective. But while this is a drama featuring time-travel, this isn't a time-travel drama. The writers aren't all that concerned with the mechanics of time-travel or even that much with time-travel itself as long as the device serves the story, so you probably shouldn't let yourself get too hung up on it either.
The last thing I'll say for this drama is that while the character archetype of the male lead has been done far better in other dramas, and this male lead would not be my favorite I've ever seen (I think I actually like the second male lead in this drama better because of the really fascinating trajectory his story and character progression takes), there's still something about the male lead that makes you really like him. He starts out a little annoying, but his thoughtfulness and charm and positivity grow on you. By the end, I was really happy the female lead had someone so kind and thoughtful on her side.
So what would I say to those thinking about watching this? Hello, Me! is a feel good, don't think too hard about it, just have a good time, sort of drama, and if you go into it with that mindset, you'll enjoy yourself. It's not ground-breaking or the most tightly plotted, but it's uplifting, and sometimes that's enough.
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