Although I Am Not a Hero (2024)

All You Ever Have is Right Now

This is definitely not your typical drama, which is actually a good thing. The series has enough curveballs and plot twists to keep the savviest viewer guessing right up to the end. These “time” plots are among the most challenging for a writer to track because there are so many elements. Perhaps that is why very few of them actually end up working, while so many others end up with enough plot holes to look like fly swatter by the end.

We have a family with special abilities. Bok Gwi Ju has the ability to go back to the past to his happiest moments. However, he doesn’t have the ability to affect the past, or at least, so we think until Do Da Hae shows up; a con-woman who is initially only after the Bok’s money on behalf of her loan shark of a “mother” and her adopted family. We quickly find that Gwi Ju can actually communicate with Da Hae and even interact with her. However, for the first few episodes, Gwi Ju is suffering from severe depression after a car accident take the life of his wife while he was “away.” He drowns himself in his sorrows through alcohol, even failing to be a father to his daughter, I Na.

Bok I Na is a young preteen who spends all of her time on her cellphone, not wanting to look anyone in the eye. We later find that her special ability is to read the minds of anyone she makes eye contact with. Her anxiety of reading minds isn’t just limited to her classmates, but she believes that she’s the reason why her mother was killed. Both father and daughter are suffering from tremendous guilt.

Bok Dong Hee has the ability to fly. However, she finds herself “weighted down.” Literally! Putting Claudia Kim in a fat suit really carried off the character well as a woman who finds her only solace is in food.

Last, but certainly not least, is the matriarch of the family, Bok Man Heum who has the ability to see the future through her dreams when she’s asleep. In many ways, she’s become addicted to her ability, not only through the fear of something bad happening to her and her family, but also as a means to acquire future knowledge, and thus, making herself and her family extremely rich.

Do Da Hae seems to show up in the Bok family on a whim, but nothing is as it seems, and she later finds that the mysterious “fireman” who saved her from a school fire when she was in high school, is none other than Gwi Ju. She soon finds herself wrapped up in the “time travel” plot of the Bok family as well as falling hopelessly in love with Gwi Ju as well as with his daughter, I Na (who actually discovers Da Hae’s true intentions through her mind-reading ability).
The head of Da Hae’s adopted family is a cruel, vindictive loan shark, Baek Il Hong, whose plot is to get Da Hae married off to Gwi Ju with the hopes of acquiring some of their wealth. Still, very few things in this series follow the “typical” plot line, and this is what truly makes the series so special.

Is it possible for the “villains” to actually turn over a new leaf and to actually have good intentions? Is it also possible to change the future if one already knows what is going to happen? So many TV shows/movies have dealt with this question. The irony is that the only point in time that any can experience is “right now.” There is no future or past, which is something that Einstein himself proved: that all of time and space is relative. As Socrates states in “Peaceful Warrior,” all we have is right now. More and more people are realizing that the only power you can ever have is in this moment. Life is choice, which negates the ridiculous belief that there is somehow a “fate” or a “destiny” involved. The only “fate” or “destiny” that exists is in whatever moment we decide it to be. Those who believe that the universe is a random place where they are controlled by fate or destiny are cowards at heart. Why? Because they fail to acknowledge their own power of choice.

The series only has a few minor flaws to it, which isn’t a bad thing, and since it’s a “time plot” we can hardly blame the writer too much. First, Da Hae attempts to make it appear that she’s “died” in an accident to prevent Gwi Ju from going to the past to save her (which, if he does, he will die). She and her uncle set things up while Gwi Ju is in the past. The only problem with this is, how does Da Hae know how much time she has before Gwi Ju comes back? It’s never explained, and for all she knows, Gwi Ju could be back within seconds or minutes from whatever point in the past he’s returning from. And yet, she acts as if she has all the time in the world, which makes no sense.

Second, in the last episode, Gwi Ju is holding teenage Da Hae on the windowsill, telling her to jump to the blow-up fire cushion below. However, as much as time as it takes Gwi Ju to explain things, he could have easily jumped out of the window with her. It would have been more convincing if something had happened to prevent him from doing this. Again, these are very minor points, and they certainly don’t detract from the story.

This isn’t your typical superhero series. Many of the people in this series are selfish and greedy. They only care about their own happiness. Gwi Ju is so caught up in his own pain, that he neglects his own daughter. Da Hae is so caught up in getting out from under her “mother” that she initially fails to realize that there is already a loving family waiting for her. I Na is so caught up in trying to avoid pain, that she isolates an alienates herself from everyone around her. Bok Man Heum is so consumed with her dreams, that she fails as a mother and a wife. Everything has its price, even for those with special abilities. Why? Because in the end, they are people too. And the most captivating of superhero movies and shows are those that show us the “human” side of the characters. Not their superhero abilities.

Performances in this series are absolutely fantastic, but for me, there was one standout. Park So Yi (I Na) was incredible in this series. This young lady has an incredible future ahead of her! At a young age, she is already able to convey feelings and emotions with simple looks and gestures; something that many adult actors and actresses are unable to do! She makes us feel her pain of loneliness, guilt, and isolation of someone who believes herself to be an outcast, not only at her school but within her own family as well! Park So Yi is able to show us the terrible burden that I Na carries and carries alone. I was captivated every time I Na was in a scene!

If you’re looking for a very “atypical” drama, you really can’t go wrong at all with this one! It will have you laughing and crying, and perhaps help you ask yourself the important questions such as, what is really important in life? Money or love? Money or family? And also to never forget to live life in each moment.

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