Please Come Back, Mister

돌아와요 아저씨, Dolawayo Ajussi

AKA -  Come Back, Mister
Based on the novel "Tsubakiyama Kacho no Nanokakan" by Jiro Asada
Writer -  Noh Hye young
Genre -  Comedy, Romance
Network -  SBS
Episodes -  16
Release Date -  2016, Feb - Apr
Cinderella Plot -  No

Cast

Synopsis

After being worked to death, Kim Young soo (Kim In kwon) gets the chance to live a charmed life when he possesses Lee Hae joon (Rain), a hottie and all-around perfect guy. Meanwhile, Hong Nan (Oh Yeon seo) starts behaving as if she’s possessed by a man, and Shin Da hye (Lee Min jung) — a widow with new romantic appetites — turn Hae Joon’s department store upside down. ~Dramafever

Review

The convoluted synopsis would confuse even those who have watched, and for those of you who haven't -- yet -- take my word for it, you're in for a treat.

This is really about two men under entirely different sets of circumstances who end up on a train bound for the afterlife when they strike the same deal to return in order to set some things to right before they'll accept their ultimate fate.

Kim Young soo is a diminutive corporate man working his diminutive ass off for a flagging department store. He's married to a pretty woman and they have a young daughter while also being responsible for his aging father.

Han Ki tak is a single man, former gangpae, running a successful bistro when he is once again caught in a scandal with a former beauty queen/actress married to a psychopath, and the psychopath just happens to be President of the flagging department store.

These two are permitted to return to Earth for a short period of time, but they return as new identities: Young soo is now Rain and Ki tak is now Oh Yeon seo, a woman.

Their individual missions are to protect the women they love and right the wrongs done them without being able to reveal themselves to anyone.

And so the story goes . . .

This was filled with laughter, suspense, and even a few tearful instances, but overall, it was a delight to watch.

It made Rain's comeback after serving time in the military worth the wait, and knowing he's engaged to an older woman lent a bit of spice to his role.

Drawbacks 

included the sappy soundtrack overwrought with anxiety-ridden melodramatic strings that overpowered each scene.

The to-be-expected recaps and redundancy were only mildly irksome, but they are included in this sixteen-episode melodrama/comedy/romance.

All the guys were Ken dolls, including Rain.

Yes, it's fantasy, but toward the end they wiped any memory of Ki tak from everyone's mind, which makes zero sense and would imply he never existed in the first place -- which means he died and returned for nothing, making his role entirely pointless.

And, when Young soo is mowed down by a car, he's injured and bleeding, ends up in a hospital, and with hours to go before 'death' -- so -- at this point in the story, was I supposed to believe that the dead are capable of invading the body of the living?

The subs were laughable, too. Definitely one instance where a foreigner can assume what they are reading isn't entirely what is being said.

unfold

gouge

restraining

Quandaries

Yeah, Rain's still hot and still got it goin' on, but maybe because of his short do, I couldn't help noticing his lazy left eye. This seems to be a Korean actor phenomenon, so maybe it isn't as big a deal over there as it is here.

I kept worrying he'd stroke out at some point.

During the above-mentioned hospital scene -- and I bring this up because it occurs in countless other Korean dramas -- Young soo is lying on a hospital bed in what looks to be an emergency room setting. He's just been struck by a car with a closed-head injury, but he's just LYING there . . . no oxygen mask, no IV, no heart-rate or pulse monitors hooked up . . . not even a dutiful nurse or curious orderly poking and prodding the patient.

Maybe that kind of 'realistic' is a bit too expensive for the props department fund  or something.

Screen Shots

Ra Mi Ran as Ma Ya

Lee Tae Hwan as Choi Seung Jae

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I Remember You

너를 기억해 / Neoreul Gieokhae

AKA -  Hello Monster
Genre - Police, Thriller, Mystery
Episodes -  16
Network -  KBS2
Broadcast -  2015, June to Aug
Cinderella -  No

Cast

Plot

Lee Hyun (Seo In guk) is an excellent criminal profiler, but he possesses a spiteful tongue. Cha Ji an (Jang Na ra) is an elite detective. She observes Lee Hyun. They work on solving cases and develop a romantic relationship. ~ AsianWiki (w/edits)

A passionate detective with a strong track record has been investigating a mysterious former FBI profiler for a long while. They both somehow end up in the same investigation crime team which sparks their romance. ~ DramaWiki (w/edits)

Review

I watched this last year and again just recently.

There is no romance.

Well, they kiss in the final scenes,

but the rest of the time it was more like this,

However, it stars two of my favorite actors as the leads and so-called love interests.

This is a crime thriller detective mystery involving the two leads, who knew one another as children and suffered similar fates which tied them back then and now.

Two young boys witness their mother's brutal murder, and later, when their father (an early-days police profiler/psychologist) is left to take care of them, he ends up suffering the same fate as his wife, leaving the boys orphaned.

Lee Hyun (Seo In guk) and his little brother, Jung Sun ho (Park Bo gum) are separated at that point, and Lee Hyun ends up living with a female officer from the same precinct where his father used to work.

Lee Hyun grows up to be a Profiler with the FBI and returns to Korea after receiving a cryptic and unsigned message that takes him back to that fateful time in his childhood.

He's never forgotten his little brother and has every intention of searching for him now that he's returned to Seoul.

Lee hyun joins an elite task force that works homicide, along with their new team captain, Kang Eun hyeok (Lee Cheun hee) and the resident forensics specialist, Lee Joon ho (Choi Won young).

Later, we meet attorney Jung Sun ho, who instantly recognizes his older brother while Lee hyun does not (even if Lee hyun is a genius).

The drama covers a few cases while also delving a bit deeper into the past, and most of the cases involve or are indirectly related to abused children.

This was slow and methodical, so if you're not into that kind of thing, you won't enjoy this story because it was a whole lot of back & forth, rehash, and creeping their way toward the inevitable.

While also working desperately hard to solve a few other crimes that come the task force's way.

Despite the dead father's twisted notions about which of his two sons would eventually become neurotic and psychopath (even if he was a professor of psychology), I wasn't convinced that Lee Hyun could turn out to be as well-adjusted and 'normal' as they made him be.

Even if it was the writer's attempt to show us how cold and unattached he'd become, his inability to conform to social norms would be the least of his problems after everything he endured as a child,
but . . .

Lee Chun hee was there for comedic relief that tended not to work because of the dark undertone of the story line.

There were two red herrings tossed in as well, but I managed to figure out who the real culprit was almost immediately, so the writer's attempt to throw me off the scent didn't work.

Anything not involving a Cinderella plot interests me, so I gave this one high marks for that reason and because the story itself proved really interesting (despite some glaringly apparent reality errors).

The subs were okay, but very childish (Viki team) and with a lot of elementary grammar issues that made me laugh.

Also, in the middle of nearly every episode, they played this high-pitch whine sound that really started to bug me and give me a mild migraine.

The soundtrack wasn't too bad, though.

Oh, and there's this

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