18 again

i'm running out of series to watch so i decided to give this drama a try. i've heard so many praises for this drama, but since i don't quite like the female main actress, i've been postponing to watch it. anyway, since i don't have anything to watch, i decided to give it a try. after all, this is a drama that landed lee do hyun as a young rising star beside song kang this year. anyway, you might guess from the title that it sounds similar to an american movie, and you're right. it's an adaptation from 17 again, starred by zac efron.

 title: 18 again

cast: lee do hyun, kim ha neul, yoon sang hyun, wi ha joon, roh jeong eui, ryeoun

genre: family drama, a bit romantic 

jung da jung (kim ha neul) and hong dae yong (yoon sang hyun) were married since their high school days by accident and they had fraternal twins, hong shi ah (roh jeong eui) and hong shi woo (ryeoun). as like other couple, they have their ups and downs, but never in dae yong's mind that he would get divorced. suddenly da jung asked for divorce. even worse, he didn't get promotion at work. his family was insulted as well so he got angry at his superior and was fired right away. he has been drinking and found himself back at the high school where he used to go. he was shooting balls and then went to his bestfriend's house when the next morning he woke up in his 18 years old body. couldn't figure out how to get back to his old body, he decided to re do his life as a high schooler. his best friend, go deok jin (kim kang hyun) helped him to get into his old high school, the same one from 18 years ago, as well as the same school as his twins. 

in his 18 years old body, he found out truth about his family that he didn't know before. he realized lately he's been quite distance with his kids and wife as well. even though he had tried to find out why, he failed. but in his 18 years old body, he managed to find out that his daughter got a part time job, his son was bullied at school. he decided to get closer to his kids while he's being their "friend". apparently, shi woo was interested in basketball but was afraid because he was afraid he would fail like his dad. everyone kept reminding him of his dad's failure when his dad was on top of his basketball career. he was bullied by basketball captain goo ja sung (hwang in yeop) as well. however, dae yong managed to stop the bullying and helped shi woo gained more confidence in basketball and managed to get into the school team.

i think i'll write for each person instead of the chronological in the drama as it's quite confusing because the drama had so many throwbacks. okay.. let's talk about shi woo first. after he made into school's team, we found out that the current basketball coach, choi il kwon (lee ki woo) was dirty. he pressured all parents from the basketball team to give him bribes if they want their kids to play in the team, or to be placed as certain position and be promoted to university coach. including ja sung's dad. ja sung found out that his dad has been paying bribe to the coach and confronted him about it. his dad simply said that ja sung was not good enough so the coach had asked him to pay. accidentally, shi woo saw when ja sung's dad hit him when ja sung stood up to his dad, and it made him embarrassed since shi woo found out that he got his place in the team because of the bribe. but after dae yong stopped him, he became a bit okay with shi woo, especially since he had a crush on shi ah. anyway, il kwon also pressure da jung and deok jin as well, but both of them refused to give him money even though he threatened them. da jung even got the courage to record il kwon but she was failed at first. but later, together with deok jin and chu ae rin (lee mi do), another old friend from high school's day that became a lawyer, they managed to get all other parents on board and reported il kwon and got rid of the bribery for good. we saw in throwbacks that il kwon's dad also paid bribe to their old coach, while dae yong's dad didn't. that made il kwon hated dae yong since it undermined his confidence (the feeling is similar to ja sung's). we also found out that il kwon told da jung that several years into college days, dae yong was offered a place in the university team although he didn't go to college, but he declined the offer because at that time, shi woo was sick and they needed extra money for his treatment, so dae yong decided to decline the offer to work as part-timer more. and that broke da jung's heart since she felt she was the obstruction of dae yong's basketball career. long story short, shi woo aced all year long and managed to score a place in university, the goal that has been dae yong's dream. while dae yong/goo woo young (lee do hyun) told shi woo that he was going back to the US and told shi woo to make friends with other players in the team (at that time, it was between two of them that would get the place, but since woo young was going to the US, the place naturally fell into shi woo).

while shi ah was caught smoking at first. she told their teacher that it was her mother's which shocked dae yong since da jung wasn't a smoker. apparently, the e-cigarettes was meant for dae yong, but since they were fighting, she decided to keep it but shi ah saw her trying the cigarette and stole it without da jung's knowing. dae yong was taken aback because da jung has told him to stop smoking, but she bought him the e-cigarette that he was going to buy. shi ah also got a part time job because she wanted to be a makeup artist. she saw that makeup artist had quite a variety in their jobs so she didn't want to burden her parents with the academy tuition, so she tried to make her own money. but da jung found out about it and accepted shi ah's decision and decided to support her. dae yong as well, but in woo young's form. he was glad that the reason was not for extra pocket money to spend on taxi fares. however, there were some funny moments of woo young and shi ah, as woo young showed his care to shi ah as his dad, but since he was in 18 years old body, his affection was misunderstood. ja sung thought woo young as his competitor and it was funny since woo young told ja sung that shi ah liked to be proposed in public like school festival when in reality she didn't. ja sung asked shi ah in public like woo young suggested and it seemed like shi ah accepted him at first, but after the chaos at the festival, shi ah rejected him flat saying she had someone else in her mind. it's overheard by shi ah's friend since childhood, seo ji ho (choi bo min), who also had feeling for shi ah. however, ji ho managed to find out that woo young was shi ah's dad in his younger body, and that gave him the confidence to confess his feeling to shi ah.

now the main part, da jung. da jung has always dreamt to be an announcer. she managed to finish her college even though she had postponed it due to giving birth to the twins and raising them. however, since she started late, she has been rejected here and there due to her age. she only managed to be freelanced announcer. however, she landed her gig at JBC through their blind test. however, people found out about her past, that she was a mother of a high schooler twins and she was divorcing her husband and that didn't work well for her career. even though she proved that she had the quality, she kept struggling to keep her position because so many gossips around her. she saw woo young couple times because he was friend with her kids, but she was confused by his attention. he was always there when she had a bad time and cheered her up. at first she suspected that he was da yeong, but deok jin assured her that woo young was his son as it was impossible for a 38 years old man to be a 18 years old boy. anyway, she met ye ji hoon (wi ha joon), a famous baseball athlete that was shi ah and dae yong's favorite on her first assignment. ji hoon was attracted by her confidence and determined to win her heart. he seemed nice, when a news broke out that he had a child. apparently, the child was his niece, daughter of his late brother that he adopted. however, he struggled to win his niece's heart. and da jung seemed easy to get along with his niece. with da jung's help, he managed to get closer to his niece. however, we found out later that apparently dae yong and ji hoon's late brother had met. both dae yong and ji hoon's brother was involved in the same car accident. dae yong saved the ji hoon's niece but failed to save ji hoon's brother as his car was exploded before he could save him. after finding out that his niece's saviour was da jung's ex-husband, he suddenly withdrew and told da jung if she was about to get back to her husband, he would accept her decision.

at the end, we saw that da jung after finding out so many hidden truth about her husband, found out that woo young was dae yong. their relationship was getting better, but da jung didn't want dae yong to fail again. she pushed woo young to join the last basketball championship, the same one that 18 years old dae yong failed to attend to pursue da jung. while dae yong was desperate to get back to his 37 years old body so he could get back to his family. da jung didn't want to be the same reason behind dae yong's failure, but dae yong said that he was the one that choose his family over his career and he would choose the same choice again. and suddenly he was back in his old body and reconciled with his family. at end we saw that they remarried, though their marriage was still not smooth as silk, but they managed to keep their communication in check. dae yong opened a basketball school, da jung was success as announcer. both shi ah and shi woo managed to get their dreams as well. 

what i like:

- solid acting from all actors and actress. though i would say that both shi ah and shi woo were a bit stiff in their acting, but it's still acceptable. 

- enough laugh from deok jin, chu ae rin and ms. ok as well. it was amusing to see a homeroom teacher that was a game nerd as deok jin. and how funny watching his employee getting confused seeing woo young and deok jin interaction that was faraway from normal father-son relationship.

- lots of family story relatable to real life. get ready for lots of tear-breaking scenes.

what i don't like:

- gee.. kim ha neul. not because she was bad, but somehow for me she didn't look like a motherly figure. and how they would dress her so hip. like the first time she went for her job, she wore short skirt. only after woo young pointed that it was too short for her that she changed into midi length skirt. somehow i wondered why korean dramas always dress their actress with short skirts. shouldn't they portray someone suitable for their age? being decent can still be stylish as well, isn't it?

- another story that a wife in their mid age especially the one that already has kids can't get back in her career. remember "romance is a bonus book"? it brought up the same issue. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommended for: someone who like shorter family drama, combined with a bit romantic comedy as well. don't worry, there were some pretty boys to entertain you in this film.