As we often find out over the course of our life, time is the most important currency of all. As is the case with all currency, it loses value when you have too much of it. When we dive into See You In My 19th Life, Ban Ji-eum (Shin Hye-sun) view time with some disdain. After all, she’s lived for over a 1000 years, having been reincarnated around 18 times with perfect recollection of each of her past lives. She’s exhausted: every time a life ends, she prays it would be her last.
But what’s that adage? You only realize how important something is when it slips out of your hands, or threatens to, at least. In her 18th life, Ban Ji-eum (then 12-year-old Yoon Joo-won) meets Moon Seo-ha (Ahn Bo-hyun): a seemingly uppity rich brat she makes friends with and eventually develops affections for. When her life is cut short due to a car accident, however, Joo-won makes a different wish – to be reborn once more and find Seo-ha in her next life.
Her life as Ban Ji-eum isn’t easy, but she perseveres and works her way from the ground up to the strategy team of MI Hotel – of which Seo-ha is now executive director. Her goal now is to see her love story to fulfilment by getting Seo-ha to recognise her. There’s also the question of uncovering the secret of her death in the previous life, which may have been premeditated after all.
While the drama certainly stays faithful to the larger plot points of its webtoon origins, having the writers add their own twists certainly makes for a fresher, more fleshed out execution. Premiere among these is the dynamic between Ban Ji-eum and Kim Ae-kyung (Cha Chung-hwa), the owner of a small restaurant and (technically) Ji-eum’s niece from her 17th life. Shin Hye-sun and Cha Chung-hwa reunite after the massive success of Mr. Queen, but their easy, light-hearted banter makes it look like they never left at all.
What we also appreciate is the development of Ji-eum’s character – at least what we have seen of it so far. Having gone from one life to next, Ji-eum develops an insular, oft selfish point of view. In her 19th life, however, she’s surrounded by people whose lives were permanently altered by her deaths in her previous lives. Facing the very human consequences of death from a different perspective smoothes out the edges, bringing out heart-wrenching instances as she grapples with longing for the people she thought she’d left behind. It makes her progressively more likeable as the show goes on.
In contrast, Ahn Bo-hyun as Moon Seo-ha is refreshingly restrained and endearingly naive at times. A tumultuous life at home, the loss of his mother and Joo-won as a child, and hearing issues sustained in the accident that claimed the latter’s life have understandably left him with abandonment and anxiety issues. He has never been able to forget Joo-won, which is why Ban Ji-eum’s bullish insistence on socialising with him leaves him curious and afraid, lest he be betraying the memory of his first love.
One particular bone – carried over from the webtoon as well – we have to pick with the story is the very obvious romanticising of borderline stalking. In her 19th life, Ban Ji-eum is so focused on finding and being with Moon Seo-ha that she tracks him down and follows him around as a child. As an adult, she makes no secrets about why she’s leaving a cushy job to move to the strategy department – the premise may have defied the laws of time and space, but it still is uncomfortable watching Ji-eum’s actions on screen.
Points are also docked for some tried tropes that creep into the story – the evil stepmother, for example, or the classic miscommunication sub-plot where the female lead mistakes the male lead’s relationship with another woman as romantic. If you can look past that, however, See You In My 19th Life makes for a perfectly heartwarming watch. It’s a fast-paced story dotted with humor and drama alike, balancing out the heavier questions in moments of contemplation and development.
See You In My 19th Life is available to stream on Netflix