My Perfect Stranger

Kim Dong-wook plays Yoon Hae-joon who is a successful news anchor who one fateful evening stumbles across a time travelling car. He uses it to go into the future but finds he is murdered by a serial killer who has links to his parents lives from 1987. He returns to the present and finds an innocent man has been serving time for the killings so decides to go back to 1987 to find the real culprit. He then crashes the car whilst going back after trying to avoid a pedestrian, which traps them both in the past. The pedestrian Baek Yoon-young (Jin Ki-joo) an unhappy proof writer whose mother lives in the same village in 1987. In the initial episodes they both conceal the reasons they are there but over time they come to trust and rely on each other. It is a clever plot with superb acting from the entire cast and captures the family dynamics and how children are never aware of their parents sufferings.

The story is complicated and dynamic but never messy. The layer of the story is thick and strong, so the writer can go deep, get out, and direct other ways without confusing the audience. Everybody is suspicious in the beginning (even Yoon-young's mother and father), but it eliminates suspects list one by one and still maintains thrill and tension till the end. What a balance. I love humor and wit sprinkled on top of the very important subject with heart-wrenching narrative. Ironically, the first two episodes and the last one are my least favorite because they have some logical errors in the timeline, but the level of attraction and concentration once the writer and the audience share common understanding is another level. Every character matters and plays an important part in the plot regardless of screen minutes.

Amazing drama: very intriguing plot with surprising twists. It's not annoying as many dramas that forcefully try to squeeze tears out of you by adding unnecessary fake tragedy (the most annoying and vulgar in that sense was The Queen of Tears). There are a few inconsistencies of the period they try to portray, like when they take a single-use chopsticks out of plastic package (I'm pretty sure they did not exist in 1987) or don't get surprised when they see a desktop computer, but it doesn't ruin the vintage vibe. I like that the characters are not over-performing (I don't like that in some dramas they exaggerate emotions screaming or crying in hysterics all the time). The feelings between main leads are mature and natural, no awkward kissing with stone-cold face or other cliché romantic actions. Also, I like the type of drama, where the life of everybody improves giving a good taste of happy ending like it was in The King of Land.

Good drama for the Who-Done-It aspect of the drama. It's kind of corny overall with a time machine going back in time to solve the murder step by step but the twists and turns along the way with the clues that keep getting revealed make it interesting, although the violence in the show is too much for me thus not rating it higher. Could have been more romance between the ML and FL than there has been up to this point too IMO. Some twists at the end keep you guessing to the last bit, and more is divulged where the time machine came from and who the mysterious call was from when he first was using the time machine through the tunnel.

Korean Drama " My Perfect Stranger " is a time travel mystery drama with a suspenseful plot.

The drama handles the time travel perfectly without overcomplicating things. The family drama was also quite touching and often offered a lot of emotional scenes.

The mystery, in addition, was intriguing and wasn't easy to guess who was the serial killer.

However, the romance was not necessary for the story, as the plot focused more on solving the criminal case, thus, having the two main characters sharing only a few romantic moments together, which didn't justify the love story.

On the other hand, the performances were quite enjoyable.

So, overall, seven out of ten.