Nine: Nine Time Travels

Time stories in movies or TV shows are such that when they are done well, they are golden. Such movies like "Back to the Future" or "Terminator" are such examples of writing that gets it right.

However, when they are done poorly, they are usually a hotbed of contriving, convoluted messes. And "Nine: Nine Time Travels" is one that gets most everything wrong.

You'd think that it's bad enough to have plot holes so huge that you could drive a Sherman Tank through it, but the performances from nearly everyone in the cast is one-dimensional, and in some cases, so goofy and silly that you can't help but roll your eyes and laugh.

You will also laugh out loud at the worst "hammer vs. baseball bat" sequence ever shot. You also get a man who's struck by a car, while inside of a phone booth. If he wasn't killed on impact, he'd be rendered unable to do much of anything, assuming he was even conscious. And yet, he is able to record five messages on his phone, and have a conversation with a little girl who laughingly asks, "Mister, are you hurt?" Covered in blood, even an eight-year-old wouldn't have to ask such a pointless question. These are just two examples of characters and situations being written so badly that you can't help but chuckle. Believe me, there are plenty more in this series!

Any time you sacrifice rational character actions for the sake of the plot, you've already made a mistake. This is basic plot development 101!

The acting by Jin-Wook Lee (Sun Woo)is largely unimpressive. He manages a stoic look in nearly every situation that he's in, and a goofy smile that doesn't look real or genuine. It's like he has to try...and fails miserably!

Yun-hie Jo (Min-Young Joo) is either flirting (badly), crying (at least have of the time) or speaking in a pouty tone that is beyond grating. Her romantic scenes with Jin-Wook Lee completely lack chemistry and the girl has no clue how to do a kissing scene. Tight-lipped, it's almost pathetic.

Still, the worst performance easily rests with Dong Hwan-Jung (Jin Chul-Choi), the nemesis of our story. He has only one facial expression for nearly every situation. I don't believe he is intentionally trying to be goofy, but that's how he comes across. He is unimpressive and unbelievable in the role. I'm not sure that they could have found a worse actor for this part.

I've now watched a number of Korean series. Descendants of the Sun is still, by far, one of the best series I've ever seen. "Stranger" is nearly equal to it. This series was a complete waste of my time. I will say that, despite the sub-par/terrible performances by the actors, the story held my interest for a time before everything fell apart.

If you want to see one of the best "time travel" shows in recent years, watch Japan's "Erased." You can find it on Netflix, and it is absolutely terrific!

Do yourself a favor, and go with something else. Stay clear of "Nine: Nine Time Travels." I'll wager that given twice the time, they'd still never get this one right.

Attractive leads, (although I thought she was too talkative. But when the story required her to play more serious scenes, and she became less hyper, you might say, I appreciated her acting more. I think though the best performance came from Jeon No-Min as the brother.

I was in Nepal when i was a lad. The first scene of the drama hence attracts me to stay over till the end. The breathtaking snowy mountain, the fresh air... Let me recall the fond memory in Nepal. And my six sense is right. The drama turns into a terrific one that I have not ever encountered.

The plot is creative and logical. An atypical time travel drama. The male lead can go back to the past and change the history. He hope to save his brother's life through altering the past, but ending up creating more fuss for the present life. He has to go back to the past and fix the problem he bring about.

Acting of male lead is superb. Different from the typical oppa his skin is blacker, making him less korean. The female lead is not very overwhelmingly beautiful and girlish, but is boyly with her short hair, refreshing, young and look innocent.

I would say this kdrama is not so korean. Its emphasis in history changing storyline instead of the loveline, the foreign look of lead couple, the Nepalese view background, all make the series a star shining out from the many kdramas i have come across.

You must not miss it.

Nine Times Time Travel is a 20 episode Korean TV show that aired in early 2013. This is another modern Korean fantasy drama, albeit one that it is unusually understated and low key in comparison to most of its more melodramatic &/or romantic brethren.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Here's your basic story: A man receives a visit from his older brother shortly before said brother passes away. The older brother appeared to be insane during the visit and was claiming he had found a way to alter time. The man goes to retrieve his older brother's body and investigates his death, and he soon finds that his brother was not crazy at all; he actually had discovered the means to travel back in time via some magical incense sticks. The younger brother collects the remaining incense sticks (9 of them), and thus now possesses nine chances to alter the past. Light a stick and you'll go back in time to an exact set date for 30 minutes until the incense burns out, then you're zapped backed to the present day (where whatever you've just done in the past is instantly reflected in the present).

The story focuses primarily on the young brother, who experienced a family tragedy when he was a teen that forever impacted his life and everyone he loves. He therefore decides to use the time travel incense to change crucial events in his family's history in order to prevent this tragedy from happening in the first place. He has the best of intentions, but altering the past soon becomes much more complicated than he imagined. Every change he makes for the better in the past creates unexpected future results, and he soon finds that various friends & family members lead vastly different lives or no longer recognize him in the present. As such, he keeps going back to the past to try to undo the unintended future changes he created, but things only seem to be getting worse and soon are spiraling out of control, and, he's quickly running out of magic incense sticks to rectify the situation.

From there on in, it's just a matter of seeing if this guy can somehow set things right before time runs out. Moral of the story: It's probably best to not mess around with the past no matter what your intentions are.

Lee Jin Wook plays the lead and primary focal point of the show, and he's quite good in what is an understated role. Everyone else is mostly a supporting character, and they're pretty good in their roles too (particularly the love interest in the present, and the younger versions of everybody in the past). Although, I must say I could've done without some of the overacting from the evil scientist dude and the lead's doctor friend...and, while I'm on the subject, I've never understood why the directors of some these KTV shows would want or allow actors to perform in this manner. In this medium, overacting occurs far too often with the some of the side characters; constantly flashing a clumsy menacing stare or wildly waving your arms around does not help make a character more evil or funnier, respectively. It doesn't work and its distracting more than anything else, and you usually end up occasionally chuckling at the supposed bad guy and growing annoyed of the guy who's supposed to be the friendly comic relief. A lot less brooding & mugging, and a little more subtlety for these 2 particular characters is definitely in order here, as is also true with many other non-protagonist characters on many other Korean dramas.

This show doesn't seem to have a whole lot of money to throw around, but it never looks overly cheap; productions values are solid for its given budget, but there is very little excess in any form or fashion to be had here. It's paced well enough, and the story & writing is quite good as well; it almost seems that this was written in advance (and, not "on the fly", like most K-dramas are). The interactions across time, between the younger and older versions of the same protagonist, are quite well done in particular.

There's definitely a minimalistic feel to this entire show (which I found to be somewhat refreshing for this genre), and this approach extends itself to the story as well; it retains many familiar melodramatic elements & themes & story lines that you'll find in this genre, but it does so w/o love quadrangles, meticulously styled auxiliary antagonists, etc. For Korean TV, this is basically a no frills drama about the implications of trying to change your past, and overall, it is quite good at accomplishing this.

Summary: This is a subdued, and rather well done, KTV time travel melodrama that I rather enjoyed for the most part. Yeah, it's got some flaws, but what K-drama doesn't? I can see that it might not play all that well to some of the masses that most K-dramas are geared towards, as it's just neither a very flashy, sexy, or romantic soap opera type of show. There's nothing wrong with flashy/sexy/romantic K-dramas, and I like some of those shows too, but if you don't necessarily need or want a show like that, while still getting your K-drama fix on, this show might work quite well for you.

Bottom Line: 8.5 out of 10 stars!Very Well Recommended!

A hidden gem about time travels. As K-drama, it has everything , great cast : romance, bromance ( the best ever), action. You can laugh and you can cry sometimes.