Lay It On The🚇Line Time After Time...
While it could have been a lot better, I would still say hop on the train and give TWY a ride. True, the ending wasn't that difficult to figure out. Despite that, the director still manages to set the tone with tension being a focal point. The pressure continues to gear up until the very end.
The characters are likable. Ma-rin's pain was framed explicitly: Actress, Shin Mi-na, is superb. All the actors did a solid job. The side vignettes are all enjoyable. Lee Jeong-Eun has such luminosity: She is one of my favs. She shines once again as Mar-in's mother. (Check her out in Oh My Ghost-10; odd title, amazing show - Some of her scenes are astonishing. Her portfolio has impressive depth of field and is jammed with highly rated shows and movies). In addition, the villain's storyline worked well enough. The actor delivered a tangible portrayal of his descent from a respectable businessman-to-muderer with unfiltered evil saturation. Yes, he was originally a little crooked, but that wasn't in anybody's viewfinder.
Kdramas often show individuals who experience a marked character arc. Often these persons have a skewed aspect-ratio, and are initially wince generating in bursts of nervous awkwardness. Since these dramas mostly have double digit episodes, the characters may not start to improve for several of them. Patience pays when one is watching Asian entertainment. From that angle, their culture is superior to ours in the 🇺🇸. The directors take time to build up (or distort) who the individual is and then put the focus on slowly developing protags from black-and-white to full RBG color.
Ma-rin is like this. Her over-exposed childhood kept her adult self shuttered in a darkroom. She had become so insecure that it was actually challenging to watch her in the first few episodes. The audience will long for her resolve to progress from dull to glossy. ML, So-Joon, while clearly good-hearted, is also a portrait of immaturity and laziness in the beginning episodes. He's in need of some editing himself. The two leads initially display a lack of chemistry which stalls full development of their relationship. It seems that So-Joon is using Ma-rin; his motives are blurry. He is an enigma, always with a matte look on his face. The director deliberately injected acidity and unease into their interactions so that we can yearn for their love to flourish. Concern for Ma-rin will continue to grow.
Ultimately, this story is charming. It progresses from cold tones of indifference and hesitation to warmth. We glimpse a sense of optimism, amongst the tension, that things will develop further. Forward on, we ride➡
Time travel is one of my jams. These stories capture the imagination like nothing else, but logically, it's easy to encounter under-exposed plot points. TWY is not without those. The gaps in TWY are moderate to glaring. It could have easily been better. It's frustrating, actually. It's also understandable. For plot development of a time travel tale like this, there must be a collection of miscommunications and a catalog of flawed judgments. If they had each just opened their apertures a little wider it would have been a panacea. Then the show would have wrapped up by ep8. The optics regarding time travel suffer distortion. In some scenes the future is pictured just as So-Joon observed from the past. Seemingly, the message is that the future is set and laminated. In other scenes, though, that doesn't seem to be the case. For a fantasy show to be great, they Must. Draft. The. Rules. And. Stick. To. Them.
The very end displays a small snapshot of their lives 3 years hence. It's from an unflattering perspective, and it should have been deleted. Kdramas, too often, incorporate cross-processed, photo-bombed endings that must be overlooked if the show is to be enjoyed. Photographers use the term "Artifact", which is an element that diminishes the quality of an image. The snapshot of their future contains artifact that's best dropped in the wastebin.
Finally, as another reviewer deftly put it: 'It took 16 hours to learn to not run into a busy road.' The characters do things that are bothersome. While the flaws are more than minimal, the good truly does outweigh the bad. If romance is your thing, especially if romance and time travel are among your interests, than TWY should go on your watchlist. It may not be picture-perfect, nevertheless, there is beauty to behold as time goes by.
I also did a spoiler review.
IMHO...
🎬6 🎭8 🤔7 ⚡6 💓7 🦋5 🌞7
Suggested Age 12& up
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Modern Day -
Crazy Love-7.8,
99 days with the Superstar-7,
A Witch's Love-7.8,
Oh My Venus-7.4 (same FL),
Love to Hate You-8.9,
Her Private Life 8,
Touch your heart-8.2,
Oh My Ghost 10 & Our Blues-8.7 (same supporting actress),
Crash Landing On You-9.1,
Familiar Wife-8.5 (time travel),
Move To Heaven-8.4 (same ML)
It's Okay Not To Be Okay-9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
Hospital Playlist-9,
When the Camellia Blooms-8,
My Mister-9.5,
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine-9
Historical/Period -
My Only Love Song -8.7 ~ excellent comedy & time travel,
Mr. Queen 8.5 & Live Up To Your Name-7.6 (time travel),
My Sassy Girl 8.5,
Saimdang 8.5 (time slips),
The King's Affection 8.3,
Mr. Sunshine 9
Action/Crime/Sci-fi -
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1,
Sisyphus 8 + Tunnel 8.5 + Signal 8.6 (time travel),
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9 (time slips),
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4
Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance 7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Boys Over Flowers 8 ~ melodrama to the max, A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
The Bride of Habaek 7,
Heirs 7.3,
That Winter, The Wind Blows 7,
Something in the Rain 9,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love 7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
You are my destiny 6.8 cute, sweet & 1/2 padding,
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5,
Find Yourself 8.9
Consider a 🇨🇳Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10, or 🇯🇵Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5.
