365: Repeat the Year is a time travel mystery thriller that tells the story of 10 people who get the chance to go back in time one year to change their lives, but things don’t go as planned and a suspenseful mystery is introduced as they begin dying one by one.
Lee Joon Hyuk plays Ji Hyun Woo who is a violent crimes detective. After losing a close colleague, he wants nothing more than to go back in time and stop his murder. Things quickly get complicated though, and he ends up working to solve a mystery that threatens him and his time traveling companions.
Nam Ji Hyun is Shin Ga Hyun. She’s a popular writer whose life took a turn for the worse after an accident landed her in a wheelchair. She takes the opportunity to go back in time and change things but gets caught up in the same situation as Hyun Woo and teams up with him to figure things out.
Then we have Kim Jee Soo as Lee Shin. She’s a mysterious psychiatrist who brings everyone together and gives them the chance to go back in time. Little is known about her, but it soon becomes clear that she has ulterior motives.
A time travel mystery thriller? Sign me up! I had to check out 365: Repeat the Year since I’m so fond of the genre as well as Nam Ji Hyun. The drama quickly hooked me as it whisked a group of desperate people back in time to change their lives. Of course, nothing is ever easy, and they soon begin dying off.
We then get a complex mystery to unravel with plenty of thrills. This is a story that is woven together quite nicely and has many layers to peel back as it goes along. I was very curious as to why these things were happening and how this group of people would get out of this time travel situation gone wrong. The 24 half hour episodes also allowed for swift pacing which was a bonus.
As the show progresses, the stakes continue to increase as the characters find themselves in a desperate situation. If you like twists and turns, then this is the drama for you! There are several really nice reveals as the story takes some unexpected turns. Lots of surprises are in store.
A bit of a negative was that while all of the characters were interesting, I didn’t develop a strong bond with most of them. Aside from Hyun Woo and Ga Hyun, much of the other characters’ backgrounds were very slowly introduced to keep the mystery element high. This didn’t help me to really connect with them for a long while.
But it did aid in that big mystery and added a lot to the suspense element of the drama. This worked particularly well as we got deeper into the drama and saw everything come together and understood how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit. I definitely became more invested as the story went along.
For those who are wondering, there really isn’t any romance in the drama. It’s a near constant life and death situation, so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to delve into that sort of thing.
There is a really great friendship between Hyun Woo and Ga Hyun though with just a hint of romance as a possibility. It was a nice relationship to see develop nonetheless, and they made a very good team.
Time travel dramas usually have a few loop holes here and there, and the same could be said for this one, but for the most part, everything came together really nice in the end. We get answers to the questions as the mystery is revealed, and I was pleased with how things worked out. The ending was very satisfying overall.
365: Repeat the Year is a great watch if you’re looking for mystery and suspense. If you like time travel, it’s even better. While the drama didn’t give me a ton of feels, I quite enjoyed all of the thrills and seeing a well-written mystery play out with a unique spin on the time travel genre.
My Rating: 7.5/10
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Kdrama Kisses 
Planning on watching this after I watch the last ep of The King: Eternal Monarch. Btw, have you watched Extracurricular!?
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It was a good one with a nice helping of thrills 🙂 I haven’t watched Extracurricular yet. It is on the List, but I have to really be in the mood for the really dark dramas, hehe. Did you watch it?
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I did! And I was really anticipating every episode. 😉
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Oooh, that’s good to hear! It has me even more excited for when I finally do watch it 🙂
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This one is on my plan list. The premise sounds intriguing and I like both the leads. Plus, a positive review 😀
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It’s definitely a solid drama, especially for the genre. Hope you enjoy it 🙂
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Glad to see that you liked this one.I love Nam Ji Hyun and was on the fence about this one but when you wrote “there really isn’t any romance in the drama. It’s a near constant life and death situation” I knew that would be a hard pass for me. Thanks for the excellent review – it helps so much with my watch list 🙂
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It was a really solid drama and a good one for the thriller/suspense genre 🙂 I definitely would have enjoyed some romance in the midst of everything, but I did still really enjoy Lee Joon Hyuk and Nam Ji Hyun’s relationship and teamwork. Glad to help you whittle down that watch list though 🙂
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My KDramatic Review on:
*365: Repeat the Year
When I knew about Nam Ji Hyun and Lee Jong Hyuk’s new drama, I wasn’t very interested, at first. But when I got to learn that it is a time travel mystery themed drama and having read its unique premise I got very thrilled then. I was not very fond of Lee Jong Hyuk before (since I only saw him once, in Are You Human Too (8.5/10) ) but is he always this cute? 😍
While I got to say Nam Ji Hyun is quite flexible actress having portrayed her character in here convincingly.
So talking about the drama it was quite unique as a time travel themed one.
It got low ratings from the viewers but remember that ratings aren’t everything you know. I did have a pretty much headache playing detectives with our main leads: a male detective and a hit serial killer themed webtoon female writer. While I always wanted to try to uncover the whys and hows of the drama, I eventually decided to just have fun watching it without thinking too much and with no using of my logics. And because of it, it made into a very fun watch! I knew there were few loopholes or things so hard to explain, but it doesn’t matter to me (And I don’t really even know what loopholes I am referring to, I just felt like there exist) I already considered it when I decided to watch it.
This is a kind of drama that would be enjoyed more if you don’t force logics and the like while watching. Some of the plots and twists could be eye-rolling, depending on how you invest in it. Gladly it worked for me, thus instead of my eyes rolling, it’s my mouth that was in awe whenever a plot twist comes one after another. I did enjoy it very much (and would have enjoyed if the drama is at least a 16 episodes (or 32 half-hour episodes)). Though I felt like the finalé was like being wrapped up too quickly, it was still satisfying.
Overall 365: Repeat the Year is like a never-resting mystery thriller fantasy with lots of things going on in the drama that would make you think too much (or think nothing at all).
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
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I’m happy you enjoyed this one too 🙂 It really was a unique one for a time travel drama, and that is difficult to do! It had a good amount of thrills and great pacing.
I really liked both Nam Ji Hyun and Lee Joon Hyuk here. I love Nam Ji Hyun, and then I have kind of a soft spot for Lee Joon Hyuk since he had a very memorable role early on in my drama watching as a prosecutor in City Hunter. He left a big impact there 🙂
I think this is the kind of drama that is best enjoyed by just rolling with it. It really makes all of the plot twists a lot of fun. And I too was thrilled that we got a great ending 🙂
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I gave it an 8. There were times when it lagged, but I really enjoyed the twists that came with it. It was honestly predictable towards the ending, but it worked out well.
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Looks like we were pretty close on this one 🙂 It did have a few laggy spots, but the more unique time travel premise, thrills, and decent twists really made it a fun one. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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Well…you certainly convinced me to check this one out, that’s for sure. Also like the fact that it’s half hour episodes. That makes for a nice change of pace, and it’s good to fit one in right before sleeping for instance (although there is the risk of course then that I will just keep adding episodes lol😂).
In all seriousness, I like the premise of this one. So you can be sure I will check this one out! Thanks for the recommendation!😃
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Well…unfortunately I can’t watch this one. Not even with my VPN. I need a VIKI plus pass for it, and that’s only available in the States. Oh well😔
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Well darn! That’s surprising. I know a lot of shows that are Viki Plus because they are newer eventually become available on Standard after awhile, so maybe keep checking on it every so often to see if it becomes available.
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I was hoping this one might pique your interest 🙂 Yes, the 24 half hour eps really worked in this drama’s favor and helped it move along quite nicely. Although like you said, there is a definite risk of just continuing to hit the play button for the next episode with a drama like this, hehe. I do hope you enjoy it when you do get a chance to watch it 🙂
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Yeah, I hope it will come available at some point. Viki keeps adding and deleting things so sometimes that’s frustrating (just like Netflix). I was watching Three Days a few months back and had only three more episodes to go and then it got deleted. Ugh…that was so frustrating lol 😂
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Yeah, it’s hard enough to keep of with all of the sites and then the sites themselves are always going through changes. Ugh! That’s awful. I wish the streaming sites would make it more clear when a show was being deleted. Even when not taking a few month break shows can just disappear on you because it’s not easy to see when they are expiring 😛
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Haha, yeah that was very annoying to say the least, especially since I only had so few episodes to go and it was really good at the same time. I only hope they rotate it back at some point in the future 😊😊
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