A Time Called You is a fantasy romance about a woman (Jeon Yeo Bin) struggling to deal with the death of her boyfriend (Ahn Hyo Seop) that gets caught up in a series of mysterious events involving him.
Jeon Yeo Bin plays Han Jun Hee. A year after her boyfriend passed away in a accident, she still has a hard time accepting it and misses him greatly.
Ahn Hyo Seop is Koo Yeon Jun. He is Jun Hee’s boyfriend that loved her dearly and shared many wonderful memories with her, but he unexpectedly passed away.
The long awaited Korean remake of the popular Taiwanese drama Someday or One Day is finally here! The original was absolutely amazing, and I gave it a rare 10/10. I would highly recommend everyone to check it out before watching this version if you get the opportunity. You can read my review of it here.
So, I’m going to do this review a bit differently since it is an unusual chance for me to be reviewing a remake where I have actually seen the original. I want to be as fair as I can to A Time Called You, so I will give my thoughts on it as a standalone drama first, and then I will compare it to Someday or One Day.
Of course, there is no way for me to be completely unbiased here. I loved the original so much, and there was no way to fully push it out of my mind when watching this one. But I did my best to stay in the moment and think about it as if I was seeing this story for the first time. In that sense, I do think there are several things that I can talk about concerning just A Time Called You. So, here we go.
We are dropped right into the story of Han Jun Hee dealing with the loss of her boyfriend, Koo Yeon Jun, and how that has affected her life. As she struggles to move on, a mystery surrounding his death is introduced, and she gets pulled into it all.
Things move very quickly in the beginning which does make it a bit difficult to settle in to the story. It can be a bit confusing in its presentation too which sometimes makes it hard to follow. There’s a big mystery here with a lot unfolding, so this isn’t optimal.
Thankfully, after a few episodes, things do settle down, and the drama finds its groove. At this point, we get a very interesting story that constantly raises questions about what exactly is happening and why.
We get more in depth with the characters on multiple levels as there is a lot to explore with each of them. This drama has a pretty big romance at the center of the story which is something I really enjoyed. I love a good romance that spans time.
Yeon Jun and Jun Hee’s romance initially appears pretty straightforward, but it’s actually very complicated. I really enjoyed watching this couple develop as they went through so many ups and downs. Their relationship is filled with highs and lows, and it is quite the journey to go on.
There’s also our trio of friends which adds In Gyu (Kang Hoon) into the mix. It’s another set of relationships that is very complex and interesting to explore.
For such a multi-layered story with a grand romance, I wasn’t as emotionally moved as I would have liked, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I think the acting is solid all around as is the production. All in all, it’s a very good drama if you enjoy fantasy romance with a well-thought out and developed story.
MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW
Now to rip to shreds, I mean thoughtfully compare, A Time Called You to the original Someday or One Day. I would say A Time Called You is almost like the cliff notes version of Someday or One Day. The amazing story and characters are there, but they lack the charm and depth of their counterparts.
Ahn Hyo Seop and Jeon Yeo Bin did great in their roles and made the characters their own. Both gave solid performances, but they definitely lacked the deeper nuance that Alice Ke and Greg Hsu brought to the characters. Alice and Greg moved me on a deep level so many times, and that just didn’t happen in A Time Called You.
Now, that’s not just on the actors. It’s also in how the drama was presented. The drama was shortened by several episodes. This does help keep the pace moving nicely along, but it sacrificed the overall atmosphere and really digging deep with the characters.
What may have been deemed as filler or unnecessary in the original was a huge part of the world-building and allowing the characters to really embody that world. We as the viewers too were able to feel this world more concretely. I never really felt that connection in A Time Called You.
A Time Called You was also a bit messier in its presentation of the mystery and the different timelines. This is a complex story involving lots of time travel. It can be hard to execute that without too much confusion.
In particular, A Time Called You was a bit rushed in the beginning which kind of set the tone. And some of the big pay off scenes where we were learn what was actually going on didn’t have the same emotional impact. You definitely have to pay close attention in Someday or One Day to catch everything, but it was more elegant in its presentation.
Someday or One Day just had a beautiful way that it was able to handle all of the different timelines and make each feel relevant and important. I was on the edge of my seat in each one and fully invested in each version of the characters. I was put through an emotional rollercoaster with Someday or One Day in the best kind of way. While I was engaged with the story in A Time Called You, I just wasn’t nearly as invested.
The OST is also not as good in A Time Called You. The main song in Someday or One Day, Wu Bai’s Last Dance, was such a critical piece of the drama and was brimming with emotion. Gather My Tears is a good song, but it just didn’t pack the same emotional punch.
A Time Called You follows the story very closely to the original. You’ll see most of the classic scenes recreated here. I was actually mostly happy with this decision as I did feel like it stayed very true to the story.
Now, it also has the somewhat negative effect of making it nearly impossible not to compare each scene as well as the actors to its original counterpart. And this is another area where everything in A Time Called You was good, but Someday or One Day was just better.
It’s like so much of the core essence and charm of Someday or One Day got really watered down. I think this is a perfect example of how a story in two dramas can be nearly identical, but the overall presentation from the actors, to the world building, to the production makes all of the difference between a drama being a good and a drama being amazing.
Of course, I love the actual story here. It was still wonderful watching the growth of Nam Shi Heon in A Time Called You as he goes from a carefree teenager to a loving boyfriend who becomes a weary time traveler on his journey to be with Han Jun Hee. Her journey to save him is also beautiful. It’s a relationship filled with love, heartache, and tragedy.
The friendship aspect of the story between Shi Heon, In Gyu, and Min Ju/Jun Hee was presented pretty well. Again, not as emotional as the original, but overall it was good. I definitely enjoyed this rocky friendship.
A Time Called You did make a few story changes here and there. The big one was changing the villain from the psychiatrist to Yeon Jun’s friend (Min Jin Woong). Luckily, I didn’t mind this change at all as it actually didn’t alter anything big with how the story plays out, and I may even like it this way a bit better. Of course, there were other changes with varying levels of impact, but I didn’t feel like most of them altered things too much.
A Time Called You also handled Min Ju’s story pretty well in the end. I would say she was even more sympathetic in the original, but even here we are given a nice window into her plight and just how deeply she was suffering. I think this was where we see Jeon Yeo Bin at her finest as she was incredible at portraying Min Ju’s very emotional struggle.
The ending of A Time Called You smoothed things compared to the original. Someday or One Day kept things a bit more vague in the drama itself (though there is a bonus scene that clarifies things more).
A Time Called You showed us the results of the new timeline from what happened in the past to Shi Heon and Jun Hee meeting again. I thought this was done nicely and gave the drama a much more wrapped up feeling for the end.
Just like in the original, part of me still wishes that they could remember all they went through to be together, but on the other hand, it’s probably better that they don’t remember all of the tragedy.
END OF SPOILERS
So, overall, I was happy with how A Time Called You turned out. I knew it would be impossible to live up to the original, and I was worried they might completely destroy it or change too much. I was just hoping it would be solid enough that I would like it, and luckily, that’s what it did.
It definitely had its flaws, but it still presented a unique and engaging time travel romance that was good to watch. If Someday or One Day was amazing, A Time Called You was good. In every respect, it’s like a step down, but it gets enough right to still be enjoyable.
My Rating: 7.5/10
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