Reborn Rookie is about a CEO (Son Hyun Joo) who gets into an accident and swaps souls with a soccer player (Lee Jun Young) leading him to become a new employee at his own company.
Son Hyun Joo plays Kang Yong Ho. He is the successful chairman of a top conglomerate in the midst of a family power battle. His life takes a drastic turn when he swaps souls with a young man wronged by his family, and he has to start from the bottom to change things for the better.
Lee Jun Young is Hwang Jun Hyeon who is a promising soccer player whose career is destroyed due to an accident. After he swaps souls, his fate is left in the hands of Chairman Kang.
Then we have Lee Joo Myung as Kang Bang Geul. She is Chairman Kang’s youngest daughter who has been treated like an outcast by her siblings because she is the daughter of his second wife. After her father is wronged, she steps up to reveal the truth.
Reborn Rookie was an interesting and somewhat complicated watch for me as I had very mixed feelings towards it. It’s a body swap drama with the plot centered around a family corporate power struggle. And for the most part, I think it’s a really well done series.
Let’s start with the positives first. With only 12 episodes, it can sometimes be hard to flesh out a slightly more complex plot with multiple moving parts, but Reborn Rookie handled this fairly well. It focused in on what it needed to by staying on track with the corporate power struggle at its center.
The pacing for the show was good all the way through with the story feeling fleshed out enough. It’s written well with decent production as well as solid performances all around.
Most of the story centers around Chairman Kang and his three children. We have Jae Gyeong (Jeon Hye Jin) as the big bad and her twin brother Jae Seong (Jin Goo) as her sidekick. We have Bang Geul as the good daughter trying to get revenge for her dad.
And then we have Chairman Kang stuck in a different body while seeking to right his and his family’s wrongs. It really is a journey of growth for him as he starts out cold, callous, and on top of his company. Then life catches up to him as he realizes just how far some of his kids have fallen and the lengths they are willing to go to obtain power.
It’s a dark realization for him, but it ultimately sends him on a journey to make things right. It’s a solid character arc that builds throughout the series and feels like it pays off.
We then have Chairman Kang’s relationship with his daughter Bang Geul. They team up to bring down Jae Gyeong and Jae Seong. They start off on the wrong foot and have a mostly bickering type relationship. Of course, Chairman Kang is always looking out for his daughter and enjoys the opportunity to be close to her. Bang Geul on the other hand has no idea that her father is in this body and develops some mixed feelings towards him. They were a fun team to watch overall.
Now, for some of the negatives. The biggest one being that I don’t love corporate politics. I’ve enjoyed many a drama with corporate politics as the backdrop for family or other issues and love the dynamic it can add. Where I tend to have issue is when the business politics take center stage. I just don’t find them that interesting. And this drama has a lot of business politics. Ironically, I think the focus on this aspect of the drama is one of its selling points, it’s just not my cup of tea.
On the other hand, the body swap trope is something that I usually like. And I did like getting to watch Chairman Kang’s journey in Jun Hyeon’s body as it put him in a unique situation that allowed him to maneuver in interesting ways and relate to his family in a different way. So, that was good.
But a huge negative, was that when Jung Hyeon ends up in Chairman Kang’s body, he remains in a coma for the bulk of the drama. We really don’t get to see his story from that angle. I was definitely hoping to see both men in their new bodies as that’s just a little bit more fun for me.
With the episode count, there are some aspects of the story that could have been fleshed out more to make things have a deeper impact and just feel more rounded out plot wise. But as I mentioned before, I do think the drama did what it needed to do by focusing in on key aspects of the story and doing those well.
And then I wanted to point out in case anyone is interested as to whether or not the drama has romance, it mostly doesn’t. I actually liked this as we got to see the relationship between father and daughter as they worked together.
That being said, Bang Geul does find herself confused by some of the things Chairman Kang does while not realizing it’s her dad. This does result in some feelings developing. Of course, these are never acted upon in any way while Chairman Kang is in Jun Hyeon’s body. There is a dash of romance at the very end, but it is in no way a focus.
So overall, I found Reborn Rookie to be a very well done drama with a solid story that mixes humor with some fun dramatics that lean soapy at times. There are some interesting character journeys and the exploration of complicated family issues. The heavy focus on business politics was not to my tastes as was the exclusion of one half of the body swap.
My rating for this drama mostly reflects my own tastes rather than a more objective score. Hopefully, my review helps anyone deciding whether or not they want to watch this drama to realize that I do think it is solid if you like this type of genre and may just need to give it a go for yourself.
My Rating: 6/10
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