I went into Hello, Me! wanting a fairly simple romcom, enough to give me a few laughs and lots of cute scenes. Instead, I got so much more, with a drama that gave me a better understanding of what it means to move past and let go of any past guilt so that we can live life to the fullest. There were many heartwarming moments throughout the series and it's definitely one of the more unique products to hit the scene now. Let's dive in.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
The main plotline in the drama revolves around Bahn Ha-ni, a 37-year-old single woman who lives an aimless life without hopes or dreams. Her current hopeless and lousy existence is a far cry from her 17-year-old self, a self-assured and bright girl who was popular among her high school and the apple of everyone's eye. When her past self miraculously ends up 20 years in the future to meet her present day self, Ha-ni must go through a journey of self-discovery and reflect on her past trauma, all for her to move forward and live her best life. She's joined on her journey by male lead Han Yoo-hyun, a second generation chaebol heir who starts out as the typical immature rich boy but later goes through mad character development and becomes a true "grown up" of sorts. Considering how this drama focuses a lot on our leads' personal growth as people and adults, it's quite amazing that they're able to juggle so many characters and give them their own character development arcs as well.
That leads us to the best part of the series, which has to be the characters. I've mentioned this before in previous posts but one indicator of whether a series or film is good is whether you feel anything for the characters. Regardless of whether the emotions are positive or negative, if characters can elicit a response from you, then that's a step in the right direction. That's definitely something this drama does well because every character meant something to me, especially our female lead Ha-ni. Ha-ni's entire character arc focuses on how she accepts her past trauma and goes back to being that bright, confident person she was 20 years ago. Even though I'm nowhere near current Ha-ni's age since I've only just stepped foot into the third decade of my life, I related to her a lot as someone who feels that they've hit their "peak" and whose life is only going downhill from there. Granted, I've never experienced the same kind of trauma that she has but sometimes I do feel that I've plateaued in my life. A potentially childish thought on my part but comparing where I am right now to my past, I do feel that way occasionally.
The interactions between current and young Ha-ni were some of my favourite scenes in the drama, seeing how the once confident and bright 17-year-old girl would react to seeing her down-and-out self 20 years down the line and vice-versa. Seeing how both versions of our heroine change for the better after meeting each other allowed for some of the best character development I've seen thus far, and actually gave us some very interesting imagery and allegories. As I correctly theorised in my initial thoughts post, Ha-ni's father would end up sacrificing himself to save his daughter from getting hit by the truck, which results in our female lead going on a downward spiral of guilt which completely destroys her life and plants her in the sorry state we see her in the present day. We find out later on that her younger self is sent to the present day through the machinations of her father's spirit, who wants to lift his daughter out of her slump and realise that his death wasn't her fault. In that way, young Ha-ni was a representation of her guilt and past trauma, and at the end of the drama, sending her back to the past represents Ha-ni's acceptance and her decision to move on to a brighter future.
This is the first drama I've seen with Choi Kang-hee in it and she's absolutely awesome in her role as current Ha-ni. She really makes you feel bad for her character and completely immerses you in the emotional rollercoaster that Ha-ni has gone through for the past 20 years. In the same vein, I first saw Lee Re in Come Back Mister and it constantly amazes me how much she's grown as a child actress, giving us an excellent portrayal as young Ha-ni. Out of all the characters in this drama, it's quite amusing that the best chemistry will come from two people who are technically the same person and they share almost a mother-daughter relationship (something that's mentioned many times throughout the series itself actually). I also really like how even though their portrayals are very different, they were still able to bring across that they're the same person just at different ages. In that aspect, the casting team did a good job picking two actresses that look similar enough.
In my initial thoughts post I said that male lead Yoo-hyun felt like an inconsequential character at that point in time but boy was I wrong. Although the drama is still very much Ha-ni-centered, Yoo-hyun's growth was also very engaging. Although he's initially presented as the childish good-for-nothing rich son, seeing him start to mature after meeting Ha-ni was very heartwarming. Somewhat coincidentally, I saw a tweet the day I posted this that said that many people who experience trauma at a certain age are "stuck" at that age forever, unable to move on. This was especially true for Yoo-hyun, who lost his mother when he was 10-years-old and from then on, he never really grew up. Granted, his trauma wasn't really as focused on as Ha-ni's but it plays into this concept of trauma a little bit more obviously than Ha-ni did. Although Yoo-hyun finally matures by the end, he still has that kid inside him and often makes his fear under a brave exterior and actor Kim Young-kwang does a very good job as the "obnoxious on the outside but warm on the inside" hero.
Another thing I will say is that I liked how they didn't focus so much on the romance between our leads, only dropping hints here and there with have a final confirmation of them embarking on a relationship in the last episode. Although very clear that they have feelings for each other to varying extents, the drama focused far more on their character development and was better off for it because it made for a more compelling story without needing to be bogged down by the typical K-drama romance trope (although there is still the K-drama lead childhood connection trope, which thankfully doesn't detract from the story but only adds to it). That being said, I did think that our leads had good chemistry (even though they only properly embark on their romance all the way at the end) as close friends and coworkers, making their way onto my favourite K-drama couples list. It's rare that this happens for a couple that doesn't really become a thing until the last episode so that's a distinction for the couple of Han Yoo-hyun and Bahn Ha-ni.
I mentioned that many of the characters in this drama get their own character development arcs and while I could elaborate on them, I'll instead focus only on second male lead Anthony. Once a high school bully, Anthony has tried to cover up his shameful past and made a name for himself as an actor. Unfortunately, old habits die hard and he's still a huge dick. Throughout the series, he rekindles his feelings for Ha-ni and tries to pursue her again, with him somewhat becoming a better person as we go along but ultimately, everything crumbles when his dark past is revealed, causing him to make the choice to retire from the entertainment industry and apologise to everyone he's hurt in the past. Now, this specific plotline is quite relevant to current South Korean society, where bullying is rampant and heavily looked down upon, with many bullying accusations against celebrities coming to light in recent months. Some of these have been refuted while others have unfortunately been proven true, such as now disgraced actor Ji Soo.
Anyway, although it was nice to see Anthony change for the better in the end, frankly I felt his character arc wasn't as earned as the others. Unlike our leads whose stories I felt made more sense, Anthony never really changed from his high school days. Even though he has some bottled-up guilt over partially being the cause of Ha-ni's father's death, it's never really touched on until the last episode, so it feels a little forced in compared to other plot elements. Anthony was also generally a dick throughout the drama and even though he does make some minor changes as we progressed, he makes too drastic a change near the end that's almost a complete 180 degree change for the character. It's very random and doesn't feel as impactful as our other characters' transformations. To his credit, actor Eum Moon-seok (again, the first time I'm seeing him in a drama) does a good job of portraying the terrible person that Anthony is, making him a character you love to hate.
In all honesty, I liked this drama a fair bit. Although it's evidently a romcom, there was so much more at play here. The themes about guilt and the imagery that the screenwriters put into the series were just wonderful, and there's a lot of food for thought here as you see the characters move past their grief and become better people. Unfortunately, I do wish they had shown a bit more of what happened to young Ha-ni after she returned to the past. Instead the only scenes we got was her briefly interacting with her dying father (a real tearjerker as he knows he's succeeded with bringing his adult daughter out of her slump) and her changing her "letter to her 37-year-old self", saying that it's ok if she didn't turn out the way she wanted, as long as she lives her life to the fullest. Again, I understand why they went the route of not focusing so much on 17-year-old Ha-ni because it's explicitly mentioned that changing her past would put current Ha-ni's life in danger because of some universal order and also because the story was never really about young Ha-ni. It was always about current Ha-ni and her acceptance of her past as well as moving beyond her guilt. Still, it would've been nice to see some scenes of young Ha-ni now that she knows some things about the future.
I can guarantee you that after you watch this drama, you'll start to look back on your past and wonder what you would've done differently and how you would've gone about it. Apart from this, I'm sure the following thoughts will enter your mind. If you could meet your past self, what would you want to teach them or guide them on? Alternatively, if you could go forward in time, what would you want to say to your future self? Bottom line is, I'm sure many of us have thought of something similar in our lives, an innate desire to want to improve ourselves or our quality of life. I've definitely had such thoughts before. So before I end off this post, let me ask y'all an important question. What would you do if you could meet yourself from another time and say Hello, Me!? Thanks for reading.
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