“Hello, My Twenties!” (청춘시대): Season 2

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
September 15, 2022

Jin-myung (played by Han Ye-ri)
Ji-won (played by Park Eun-bin)
Ye-eun (played by Han Seung-yeon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

This second season of “Hello, My Twenties!” is entertaining, but suffers a bit from too-much-going-on syndrome, as well as the recasting of a central character.

There is a lot going on here and much of it doesn’t make sense. A new roommate is introduced. A tall college student moves into the room vacated by Yi-na (Ryu Hwa-young). Eun (Choi Ara) is taller than all her roommates, sports short hair and is mistaken by some as a young man. Her excessively clingy best friend has a girl crush on her, but Eun eventually develops feelings for the landlord’s much-shorter nephew (Kim Min-seok). Their height difference is played for laughs, but it’s not a big deal for the couple (who look awfully sweet together, even when arguing).

But the reason she moves in is incredulous. At a used book store, she found a handwritten letter that appears to incriminate one of the young women living at Belle Epoque. She decides to move in to figure out who that bully is.

What? Why?

The bigger mystery is Ji-won’s recollections of a childhood friend who has lost contact with everyone. All Ji-won really remembers is that this girl had the most beautiful shoes in school, while she wore standard sneakers.

Unfortunately, Park Hye-su had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t return to play Eun-jae, an awkward psychology major. While her replacement Ji Woo is lovely, her acting here is just over exaggerated and off – especially during the first half of the episodes.

There is also a subplot surrounding how K-pop idols are trained (and disposed of) at the entertainment company where Jin-myung (Han Ye-ri) earned a staff position. She is put in charge of canceling the contract of Asgard, a group that has trained for five years but is considered a money pit at this point. The company decides to cut its losses and fires the stunned young men.

Throughout the series, important subject matter is discussed (sexual abuse, mental health issues, the aftermath of surviving domestic battering). And boy-crazy Ji-won (Park Eun-bin) isn’t ashamed to admit she watches pornography to “see what’s up.”

More in the Spoiler Alert below…

CASTING: Two real-life K-pop groups appear in this series. PENTAGON members portray the struggling group Asgard, while A.C.E plays the popular idol group The Fifth Column.

CONTROVERSY: Son Seung-won played the college newspaper editor Sung-min, who was Ji-won’s de facto boyfriend. After being caught driving drunk twice in 2018 (and without a valid driver’s license), he was sentenced to a 18-month prison sentence. (He was released in 2020.) Whether he can resurrect his acting career is yet to be seen.

Airdates: Fourteen 70-minute episodes aired on JTBC from August 25 to October 7, 2017.

Spoiler Alert: In Episode 13, viewers learn that when Ji-won and her friend were in elementary school, their beloved teacher was a pedophile who raped students. On the playground, their teacher asked one of the girls to help him after school. They both wanted to. He stares at their feet and sees that Ji-won is wearing the pretty new shoes, while her friend is wearing dirty sneakers. In his mind, the girl with the pretty shoes would have parents who paid more attention to their daughter. He selected Ji-won’s friend to be his victim.

While playing with other children, Ji-won climbs a tree and witnesses her friend being assaulted. And her friend sees Ji-won’s sparkling shoes as she’s being attacked.

To deal with this trauma, Ji-won tried to forget what had happened and, as the years went on, she projected that it was her friend who wore the pretty shoes … not her. Her friend later dies by suicide.

Later, a man who had vowed to avenge that death holds Ji-won and her roommates hostage, beats and stabs them and then runs away. Instead of calling the police, they just do nothing.

What? Why?!

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