“See You in My 19th Life” (이번 생도 잘 부탁해)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
July 31, 2023

☆☆☆☆
Ban Ji-eum (played by Shin Hye-sun)
Moon Seo-ha (played by Ahn Bo-hyun)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“See You in My 19th Life” delves into reincarnation. And as it does so, it drives home the point that even if you are assured of living more than one life, what’s important is that you live your best life, rather than muddling through and wasting time.

As Ji-eum, Shin Hye-sun adds all the right nuances to the role, which could’ve gone into makjang territory handled by a less skilled actress. Though we will guess early on that she and Seo-ha — who she grew up with when she was in a different state of reincarnation — will forge a future together, there are enough twists and turns to keep viewers guessing. Will Seo-ha (Ahn Bo-hyun) realize that Ji-eum is the reincarnated soul of his childhood first love Ju-won, who died in a tragic automobile accident?

Seo-ha has survivor’s guilt, but hangs onto her last words before she died: that she’ll come back in her 19th life to find him. The two had previously discussed reincarnation, so the boy is somewhat consoled that her promise may come true some day.

Flash forward to the present day. Thanks to all her previous lives tackling all kinds of jobs, Ji-eum is a master of many tasks. She tracks down Seo-ha, who is now a hotshot at his father’s company, and boldly flirts with him.

We know going in that the thurst of this K-drama is based on the pair’s past, present and future. But what I really loved about this series was the attention given to the peripheral characters. For instance, Ji-eum’s aunt is really her niece. In a previous life, Ji-eum had been a male circus star who died early of tuberculosis, leaving behind young Ae-kyung. When Ji-eum reunites with Ae-kyung (Cha Chung-hwa) — who now presents as a middle-aged woman much older than her — she is overcome with gratitude that the little girl grew up well without any adult guidance. Throughout the series, Ae-kyung refers to Ji-eum as 삼촌/samchon, which means uncle in Korean.

One of the things I was curious about, though, was why certain reincarnated selves dominated over others. For instance, samchon clearly was a big part of Ii-eum’s 19th life.

And, finally (well, finally before the Spoiler Alert below anyhow), I didn’t think that Ju-won and Seo-ha’s childhood relationship was strong enough for Ji-eum to be so vested in it that she would search for him in her various reincarnations. (For Seo-ha, sure, Ju-won was a pivotal part of his life.)

Airdates: Twelve 70-minute episodes aired from June 17 to July 23, 2023 on tvN. I watched this K-drama on Netflix.

Spoiler Alert: In the 8th episode, Seo-ha has managed to track down documents about the accident that killed Ju-won. He learns that it wasn’t just an accident, but a hired hit. And the driver hired to cause the accident was Ji-eum’s father! The deal was that he cause a minor accident, nothing more. But he was given a car that had been rigged with malfunctioning brakes. Instead of squirreling this documentation away, Seo-ha burns them. Nooooooooooooo! I get that he was trying to protect Ji-eum from learning what her father had done. But again, nooooooooooooooooooo.

There was one other person who had died in that accident: Seo-ha’s driver, who was the father of his best friend Do-yoon (Ahn Dong-goo), who now works as his secretary. Do-yoon had always placated his grief by saying that his father died on the job. But once he realizes that the hit was actually orchestrated by Seo-ha’s uncle (Lee Hae-young) — who was jealous of Seo-ha’s father and wanted was trying to kill him, not the children — he has to process a multitude of complicated emotions.

And I will say, this reveal came as a surprise to me. I had been guessing that it was Seo-ha’s stoic father or evil stepmother who had orchestrated the hit-and-run accident.

© 2023 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved