A second chance to live your old glorious self and give a shot to your life-long dream resonates the story of 18 Again.
Framing the agony and bliss of committing to a life-changing decision, 18 Again covered a slew of themes from its premiere week. From weakly-founded marriage in the cusp of divorce to career discrimination, it also provided a glimpse to failing family relationship.
Well-packed and thought-provoking, it promises a lot of venues to explore. If properly contrived, 18 Again‘s fantasy-driven narrative that aims to console life realities, would be a soothing watch for the whole family.
abbyinhallyuland watches 18 Again on iQIYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbz9-HNe96c
18 Again Opening Week Story
The moment Hong Dae-young (Yoon Sang Hyun) and Jung Da-jung (Kim Ha Neul) bravely decided to be young parents to their twin children when they were just 20 years old, they accepted a fate that won’t include their own personal dreams anymore.
18 years ago…
Before an all-important game, high school basketball star Hong Dae-young (Lee Do Hyun) sees his girlfriend while warming up. Sensing something is wrong with her conflicted face, he forced her to spill the cause of her worrisome demeanor.
Learning an unexpected situation, his game couldn’t get any worse earning a few reprimanding shouts from the coach. It turns out that his girlfriend is pregnant. While their parents argue of not proceeding with the pregnancy, he stakes his future and decides to be with his wife and future children.
A second chance to live Dae-young’s youth
From doing odd jobs, he has notched a regular employee position. Positive that his hard work would yield a promotion, his world which has been crumbling owing to a looming divorce, gets even bleaker. The promotion he was hoping for went to another employee with connection and university diploma.
Hitting rock bottom, Dae-young goes to his old school to score some hoops. He reminisces the young moments of being in love with Da-jung. Left with his last ball to shoot, he desperately makes a wish to go back to when everything is beautiful for him.
Magically and mysteriously, his wish was granted and he returns back to his younger self body. After struggling to convince his best friend Go Deok-jin about the strange phenomenon that happened to him, they decide to take a new identity for him as Go Woo-young.
Soon, he returns back to his high school as a new student, and even attending the same school as his children. Realizing how he has missed a lot about them, he is keen to make it up.
Especially when he learned how his daughter has been working as a convenience store part-timer and is not what he seemed to know her of. Adding to that, his son has been targeted by school bullies, and he has even lied that he hates basketball when he truly like it.
A chance to fulfill Da-Jung’s life-long dream…
Once dreaming of becoming an announcer, Jung Da-jung set it aside while raising her children. Albeit really skilled, her age often becomes a liability in the career she aspires to have.
Fortunately, a blind audition for a network announcer was launched and she gave a shot on it. Looking favorably at an advantage to her new job quest, she takes care of her other predicaments. The divorce proceeding with her husband and a trouble her daughter has done.
There, she meets with Woo-young, and she also have a few encounters with her old classmates. Suddenly, she realizes Woo-young’s familiar face is overly familiar.
Rushing to find an old album, she sees her husband’s 18-year-old self exactly moulded to the face of Go Woo-young.
Opening Week Peak Points + Musings
We don’t know if the old man’s tea, or if there’s a magical basketball amongst the balls Dae-young shot or both which propelled the fantasy element in this series.
One thing I am sure of, I doubt it will be explained, and we better not hope for a blow-by-blow clarification once Dae-young assumes his real life, if the narrative would go that direction.
Stories about life redo usually rouses interest because who doesn’t have something in their lives, they wish to change. From the looks of it, messages on the relationship of parents to their children and vice versa are also going to emerge.
I’m a bit apprehensive on the sequence of how Dae-young wants to solve problems all at once. Naturally, his knowledge of his children’s lives would push him to rescue them. However, isn’t the idea of him going back aims to find himself again, and regain the self-esteem, passion and dreams that he threw away.
I want to see him have a taste of happiness of his own, even if it is fleeting to make up for all the sacrifices he made all those years. Understanding Da-jung’s sentiment is also a given thing to explore in the series. They impressed me with braving the odds when they got pregnant, through thick and thin, they should live up to that courage.
18 Again airs on jTBC every Monday and Tuesday.
Photos: jTBC
Streaming Site: iQIYI
