18 vs. 29

18 vs. 29

2.5/10

18 vs. 29

Genre:                    Episodes: 16                          Year: 2005

Romance

Comedy

Family

Synopsis:

On the way to file for a divorce, Yoo Hye Chan is involved in a serious car accident. After waking at the hospital, it becomes apparent that 29 year-old Hye Chan has lost all her memories after the age of 18, and still believes herself to be a high school student. Hye Chan is shocked when she is told that she has married her high school nemesis Kang Bong Man, who has gone on to become an extremely successful actor. While Hye Chan worries over Bong Man’s close relationship with his co-star, Shin Ji Young, she grows closer to an 18 year-old boy she met while still believing she was 18 herself.

Cast:

Park Sun Young (Yoo Hye Chan)

Ryu Soo Young (Kang Bong Man)

Park Eun Hye (Shin Ji Young)

Lee Joong Moon (Kim Noon)

Jo Eun Ji (Yoo Hye Won)

Lee Sang Woo (Kang Bong Kyu)

Park Min Ji (Yoo Hye Chan)

Choi Siwon (Kang Bong Man)

General Thoughts:

I did it guys. I made it through. Not completely unscathed, however I did finish the drama. Why? Because apparently I don’t know when to quit. If ever there was a drama worth dropping, it was this one. But I persevered in order to deliver this review to you, along with a firm warning. I strongly believe that it is in your best interests to not watch this drama.

Don't do it guys- DON'T WATCH IT

Sure, there were parts of the series that weren’t all bad. Namely Kim Noon and young Choi Siwon. If you were curious- yes. Yes, Choi Siwon has been adorable and insanely charismatic his whole life. Waffling and fan-girling aside, the drama- it’s not good. The premise is interesting enough- married woman wakes up believing she is still 18. It basically opened a whole door for cute, hilarious shenanigans. But did we get cute, hilarious shenanigans? Of course not. We got ‘Full House’.

Let the madness begin. 

But worse. Because rather than lying about being married and being forced to be cute in front of others, we have two leads that are actually married, but it appears they kind of don’t want to be. Cue the unrelenting bickering. Kang Bong Man didn’t get a great start, with the show making out like he cheated on his wife, then it’s all good because she can’t remember. However, as we become aware that this is not actually the case, and that Hye Chan’s really just a complete over-reacting psycho- Bong Man does gain some points. His complete devotion to his wife and tireless efforts to save their marriage do a lot to elevate Bong Man’s character. However, just when you think you can start to like him and cheer for him, he does something stupid or insensitive. Sure, the cute was there in his thoughts, but we need to see him actually caring about Hye Chan while she’s in front of him. Instead, we get him quietly worrying about her and trying to care for her from the sidelines, while getting angry and yelling at her when she doesn’t understand what he’s done for her. Number 1 way to not get a lady to fall for you- yell at her all the time when she doesn’t know what she’s done wrong. On the flip side of that is Hye Chan. And what a total mess she becomes. At first it’s easy to forgive her mistakes, because she’s scared, confused, and honestly believes that she’s 18. But as the drama goes on and her actions continue to be based firmly in the realm of selfish and idiotic, it becomes hard to support (or even like) her character.

Behold this K-Drama mess and weep

She becomes increasingly more selfish as the drama progresses, pulling Bong Man close or pushing him away on a total whim. She never understands her own shortcomings or how her actions have such a negative impact on her husband. Number 1 way to not gain love from your audience- have a self-centred asshat for a heroine. It also didn’t help that Hye Chan acted like she was 12 not 18. The music was forgettable, the plot was slow and uninteresting, and the characters were irritating. The acting was all pretty good- but when your characters are that sucky, sadly the acting doesn’t count for much.

What Was Great:

The Young Boys:

Choi Siwon and Lee Joong Moon are some much needed eye-candy in the series. Not only were they the cutest (by far) actors in the whole show, but their characters were also easily the least irritating.

In case there was any doubt- Siwon was always dazzling

The same traits that were annoying in Kang Bong Man were acceptable, if not adorable, when acted out by Choi Siwon. Because, you know, he’s an adolescent. And has no idea how to express his emotions. In a young boy- cute. In a grown man- not so much. And then there’s Lee Joong Moon as Kim Noon. Ahhhhhh Noon-ah! Literally the only reason I didn’t drop this drama. He carried the Noona Romance torch bravely and sweetly, and did everything right. He provided some pretty hefty Second Male Lead Syndrome when you consider he’s 11 years younger than our heroine. Noon did everything right to gain the love of our viewer hearts. I loved this character so much that I actually didn’t even want the heroine to fall of him because I truly believe that she didn’t deserve what a thoughtful, wonderful man this 18 year-old boy was. Of course this means that the bratty, selfish 18 year-old classmate didn’t deserve him either- but in a drama full of disappointments of course the most likeable character is going to get paired of with a snotty little sh*t.

Sibling Romance:

Lee Sang Woo is always all kinds of amazing in whatever he’s in. At least the drama didn’t manage to kill how wonderful Lee Sang Woo is. His character was excitingly different with his inability to speak, and while the drama made no effort to capitalise on this difference it was still interesting to have this kind of character grace my screen. Yay to Lee Sang Woo knowing sign language- it was awesome.

But first- Imma take a selfie

I also tend to enjoy Jo Eun Ji’s performances, and she provided another down-to-Earth, logical, and simply nice character in this series. The relationship between Jo Eun Ji and Lee Sang Woo’s characters was enjoyable and cute, and a wonderful distraction from our main pairing. While the romantic relationship between the siblings of our hero and heroine was not without its difficulties, the two managed to work through their problems together. Not only were they able to sort out their own issues, but these two characters also played a great role in assisting our main characters and their highly dysfunctional relationship.

The Ending (I Suppose):

Considering that K-Dramas are notorious for notoriously average finishes, it was nice surprise for the wrap up of ’18 vs. 29’ to not completely suck. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was a good ending (as to have a good ending you require a good drama) but it was definitely a step up from the rest of our series.

In one word- insufferable

We had the better relationship (Hye Won and Bong Kyu) get a sweetly satisfying conclusion with their marriage, and even our main pairing were able to pull their sh*t together enough to start acting like believable adults. While I never honestly believed that the characters in the main pairing truly loved each other, at least by the end I was convinced that they could stay together. And not threaten to move out or get divorced every five minutes. Maybe. The clear up for Hye Chan’s amnesia was pretty well done. As her memories returned she became more like the adult she was before her accident, but with the added knowledge of the misunderstandings that had been cleared up during the time she had believed she was 18. It also provided an acceptable out for Noon’s feelings- because she wasn’t the girl Noon had fallen for. He had loved the adult who held a childlike innocence and found joy in simple, uncomplicated things- just as an 18 year-old would. When Hye Chan regained her memories, experiences and maturity, she was no longer the same person Noon had fallen for. I really appreciate the time the drama took to express this issue when it could have quite easily left Noon out in the cold while wrapping up Hye Chan with Bong Man under the excuse that they had loved each other all along for 11 years.

Weirdly satisfying relationship wrap-up

What Wasn’t:

Pretty Much Everything Else:

Our two leads were pretty sucky. All their fights and misunderstandings were sucky. The jealous co-worker was sucky. The complete inability of our characters to think of someone else’s perspective and feelings was SO sucky. And last but definitely not least: the plot was sucky. The whole drama basically circles around the fact that Hye Chan doesn’t know if she wants to be with Kang Bong Man or not. And that gets old pretty darn fast.

We're married- now let's fight for 16 hours

The drama may have held more interest if the writers had chosen to focus on rebuilding the love that was shaken between these two individuals, but instead it chooses to centre around 18 year-old Hye Chan having to deal with 29 year-old Hye Chan’s problems. And that’s not all that fun. Due to her immaturity and unwillingness to cooperate with Bong Man, rather than Bong Man attempting to assist her and romance her again, he just becomes frustrated and angry with her- as do we all. It was also a mistake to have the audience doubt Bong Man’s sincerity and loyalty to his wife.

I feel like I've seen this character before. Because I have. In every K-Drama ever.

Had we known all along that he had always been faithful to Hye Chan and had never even considered Ji Young in a romantic light, at least the audience would have been completely supportive of him from the start. As it was, we were led to believe that Bong Man had cheated on or been unfaithful to his wife in some way, so our opinions of him were lowered right from the start and we sympathised more with Hye Chan. But as it became clear that Hye Chan was selfish and crazy and that Bong Man had done nothing wrong, Hye Chan quickly lost our sympathies. Which unfortunately meant that viewers were feeling no connection or warm feelings towards any of our main characters. Except Noon. Because he was perfect. The supposed ‘love rival’ was just purely dislikable. She had no redeeming qualities and couldn’t even play the pity card- it’s no one’s fault but your own if you let yourself fall for a married guy. As Bong Man only saw Ji Young as a colleague and had always made his feelings clear, Ji Young’s role was basically redundant. Even if Bong Man and Hye Chan broke up (with or without Ji Young’s meddling), Bong Man would never have made the switch to Ji Young. Irritating and stupid as many of the characters were (Hye Chan, Ji Young, Grandfather, and at times Bong Man), my biggest issue with this drama is that there was no overarching plot.

0 effort to re-romance his wife

Sure, Bong Man and Hye Chan were rediscovering their feelings, but they were doing so in a slow, round-about way made up of many smaller happenings. The drama didn’t even have Bong Man trying to romance his wife again the way he had when they were 18. Like, c’mon dude- you’ve done this once before, you know what worked when she was 18, at least try and do that again.

Really? This is who Kim Noon ends up getting?

But no, instead Bong Man simply tries to jog Hye Chan’s memory so that she remembers falling for him the first time around. While Bong Man did make an effort to relate and connect to Hye Chan, it never felt like he was making much of an effort romantically. And Hye Chan just plain never made an effort. Except for that one time she made him dinner. But then she had a complete hissy and left before he even got home, so that’s kind of a moot point. Sadly, this also meant that there wasn’t a whole lot of cute going on between our main pairing because they were always awkward or angry with each other. There were a couple of cute scenes, but in a drama with nothing else happening but the relationship development between the leads I was expecting (and wanting) a whole heap more cute. At least Noon delivered. I suppose you could say that the triangle between Bong Man, Hye Chan, and Noon was the main plot development- but did anyone actually believe Noon had a shot? I didn’t. Hye Chan only ever saw him as an adorable 18 year-old friend who she could connect to intellectually. Supposedly. I still argue that Noon was more emotionally and intellectually advanced than either of our leads.

Re-watch?

Never.

I still don't understand why I watched it the first time