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Reunited Worlds korean drama review
Completed
Reunited Worlds
0 people found this review helpful
by KenTaro
Mar 27, 2023
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 9.5
This review may contain spoilers

Almost perfect

Story: From reading the plot of the drama to watching the first couple of episodes, I and hopefully others expect this to be a sad drama with a sad ending. The plot of this drama is certainly interesting that hooks viewers to keep watching. A man named Hae Sung who died 12 years ago is suddenly resurrected 12 years later but why. The writer does a fine job in the melodrama aspect with the details of the main lead Hae Sung. In the first couple of episodes, they give us enough details to feel sympathy to Hae Sung. Hae Sung was a 18 year old boy living in the countryside with his 4 younger siblings and his grandmother. Right away we see that Hae Sung is a person with responsibility that takes cares of his younger siblings and grandmother by with tasks such as cooking and working after school to support them. Charismatic and selfless and two great words to describe who Hae Sung is. He is a perfect ML to me but why is it that the perfect ML I like is dead.

Throughout the drama, the writer wants you to keep watching to find out who actually killed the boy in Hae Sung's class, who ran him Hae Sung over leading to his death, and how Hae Sung's family and friends are impacted by his sudden resurrection. The characters that were impacted the most to Hae Sung's sudden death are his 4 younger siblings and Jung Won. His younger siblings are now stuck with the tag of being a sibling of a murderer since Hae Sung was blamed for the death when he found the dead persons body at school and he wasn't alive to prove his innocence. His 4 younger siblings were not all on good terms anymore and each struggled living without their older brother. While Jung Won feels very guilty thinking Hae Sung died because of her. The day of his death, she asked Hae Sung to stop by at the school to pick up her wallet where events later lead to Hae Sung dying.

I loved everything about this plot but things that could have certainly made this drama perfect. First, the amount of episodes was just too much. I understand they last 30 minutes on average which is around half of a normal KDRAMA episode would be but 40 episodes is still a lot. So in the middle, the plot would not move and we just see fluffy moments between the 2 leads or so. My next biggest issue was that we did not get enough scenes of their lives 12+ years ago. I think after the first 10 episodes, they stopped showing anything that happened in the past. They do a okay job of explaining the siblings lives after the death of Hae Sung but not enough about his friends. I guess they wanted to express his friends better in the present timeline than the past where they would have not stood out as much? The cast that played the younger version of his friends except Jung Won, were barely used. I thought the actresses playing the younger version of Jung Won was more talented than the actress playing the adult version of Jung Won. It was a big let down not seeing more scenes of her. If I were writing this drama, I would have shorten the episodes from 40 to 16 with each being a hour long and start most episodes with flashback scenes of their lives back then. This would have helped for the mystery plot about finding who killed the boy in their class. Because later on, we get introduced to other new characters from their school that eventually leads to the suspect where my response was like "who?" It would have been helpful to get to know the other students/staff at their school 12 years ago to be able to react to the reveal. I just wished it was a character of importance than a guest appearance. I got invested into the mystery of who killed the boy in his class that I became confused that they also revealed that the person who ran over Hae Sung is a culprit that they need to find. I thought it was an accident and the person served their punishment. But actually someone paid a person to take their blame. This mystery was actually easy to solve.

I wished they had Hae Sung meet more people that were resurrected like him. He actually meets only one person that was resurrected Mr. Ahn and Mrs. Do a person that experienced a person being resurrected. I disliked the character of Ms. Do when it is revealed that she is wealthy and started to give things out easily to the leads. I was so glad the writer didn't forget about the money Mr. Ahn saved in his storage locker which played a key role for Hae Sung later on. Mr. Ahn was a better character that helped Hae Sung learn things than Ms. Do. I wanted Hae Sung to meet more resurrected people and learn a thing or so from them.

Another issue is the "love triangle tease". It is tagged as a love triangle on MDL and the cover photo of the drama makes you think so too. This was so not true. They tease it during the beginning but Jung Won never falls for Cha even though he likes her. They even had Hae Sung towards the end want her to be with him after leaves the world again. That was my fear at the beginning of the drama but thank god that didn't happen. I just wished I could watch this throughout without having to fear that she would have to end up with the SML. I don't get why the SML is in the cover photo of the drama. It misleads viewers thinking it is a love triangle. I would rather they had focused it on the 2 leads or include his siblings that played a more major role than the SML.

My last issue is how some characters are forgiven at the end. First lets talk about Young Joon. It takes all the way towards the end of the drama for him to acknowledge the existence of his siblings and rejoin them. He changes when he sees his youngest sister Soo Ji in pain waiting for a transplant which he coincidentally is the person who can provide it. It felt quick and not enough given how he was the last sibling to change. Before this, he reveals the truth to his ex's mother(the director of the hospital he works at) about him having a family of siblings that he abandon and 1 year later he and his ex are getting married again. Okay so I guess after Hae Sung was cleared of not being a murderer, the ex's mother just forgave him or something? Hae Chul's ex left him years ago leaving the child she gave birth to behind which Hae Chul decide to raise up as a single father. His ex wanted to take her back selfishly to America but failed so. 1 year later, she was forgiven by Hae Chul and they live together as a happy family now? Then again they never went into enough details to why she left her behind or how these even loved each other in the first place. Lastly it is Tae Hoon's father. He wanted to turn himself in for running Hae Sung over but Hae Sung doesn't want him to so others don't suffer(Tae Hoon and Young In probably). But he was supposed to atone for the crime he wasn't punished for only to see him smiling and welcoming Young In to their family as she and Tae Hoon will get married. Is he atoning for his crime by just accepting Young In? Very weak for these characters.

Acting/Cast: I like the actor playing Hae Sung. I admired the his bright smile he made as Hae Sung and his sad expressions. I only wished we got more scenes of him with the actress playing the younger version of Jung Won. Their chemistry felt more connected.

Music: The sad song/instrumental used was perfection. It hits you on the right moments you want to cry. For example, when we first hear it during the moments where Hae Sung is flown into mid air slowly as he sees Jung Won, his siblings, and grandma waiting for him to come home for his birthday only to die seconds later.

Overall/Re watch: After reading my negative aspects of the drama, you might think I hated the drama but I still loved it. The character of Hae Sung is one I enjoyed and is similar to characters that I like in other dramas. I would not mind watching this again in the future but it would be tearful. It is still a sad ending even if his loved ones are able to live better off now than before when he left the world. This drama could have been a perfect 10.


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