See You in My 19th Life Episode 1 reveals the main protagonist of romance fantasy K-Drama. An extraordinary girl with the power to remember all her past lives. And in her current life, she wants to reunite with her lover whom she left in the middle of her last life. The show is based on the popular webtoon of the same name (이번 생도 잘 부탁해) by Lee Hye. It is directed by Lee Na-jung, while the screenplay is adapted by Choi Young-lim.
The cast includes Shin Hye-sun as Ban Ji-eum / Yoon Ju-won, Ahn Bo-hyun as Mun Seo-ha, Ha Yoon-kyung as Yoon Cho-won, Ahn Dong-goo as Ha Do-yoon, Ryu Hae-joon as Lee Ji-seok, Lee Chae-min as Kang Min-ki, Choi Jin-ho as Moon Jeong-hun, Park So-yi as young Ban Ji-eum, Kim Si-a as young Yoon Ju-won, Cha Chung-Hwa as Kim Ae-Gyeong and others.
See You in My 19th Life Episode 1 Recap
The drama starts with Ban Ji-eum standing on the rocks near the sea and tells the viewers how she is different from everyone else. As flashes of her past life slide past the screen, we meet 9-year-old Ji-eum, who suddenly gets all the memories of the past lives that she had lived. This is her special gift, by the age of 8-10, she starts to remember her past lives and currently, it’s her 19th life.
At present, she is born in a poor household with a drunkard & gambling-addicted dad and a bully brother. Not being able to take it anymore, her mother leaves the house, leaving Ji-eum at her dad’s mercy. But with the knowledge & skills of her past lives, she becomes a famous child prodigy who can dance flamenco & speak many languages perfectly. However, her dad takes all the money she makes & spends it on alcohol & gambling. Amidst all the chaos, she only wishes to see Seo-ha again. The young boy whom she met in her 18th life as Yoon Ju-won but had to part ways due to a car accident, which took her life.
Ji-eum realises that she has to escape this hellhole if she wants to find Seo-ha again & live a better life. She runs away from home and ends up at a snack bar, run by a lady named Kim Ae-gyeong. It turns out that she is related to Ji-eum’s past life as well. In the 17th life, she was Ae-gyeong’s uncle, whom she adored a lot but he died due to an illness. To prove that she is actually an incarnation of the snack bar lady’s uncle, Ji-eum starts telling her about all the personal details & moments that they spent together. Strangely, Ae-gyeong believes her words & gives her the money to go and see Seo-ha who lives quite far from there.
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Having died at the accident spot, Ji-eum wasn’t sure if Mun Seo-ha was even alive or not. With a fearful heart, she reaches his home but even after pressing the doorbell numerous times, nobody answers. So she climbs up the gate & sneaks in. Fortunately, Seo-ha was alive and was now a high-school student. We get to see how they first met when Seo-ha bumped into Ju-won when she was painting. Later she visits his house and it’s revealed that Seo-ha’s mother is quite sick & might not stay with him for long. Seo-ha seems to know this & often acts out due to this.
However, seeing how he reluctantly connected with Ju-won, his mother invited her often as this would keep him occupied. They would often spend their time swimming or reading books in the library. The book titled The Moon and the West Witch Forest seems to be his favourite because while trying to take that book out, Ju-won revealed to him that she believes in past lives & has lived many as well. Ju-won was someone that intrigued him with magic tricks or secrets about her life but being a kid, he didn’t take them seriously & thought she was a witch. Even when his mother dies of illness, she consoles by telling him how she will be reborn as another person now.
On Seo-ha’s birthday, they were going somewhere special to celebrate and Ju-won even gives him a locked secret box. While she was giving hints about its hidden key, a truck rams into the car & topples the car down. Ju-won’s first instinct was to save Seo-ha and dies while telling him that she will meet him in her next life. Unfortunately, Seo-ha couldn’t hear a word said to him as the impact had damaged his hearing. Since the accident, Seo-ha became hard of hearing & often wore an earpiece to be able to hear the people around him.
After making sure that Seo-ha is well and alive, Ji-eum starts living with Ae-gyeong & helps her in reviving the snack bar. She often follows Seo-ha secretly, until he disappears for almost 8 years after realising how his father met another woman. He went abroad for further studies but deliberately stayed there to avoid his father. Meanwhile, Ji-eum worked hard to study at a top university, gathering various skills and getting a job at MI Company, which is owned by Seo-ha’s family. She only hopes to meet him again someday or even find some information about his whereabouts but to no avail.
Due to her achievements at the young age of 24, Ji-eum is often scouted by other companies but she refuses them. One such offer comes from Daehwan Motors, which is MI’s rival company but that’s not the place where she could find Seo-ha. However, Ji-eum hears the man talking about Seo-ha’s return to Korea and instead of going home, he went to the hotel handled by his late mother. She immediately reaches the hotel & has a run-in with him but he isn’t able to recognise her, due to her obviously new personality. He wants to revive the hotel again & his father makes him in charge of the strategic planning team of the hotel.
Therefore, Ji-eum applies for a position in the team, despite working in another department that has nothing to do with hotel services. But her immaculate resume & skills land her an interview with Seo-ha. Even though she wants to reveal her true identity, she decides to get his attention in a quirky way by asking if he wants to date her. The episode ends at this moment, as stunned Seo-ha looks at her with a surprised expression.
See You in My 19th Life Episode 1 Review
It was a good start to the drama but having read the webtoon, it felt a bit rushed. The relationship between Se-ha and Ju-won wasn’t established as much, that would show why he is so impacted by her passing. Probably more flashbacks will be used in further episodes, as he starts to confuse Ji-eum with Ju-won. Overall, the creators summarised their history and Ji-eum’s special gift pretty aptly.
See You in My 19th Life is available for streaming on Netflix in selective regions and is broadcasted on tvN at 09:10 PM KST, every Saturday & Sunday.
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