See You in My 19th Life is a fantasy romance K-Drama which is based on the popular webtoon of the same name (이번 생도 잘 부탁해) by Lee Hye. The story follows an extraordinary girl who can remember all her past lives and pursue her past lover when her previous life gets cut short due mysterious accident. 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 Mun 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.
Differences in See You in My 19th Life
Different Profession of Characters
In the drama, Ji-eum is shown working in Mun Seo-ha’s office only. Whereas in the webtoon, she works in the sales department and always has to make an effort to come and see Seo-ha in his office. Her actions start the rumours of something going on between them and her colleagues thinking that she got into the team through high connections. Thus, Ji-eum and Do-yoon often clash as he advises her to keep a low profile since he didn’t want Seo-ha to get embroiled in a dating scandal.
Also, Cho-won takes control of her family business, ie, becoming the owner of the entertainment company. Unlike the drama, she doesn’t work as a landscaper but often brings her business meeting to the hotel. Initially, she even tries to scout Ji-eum to become a talent in her company. On the other hand, even Ae-gyeong owned a fried chicken shop and not a traditional restaurant. She also doesn’t get sick later in her life and meeting with Ji-eum had no ill effect on her health.
Do-yoon’s Father Was Not the Driver
In the webtoon, Do-yoon’s father was not the driver of the car that met with the accident. Instead, he worked somewhere else and died due to financial reasons. Also, his mother runs a restaurant where Do-yoon and Seo-ha often helped when they became friends in high school. However, in the drama, there is no mention of his mother with whom Do-yoon and Do-jin still live together.
Everything About the Accident
While Seo-ha’s uncle, Lee Sang-hyuck is the one who hires a goon to cause the accident. He explained that he did it because he felt that Chairman Mun wasn’t even sad over his wife’s death. Seeing him being so indifferent, he plans to cause a small collision to make him feel the same fear and pain of losing a blood relation. But it becomes much bigger than expected and Ju-won ends up dying. This tragedy made him take even more care of Seo-ha over his guilt and become closer to his own dad.
However, when Seo-ha tries to dig around, he is the one who kills the goon, to hide his secret. Then he plans to threaten Seo-ha by sending him threats of harming his close relations – Do-yoon and Sang-hyuck himself. When Seo-ha plays the bold move of highlighting the goon’s murder in the media and relating it to the MI group executives (since he thought that his father was the one behind it), Sang-hyuck decides to end his life. He pays a contract killer to stab him and make it seem like someone else was behind it all & Seo-ha would never know his secret.
But right at that moment, Ju-won confronts Sang-hyuck as she had her suspicion and he ends up confessing, before getting stabbed. However, he survives the attack and is investigated by the police after all. Whereas in the drama, the uncle turns himself in after Seo-ha tells him to do the right thing. He actually gets his hand on a tape recording where Sang-hyuck is heard paying for a car accident & either way, he would have been convicted.
Seo-ha and Chairman Mun’s Relationship in See You in My 19th Life
While their relationship is pretty cold and distant, Chairman Mun’s careful consideration for his son and always looking out for him doesn’t really come out in See You in My 19th Life drama. Even in the Uncle’s case, he was not trying to protect Sang-hyuck but his own son. Initially, he is not able to find the actual culprit, but when he gets the hint that it could be someone from MI, he sends Seo-ha abroad to protect him.
Chairman Mun even promises Ju-won’s parents to find the culprit and bring justice. He also got to know about Sang-hyuck’s involvement recently and was waiting to gather enough evidence before accusing him. Considering he was so close to Seo-ha and it could have affected him the most. But when the Uncle does get caught, he shares everything with Seo-ha and that conversation decreases some distance in their relationship.
Also, Chairman Mun was the one who offered to support Do-yoon’s future studies and even family financial issues, with only the clause of being with Seo-ha (Ahn Bo-hyun). It was because Do-yoon was the only one who would make Seo-ha feel normal and happy in his teen years. His proposal made Do-yoon feel disrespected at first but then the Chairman offered him the deal to think of it as a loan and pay him back later on, without any interest. Even if he didn’t pay him back, as long as he took care of Seo-ha, the Chairman would mind it. Also, he didn’t have any relationship with another woman, as shown in See You in My 19th Life drama, he allegedly had an affair with Mrs Jang.
Ji-eum’s First Life in See You in My 19th Life Webtoon
See You in My 19th Life drama shows how Min-gi, Seo-ha, Cho-won and Do-yoon are present in her first life but in the webtoon, she only has a past life connection with Do-yoon. Instead of the shaman bells, Min-gi reveals to her that when she meets someone from her first life, she will feel happy and will see glimpses of that life on touching that person.
According to him, there are very few chances of meeting someone from their first life again and they are usually their lovers who got separated due to some tragedy. Only by falling in love again in some other life, they can break the curse of past lives. Min-gi comes looking for Ji-eum thinking she might be the one who could help him break the cycle but he wasn’t part of her life. However, he insists she finds her soulmate and be with them. But the problem is that she saw glimpses of her first life only when Do-yoon casually touched her hand.
Afraid of realising that they could be lost lovers and she will have to be with him to break the curse, she refuses to see her complete first life and decides to stay with Seo-ha, regardless. But when Min-gi reveals everything to Seo-ha, he tries to break up and help Ji-eum find her person. While on a week break, Ji-eum comes around to see what lies in her past life and calls Do-yoon for help.
At first, she sees that they are a married couple living together. But when she delves further, it’s revealed that Do-yoon was actually Ji-eum’s twin sister (Seol). They were nobles, whose families were branded as traitors by the current king, so they fled and Ji-eum pretended to be a man. They lived like a married couple but Seol’s had some health issues and wasn’t doing well. When Ji-eum meets a childhood friend who fancied Seol, she brings him to meet her, without knowing that he was actually looking for them only.
In order to show that his family was not in opposition to the King, he plans to kill Ji-eum and confirm his loyalty. But Seol tells him to kill her instead when Ji-eum is out for work. When she comes to her dead sister, she feels guilty for being the reason behind her death and prays to bring her sister back. A higher power gives her the option of meeting Seol again in the next life but Ji-eum will not forget the lives she lived and will not remember how she even got this ability. The only way to break the curse was to meet Seol again and tell her ‘It’s okay’ (to let go of her happily).
See You in My 19th Life Webtoon Ending
Apart from the accident, past lives etc, Seo-ha’s family and inheritance are also key plots of the story. Seo-ha’s relatives are on the lookout to take over the business after Chairman Mun and keep Seo-ha out of the picture completely. One of the main characters is Mun Jun-ha, Seo-ha’s cousin, who wants to sell the Hotel to the Daehwan group to gain their support.
Seo-ha is not particularly interested in running the family business and schemes a plan with Jun-ha’s sister, as he deems her quite capable. He promises to give his own shares to her on the condition that Jun-ha doesn’t get to exercise any power for his own benefit. When he gets to know about it, Jun-ha hires a gangster named Cutlass Fish, with whom he had been working on various illegal activities.
He orders the gangster to kidnap Ji-eum, so that he can threaten Seo-ha to transfer his shares to him solely. After seeing her first life, Ji-eum is on her way to tell Seo-ha everything and encounters the gangsters. Although she is able to fight them off with ease, the darkness within herself, which doesn’t wish to break the past life cycle, takes over her consciousness and she passes out.
In her unconscious state, the darkness tries to persuade her to revel in the past memories (when she was most happy) and not break the curse, since she will forget everything. Meanwhile, Seo-ha is out to save Ji-eum and reaches the abandoned place where she was kept. He tries to fight off the goons and gets badly hit on the head. While he is confronting Jun-ha and trying to think of a way to save Ji-eum out of there, Do-yoon, Do-jin and his athlete friends reach there to save the day.
Seeing all this commotion, Cutlass Fish could only think of getting himself out of there but that would mean getting his identity known to all the people. He wanted to get rid of all the people who saw him and started pouring gasoline all over. He puts the place on fire, leaving everyone inside and tries to flee. But the police arrived on time and arrested them. On the other hand, Seo-ha jumped through the fire to save Ji-eum, who was lying unconscious on the second floor of the building.
When he tries to wake her up, the dark persona comes through and tries to kill Seo-ha by clutching his neck. However, Seo-ha’s voice makes Ji-eum get out of the trance and come to her senses. Even though they get rescued by the police, Seo-ha was badly injured and stabbed. He gained consciousness after 3 days.
Once he is discharged and back to his normal life, Ji-eum finally breaks the curse by holding Do-yoon’s hand in front of everyone and saying ‘it’s okay’. As soon as the words leave her mouth, something changes and all the memories and weight of her past lives are vanished. This gives Ji-eum (Shin Hye-sun) a new start in her present life and an opportunity to make the best out of her one life, with Seo-ha.
See You in My 19th Life (이번 생도 잘 부탁해) is available for streaming on Netflix and read the webtoon here.
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