My Perfect Stranger (Review)
(어쩌다 마주친, 그대; aired from May 1 to June 20, 2023 on KBS2, available on Viki internationally; 16 episodes)
My Perfect Stranger is a mystery drama with elements of time travel and romance (as usual for K-Dramas). The main protagonist of the show, Yoon Hae-jun (Kim Dong-wook) is a news anchor, who investigates serial murders in the small Korean town. When he finds himself in possession of the time machine, he embarks on a journey to prevent all those murders when they began in 1987. By accident he travels to the past with Baek Yoon-young (Jin Ki-joo), who in the present is an editor working for the famous author. It turns out that both of their pasts interconnect and are related to the inhabitants of the town.
In essence, the time travel motif is only there to introduce us to the main mystery of the show, namely, who is behind the murders. In a sense we have here a variant of a classic whodunnit: in the course of the show, we get to know the main inhabitants of the town as well as suspects in the case. That part of the show is done very cleverly. Both Yoon Hae-jun and Baek Yoon-young meet their families in the town, 34 years before the present. They learn secrets about their own past and secrets of their families which were unknown to them in the present but were crucial for the unraveling of the mystery behind the murders. Everybody and everything are connected in a very clever way, and we slowly learn about those details, some of the secrets are revealed only in the last episodes.
On the other hand, the time travel aspects of the show, like interactions with main characters’ families from the past, and future consequences of their choices and actions in the past are close calque of the model established by 1985 Back to the Future. Clearly, writers were focused on the mystery part of the show and decided to play the time travel arc very safely.
The least developed story arc of the show is a romance between two main leads. For the large part of the show the romance just isn’t there. Then, in the second half of the show writers decided to turn the romance on, and suddenly we have a rather unearned affection between the two main characters. It’s like writers forgot they were supposed to include a romance and then decided to include its shortened version in the show at the last moment. I don’t think there is a chemistry between the main leads, and for a long time I wasn’t sure if writers just intended for them to be friends, or indeed romantic partners. For most of the show Hae-jun acts towards Yoon-young as a sort of older brother or guardian, and not as somebody interested in her romantically, which furthers the confusion.
The colorful inhabitants of the small Korean town where the show takes place are one of the biggest advantages of the show. Yoon-young family from the past is a typical K-Drama Korean family, with strong bonds and rather conservative values. We get to know them during the time of the tragedy, and how they deal with unexpected situations, when their worldview shatters due to the events in the town. On the other hand, Hae-jun’s family is disjointed, if even can be called a “family,” clearly made as a sort of contrast to Yoon-young’s relatives. The main arc focuses on Hae-jun’s relationship with his grandfather in the present and in the past. Both leads learn about motivations behind choices and actions of their family members throughout 34 years between the past and the present, all leading to fateful events of 1987. All of that is happening against the background of vaguely outlined final days of the dictatorship in South Korea, which is definitely more apparent for the Koreans themselves, but might be confusing for international viewers unaware of the nature of that period in South Korean history.
The whole show has an obvious nostalgia feeling to it, it offers a view into South Korean 1980s in a nutshell. It is also very well written, each episode offers additional insights into the main mystery, often leading us in the wrong directions (obviously), when we think everything is solved now, but it turns out we were misled. I would definitely recommend the show to anybody interested in a nostalgic mystery show set in 1980s, where there are no smartphones or even cellphones, no internet, and easy solutions, all of which is pretty refreshing.
My Perfect Stranger on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
