So I finally had a chance to sit down and check out some of the new dramas that have recently started airing and I was so intrigued by Rain‘s new drama, Please Come Back, Mister, I’m now sitting here, ready to dive into this crazy world of supernatural train stations and second chances. Care to join me?
As any good drama dealing with life, death and second chances should, this drama starts with the death of our two main characters, Kim Young Soo (Kim In Kwon) and Han Gi Tak (Kim Soo Ro), and then spends the rest of the first episode filling us in on the rather tragic stories of their death. As a brown-nosing middle manager at a huge department store, Kim Young Soo isn’t the most lovable of characters in the Dramaverse and honestly, the way he treats his wife and daughter make him even less so. Willing to sacrifice the happiness of his family for a company that barely acknowledges his existence, it’s hard to find anything about Young Soo to actually like. I suppose his relationship with his daughter is cute but that’s about his only good point. The way he treats his wife is atrocious and that fact that he has no limit to how low he can get makes him one very unlikable character. I can’t even say I’m sorry when he decided to so something stupid it ultimately leads to his death because, quite honestly, his family is better of without him.
Han Gi Tak, on the other hand, is a mob boss gone clean. Well, he’s trying really hard to stay clean and he’s encouraging his lackeys to do the same. I love that he was willing to pay for their GEDs and college tuition and such and had started a restaurant just so they all have a place where they could conduct legitimate business and stay out of trouble. For a man with a very tarnished past, he had done a really great job of coming clean and staying that way. At least until his old childhood flame turned celebrity, Song Yi Yeon (Lee Han Nui) came strolling back into his life, begging for his help.
It’s sad to me that someone like Yi Yeon, who abandoned Gi Tak as a teen, would have the guts to come back into his life and as for his help as a thug, rather than respect his wish to keep his life clean and trouble-free. I can’t see how she can ever claim to love him when she went off and married a jerk like Cha Jae Kook (Choi Won Young), lived her life in whatever messed up way she wanted, and now that’s she divorced, caught up in a scandal, and desperate, she wants Gi Tak’s help. It’s very selfish of her and ultimately it’s an action that leads to Gi Tak’s death. Something I personally hope she regrets for the rest of her life.
However likable or unlikable these characters are, we’re only given an episode to get to know them as they were in life. Towards the end of the first episode we’re back to their death and we get to join them on their journey towards heaven. Which, how Young Soo manages to get on the Heaven-bound train shows he has some sort of conscious buried way deep down inside but it’s still not enough to make me like him. Even as he and Gi Tak are on their way to heaven, and Young Soo is crying over all he’s missed out on, all I can keep thinking about is how he should have realized this while he was alive. But I guess that’s really the point of the story, isn’t it?
Unsatisfied with the way things were left back in the land of the living, Gi Tak and Young Soo decide to go back to Earth and try to fix the mess they left behind. There’s a catch though, they can’t go back as themselves, they can’t let anyone know who they really are, and they only have two months to get their affairs in order. With new bodies and a second chance to make things right, Gi Tak and Young Soo set out to right their wrongs but it’s not going to be easy, especially when Gi Tak is now a woman and Young Soo is the exact replica of his former company’s chairman’s illegitimate son. (How’s that for confusing?) With one unable to fix anything with his fists and the other soon to be mistaken for the chairman’s son, Gi Tak and Young Soo have a lot working against them but I have faith they’ll be able to work things out in the end, it’s just going to require they think outside their old selves and find new ways to solve old problems.
As much as I love the idea of second chances, I do have to wonder what the effect of Gi Tak and Young Soo’s return will be on those they went back to help. With Young Soo’s affection for his wife coming from Rain‘s body, it’s going to be a bit difficult for her to resist his charms. So what happens when she sees her late husband in this new, gorgeous man? I know it may seem like it’s too soon for her to fall for the affection of someone other than her husband but you know that eventually she’s going to start feeling again and if she falls for a man who has to leave her in less than two months, is that really helping anything? I’d much rather see her come to lean on that other manager, Jung Ji Hoon, than Rain, as the other guy is actually alive and able to care for her, but we all know that’s probably not going to happen. So what will become of Shin Da Hye (Lee Min Jung) when her reinstated husband in Rain‘s body disappears? Surely we can’t be expected to believe the chairman’s son will suddenly take Young Soo’s place once Young Soo boards that train for heaven!
And what about Gi Tak? I see less damage being done here as he’s now in a woman’s body and therefore won’t cause any sort of romantic problems but will he actually be able to do any good here? What is it he’s going to be able to achieve when he has no power, his gang has disbanded and no one believes he’s Gi Tak’s little sister? It seems to me he’s in a pretty hopeless situation so how is he going to be able to fix things for Yi Yeon? The even bigger question I have to ask is, why is he doing this in the first place? What does he owe Yi Yeon that he’s willing to give up his train ride to heaven? I get that he feels unsatisfied with his cause of death and would like to get revenge but really, he’s dead. Why bother? I’m sure I’ll understand more as this show progresses, which is why I’m going to keep watching it. I really want to know what good is going to come from these two coming back to Earth and I really want to find out how all of these supernatural adventures are going to affect those left behind.
I know there are already 2 more episodes out there for me to watch but before I go back to watching them, I want to know what you thought of these first two episodes. Are you as intrigued by this idea of second chances as I am? Do you see what good might come from these two going back? Do you have any of the same concerns I have about how things might play out in the future? You know I always love hearing from you so be sure to let me know what you’re thinking by leaving me a comment below!