Olá? Sou Eu! (2021)

well, it's fun but also meh

Ban Hani (Choi Kang Hee) , a single 37-year-old lives her timid life day by day, until one day, she met her spunky 17-year-old self. This 17-year-old Hani is nothing like her now, she’s obnoxious and optimistic, while her current self is passive and worn-down with life. How come they're so different despite being the same person? Is there a guilt that Hani carries in her adult life?

It's always interesting to see opposite personalities interacting on-screen. I like the idea of the major contrast between Hani's past self and current self and they were a great match on-screen. I enjoyed the hijinks, comedy and the high energy cast performance a lot in the beginning, but started losing excitement when it starts fleshing out on the trauma. Somehow it didn't feel as emotional and deep, which maybe due to it stays trying to be silly and over the top. I've seen few dramas that handle this emotional / funny tone very well, but here it didn't feel fit together in my opinion. The male lead storyline was a mess although Kim Young Kwang acted very well. I think the banter between him and his dad was better than the romance. I don't think they need the romance in this story, it has enough plotline to focus on. Overall, it was just ok, I had fun at first, but got bored as it ends.

Leia Mais

I'm gonna say right off the bat that this is not a strongly written, tightly plotted drama. It has some obvious flaws that are apparent from the first episode. But it's heartwarming and thoughtful and sprinkled with humor (and some tears for good measure), so I don't think it is without any merit.

Of course, because this drama has time-travel in it, we get to see both the modern day and the past, and there are good and bad things to this. Mainly that the present day portions and the past day portions felt like two very different dramas which created a very striking/jarring feeling while watching that took me awhile to get comfortable with. The modern day portion was like a silly, stereotypical, nothing new here, kind of drama, but with genuine heart and thoughtfulness. I was somewhat disappointed and let-down with aspects of this part of the story and would have liked some things to have been done differently, but it's not unenjoyable. The past day portion had a very human, slice of life, Reply series feel to it, and, for my part, I think it was the better portion. Young Ha Ni is a dynamic character, and her relationship with her father is incredibly endearing. We only received glimpses of the past here and there throughout the drama though, and there were next to none in the latter half, which was really disappointing.

The theme of the drama, the affects of trauma, was probably my favorite thing about the story. I really cared about Ha Ni, both young and adult. But while I think young Ha Ni had a mostly good story arc with a very satisfying conclusion, adult Ha Ni got somewhat jipped in the last few eps. There's a lot of focus early on on the difficulty of adult Ha Ni's life and how much she's given up on herself out of shame and regret, and I think the drama does a really good job of exploring this. There's also the start of her growing and changing and giving herself permission to forgive herself for her past. I was very eager to see more of this in the later half of the series as it's really heartfelt and emotional, but adult Ha Ni's story ends up becoming more about corporate business things/saving the company, and I didn't understand the point. None of it serves the main crux of the drama, and it's honestly quite boring and uninteresting.

As far as the time-travel aspect of the drama goes, it ended up being better than I initially thought while also being somewhat non-existent to the plot most of the time. The only time time-travel is ever mentioned in the story is when the writers need to move a certain part of the story along or when it had been awhile since we'd last thought about the fact that young Ha Ni would need to go back to her timeline eventually so the writers threw in a reminder. It's not a super big or important part of the plot, so if you're looking for some cool timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff, you won't get it. And if I were to sit down and really hammer out the problems with the time-travel/shamanism aspect of the story, I could 100% present you with a list of holes that keep it from being accurate or affective. But while this is a drama featuring time-travel, this isn't a time-travel drama. The writers aren't all that concerned with the mechanics of time-travel or even that much with time-travel itself as long as the device serves the story, so you probably shouldn't let yourself get too hung up on it either.

The last thing I'll say for this drama is that while the character archetype of the male lead has been done far better in other dramas, and this male lead would not be my favorite I've ever seen (I think I actually like the second male lead in this drama better because of the really fascinating trajectory his story and character progression takes), there's still something about the male lead that makes you really like him. He starts out a little annoying, but his thoughtfulness and charm and positivity grow on you. By the end, I was really happy the female lead had someone so kind and thoughtful on her side.

So what would I say to those thinking about watching this? Hello, Me! is a feel good, don't think too hard about it, just have a good time, sort of drama, and if you go into it with that mindset, you'll enjoy yourself. It's not ground-breaking or the most tightly plotted, but it's uplifting, and sometimes that's enough.

Leia Mais

Heavy topic handled better in a lighter way!

This series may not be the best among the ones I watch. But I would definitely recommend this to everyone.
It's about how we should live freely in present, to the fullest rather than getting stuck in our miserable past. And the story succeeds in conveying that message.

Once a bright and happy 17 yo Ha Ni enters into the life of guilt-struck and miserable 37 yo Ha Ni, we were able to witness a great journey of self realization and self appreciation. All along the way, I loved how they handled the serious topic lightly with a subtle comedy in it. The comedy in the genre surprisingly, fitted well with the story and was never over the top..

The romance is so subtle but enjoyable and realistic. As the main focus is never on romance, I'm completely ok with that. Everything got compensated by our cutest ML. He is like a cute teddy bear and the sunshine of this drama.
I loved almost all of the characters and everyone did their roles perfectly.. The dialogues are deep and insightful.. It's a pillar of the drama.. Made me move many times.

Still why it's not a 10?

Though the ML needs some importance, his company plot at the end looked forced and unnecessary (which I didn't mind a lot because of some cute character interaction but it could have been short.) The pace was perfect at the beginning but kinda slow towards the end and also pretty predictable. Though it's a supernatural / fantasy drama with a time travel plot and no need of any logic, some things are hard to ignore for me..

That being said, still it's one of the favorite series for me and will have a special place. Nothing can change the fact that it's such a heartwarming drama with a wonderful story line and refreshing comedy. This is the perfect drama for those who want to watch a slice of life drama with a deep meaning but afraid of sadness in it.. With a deep heartwarming message and a perfect humour, this drama easily became my favorite. ^^

Leia Mais

Heartwarming story

What happens when the only person who can save you is you....

I think that's the shortest summary one can write about this drama.

Genre : Rom-com, Slice of life, fantasy

Story: A middle aged unmarried lady get's fired over some misunderstanding. However she motivates herself to get back in the game, motivates her past admirer, motivates her friends, motivates her employer, her sister, her team etc etc. As the genre suggests it is a slice of life that deals with issues that a lot of grown ups deal with generally. On one side is the happy go lucky male lead, a rich unemloyed idiot and other side is a faded hallyu star (not going to waste time on debating who gets the girl).

What i loved about this show is the story that kept us hooked and how they portrayed each character from the past and showed their growing up. What i hated about this show are the main leads. No chemistry, unrealistic innocence and unnecessary slow acting. There are moments when you get really frustrated and want to watch the video in double speed. Sorry, not sorry. It's not bad for a girl's night, one time watch, nothing more than that (definitely not for binge).

Acting :
I don't like Choi Kang hee's acting of the innocent and sweet girl to be honest. I watched a few older dramas before and it was more about her firey side like in Protect The Boss that makes her less boring.
Kim Young Kwang is the cutest tall guy you will ever see with a knack for good characters. (may be his character was not written that well, but then he has had great opportunities before). Anyway i was a little dissappointed.
Remember the bob haired gangster from Feiry Priest? well Eum Moon Suk is like an acting bomb and i will follow his career with great interest.

Will i watch it again? Probably no because the impact of the story was not that great.

Will i recommend it to anyone? Definitely no. I'll personally write you a small one liner gist for each episode because the 1 hour is so not worth it.

Leia Mais

An Amazing and Heartwarming Story

This drama was honestly one that I didn't plan to love as much as I did. I'd been scrolling past it on Netflix for a while and finally decided to give it a chance a few days ago. Although it was a bit predictable, it also had a few plot twists that I didn't expect. There were times when I laugh and even more times when I cried. It's a wonderful story about a woman finding herself years after trauma. It was very well written and I honestly wish that I could experience the whole thing over again. This drama has made its way to being one of my favorite dramas of all time. A comfort drama, if you will. I do plan on rewatching this in the future once I've forgotten most of what happens. I'm so glad I decided to check this drama out. I genuinely so happy with it.

Leia Mais

a sweet twist in a cliche story

I loved their time traveling concept, I don't think anyone did it before, they either travel and become their future/past or they act like different people. but this was a sweet story about self love, forgiveness and dealing with loss, whether it's a family member or a dream


the romance started off as promising but the moment he changed cuz he knew "they met as kids" just ruined it, it took away any chance of development and just jumped into the last stages of "love", honestly even when they stood by each other I never saw them as anything more than sweet friends so I wasn't happy with the abrupt ending


Anthony was useless from start to end, he was such a waste of time, he starts off as a selfish jerk and suddenly he's thrown under a buss by using the current event of "celebrity bullying" and they ended it by ruining his career, making him retire then give up all of his money and opening a restaurant... that's not the answer. he was never in it for the acting so that fact alone makes his arc useless, that whole thing about him "finding" his passion for acting and chasing the writer for his role, all of it was gone
you can't just end it with that. his problem wasn't his past, he was a tiny looser bully that was beaten up by a girl, he was no threat, but worse he grew up and he always disrespected his staff and yet that all just disappeared and then they made the manager just like him. that sort of treatment to the staff is as bad as bullying ;/





anyway, even though KYK was a sweetie, the only good points were the hani's story and the OST.

Leia Mais

Approved

First time to write a review here..

I really like this k drama. The storyline is amazing. I love the concept of the young bah ha-ni who travel in the present time (for some reason) and meet herself which is the old bah ha-ni. They are so funny. I also love the male lead role. :) I love the character and ofcourse the actors, they really portrayed the character. Every episode is amazing :). You will laugh and cry . I cant wait to watch the next episode. No dull moment.

I have nothing more to say but this k drama is a must see. You guys check it out :)

Leia Mais

Awesome Relationship Drama

I watched this one based on a recommendation someone sent me when I was lamenting a kdrama slump. So I didn't go in knowing anything, or watching because of a certain actor. Which is kind a weird, lol.

The premise of this one really makes one think... what would your younger self think if they could see your life now (assuming you are old like me). My younger self would be absolutely aghast at how some things have turned out. And surprised and perhaps even proud about lots of stuff too. It would be interesting if we met each other. I think we are totally different people now and it would really be weird.

Anyway. There's a cute ML in this one ...and he really likes our girl... but they barely even hold hands. Nary a kiss in sight! WAH. So sad...

And there's an actor whose storyline takes a weird turn into the whole "bullying from your past" issue that seems to be a thing these days. Weird because it didn't have a whole lot to do with the story... but I guess it was something they wanted to address.

Anyway, cute drama. It made me weepy in parts.. .just the relationship between these two characters, the main lead and her younger self. Also, the relationship the dude has with his dad. It's all quite powerful.

Leia Mais

Find Your Happiness Again

If you're looking for a light, easy-going Kdrama, this is for you. The plot is fairly predictable, nothing much plot-wise would excite you or look forward to each episode. I am not a fan of ahjumma-young rich guy love stories but since I like the male lead (I love him from On Your Wedding Day opposite Park Bo Young), I can give this a pass. However, I did not find the romance between the leads heart-fluttering. Their romantic chemistry did not reach me. But I find it a bit appaling when she suddenly gave him attention as soon as she finds out that he is the son of the chairman, which would make me doubt her intentions if it happens in real-life.

I have no complaints with the acting. The cast delivered well. The story is just so-so. Hello, Me! will just be one of the many dramas on my shelf, nothing extraordinary or an important drama to miss out on.

I love the father-daughter story though and the Lily of the Valley. If you're looking for a light, no-brainer drama, you can give this a shot. One thing I will remember though when I hear the name of this drama is the Joa Exercise routine. That was hilarious!

Leia Mais

The heart makes up for the plot, I swear.

Hello Me is the perfect example of a drama not necessarily needing a well-written plot in order to be memorable. During a season filled to the brim with suspense thrillers, murder mysteries and dark-themed dramas, this little romcom was my oasis. It re-energized me in the middle of weeks filled with murder, betrayal and frustration. Without it, I probably wouldn't have made it through the other shows that aired.

The story for this drama is actually pretty simplistic, and more than a bit convoluted. BHN is a woman who, after the death of her father, essentially gave up on life. Blaming herself for his death, she was never able to get her feet off the ground. She was a fixed point in time. While the world around her kept changing, she refused to change with it, and her inability to adapt found her living off of her sister's success in exchange for housekeeping, with a job that didn't give her much of an income. At 37-years-old she had nothing to show for herself. But on her worst day, she gets a second chance as her 17-year-old self appears from the past and gives her the push she needs to reinvent herself. This concept has been done before in many different ways and variations and isn't anything new. A lot of the drama's shortcomings stem from this premise as they try to think up ways to explain - or avoid - the time travel and the convoluted nature of how things ended up this way, and it only gets worse when they try to send 17-year-old BHN back to her time.

Despite the lacklustre plot, it's worth a watch. It makes up for its shortcomings with a powerful message, heartwarming moments and great characters. Hello Me tells a story of loving yourself and accepting who you are, no matter your faults, where you came from or how you got here. We follow BHN's journey as a sad, guilt-ridden woman at the end of her rope as she regains lost confidence and learns to stop blaming herself for the past. Through her own will, she finds a career and reconnects with friends and family with whom she had grown distant over her 20 years of grief.

I wouldn't be doing the drama justice if I ignored the supporting cast. HYH as the male lead was amazing. Following the theme of BHN herself, many of the other characters go through their own growth period throughout the story and the male lead is one of them. HYH begins his journey as an immature, indecisive young man with a good heart. He has no direction in life and no interest in the family business so he spends his days learning new skills and collecting very niche licenses that he says will be useful when working in the future, even though he's never had a job. After losing a bet against his father, he's kicked out of the house and has no choice but to try to make it on his own. The chemistry between HYH and BHN is amazing. They genuinely feel like they care about one another as they grow close and every interaction they have, while oftentimes silly and over-the-top, is natural and fluid. There's no sudden forced romance like you usually get with romcoms. Everything is slow and they go at their own pace, forming a close bond before anything more than HYH's crush is brought into the spotlight.

YCS is a former school-bully-turned-actor hiding his past behind his new name Anthony and a lot of plastic surgery. Pretty topical, given the past few months. I honestly hated his character in the early episodes, but at some point he did start to grow on me. We follow him as he struggles to regain his lost popularity and to make amends for his past wrongdoings, and the journey was better handled than I expected it to be, honestly. Even smaller characters are given their own personal journey's, whether it's BHN's family finally coming to accept her again after 20 years without support, HYH's father worrying that his son will never grow up or even the younger BHN maturing and coming to love her future self as her future self learns to accept her in turn. Everyone has a story and these are just a few.

So if you hate plot holes, maybe avoid this. There are plenty, especially towards the end. But if plot doesn't matter to you as much as the heart and soul of a drama does, give it a shot. There are some wonderfully written characters and a beautiful message in every one of them, and if that's not enough then the relationship between the leads is incredibly adorable. It's funny, it's sweet, and it holds a special place in my heart.

Leia Mais

Very dragged and uninteresting. This could have easily been a movie.

I think the drama had an ok concept that was made so much worse by the execution/writing of that concept. The original idea was probably two pages long and basically the rest is a massive uninteresting filler.
I've just finished watching it and if you asked me to explain what happened in X or Y episode I wouldn't be able to, because there is so much nothingness that it automatically got erased from my mind as soon as I watched it.

I think one of the main problems is that they decided to make FL and her younger self complete opposites and under a very specific set of circumstances with the accident so it's not something many people will relate to. I could feel connected to the lost present time FL but not to her younger self nor the dynamic they had going on later. If there had been more introspection into the first part of FL's character I would have found it more interesting. I also still don't understand how having her past self there helped her to get anything she managed to get. Her younger self is selfish, spoiled and kind of annoying. The dynamic they have later of mother-daughter also I think made it quite a lot worse because by their actions and words they pretty much worked as such and made you even believe it at times and personally it's not how I would treat my younger self... but then again, my younger self was not that childish nor it was that different to how I'm now so I think the relationship would probably be more like we're sisters or something in those lines, what I think kinda makes more sense and probably would be more true to most people, especially considering her younger self was 17, not a 6 year old.

To this we add an overabundant amount of scenes of side characters that add nothing to the main story nor are they that interesting. FL's sister appears multiple times yet I don't know much about her, also she was quite bad in the beginning yet later is just sweeped under the rug. Anthony's scenes bored me sooooo much, I don't understand what the point of him being there was. It was just a filler since his story was not even that related to hers, not even in the end. I kept thinking there was going to be some connection that justified him there but there wasn't. I don't think his story was bad per se, it's just that it's not worth 16 episodes of a few scenes per each one. He's main character but why???? He really adds nothing to the story. His arc could have been done in like one episode and done.

I always find it unrealistic when a main character starts working in a place and turns out they knew someone in there from the past, like how small is your city? Here it's not only the best friend, but also Anthony and Han Yoo Hyun. Too many coincidences and, at least when it comes to Han Yoo Hyun specifically, very sloppy reasoning.

I enjoyed the character of Han Yoo Hyun but it was very forced how his father kept him out of the business because "he's not interested" but wouldn't even give him a chance when he was the one showing an interest, it was just pushed again just to drag the story more until the last episodes. It also got tiring he kept calling FL "old woman" even when they were closer.

There is no romance here and it's only in episode 14 that Ban Ha Ni mentions having butterflies when interacting with Han Yoo Hyun... so you're just told because scenes we had none and maybe we got a few looks from him that let me know he likes her and him saying it to Anthony, but her to him? zero! She looks like a rock in that sense the whole series, even at the end when they say they're together, the chemistry is zero and I'm again being told and not shown (that kiss was appalling, especially for people in their 30s, what was that!!!!??? hahahaha). This show shouldn't be classified as a romance, it's not.
This brings me to the fact that had they focused a lot more in the romance throughout the series they would have had enough extra content to not have to have so many fillers of people walking here and there, or talking very slowly about uninteresting things and so on.
The main plot is, well, very sloppy. It was ok and interesting in the beginning but it's kind of forgotten for most of the series till the later episodes that it's brought back. Once they know what the mobile phone message with the days meant and they were doing nothing I started rolling my eyes, especially considering I was already fed up with the show at that point. They look at the phone and see D-7, they panic for 5 minutes and then they have some nice meal and go somewhere and then they show D-6, and then panic again and two seconds later they're eating beef. It was so difficult to take this seriously. Also the father gives that criptic message through the old phone "quickly quickly, you're running out of time", but considering where she had to go in the end to go back that it's nowhere related to anything she would have been able to know on her own and "quickly quickly" but the dream message was only received one day before the expire date. Bad writing, that's all.
I'm going to nitpick here as well because I was also rolling my eyes at the whole dream/past sequence, you're in a field of dead grass and you find a lily of the valley there eventhough they mostly grow in woodland, humid shaded areas? I was laughing, even more when in the tunnel sequence they find one and they're holding it with the hands (it's very toxic and can produce rashes) until I realised it was a plastic one, what fair enough, but I mean, there was no reason whatsoever really that it couldn't have been another flower the one picked for the whole idea instead of a lily of the valley...
This also brings me to how utterly useless that phychic was, I get they wanted to make the quirk of him being a modern one what was fine, but he would give half messages even when he knew what was happening. You can't tell people something is very serious and life and death and urgent and at the same time withhold information... he only appears twice in the show eventhough at one point he says to FL that he'll be looking for a way to make her past self back, next scene he appears that matter is not discussed.
Not sure why this is also labelled as a comedy, I only laughed once, and that is when Sung Woo is giving some food to past Ban Ha Ni and his mother, FL's sister, has a go at him. It did make me chuckle, but other than that I didn't find anything funny.

The whole drama in the company was ok but kind of cliché and I don't like how they dealt with ML's aunt in the end, she's kind of forgiven and it's not only what she has done with the company but the fact that her son never addresses the way she treats Oh Ji Eun. She had been said horrible things multiple times and yet nothing happens. In fact I don't even know the point in terms of plot of Oh Ji Eun getting pregnant since we didn't even know until that second that she had been trying nor she has a change of character at any time that makes her stronger or more confident or stopping taking that kind of treatment from her mother-in-law.

Points go for FL having freckles and having scenes when later on she has started using makeup for work but she's still shown with the freckles at times when she's supposed to not be wearing makeup, I thought it was a realistic touch I appreciated.

Overall is just boring and dragging and writing is not great. The message is there but you don't need that many episodes to tell it.
Considering as well that there isn't really a progression in terms of work, romance or much else of anything, this could have prefectly worked as a movie and it still would have given the same message.

Leia Mais

If you're watching for Romance...

this is NOT the one for you. I generally start dramas for romance but I also don't really read synopsis or watch trailers. I came into this for romance but gained so much more.

The leads have ABSOLUTELY ZERO chemistry but the story pulls you in. I will also say, I am 37 and this show is great for someone around my age and older. I think we would appreciate it more. I also heard this mentioned in a podcast "Talk K-Dramas with Bruce and Alice" and since I also had this thought, I am really glad they brought it up! I don't really have much to say just wanted to point out the chemistry and the fact that this can be appreciated by an older audience, though I am sure there are younger people who could love this as well.

It would be a perfect 10 if the chemistry or connection was there or if they didn't have the romance at all. But because they tried to add in romance as part of the story, it did not work for me. 7.5 overall.

Leia Mais