The drama that has me so troubled is Mr Baek, an interesting story revolving around a grumpy old man who has the rare opportunity to turn back the biological clock and relive his life a little differently. Following Chairman Choi Go-Bong, we meet a 70 year old man who is less than pleased with the world but finds himself convinced that he is all that as he carries on his life without trusting or acknowledging anyone around him. However things begin to change once he meets the young lady, Eun Ha-Soo, whom he eventually addressed rather sweetly as the ‘the milky way’, a play on her name that makes more sense in Korean than it does in English.
Anyway, after their fateful meeting our grumpy old man finds himself standing on death’s door but like most humans he finds he still has much to do and has no desire to leave just yet. Luckily for him though it seems someone is listening up there as he gets a strange transformation where his biological clock turns back a few decades, leaving him a healthy and active 34 year old man.
Not sure what to make of his situation he tries to get back into his old life in order to fix the many misunderstanding that had been left as he ‘died’. Thus we see him successfully presenting himself as his own son, Choi Shin-Hyung, a revelation that takes many of those around him by surprise, especially his one and only true son, Choi Dae-Han.
However, things don’t go as he plans as things keep forcing him out of the business he thought he was still busy with and instead he finds himself constantly coming across the cute and naïve Eun Ha-Soo who he slowly starts falling in love with. Of course Eun Ha-Soo also finds herself attracted to the strange and rather rude Choi Shin-Hyung, while having not the slightest clue who he really is.
Along with the sweet romance that blossoms between the two leads, we see Choi Shin-Hyung also begin to develop a relationship with his estranged son, the only other family member who actually seems to be missing him, while the rest of his family fight over the business he started and grew. Their relationship grows stronger as they face the evil Jung Yi-Gun, who Choi Go-Bong had always favored without knowing his true colors.
The story is very interesting and can get you pretty engrossed. But I must admit the relationship between Eun Ha-Soo and Choi Shin-Hyung had me just a little disturbed when I thought of the little details of who he was and how old he really was. I know age is but a number, but that number was just a bit high for my comfort levels. It was especially weird when they introduced the classical love triangle and his son, Choi Dae-Han, was the other competitor. I felt awkward rooting for the main couple when this happened. This kind of theme seems to suggest many disturbing things about our society, especially where old men are concerned, for example should it be okay for a 70 year old to be dating such a young woman? I mean its love right? Even still my brain was having some difficulties justifying why I got so excited for their romance.
Of course my troubles could only have been so great because the acting in this was amazing, especially where the actor who played Choi Shin-Hyung was concerned. The way Shin Ha-Kun portrayed being an old man, while also learning the things he was so surprisingly inexperienced with was adorable and worth watching. The relationships between the actors felt so real too so that has to be acknowledged too. Indeed the actors and actresses did a brilliant job portraying their characters.
All in all it was a good drama and I’m glad I spent 16 hours of my life watching it. I also admit that I will be looking for more works with these actors in. I’m very interested in seeing Lee Joon (aka Choi Dae-Han) in a lead role where he actually gets the girl. This drama definitely left me with many memories and feelings, along with a possible change in perspective when it comes to love and the limits of what can be considered an ‘okay’ age gap between couples.
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