As soon as I saw that JTBC had done a remake of the 2009 american film ‘17 Again’, I added it to my to watch playlist. Nothing better than an old favourite coming to life again and in a longer and even more wholesome version.
Written by Ahn Eun-bin, Choi Yi-ryool and Kim Do-yeon, and directed by Ha Byung-hoon, ‘18 Again’ is a drama that focuses on life, dreams, family and fate.
A Second Chance
Besides being a remake of one of my favourite movies when I was in my teens, ‘18 Again’ also reunited familiar faces of the drama world with a newer generation. We get the best of both worlds.
This drama reunites two of my favourite actors in the K-drama world. We get Kim Ha-neul as Jung Da-jung, and Yoon Sang-hyun as Hong Dae-young. I hadn’t seen them together since I watched ‘Secret Garden’, and I just love watching the familiar faces that got me into K-dramas.
Jung Da-jung and Hong Dae-young met as teenagers in secondary school. They fell in love and started dating. Da-jung wanted to be a TV anchor, and Dae-young wanted to become a basketball star.
Dae-young’s dreams come closer when representatives of an important college come to see him play, hoping to recruit him if he does well. However, life takes a turn after Da-jung tells him that she is pregnant just before the game.
At just eighteen years of age, Da-jung and Dae-young become parents and live a reality that was far from their dreams. They get married and start working towards having a better life for their twins.
Now in their late 30s they both try to make things work, but the increased tension between the two of them, leads Da-jung to ask for a divorce.
Dae-young frustrated and angry vents about his life regrets, he leaves their home, goes to his old school gym, falls asleep after having a few drinks and wakes up looking like his eighteen-year-old self.
Friends and Family
Teen Dae-young (Lee Do-hyun) wakes up without noticing his change, he only notices what happened after accidentally meeting his teen daughter.
As he isn’t able to return home and decides to seek help from his best friend Go Deok-jin (Kim Kang-hyun). Deok-jin’s tries to help Dae-young and agrees on pretending he is his father to enroll him in high school under the name of Go Woo-young.
In an attempt to grow closer with his son and daughter, Dae-young tries to become friends with the twins. He finds out that the twins were hiding the problems they had at school trying to not affect him and Da-jung.
Throughout this drama, Dae-young grows closer and becomes friends with his son and daughter, helping them with their issues, and becoming a person that helps them in moments of worry and uncertainty.
A Life-Long Love
As he grows closer with the twins, Dae-young also understands the reason behind his divorce with Da-jung. He realises the mistakes he made in their marriage and that some of the things he said impulsively really hurt his wife and their family.
Da-jung, from her side, is trying her best to become the dream TV anchor she wanted to be. She gets the job through a blind audition, but encounters problems after directives start judging her for her age rather than her skills.
Outside her job, she notices the resemblance of Woo-jung and Dae-young, however, she thinks of it as a coincidence, until she starts feeling attracted to him because of the resemblance and the similarity in the personalities.
Final thoughts
‘18 Again’ is a cute and fluffy drama that talks about the adversities in life and how sometimes nothing goes as planned.
Even though this drama is based on the movie, they took an absolutely different approach in the personalities and relationships with the characters. Young Dae-young was portrayed by Lee Do-hyun, and he did a wonderful job portraying the character.
The family dynamics and growth of not just the main characters but also the secondary one was beautiful to watch, I thoroughly enjoyed watching how each one of them became a better version of themselves.
Make sure to watch it, and check out the trailer below.
