Thoughts on 49 Days, or…A Beautiful Melodrama

Another drama is in the books! It seems like I’ve been alternating between ones I like a lot and ones I don’t care for all that much lately. After the excruciatingly un-compelling Protect the Boss, this one really kept me interested, and even moved me emotionally. I’m really glad that a friend of mine recommended it to me. The title is 49 Days because, well…you’ll see if you read the plot description below.

Plot

(Is a spoiler alert necessary? I guess I’ll slap one of those bad boys on here just in case.)

At first we’re introduced to Shin Ji-Hyeon, a sweet but naïve rich girl who seems to have everything she could ever want in life. Besides being well off financially, she has two close girlfriends, In-Jeong and Seo-Woo, and a fiancée, Min-Ho, whom she’s going to marry in a week. Min-Ho also has a friend named Gang, whom he met when he was studying abroad, who now owns a restaurant in Korea. Gang was a classmate of Ji-Hyeon’s when they were in high school, but the two always had sort of a love-hate relationship.

We’re also introduced to Song Yi-Gyeong, a woman who lives in a shabby apartment and works the night shift at a convenience store. Yi-Gyeong has been going through life as a zombie for the past five years, because her boyfriend died in a motorcycle accident and she’s been despondent ever since.

One day, Yi-Gyeong travels to the spot where her boyfriend died and decides to commit suicide by walking into traffic. Her life is saved, however, when someone pulls her to safety just before a truck hits her. Unfortunately, the driver collides with another car in an attempt to avoid hitting her, which causes a huge accident on the highway. Ji-Hyeon happens to be driving just behind this pileup, and when she’s momentarily distracted, she ends up crashing into the back of a truck.

Ji-Hyeon believes herself to have been thrown through the windshield, but when she gets up off the ground and starts walking around, she sees that her body is still in the car, and realizes that her soul is now separated from her body. Her body is rushed to the hospital, where it’s revealed that she’s in a brain-dead coma.

As her soul is walking around, she meets another soul who calls himself the Scheduler. The Scheduler appears as a sarcastic, perpetually exasperated young man, and he explains that everyone has a time when they’re scheduled to die, and his job is then to escort people to the afterlife. However, sometimes accidents happen, and people’s bodies die before their scheduled time, which is what happened to Ji-Hyeon. He gives Ji-Hyeon two options: She can either choose to die right now, or she can get a second chance at life if she completes a mission.

Ji-Hyeon, as you’d expect, chooses to try for a second chance at life. What’s the mission? She has 49 days to collect three tears. They can’t be just any tears though. They must be tears of sincere love for her, and the tears can’t come from parents or siblings, since those people love her unconditionally. Ji-Hyeon assumes it’ll be an easy task, since she has so many friends who certainly must love her sincerely, but as the Scheduler tells her, human emotions are often much more complex than they appear.

As a spirit Ji-Hyeon can move through air, but she can’t actually touch or move anything. Since she can’t open doors or pick up objects, she’s allowed to use the body of another woman to help her on her mission. The woman whose body she gets to use is none other than Song Yi-Gyeong. As long as Yi-Gyeong is asleep, Ji-Hyeon can enter her body and use it to walk around. However, she has to be back in Yi-Gyeong’s apartment by the time Yi-Gyeong normally wakes up, because she’ll find her body in a strange place otherwise. Also, she cannot under any circumstances tell people that she’s actually Ji-Hyeon while she’s using Yi-Gyeong’s body. Furthermore, she has to earn any money she spends while she’s going around as Yi-Gyeong. Got all that?

It doesn’t take long for Ji-Hyeon to discover that her perfect life wasn’t as perfect as she thought it was. She finds out things about her friends and family that she never knew, and her 49 days becomes more than a period of time with which to collect these tears; it becomes her only chance to put certain things right.

Writing and Acting

Dramas often use flashbacks to explain current happenings, and this one did that frequently. A commonly-employed technique in this drama was to show a scene, then later flash back to the scene and reveal that part of it was omitted when it was shown earlier, giving the viewer a new perspective on what happened. I thought that was interesting.

There were times when I felt the writing went into deus ex machina territory, but in some of those cases, they were able to redeem those choices by tying them in with other plot points.

I’ve commented before on how the final episodes of these dramas frequently have a different feel than the rest of the drama, because they’re rushing to tie up as many loose ends as possible. I don’t know if I’d say that about this one, although they did use the last episode to tie up several loose ends, as well as introduce some twists to the story that I personally didn’t see coming.

I appreciated the fact that the ending wasn’t the typical sappy-happy, lovey-dovey ending that you usually expect from these dramas. I won’t give it away, but I’ll just say that if you’re expecting an ending where everything gets fixed and everybody lives happily ever after, you might be disappointed. While the ending employs the usual “jump ahead to the future” technique (I think Beethoven Virus is the only drama I’ve watched where they didn’t do that), and does show positive developments in the lives of the characters, there isn’t the sense that everyone’s lives are suddenly perfect, or are potentially on their way to perfection. The message it leaves you with is that life is precious, and death is a part of it that we all need to accept. We need to cherish our lives, as well as the lives of loved ones who die, and remember what they meant to us. I thought it was much more profound than a perfect storybook ending would’ve been.

As far as the acting goes, well…as I said in the title to this post, “melodrama” is a good description. There were times when it seemed like they tried to wring as much emotion as they could out of it, and there were frequent tears, despite the difficulty Ji-Hyeon had in collecting them. As a viewer, the only time I really got teary was the final episode, though the rest was certainly captivating enough.

I really admired the acting of Lee Yo-Won, who did a great job playing what was essentially a dual role. There was a distinct contrast between her portrayals of the soft-spoken, dead-inside Song Yi-Gyeong and the Song Yi-Gyeong whose body is inhabited by the energetic, outgoing Shin Ji-Hyeon. It really seemed like two different people.

Most of the actors were pretty good, but the actress who played Ji-Hyeon was the one I had the most issue with. While she was great when she was being bubbly and cute, when she had to cry, it was obvious she was acting. I liked her and her character, but it just bothered me that she couldn’t pull off the crying scenes very realistically.

Music

This probably isn’t a complete list, since I watched several episodes on my phone rather than my laptop, where I write down my observations, but here are all the songs I was able to make note of:

Chuck Mangione – Feels So Good
서영은 – 잊을 만도 한데
F.R. David – Words
ABBA – I Have a Dream
정엽 – 아무일도 없었다
진혜림 – Lover’s Concerto
정일우 – 정일우 스케줄러 송 (This says "Jeong Il-Woo Scheduler Song" for those who can't read Hangul. Jeong Il-Woo is the actor who played Scheduler, and this was some rap song ringtone he had, apparently with him on vocals.)
이문세 – 붉은 노을 (I actually knew this song beforehand and was able to sing along with it when I first heard it.)
나비 [알앤비] – 느낌이 와
Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight (again, just like in Protect the Boss)
Natalie Cole – Calling You
Ella Fitzgerald – Misty
전화받아 – heavy metal ringtone (This was another of Scheduler's ringtones, presumably with him on vocals. I thought it was a real song, but it didn’t show up on Shazam and then I realized the lyrics were just saying “answer the phone” in Korean.)
Moon River (just like in Lovers in Paris)
정일우 – 허수아비
오현란 – Feneste Che Luciv: 원
Michael Jackson – Heal the World
Avril Lavigne – I Love You
Bon Jovi - Always
신재 – 눈물이 난다
팀 – 안되니

The playlist in Min-Ho’s car had Ne-Yo, The Offspring, Nirvana and Maroon 5. I guess these artists are either known in Korea, or we’re to presume that Min-Ho developed a taste for them while he studied in the United States.

I really liked some of the dream-like incidental music in this drama too. It gave it a nice wistful feeling to several scenes.

English

Here are the words I don’t think I previously noted:

MBA, Private Space A, scheduler, troublemaker, case, shampoo, skin lotion, incentive, motorbike, wit, repeat, secret number, hint, counter, “game over,” kangaroo, before, after, privacy, gallery, freelancer, number 3, “bingo!”, private, pay, hug, knock, dynamic, penalty, “café nickname,” client, syrup, drive, business, wine bar, initials, show, doctor, rug, bakery.

In a hotel, there was a sign that was completely in English and there were no subtitles for what it said in Korean. I guess they figured Koreans have enough familiarity with English to understand it.

The Scheduler enjoyed using English words and phrases a lot, I noticed. I don’t know if there’s any significance to that, it’s just an observation.

Other Observations

Both of Ji-Hyeon’s parents were actors I’d seen in previous dramas. Her father was one of the villains from City Hunter and her mother was one of the aunts in Unexpected You. Interestingly enough, her mother’s name is never given. We only know her as Ji-Hyeon’s mother.

Gang was played by the same actor who played Soo-Hyeon in Three Dads, One Mom. I didn’t recognize him at first, but when I looked up his credits I saw that it was him and felt dumb for not realizing it. It was interesting to see him in a more serious role. While his character was fairly serious in Three Dads, One Mom, the overall tone of that drama was comedic, so there wasn’t much gravitas to the role.

Gang’s family name was “Han,” which made his name “Han Gang,” which means “Han River” in Korean. The Han River is the big river that flows through Seoul. I wonder why they made that his name. Is there some symbolic meaning I don’t understand as a non-Korean?

I saw Kim Hyeong-Beom once again, though his role here amounted to little more than a cameo. Apparently this is the fourth drama I’ve watched where he had a role, though again I say that I don’t specifically remember him from Lovers in Paris. According to this page his role in Lovers in Paris was as Soo-Hyeok’s friend. It’s been about two years since I watched that drama, so I don’t even remember Soo-Hyeok having a friend.

There are scenes where people are driving and the person behind the wheel will face the passenger for long stretches of time without looking at the road. That always really annoys me, because I’m afraid there’s going to be an accident.

As I mentioned before, when Ji-Hyeon was in Yi-Gyeong’s body, the rules were that she had to work for any money she spent, rather than using Yi-Gyeong’s money. She does indeed get a job to earn that money, but I wondered to myself, wasn’t she just subjecting Yi-Gyeong to further taxes? While such an issue becomes inconsequential over the course of the drama, in theory it could’ve made her responsible for money she didn’t even know she earned.

Ji-Hyeon still wears makeup even when she’s in a coma, strangely enough. You’d think they wouldn’t bother making up her face after 49 days.

I know I’ve complained about entitlement-minded statements in these dramas before, particularly in City Hunter, but there was an interesting change from that in this drama. At one point (spoiler alert again), we find out that Min-Ho grew up poor and had a really rough life, and the reason he does bad things to people is to get his revenge on fate now that he’s made himself into a success. Gang, who grew up rich, is the voice of integrity who tries to discourage him. It was a refreshing alternative to the “everyone rich is evil and everyone poor holds inherent moral superiority” message that’s so prevalent these days.

Final Thoughts

I really liked this drama. In fact, after watching just one episode I already liked it better than Protect the Boss. I hate to go on about how good or bad certain dramas are, but considering what a chore it was to get through that last one, this one was truly a breath of fresh air.

I was still unsure of where I’d rank 49 Days up until the very end. The final episode though, was superb, and that really boosted its status for me. It pushed it past Unexpected You, which had such a bizarre closing scene that I could only scratch my head. I hope I’m not ranking it too high because it’s fresher in my memory than the others I’ve watched, but I’d say it was good enough to make it to my Top 3.

Ranking:

1. Beethoven Virus (5)
2. City Hunter (7)
3. 49 Days (9)
4. Unexpected You (4)
5. Three Dads, One Mom (2)
6. Lovers in Paris (1)
7. Hwang Jin-Yi (6)
8. Spring Day (3)
9. Protect the Boss (8)