Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Welcome 2 Life
(웰컴2라이프 /  Welkeom 2 Raipeu)
MyDramaList rating: 7.0/10

Hello! I’m in the middle of a very busy month right now, but I really wanted to share this review before things got too hectic, so here we are. This time my Wheel of Fortune app picked out a show that was actually quite high up on my to-watch list, and I’m glad I got to watch it because it turned out to be quite the hidden gem. I can’t even remember when or why I put this on my list, because I don’t remember seeing it get promoted much around 2019. Still, it had incredibly high ratings and good reviews on MDL, so that naturally piqued my interest. I thought this show did a great job balancing out thrilling and tragic moments with touching and sweet ones. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish and I’m very excited to share my views on it. Before I start I do want to make a disclaimer for several potential trigger warnings such as murder, (domestic) violence, human experimenting and psychopathic behavior.

Welcome 2 Life is an MBC K-Drama which you can watch either in the format of 32 back-to-back episodes of 35 minutes, or in 16 episodes of a little over an hour. It took me a while to find a site where I could watch this show, but I ended up discovering a new website for Asian dramas called kisskh.do, which has the whole show in the 16-episode format with good video and subtitle quality. It’s completely free, no subscription needed, and zero ads (!), which is perfect. I’m definitely going to use this website more often!
The story focuses on Lee Jae Sang (played by Rain/Jung Ji Hoon), a relentless lawyer who works for Yulgaek, a law firm mostly known for defending high-status clients. As such, Jae Sang is often in charge of defending despicable higher-ups who are definitely the culprit, but he is so good that he always manages to help them get away with what they’ve done. This in turn has caused him to make a lot of enemies as well, mostly on the side of the police investigators and prosecutors he faces off against, even earning him the nickname “Lee Jae Sshang” (which I believe alludes to the “f”-word). Jae Sang doesn’t seem to have any trouble working for the higher-ups despite knowing their shady antics, he’s quite snobby and very much likes his wealthy and comfortable lifestyle. Everything seems to be going his way, especially when he gets promoted to co-CEO of Yulgaek with his partner Kang Yoon Gi (played by Han Sang Jin).
The only type of physical resistance Jae Sang receives comes from his ex-girlfriend Ra Shi On (played by Lim Ji Yeon), an investigator who works at the local police force. Every single time Jae Sang manages to defend an influential bad guy against a victim that she brought forth, she personally comes around to kick his ass, knowing he’ll never sue her because of their history together.
However, as much as Jae Sang turns a blind eye to the deeds of his clients, his better judgement gets the better of him when he learns that one of his clients is actively giving orders to have people killed, something even he can’t condone. As he drives off to bring evidence of this to Shi On’s team, said client orchestrates a car accident to make sure Jae Sang never gets to the police.
When Jae Sang wakes up next, he finds himself in a completely new and unfamiliar world where everything is topsy-turvy. Instead of a lawyer, he is suddenly a prosecutor working closely with Shi On’s police team. Moreover, he is actually married to Shi On and they even have a young daughter together, Bo Na (Lee Soo Ah). He seems to have been teleported to a parallel world in which he made all the right decisions in defending and saving innocent people, and in which he lives a sweet married life with Shi On, who genuinely adores him and even calls him her “hero”.
In this new world, the other person he was in the car with during the accident got hurt instead of him, and as long as this person remains comatose, it seems that Jae Sang is stuck there. At first he decides to play along as prosecutor for as long as he has to stay, but as he starts working on several cases with the prosecution and police team, he becomes more and more aware of the true corruption of Yulgaek and the cruelties of its clients, and he also starts rekindling his love for Shi On. By the time he’s finally able to go back to his own world, he has completely switched sides and immediately quits Yulgaek to help the police to solve the case he left unfinished in the parallel world, including several illegal businesses and a horrible serial killer that’s affiliated with Yulgaek’s most influential client, mayor elective candidate Jang Do Shik (played by Son Byung Ho). At the same time, he has to also win back the favor of the original Shi On, who still hates his guts.

For starters, I’d like to say that I thought this show made really interesting use of the parallel world trope. In most series that depict some sort of parallel world or trip back to the past to rediscover lost values and feelings (thinking of shows like Go Back Couple and Wife I Know), the characters actually stay in the other world for the majority of the show and only get back in the very end. As such, I was expecting Jae Sang to stay in the new world for the majority of the show before somehow managing to get back in the end and then setting everything right in a jiffy in the final episode. However, I actually appreciated that they didn’t make it so easy. Jae Sang returns to his own world halfway through the series, and then still needs to go through a lot of hardships and dangerous ordeals before he’s finally able to figure out all the involved parties and serve justice the way it was meant to be served. It was really cool how they created this puzzle of information through the two worlds, a puzzle of which the pieces all ultimately fell into place completely, leaving no plotholes.
I thought the way Jae Sang gradually came to see clearly was really well-paced as well. They kept the tension really high throughout the show and there was never a dull moment. The way they alternated between scary, violent scenes and touching, wholesome ones created a very nice balance, and all the characters were established very solidly. The writing was very good, I thought it was cool how they gradually revealed plot twists and developments along the way, it kept me intrigued the entire time.
All in all, this drama really surprised me in how well-constructed it was. It was a very solid, mature drama that depicted a lot of human cruelty but still managed to maintain a hopeful undertone and it ended up being pretty wholesome. The way the story was constructed reminded me a bit of He is Psychometric, because it starts with the focus on a certain incident – in this case the Segyeong Orphanage Massacre – but it turns out there’s so much more behind it. I can’t deny there were times when I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that so many people just stood by and defended someone who was literally killing others without a shred of guilt, not even caring about anything as long as they got to keep their reputation. The violations and the audacity of those lawyers in using the law in favor of all those big and influential people was disgusting, but it also made it all the more satisfying when the police finally started connecting the dots and caught everyone. It was a properly thrilling drama with just about enough love and humor in it to make it heartfelt, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Before I’ll get started on the character analysis part, I just want to establish that from now on I’ll start differentiating between the two worlds as W1 (the original world) and W2 (the parallel world) to make things a bit easier to follow. The story itself can be divided into two halves: the first half in which Jae Sang travels from W1 to W2, and the second half in which he returns to W1 with all the new knowledge accumulated in W2.
I also educated myself a little on the work of prosecutors in order to formulate things correctly in this review. I found myself wondering about the cooperation between Jae Sang and the police force throughout the story, but apparently it’s normal for prosecutors to work closely with police officers and investigators as well as with victims and witnesses, so that checks out. I didn’t remember many legal dramas I’d watched before that depicted such a close collaboration between a prosecutor and the police force (I think most legal dramas focus on lawyers) so I wanted to make sure I got my facts straight before I started writing my analysis.

What makes Lee Jae Sang such an interesting lead character is that he starts out as a bad guy. When we are first introduced to him, he is a snobby defense attorney who helps influential people get away with everything and doesn’t blink an eye at the injustice. He remains that way in W2 for a while as well, and even almost goes back to Yulgaek at some point because he misses his old comfortable life so much. As much as we get to sympathize with him while going through his character development, it’s still hard to blame W1 Shi On for hating him so much after we find out what exactly he did to make them fall out with each other. Even after Jae Sang has fully realized his mistakes and reflected on his actions, he still has a long way to go in gaining Shi On’s forgiveness, and this gives their relationship a very wry but realistic dynamic.
Although we do get some background information on how Jae Sang started out and chose the path he did in W1, we don’t get a very solid reason as to why Jae Sang decided to take the opposite path from Shi On, apart from that defending the high and mighty secured him a more stable and comfortable position. He’s adapted a very arrogant and derogative attitude as a lawyer, and all the affectionate feelings he once had for Shi On when they both started out in the legal field have dissipated. As such, his first reaction to Shi On’s wifely affection in W2 is one of aversion – the idea of being married to her is initially very uncomfortable and shocking to him. However, maybe because they’ve been acquainted for so long and once felt so comfortable with each other, it doesn’t really take him that long to warm up to her presence and affection once he settles into his new life. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t even take him that long to kiss her again in W2. I guess that must have meant that, despite their differences and the circumstances surrounding their separation, his feelings for her must’ve still been there, albeit dormant or suppressed to protect himself from the pain the break-up actually caused him. Thinking back on it, we even saw how devoted he seemed in the very first scene leading up to the break-up, how he was waiting for her with the balloon to celebrate their anniversary and everything. Since the first thing to change within him in W2 is his returning affection towards Shi On, I felt like that’s what he eased back into the quickest, since he hadn’t gotten rid of all his feelings to begin with. It took him less time to get accustomed to being with Shi On again than it took him to get used to being a prosecutor, even though that is how he originally started out as well. He started out as a stand-up guy who (not on purpose) helped catch a guy assaulting his wife, consequently helping out Shi On win her first case as a police trainee, and this is how they first got acquainted and started warming up to one another. However, as W2 starts providing Jae Sang with more and more background information on Shi On, we find out that there’s actually a whole lot that he never knew about her, and this provides a very distinct difference between the two versions of Jae Sang.
By the way, was I the only one who found it interesting that the main thing that differed between the two worlds were Jae Sang’s life choices? Literally everything else was the same, the only thing that deviated was that Jae Sang had built a family with Shi On because he didn’t mess things up with her. I thought that was kind of interesting. Sure, there were a couple of other minor things that were slightly different, but in terms of the main storyline and characters, not much was different between the two worlds – the events all occurred in the same way, the bad guys were all exactly the same and acted exactly the same, the dynamics between everyone were the same, etc. It really seemed like this parallel world came into existence purely because of Jae Sang’s deviating decision in joining the other side of justice.
As he starts seeing things clearly, Jae Sang becomes a much more amiable and sympathetic character. It was really satisfying to see him realize how badly he’d lived his life, to see him turn a new leaf after reflecting on his behavior and to see him strive to be a better person, both for himself and for the people around him. I honestly don’t remember any other show where the main character actually made such a gradual 180 turn in perspective, it was very well-paced out. By witnessing the kind of person he was in W2 – in other words, the person he could’ve become if he’d stuck by his original morals – Jae Sang ultimately managed to become the best version of himself through reflection and adaptation, and that was a really satisfying development in his character. I thought the difference between how he woke up in W2 and how he ultimately left there actually alluded to his innate goodness. I felt like this parallel world experience served as a very necessary push to nudge him back into the right direction.
The only thing that confused me a bit about Jae Sang’s character development at some point was the timing at which he suddenly announced he wanted to go back to being a lawyer in W2. By that point he’d already devoted himself to several cases through which he’d become aware of how corrupt Yulgaek was, and he also already started rediscovering his feelings for Shi On. It seemed to me as if he’d already started reflecting on his bad actions and acknowledged how inhuman Jang Do Shik was, so it didn’t really make sense to me why, at that point, he suddenly declared to go back to Yulgaek. Why did he suddenly start missing his penthouse apartment, bigger car and rich and comfortable lifestyle from W1 again, out of the blue? I thought it would’ve made more sense if they’d made him come to that decision a bit earlier on, during the time when he was still in the transition of getting used to his new position in W2. Because it happened at a moment where I already felt like he was changing, I even initially expected that maybe he wanted to go back to Yulgaek to break them up from the inside or something, not because he suddenly still wanted to go back to his heartless ways from W1. It became all the more confusing when they basically just discarded this announcement shortly after. Jae Sang kept working just as hard at being a prosecutor and he never ended up going back to Yulgaek because he did change his mind. I don’t know, I thought they could’ve paced this decision out a bit better by adding it in the beginning and then make him change his mind to stay a prosecutor after going through several cases and rediscovering his feelings for Shi On. The way it happened now seemed a bit random, because it was literally like “Screw you, I’m going back to Yulgaek!” and then immediately “Wait, never mind, I’m staying!”. Apart from this section, everything about Jae Sang’s character development felt really natural to me and I ended up really liking his character, although I did feel like he could’ve been a bit more cautious with confronting the bad guys with everything he knew about them in the end, that kind of gave me anxiety, lol.

Shi On’s introduction in the first episode immediately stands in such stark contrast with Jae Sang’s that it’s almost laughable: she beats him up after he waits for her with a balloon to celebrate their anniversary. In other words, we are initially introduced to Shi On the way W1 Jae Sang sees her: irrationally violent. She’s definitely a feisty one, which makes her an apt police detective, but she does seem to have problems controlling her temper at times. I personally thought it was a really good decision to reveal Shi On’s backstory through the much milder perspective of W2 Shi On, who’d been supported through everything by her loving and loyal husband.
To sum it up: Shi On used to have a half-brother, Ahn Soo Ho (Kim Hyung Beom) who ran a small orphanage in the countryside, Segyeong Orphanage. He lived on the site with his wife and daughter as well. Shi On was particularly fond of his daughter, her young niece Se Rin (played by the same child actor as Bo Na, Lee Soo Ah). When redevelopment plans were announced, Soo Ho openly went against them, refusing to give Jang Do Shik’s company the land they needed. Not long after that, the Segyeong Orphanage Massacre happened, in which every single person was slaughtered and Soo Ho disappeared, resulting in him becoming the main suspect. Shi On, knowing exactly what kind of person Jang Do Shik is, has never stopped looking for her half-brother and is convinced that Jang Do Shik’s construction company had something to do with the massacre that also victimized her beloved niece. As a matter of fact, Shi On ran into the culprit on the night of the massacre and fought him briefly before he knocked her out and she woke up to find the bloody crime scene. It’s been her mission to find both her brother – as she believes in his innocence – and the culprit – to serve him the justice he deserves.
Now that I think of it, there’s actually one other thing that wasn’t completely clear to me regarding Jae Sang’s stance in this background story. Despite the fact that they broke up because in W1 he lied to her about putting in effort to look for her brother, Jae Sang initially doesn’t seem to remember anything about Soo Ho or Se Rin when he gets into W2. I don’t know if he actually did suffer from temporary amnesia, but it seemed more like he didn’t know about the full massacre story, even though he must’ve been around as she kept looking for him. He didn’t remember the promise about buying a hairpin for Se Rin, let alone who Soo Ho was and that Shi On even had a brother, he only found out about that through Shi On’s colleagues at the police force. So that was a bit weird, now that I think of it, seeing as the exact same things happened in both timelines. I guess in W1 they must’ve never gotten around to talk about it before they broke up or something?
Anyways, I thought it was really powerful to show the two different sides of Shi On through the lens of the two worlds. In W1 we mostly got to see her tormented and agitated side, whereas in W2 we got to see a much cuter and affectionate side of her as a mother and a wife. Despite these different sides, she never lost her spunk. It was interesting to see how much influence Jae Sang’s life choices and changes had on her demeanor and future with him. The two of them were in the center of everything, and I liked how their relationship kept being such an important core element without it taking over from the heavy main story. I liked seeing Jae Sang and Shi On in different dynamics through the two worlds, it must have been challenging for the actors as well to keep changing the way their characters talked to each other in each world.
What I also found refreshing was that the main couple’s relationship didn’t need to be built up from scratch. They already had a history together, so it wasn’t a typical slowburn romance. The two of them had already been intimate, so there wasn’t even that much giddiness between them. I guess the difference was that this show depicted “love” rather than “romance”, and this was established mostly through Jae Sang’s new-found willingness to put everything on the line to protect Shi On. It wasn’t a big deal that there weren’t that many kissing scenes between them, because they’d already been through that phase and now the kisses were only used to emphasize the strong love that already existed between them. I thought that was really nice, because it didn’t even take away from how sweet they were together. They were an adorable married couple in W2, all the more because they were already so comfortable around one another. As much as I love romantic build-up in K-Dramas, I can’t deny that the mature dynamic between Jae Sang and Shi On fitted the story way better than if it had been something that still needed to be built up and bloom from scratch. To make them a couple from the start, exes or not, it immediately set the tone for the two of them as adults in a realistic relationship.
It was actually heartwrenching to see Jae Sang coming back to W1 after watching W2 Shi On get assaulted in front of him and then coming face-to-face with W1 Shi On who literally shot daggers at him with her eyes. Jae Sang had to use all of his newly required intel (and feelings) to win W1 Shi On back and get her to forgive him. I thought that was a really cool additional plot to the story.

I’d like to go over Shi On’s team members now, starting by Shi On’s senior and closest friend and colleague, Goo Dong Taek (played by Kwak Shi Yang). Although I guess he can be seen as a potential second male lead since he had feelings for Shi On, he never actually got a word in because Shi On only ever saw him as a friend in both worlds. Honestly, I don’t think I would’ve minded seeing them get together in W1 with the way things initially were between Jae Sang and Shi On, lol. Anyways, Dong Taek was Shi On’s trustworthy partner who always looked out for her yet never treated her like a weak damsel. He respected how strong and independent she was and made peace with just showing his love for her in a way that wasn’t in the least intrusive, so I really appreciated that about him. All in all, he was just a really stand-up guy. Even despite his aversion against Jae Sang in W1, he still filled Shi On in on how he’d told him to look out for her, informing her of how much Jae Sang cared for her, even though he knew that meant he would decrease his own chances with her even more. I loved how he was able to set his personal feelings aside when it came to protecting the right person, and how he immediately came running when Jae Sang got kidnapped. After 365: Repeat the Year I was actually scared that he’d turn out to be a mole or something, but I’m glad he wasn’t faking anything. I really liked his dynamic with Shi On, how they had this unspoken agreement that when he’d scold her, she knew he was just looking out for her and they had their little inside jokes about it. I could very well imagine Shi On getting troubled about him confessing his feelings to her because, despite the fact that she knew what a great guy he was, she just couldn’t deny that her heart still lay with Jae Sang, even underneath all that disdain in W1. Dong Taek was the best guy, honestly. I loved how he dealt with the unspoken rejection and just wished her the best – honestly, that’s the best way to handle rejection. He cared about her, so he let her go. I loved him.

Then there was Yang Go Woon (played by Lim Sung Jae). I really liked his character and how he was established as so much more than just a comic relief character. He contributed so much to all the cases. I thought it was really cool that we got to see him (emotionally) respond to all the cruelty and violence the police team had to deal with, and that he never fell behind in beating up bad guys. I actually lol’ed when they headed into battle with the goons that kidnapped Jae Sang and he threw that huge white roll (I don’t even know what it was) at them, that was actually epic. I liked how he combined effortless humor with such realistic responses to heavy situations, it made me sympathize a lot with how he acted within the police team. I’ve mentioned this many times before, but I appreciate it when – if they have to have a character that’s categorized as being chubby – the jokes about that don’t outweigh the character’s actual contribution to the story. Go Woon was undeniably an irreplaceable asset to the police team, he was very concerned about the wellbeing of both his teammates and their clients, and he was just a very good guy. I loved the dynamic that bloomed between him and Ji Ho when they found out they were both TWICE fans, lol. He really added a much needed lightness to the heavy undertone of the story and it never got too over-the-top comical. He brought just the right balance to the show, I really liked him.

The interesting thing about Moon Ji Ho is that he did come from different places in both worlds. Honestly, I don’t even remember who he was in W1 before Jae Sang switched worlds. All I know is that he worked with Jae Sang at Yulgaek, as that was established when Jae Sang came back to W1, and that he was loyal enough that he joined Jae Sang immediately when he went back to being a prosecutor. In W2, Ji Ho is a hacker. Jae Sang manages to track him down and convince him to join the police team as he possesses both mad hacking and investigation skills. I guess you could say that Ji Ho joins the police team later on through Jae Sang in both worlds, so that much was the same. Ji Ho is like a breath of fresh air to the team because of his youthful energy and snappy personality. I liked that they kept the habit of his dialect popping out when he started swearing consistent in both worlds, those were nice little details. He became kind of a funny duo with Go Woon, earning them the nicknames “rice grain” (Ji Ho) and “rice ball” (Go Woon), lol. I really liked the light interactions between the team members in-between all the heavy drama, like whenever a scene between them came on it felt like a breather. They were like pallet cleansers, so to say, and I really appreciated the distraction from all the horrible things that were happening in the background. I think it’s very important, especially in shows like this that depict a lot of violence, to balance out the humorous parts. I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable with the way they used humor in shows like Café Minamdang and The One and Only because it felt kind of misplaced at times, but I think this show did a very good job at balancing the humor just right with the more serious layers of the story.

Another nice side character was Ha Min Hee (played by Park Shin Ah), the forensics inspector. She worked closely with the police team and in the first episode there even seemed to be a kind of friendship or at least closeness between her and Shi On. At some point she became a more regular character as she joined the police team in the investigation and helped out a lot. She was often seen with Go Woon and Ji Ho as they were goofing around a bit, and I liked the recurring joke of her being like “Omg, is it me?” whenever it was suggested that anyone liked anyone on the team, lol. She was a nice addition to the cast because she was also able to contribute in her own way and she had a nice dynamic with the other team members as well. I liked that she got more screentime throughout the show, I thought she was cool.

The lead prosecutor of the investigation team was Oh Seok Joon, nicknamed “Galileo” (played by Park Won Sang). I have to admit the joke kind of went over my head, although I feel like it had to do with his hotheadedness (correct me if I’m wrong). Although Chief Oh was definitely one of the slightly more exaggerated comic relief characters, I liked that they at least fleshed him out a bit by giving him some backstory with his estranged daughter, and through his connection with Ms. Bang. I have to say that I sometimes found him a bit too loud and all over the place, but I guess that was just his personality. It was cool of him to, despite his initial disdain towards Jae Sang, still allow him to take risks and do things his own way, even if it’d come back to bite him in the ass later. At least he was willing to trust him as part of the team and he entrusted him with the main investigation despite his personal dislike for him.
Like I said with Ji Ho, I liked how the show played with recurring scenes and phrases in both worlds; in Chief Oh’s case there was this scene where he was drinking with Ms. Bang outside a local convenience store and he overheard two guys talking about conducting a robbery and went over to intimidate them. In W2, they turned out to be drama writers brainstorming new ideas, while in W1 they actually turned out to be wanted criminals, lol. I liked those subtle little twists.
Although I’m pretty glad they established all the characters as they did and thought they made the right decisions in who to give more backstory, apart from the story about his daughter Chief Oh was one of the characters that felt a little too shallow for me at times. Maybe it also had to do with the acting, but he seemed to be a bit more explosive than necessary at times, which made it look like he was meant to be a funny character because he was so all over the place. It didn’t distract me too much, and I’m happy that he still had enough serious stuff to do, but I sometimes felt like he was being a bit too loud for no reason.

Wrapping up the police team, lastly there was Ms. Bang Yeong Sook (played by Jang So Yeon). I’m not entirely sure what her exact job title was, but I feel like she was kind of keeping the team together and making sure everyone got everything they needed, almost like an office manager of sorts. She was mostly in charge of the paperwork, that’s for sure, but she also managed to dig up a lot of information for the investigation. What I just mentioned about Chief Oh also went for Ms. Bang: although I appreciated the quirkiness of her character, sometimes it felt like she was acting a bit too animated and comically.
I did like that they ended up being a couple though, and how she kept getting aggravated by how dense he was not to recognize that she was hitting on him. The prank with the wasabi macaron actually cracked me up, the way she stared at him with a smile until the realization hit him and he went “…WASABI?!”😂 That was funny. They had their moments, undeniably. I thought it was nice that she and Chief Oh got some scenes together to establish how long they’d worked together and how comfortable they were around each other.

Before moving onto the bad guys, I just want to dedicate one final paragraph to Bo Na. I’ve already mentioned her as being Jae Sang and Shi On’s daughter in W2, but she is too precious not to mention in a bit more detail. I really loved how they incorporated Bo Na, who initially didn’t even exist in W1, into the main couple’s life. It was hard for Jae Sang to accept that she was his daughter (which, technically speaking, she wasn’t), but the way he warmed up to her to the point of not being able to deal with her not being there when he woke up back in W1 was really heartwrenching.
I loved Bo Na, she was the sweetest. I loved how she unknowingly helped Jae Sang figure so much out about his marriage to Shi On and how it only caused him to love the both of them more and more. The scene where she got kidnapped was actually nail-bitingly scary, I was so afraid something would happen to her, but I’m glad they kept her safe. I also really loved how the North Star came back in both worlds, how in W2 Bo Na told Jae Sang that he’d said before that she and Shi On were his North Star, and how in W1 at the end Shi On found out she was pregnant after dreaming about a North Star in her belly. The way Jae Sang went “At least that means it’s Bo Na” was so sweet.🥹 I thought it was a really fun twist to add in a child in the parallel world and make her just as important as the people who had counterparts in both worlds.
Finally, I really loved that they ended the series by showing the two worlds side by side. On the one hand you had Jae Sang and Shi On hugging after finding out they were pregnant, and on the other hand you had Jae Sang and Bo Na accompanying Shi On in her wheelchair after recovering from (what I think must have been) Sun Woo’s attack. That was such a wholesome ending, I loved that.

With regards to the ending, there’s actually one theory that suddenly popped into my head at some point. I’m pretty sure it’s invalid because W2 was very clearly established as a parallel world, especially when looking at the ending, but I still want to mention it.
When Jae Sang gets kidnapped and loses consciousness after being suffocated by Sun Woo’s men, he briefly goes back to W2 were Bo Na is trying to get him to “come with her to see Mom”. Just like when he fell into a coma in the first place, as soon as he falls unconscious his mind immediately transports back to W2. And it was in that moment that it almost felt like some sort of afterlife. The last thing we’d seen of W2 Shi On was that she was about to have her head smashed in by Sun Woo, so we’re led to believe that she died since no one showed up to help in time. The way Bo Na was urging that they needed to go see Shi On, in combination with him being on the verge of death in W1, almost felt like Bo Na was trying to guide him to the light so that he could be with W2 Shi On again, or something. I don’t know, suddenly I was like, what if his time in W2 was indeed all just a dream from when he was in a coma, like this place his mind created where he did everything right? Then again, it wouldn’t really make sense that he was able to go through regression/hypnotic therapy to recall something from W2, and seeing the ending with Shi On still alive in the hospital also debunks this theory. Now I feel like maybe the original W2 Jae Sang came back to his own body when W1 Jae Sang went back, and that he managed to fight Sun Woo off at the last moment or something. There wouldn’t really be another way to get out of that situation, so I guess that’s what must’ve happened. Still, for a moment there I was like, wait, was W2 actually like some sort of afterlife that Jae Sang’s mind created to make up for all of his regrets or something? I still wanted to share it.

It’s time to move on to my (and I hope everyone else’s) least favorite characters of the show, the infamous bad guys. Admittedly, what made them powerful bad guys was the fact that they were actually untouchable and therefore able to do whatever the heck they wanted. No one standing around ever even lifted a finger to stop them, which was pretty wild to me. I just couldn’t fathom that NONE of all those people even stopped to think for a single second about how inhumane and cruel the work was that they were being made to do and witness. All in all, I thought the monstrosities depicted went pretty far. I get that they needed to visualize just how despicable these people were, but it was a lot to stomach. Some parts actually made me physically uncomfortable, which is a good thing I suppose – I’d be more worried if people didn’t start feeling unwell while watching their deeds.

The biggest initial bad guy that’s introduced in the show is Jang Do Shik, the most popular candidate to become the new mayor. Mind you, Jang Do Shik isn’t just a big shot who abuses his power: he is an actual monster. When an old man accidentally spits out soup over him during a charity event for elderly people, this same man is later seen in Jang Do Shik’s office where he’s been beaten bloody with a golf club. Jang Do Shik doesn’t just fake being nice to the people he needs for support – he even assaults his own wife and son on a daily basis. He’s the type of guy that, if you just happen to accidentally bump into him on the street, that same evening you’ll get kidnapped and brought to him so he can beat the shit out of you. I have no idea how this guy was able to walk the streets freely, because he was literally a ticking time bomb that had to be held back so he wouldn’t explode on people at the tiniest of inconveniences. Some things just don’t make sense, but Jang Do Shik was definitely inhuman on another level. It kind of got annoying at some point, the way he pulled a pokerface – which made him look like a Sontaran from Doctor Who, sorry not sorry – whenever someone confronted him with his misdeeds and he just brushed it off. Seeing his character, we are immediately led to believe that he’s undoubtedly responsible for all the deaths and disappearances of people who just happened to go against him. He didn’t spare a single thought for them either, he just wanted his land and the position of mayor and it didn’t matter how many people he had to get rid of to make that happen. Imagine if that sort of person was actually in charge of ruling a… oh wait, syke, we don’t actually have to imagine that. I think that that’s what made him so scary. In the context of today, I wasn’t even comforted by the idea that his character was fictional anymore because we are literally dealing with people like him throughout the whole world right now. It’s actually terrifying.
Anyways, back to fiction and this review, Jang Do Shik has everyone in his pocket. On TV he appears to be the kindest and most hospitable man ever, behind the scenes everyone is too terrified of him to ever speak against him. That’s how he rules the town.
Lawyer Kang Yoon Gi, W1 Jae Sang’s former colleague, is his designated attorney who follows him everywhere and is very much aware of all the shit he’s pulling. I honestly really hoped that Yoon Gi would come to his senses, because he definitely flinched when he heard Jang Do Shik talk about getting rid of people, but he stuck by him until the very end. And beyond, because he wasn’t even willing to let anything slip after he died. Seeing this portrayal of defense attorneys makes me really scared for legal systems anywhere. I find it unbelievable that people actively use the law like this, to work around rules that were set in place specifically to protect the innocent and serve justice to those who truly deserve it. How can you call yourself a lawyer, let alone a human being, when you literally stand around watching your client ordering people to be murdered left and right to tie up loose ends, how you can manage to condone that and even find ways to defend it in court? This was absolutely baffling to me, and it was something that bothered me throughout the series because it was just so infuriating.
Apart from Kang Yoon Gi there was also Min Sung Jin (played by Choi Phillip). In W1, he was initially a prosecutor who kept facing off against Jae Sang, but their positions were reversed in W2. After Jae Sang returned to W1, Sung Jin suddenly also changed sides to become an attorney defending Jang Do Shik, which was a bit weird to me. Did losing so many cases to Jae Sang cause him to also fall for the toxic mindset that getting on the wrong side of the law would at least help him win more cases or something? Anyways, he also became a bad guy defending Jang Do Shik’s cause.
Jang Do Shik of course has many other people supporting him, in exchange for his support in their (often illegal) practices. One of these other people is Park Gi Beom, aka “Pastor Park” (played by Kim Joong Gi). This guy had the audacity to call himself a freaking “pastor” and hide behind the holy Bible while literally supplying helpless women as guinea pigs for illegal experiments. This guy was the absolute scum of the earth, and he had that annoyingly smug little smile of his to prove it. It really was just a world of scumbags helping each other out through equally illegal measures, and no one was better than the other.

The last person in Jang Do Shik’s support scheme was Yoon Pil Woo (played by Shin Jae Ha), the young “national hero” of biotechnology who ran a company called the Babel Research Center. Not gonna lie, my first impression of Pil Woo was a positive one, since he looked so annoyed as soon as he saw Jang Do Shik, lol. I was like, anyone who makes that face when seeing Jang Do Shik must surely be an ally!
…Boy, was I wrong. Honestly, I did NOT expect him to be an even bigger monster than Jang Do Shik.
Pil Woo, officially named Ji Sun Woo, is eventually revealed to be Jang Do Shik’s illegitimate child. He grew up under an abusive mother who just used him as a means to get Jang Do Shik to give her money. Traumatized by his mother’s abuse and his father’s neglect, Sun Woo grew up to be a classic psychopath – can’t say the apple fell far from the tree. Despite Jang Do Shik’s unwillingness to acknowledge him as his son, Pil Woo became obsessed with gaining his father’s respect and started getting rid of everyone that opposed him, masking it as “helping his father out”. His modus operandi was always the same: he smashes people’s heads in with a hammer.
As it turns out, after assaulting his own mother and being sent away by Jang Do Shik again, Sun Woo actually got taken in by Soo Ho at Segyeong Orphanage, where his psychopathic behavior only escalated. He was responsible for all the bad rumors about Soo Ho allegedly mistreating the orphans, and he was the one true culprit of the Segyeong Orphanage Massacre. After being taken in so kindly, he killed Soo Ho and his family just as easily as he did the other kids, all because he thought it would “help” his father in gaining the land he wanted. Jang Do Shik wasn’t even aware that he was doing this for him, but despite calling him out for being a lunatic after finding out, he never actually did anything to stop him. Admittedly, Sun Woo did help him keep his image clean by silencing anyone who knew more than they should.
Besides “helping out his father”, Sun Woo also ran his own little business at Babel, with the help of Pastor Park. In order to create some sort of antidote he needed to do illegal experiments on humans, he handpicked out women under the promise of a “Women Support Program” for women trying to get out of dangerous situations. The women applying for this program mostly included (former) sex workers and/or hostesses, or women who’d worked in other shady businesses and wanted protection. Sun Woo actually tricked these women by promising them this amazing support program, only to drug them and use them as experiments under very unsanitary circumstances with substances that were definitely not meant to be inserted raw into human bodies. This part actually made me sick to my stomach, all the more because for him, this was just a twisted way to take revenge on his mother, who’d also been a hostess. He keeps going further and further, spiralling even beyond Jang Do Shik’s control and ultimately even kills his own father himself. So much for becoming daddy’s special boy, I guess.
The one person that’s always by his side is his stoic henchman Ha Yoo Seok (played by Ha Soo Ho), who, like the lawyers and all the other henchmen defending Jang Do Shik and the other despicable higher-ups, apparently hasn’t got a single human bone in his body. It was actually disheartening to see so many people turn their back on the meaningless killing of innocent people. I feel like this show had more inhuman characters in it than human ones. I’ve definitely not seen this many bad guys in a show in a very long time, maybe ever. I kept hoping that characters like Secretary Ha would open their eyes stand up for what was right at the end, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. This guy even actively aided Sun Woo in his killings and also took the lead in kidnapping Jae Sang and suffocating him.

By the way, as much as I didn’t care for Jang Do Shik to exit life, his death didn’t really feel satisfying to me. I guess I really wanted him to face all the consequences of his actions in court and get either a life-long prison or a death sentence, but the fact that he was just killed by the other freak on the block was strangely anti-climactic. It was definitely a plot twist when Sun Woo suddenly turned Jang Do Shik’s men against him – I’m still not sure how he managed to do that behind the scenes – but it would’ve personally made me feel better if Jang Do Shik at least got to face the humiliation of having to show his face to the public and his voters after they found out about everything he’d done. I’m glad at least that’s what Sun Woo got. I loved it when he asked Chief Oh if he could get a death sentence and Chief Oh was like, “Nah son, you get to suffer first”. That was way more satisfying.
Now that I’m on this topic, please tell me I wasn’t the only one who thought Shin Jae Ha’s character in this show was SCARILY similar to his role in Crash Course in Romance? Seriously, who keeps casting this guy as a psychopath? I don’t mean to compare performances of the same actor in different shows, but it was uncanny, especially the scene on the hospital roof. The thing that ruined the ending of CCiR for me was the fact that his character ended up jumping off the roof and offed himself so that he couldn’t ever be put to justice for all the people he killed. As soon as I saw Sun Woo move towards that roof edge I literally got flashbacks and went “OH NO, NOT AGAIN, DON’T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT AGAIN”😭 Thank GOD he didn’t get to jump this time. I’m not gonna lie, I know this show came five years before CCiR, but since I saw CCiR first this show actually felt like redemption for the way they let his character in CCiR get away with it. Honestly, I would’ve been SO mad if they’d let Sun Woo off like that in the exact same way, because I’m still not okay with it. TO THIS DAY.😭✊🏻

Although this series produced countless more victims than culprits, I’m just going to highlight a few characters that were caught in the crossfire as victims of their situation, starting with Jang Do Shik’s wife, Woo Yeong Ae (played by Seo Hye Rin). Man oh man, did the scenes between these two physically hurt to watch. It’s one thing to be human scum and go around beating people up behind the scenes, but to not even retain yourself towards your own family?
I know there’s this ongoing discussion about why women who are stuck in awful marriages “don’t just leave”, but I think Yeong Ae was a very clear example of why leaving wasn’t an option without putting her own life and her son’s in danger. It didn’t matter if it was because she wore a little too much make-up, put on a different perfume than usual or didn’t tie her son’s necktie properly, Jang Do Shik would always find fault with the tiniest thing that Yeong Ae did and the way she brought up their son (because God forbid he had any hand in that). He didn’t even have the “decency” to keep his son in the dark, no, he actually took to beating up his wife with a freaking golf club IN FRONT OF their son. He would’ve even done the same to his kid if it weren’t for Yeong Ae always jumping in front of him, begging him to beat her instead. It was appalling. The scene where Yeong Ae comforted her son while they were both crying their eyes out… You’d think you knew how bad Jang Do Shik was, but there really was no end to his inhumanity.
It was so sad what happened to Yeong Ae. Admittedly, Jae Sang was pretty rash with his plan and I did feel like they could’ve at least given Joo Won’s teachers a description of the detectives that were coming to pick him up. But the wry thing is that the plan would’ve actually worked if it weren’t for Sun Woo interfering behind his father’s back. It was so awful because the police wasn’t even aware of Pil Woo/Sun Woo yet at this point, so they didn’t understand what went wrong. The only “positive” outcome of this was that it sent the police investigation into a whole new direction, and I also think it was a very defining moment for Jae Sang, because it made him realize that he couldn’t just easily predict what would happen based on his intel from W2. He actually put a woman in more danger than she was trying to get away from. I did love it when it was revealed that Yeong Ae at least left them the evidence for the Women Support Program that Sun Woo was working on in secret. By doing that she still showed her trust in Jae Sang and it made me feel like she didn’t completely die in vain. She was such a brave mother who’d do anything for her son, and I couldn’t help but feel for her.

Speaking of the son, Jang Joo Won (played by Eom Ji Sung), when it was revealed that he was a vicious bully at school, and especially that he literally copied his dad’s behavior to assault his schoolmates, I couldn’t really understand how his mind worked. Of course, he was fourteen, his brain wasn’t fully developed yet, and the insanity of his father’s behavior did more damage to his upbringing than his mother tying his tie the wrong way – seriously, how delusional are you if you think your child isn’t going to get fucked up when you literally beat his mother bloody in front of him every night? Anyways, what confused me was that Joo Won took on his dad’s actions as “the right way” to punish others for being weak, even though he must’ve been plenty aware that his mother didn’t deserve to be beaten by his dad. During the scene where Jang Do Shik grabbed that golf club, Joo Won was literally cowering in fear, crying his eyes out and calling for his mom. That response stood in such stark contrast with how he suddenly claimed to feel like he had to behave the same way to execute power, and he even seemed to enjoy beating up his schoolmates too. It just didn’t feel like a logical response, no matter how I tried to think about it. It helped a little that they at least had him explain his side of the story afterwards in that heart-to-heart with his mother, but I still found it hard to understand how his trauma would manifest into him doing the same thing as his dad. Then again, they say a lot of bullies used to be bullied themselves, so I guess it’s just a way of lashing out their fears and insecurities at others to make themselves feel powerful. Could be that my brain is just not able to comprehend bullies, simple as that.
Anyways, underneath that violent kid was just another traumatized soul and it broke my heart when, just after that, his mom also got murdered after trying to save him from Sun Woo. The scene where Jae Sang visited him in the hospital to apologize for the deal he’d made with Yeong Ae that ended up getting her killed was just as heartwrenching as the murder itself. The fact that Sun Woo did it out of spite towards Jang Do Shik’s “real family” too, like did he want to kill Joo Won’s mom so they’d be equal as Jang Do Shik’s sons or something?
Looking at Sun Woo’s whole “I’m Jang Do Shik’s special boy” logic, I was honestly a bit surprised that he didn’t actually go after Joo Won. Wouldn’t the acknowledged son, the final obstacle to being daddy’s one true special boy, be his most direct enemy? I mean, of course I’m glad he didn’t try to kill Joo Won, but thinking about it in hindsight, it was a bit strange. Joo Won actually ended up becoming an orphan. I sure hope he was taken into protective custody by the right people and didn’t grow up as messed up as the rest of his family. Poor boy.

One other person I want to discuss is Jang Hyun Joo (played by Shin Min Kyung), one of the applicants for the Women Support Program and the only one who ends up surviving it. I felt so bad for her, it was so awful to see her so hopeful and relieved at the thought of this support program while knowing she was probably just going to be discarded like trash. I’m glad at least she survived, but she also had to witness the horrors of that experiment lab and saw other girls die on the beds around her. The part about the Women Support Program was just so appalling. I hated that this extra “business” took the most time to figure out. Before they found Yeong Ae’s evidence, the police never even linked these missing women to the ongoing investigation. It was such a relief that they managed to save Hyun Joo. It was just so sick that some psychopath’s mommy issues ended up getting all these innocent people involved that literally had nothing to do with anything.

I’ve noticed it seeping through my analysis so far already, but I just want to emphasize how much I appreciated the consistency and reasoning of this show. Everything that happened was explained in one way or another, from the resemblance between Bo Na and Se Rin to the eye drops that Shi On kept from the Segyeong Orphanage killer to the reason behind Joo Won’s erratic behavior at school and the underlying reason for Sun Woo’s handpicked guinea pigs for his “Women Support Program”. I found the attention to detail to make sure no plotholes remained very satisfying, because it actually made the show as a whole way more solid. I believe the only thing I missed was that they never explained what happened to the insane lady from the first episode who orchestrated Jae Sang’s car accident. We see her get arrested in W2, but we never actually find out what happened to her in W1 after Jae Sang returned.
I also thought the cases that Jae Sang worked on in W2 that gradually brought him closer to Shi On and the police team were all equally impactful and relevant. Admittedly, everytime they solved a case and went right into the next one I found myself sighing “crime really never ends, huh”. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the cases that were covered because they were all equally important. They weren’t just fillers, they actually tied into the main story as well. The Yak Ji Orphanage case tied in with the Segyeong Orphanage Massacre and led Jae Sang to find out the reason why Shi On had broken up with him in W1. Then there was the young lady who ended up giving up her life (and her retinas) to her blind dad and the other missing people who were all murdered on the command of Jang Do Shik or other affiliated persons. Even the case with the mother of Bo Na’s friend who committed identity fraud was intriguing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but the main reason this drama was so thrilling to watch until the very end was because it was so solid, both in the plot and the characters as in the writing and the acting. I was honestly very impressed by it.

Before moving on to the cast comment section, I just want to make one comment about the title, because I actually find it pretty interesting. Both the Korean and the English titles are the same, “Welcome 2 Life”, naturally a word pun on “Welcome to Life”, with the “2” supposedly referring to the two worlds. However, I do wonder what the “welcoming” element in the title refers to. Saying it out loud it almost sounds like a heralding of what life is about, which I hope isn’t the case. I’d like to think it mostly refers to Jae Sang coming back to life, not only when he regains consciousness in W1, but also how he’s snapped back to reality/justice/life after his time in W2. I think there might be different way to interpret the title, so if anyone has any other theories, feel free to let me know!

We’ve reached the cast comment section! As I said in my introduction, I didn’t remember any kind of promotion regarding this show, so I was very surprised to see such good reviews and so many familiar faces. Overall I thought the acting was really good, everyone took their characters very seriously and did a great job at balancing humor with serious acting.

Although I knew Rain by name and face, I didn’t think I’d actually seen him in anything before until I realized he played the main lead in the movie I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay, lol. I mostly know him for being a singer and being married to Kim Tae Hee, lol. Anyways, I really liked his portrayal of Jae Sang. He did a very good job at making the gradual transition from being a selfish jerk to a much more compassionate person, and he cracked me up with his facial expressions many times. I especially loved his chemistry with little Lee Soo Ah who played Bo Na, he seemed so natural with her. I guess it helps that he has children of his own, but it was still very enjoyable to watch him being such an affectionate dad. I also really liked his chemistry with the female lead actress, they seemed very comfortable together. I thought he was very natural in portraying all sorts of different emotions and the way he switched between cool and collected and goofy and even aegyo was very fun. I enjoyed his performance in this show, I hope I’ll get to see more of him!

Lim Ji Yeon has such a unique beauty about her. Nowadays I think she’s most famous for her role as that awful bully in The Glory, and although I haven’t watched that I could just imagine how different that role must have been from her role in this show. It was really interesting to see her as more of a tomboy girl like Shi On, even though she never lost her female charm. I have seen her before in High Society (I keep forgetting she was the second female lead there🙈) and in Doctors, but I think this is the first main lead role I’ve seen of her and this is probably what I’ll remember her by the most until the next thing comes along. I thought she did an absolutely amazing job at portraying Shi On, all the more with the additional layers of the character’s horrible background story. She portrayed Shi On with such spirit, consistence and charm that I couldn’t help but grow to love her. I immediately put another of her shows on my list because I want to get to know her better as an actress (even if I end up not watching The Glory👀). I thought she was a really good casting choice for Shi On, and I loved her chemistry with the two male leads and little Soo Ah as well.

I keep forgetting how fine Kwak Shi Yang is😭. I guess it’s because my last association with him is his role in Café Minamdang, where he played an absolute idiot, lol. Still, that only proves that he has variety! His role of CM couldn’t have been more different than how he played Dong Taek. I’m not gonna lie, I fell for him a little. Besides this I’ve seen him before in Oh My Ghostess, Chicago Typewriter, Clean With Passion For Now, and he’s in a bunch of shows that are still on my watchlist, so that’s nice. As I mentioned in my analysis, I was really relieved that they didn’t make him a secret mole or that I made him like this petty second male lead. It was bad enough to see him yearn for Shi On silently, but the way he dealt with it and let her be happy actually made him even more attractive. I really appreciated this solidity of his character, how he was written to always stand up for justice, even if that meant setting his personal feelings aside. It was so important for Shi On to have such a loyal friend like him to fall back on, and he really embodied the dutiful loyalty of a police officer while also displaying a healthy playful side. I really liked seeing him in this, and I can’t wait to see him in one of the other shows that are still on my list.

I’ve seen Son Byung Ho in a bunch of other shows before, like 49 Days, Cheese in the Trap, Fight For My Way, I’m Not a Robot, Room No. 9 and Clean With Passion For Now. He’s one of those familiar ahjussi faces that pop up every now and then and just always look familiar. His portrayal of Jang Do Shik will probably haunt me for some time. I got so angry and annoyed with him and his smug face and he actually made his scenes painful to watch, which only means he did that good of a job portraying the role. Never forget to differentiate between role and actor! No but seriously, I was very impressed by how despicable he managed to make Jang Do Shik. It can’t be easy for a regular person to play someone so inhuman, someone with such little compassion, so I can only applaud him for doing just that. I’ve no doubt I’m going to see him pop up in another show some time, but this series definitely made me remember him.

I repeat, who keeps casting Shin Jae Ha as psycho characters?😭 I just want to see him in a romantic comedy or something, lol. I’ve seen him before in Sassy Go Go, Go Ho’s Starry Night, While You Were Sleeping and Crash Course in Romance, which is the most recent thing I saw him in – I don’t really remember him from those other shows, it’s been too long. As I said, his role in this show reminded me a lot of his character in CCiR so it doesn’t really feel like I saw a new side of him. That isn’t to say that I wasn’t impressed by his performance, because he too will probably keep haunting me for a while, lol. Don’t you just love it when actors with super cute smiles start smiling them in a psychotic way and you can’t look at them normally anymore? That’s what happened with Kim Young Kwang in Somebody, and it’s also what happened with Shin Jae Ha in both CCiR and this show. I sure hope I get to see him in a cute, normal guy role again someday!

I feel like I’ve never seen Han Sang Jin in another type of role than a lawyer or a business man. I just can’t picture him without a suit on, lol. I saw him most recently in Birth of a Beauty, but I’ve also seen him in Hyde, Jekyll, Me and Circle (although I don’t exactly remember him from there). I think I’ve yet to see him portray a different kind of character than a bad guy/stoic businessman, and his role in this show was kind of a repetition of what I’d already seen him do before. I’m actually curious to see what more variety he has to offer. In some way I would’ve actually liked to get a bit more backstory on Kang Yoon Gi to make more sense of why the heck he’d stay on Jang Do Shik’s side. I know I didn’t imagine that flinch on his face when he realized what his client was getting into, so I guess he must have been just as terrified of him as anyone else, but he never really acted scared. I think I mentioned it in my review as well, but I was actually hoping for him to switch sides or at least testify against Jang Do Shik in the end, but I guess siding with the bad guys makes you a bad guy forever as well. I hope I’ll get to see more different roles of him in future watches!

Another typical ahjussi face I’m always happy to see in K-Dramas is that of Park Won Sang. I’ve seen him before in Dream High, Healer, W: Two Worlds, Fantastic, Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, Wife I Know, The King: Eternal Monarch and Our Beloved Summer. I always love the energy and vitality he brings to his characters, and his character in this show was no exception, although as I mentioned I sometimes felt like he was trying a little hard to be extra at times. Despite being the Chief Prosecutor of the investigation team, he mostly stayed inside the station and behind the glass during interrogations, and although he still contributed a lot to the story and the team it would’ve been cool to also see him get some more action. I understand they left that to the younger and fitter team members (Chief Oh was literally complaining about his back the entire time) but I thought that for someone who put on such a loud mouth towards his team members, he might have also dared to step into the field a bit more. Anyways, it was still nice to see him in this.

I’ve seen Jang So Yeon before in Something in the Rain, Touch Your Heart, The Secret Life of My Secretary and Crash Landing on You, and I’m sure I’ll see her again in multiple shows that are still on my watchlist. I thought she made a really funny character of Ms. Bang, with the pencil skirts and the whoopy hairdo, and my only occasional issue with her performance was that, just like with Park Won Sang, she tried just a little bit too hard to be quirky. I haven’t actually seen her in “funny” roles before so maybe she’s not too accustomed to it or something, but those two were the only ones for me to occasionally fell out of line with the serious acting of the rest of the cast. Still, I thought she made a really nice contribution and it was very nice to see her appear in this, in a role I hadn’t really seen her in before. She’s also always a very familiar face that I like to see pop up in K-Dramas.

Apparently, this series was Lim Sung Jae’s drama debut! He’d appeared in movies before but when it comes to dramas this was his first project, so that’s cool. Apart from this I’ve seen him before in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and there are some more shows of his still on my list. I really liked his portrayal of Yang Go Woon. As I said before, I thought he did a great job at being effortlessly funny without it becoming too much, and he remained a very solid and relevant character throughout the story. I really loved what he brought to the table and he made me laugh a lot. I sure hope I get to see him in more soon.

Last but certainly not least, little Lee Soo Ah! I can’t believe that she was actually six years old when this aired! She’s such a natural, even at that age. She also appeared in Wife I Know and Hotel Del Luna. She’s eleven years old today, but I see on MDL that this show has been her last so far. I really hope she’ll get the chance to keep acting and honing her skills, because we need more child actors like this! I was really impressed by both the cheekiness and the seriousness she managed to put into Bo Na, and her chemistry with her on-screen parents was really endearing to see. I really loved her performance.

Having said that, I think I’ve reached the end of this review. I was able to write this in one go with the right mindset, which felt really good, and I’m happy with how it turned out. I managed to discuss everything I wanted to say about the story and the characters.
All in all, this series really took me by surprise. I didn’t know anything about it – I assume I must’ve put it on my list when I saw the tag “parallel worlds” but I don’t think I expected this when I put it on my list. This is definitely a hidden gem. The story was solid, the writing was great, the characters were well-established and evoked all sorts of emotions. It definitely needs a couple of trigger warnings for the extreme violence that’s depicted, but it did all add to the story and supported the cruelty of the bad guys, so it wasn’t purely for shock value either, unlike for example in The One and Only where I thought they used the heavy themes in all the wrong ways. I thought the concept of a man finding his way back to his old morals and feelings and coming to terms with what was the right thing to do was executed very well in combination with the thrilling investigation story. It was all wrapped up really neatly at the end, the final was immensely satisfying. Be it the main storyline, the love between the main couple or the interactions between the side characters as welcome pallet cleansers, all in all I really enjoyed watching this, it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

I don’t think I’ll be able to share another review before the end of this month due to my busy schedule, but I will start on my next watch right after uploading this so I guess I’ll see when I’ll get to finish it.
Thank you for reading until here, and I’ll be back soon.

Bye-bee! x