Shin Hye-sun is the best

I just watched three Korean TV series starring Shin Hye-sun, with the last episode of See You in My 19th Life coming out just in time last night. She is amazingly good.

Still 17



I loved this series so much. Woo Seo-ri, an aspiring violinist who had been accepted to an academy in Germany, was in an accident when she was 17, and was in a coma until she woke up 13 years later. Her guardians are nowhere to be found, so she tries to go back home. Her home, however, is now owned by Gong Woo-jin, a man still tortured by guilt because he believes he was responsible for the girl he liked (Seo-ri) being killed in an accident 13 years before - but he had her name wrong. Shin Hye-sun plays the role so well of a 17 year old girl in a 30 year old body, trying to come to terms with the loss of nearly half her life, wanting to find her aunt and uncle, and wondering if she can play the violin again. Woo-jin and his nephew are reluctant hosts of this strange homeless woman who knows things about their house.

The series is moving and thought-provoking, with lots of lovely moments. Very highly recommended. 


Angel's Last Mission: Love



The whole premise of this is a little jarring. Kim Dan is an angel who has been given a final mission before he can go to heaven: he needs to find true love for ballerina Lee Yeon-seo. Yeon-seo is a ballerina who was blinded in a stage incident, and she is bitter and abusive to everyone. Kim Dan starts falling in love with her himself. There's more to it, and crime and plots, and family and ballet, and a fallen angel who is the creative director of Yeon-seo's Fantasia ballet company. Shin Hye-sun is, of course, excellent, playing a bitter woman to a T; unfortunately the character of Kim Dan, the angel, is weak and a bit ridiculous. He, of course, gets quite angry with the vengeful Deity, and his superior, Archangel Hu, keeps trying to guide him on the right path. All in all, worth watching, not not as good as some other series. I did like the choice of the ballet being performed in the series: Giselle, which deals with some similar plot points.


See You in My 19th Life

 

This series was emotional and moving, and I think talked a lot to the grief of people left behind after tragedies. Shin Hye-sun plays Ban Ji-eum, a woman who remembers all of her previous reincarnations, and is in her 19th life. In her 18th life she was Yoon Joo-won, a girl wise beyond her years (duh) who formed a bond with a boy a few years younger, and they were close friends. She was killed in a tragic accident, and now, in her 19th life, she wants to find the boy, Moon Seo-ha, who was in the accident with her in her 18th life. She finds that Seo-ha, Joo-won's sister Cho-won, and Joo-won's mother are all still struggling with the tragedy even 24 years later, and she has to deal that herself, and decide whether or not to reveal herself. 

There are lots of goosebump moments, and lots of moving and emotional scenes. It makes on think about tragedies and those left behind. It's also an interesting thought experiment on the nature of personality and memory in connection with reincarnation. Shin Hye-sun plays the role amazingly, as a woman of 24 (and Hye-sun is 33 herself) who has the maturity of a woman with several lifetimes' of experience, and who knows exactly what she wants. It's quite cool that she uses the experience of her previous lives, as a warrior, a flamenco dancer, a trapeze artist, a musician, and much more. It was nice to Cha Chung-hwa in a supporting role; she's been in several other series I've watched. Moon Seo-ha is played by Ahn Bo-hyun, who was in Her Private Life; he is good too.

I've now seen Shin Hye-sun in several series:
In The Legend of the Blue Sea she plays a supporting role as a researcher with a crush on the male lead
In Mr. Queen, she plays a man in the body of a queen from 200 years ago
In Still 17, she plays a 17 year old girl in a 30 year old body
In Angel's Last Mission: Love she plays bitter, blind ballerina
In See You in My 19th Life she plays a woman with knowledge of all her previous lives.
That's quite a variety of interesting roles....