A woman with the ability to remember all of her past lives decides to spend her 19th life searching for her first love from her past life.  They were both just children when she was tragically killed in a car accident.  Now they have both grown into adults, and while she remembers everything about the time they shared together, he doesn’t recognize the quirky woman who keeps showing up in his life to be the girl he still pines for. But she is determined to prove to him that she is someone he has loved in the past as Joo Won and can love again now as Ji Eum.  

Ahn Bo Hyun as Moon Seo Ha

Moon Seo Ha lost his mother to an illness while he was still a boy.  His best friend and first love, Joo Won, helped him through his loss.  So when Seo Ha and Joo Won were involved in a car accident shortly after, that left Joo Won dead and Seo Ha hard of hearing, the boy was completely devastated.  Even years later, he still carries around the pain of losing the two most important people in his life.  But when a strange woman starts showing up in front of him, he is puzzled as to why she makes him think of Joo Won, regardless of the fact that they look nothing alke.  And by the time he learns that Ji Eum really is the reincarnated Joo Won, he has already fallen in love with her again in her current form.  

Moon Seo Ha had a rough childhood that left him emotionally sensitive and cautious.  With the exception of his close friend, Do Yoon who also serves as his private secretary, he doesn’t really have any friends.  His dream is to take over the hotel that his mother managed while she was alive and return it to its former glory.  I liked Ahn Bo Hyun in this role.  He plays this kind of quiet mannered character well and I found his thoughtful introspection to be genuine and relatable. 

Ahn Dong Goo as Ha Do Yoon

Ha Do Yoon has known Seo Ha since  they were students.  The pair have been friends ever since.  But what Seo Ha doesn’t know is that Do Yoon’s father was the one driving the car the day that Joo Won died, or that his dad was also a victim of the accident.  Do Yoon is in love with Cho Won, but he refuses to date her because he knows that people will say he loves her because of her rich family.  

 ♥ Diverse Past Lives

I really loved the fact that instead of just using the same actress in different costumes, Ji Eum’s past lives included all different appearances with both genders.  I’ve never seen another show about past lives use this approach and I really like the scope it gave the drama.  Especially since one of her most lasting relationships occurred while she was living as the man who was Ae Kyung’s uncle.  Also, a shout out to the actress that played the young Ji Eum.  She was fabulous!

 ♥ Second Lead Couple

The second lead couple of Do Joon and Cho Won were a fun match to watch.  Personally I would like to have seen more scenes of them together, but what we did see was cute, and I thought they had great chemistry.  They had a good push and pull that was never one-sided and the depth of their feelings was always apparent.  

Holes and Questions

There are so many loose ends in this drama that I can barely list them all.  What exactly was Min Ki’s motivation in all of this?  Was he also released from the curse once Ji Eum broke it?  Did Do Yoon ever tell off those bully jerks?  Why did we need to see the whole loan shark saga with Ji Eun’s dad and brother? If Seo Ho’s mom knew that Seo Ha already knew about Ji Eum’s past life, why didn’t she tell him who she was so they could have a proper reunion before she forgot him forever?  I just felt like this drama tried to do too much, and it led to a lot of frustrating plot holes and underdeveloped characters.  I also found the excessive amount of flashbacks over and over again to get old.

Hotel Story

With all of the characters and sub-plots in this drama, I felt like the excessive amount of time on the hotel story was a waste of time and pretty irrelevant to the big picture.  I have no idea what the point of Yeon Ok and her son was.  Maybe if they had shown at least a couple of scenes of Seo Ha’s mom working at the hotel, we could have understood his attachment to it.  But as it was, it seemed totally disconnected to the story.  

“See You in My 19th Life” has a confusing but mostly happy ending.  I have to hand it to them.  In all the dramas I have seen, I have never seen this approach to the past life story.  Ji Eum finally remembers everything from her first life, including the fact that it was Min Ki and not Seo Ha who actually killed her.  Once Ji Eum knows everything, she realizes she has to let go of her past and forget all of them.  Seo Ha assures her that he will find her this time, so all she needs to do is wait.  Cho Won decides the only way to quit hurting Do Yoon is to let him go.  But luckily, Do Yoon finally gets his act together and admits his feelings. A slight time jump after Ye Eum has undone the curse shows that everyone else still remembers her.  Ae Kyung is healthy again, Do Yoon and Cho Won are doing well as a couple, and Seo Ha has been patiently waiting for Ji Eum to come to him naturally.  But he becomes impatient and takes matters into his own hands.  He meets Ji Eum casually at Ae Kyung’s restaurant and later at the hotel, they meet by the pool. Seo Ha proposes the same deal Ji Eum used on him in the beginning, saying he will ask her to date three times.  And it is pretty obvious that, like Ji Eum before, he will be successful in winning her heart.