Reborn Rich, a drama based on a web novel, is yet another story that uses the "born again" concept. It introduced the main character of Yoon Hyeon Woo, who, despite his stellar results in high school, had to give up going to university because his family could not afford his tertiary education. In an era where full scholarships and bank study loans probably had not been established in South Korea, Hyeon Woo joined the mega-corporation Soonyang after leaving school and soon climbed the ranks to become a senior finance manager in rank, but super-manservant in practice. In spite of his hard work, he was betrayed and discarded by the very people he served, and subsequently found himself reliving the life of a young boy, Jin Do Jun, the youngest son of the youngest son of the founder of Soonyang.

Most of the above was already given to us in the synopsis, and from what I have seen, Song Joong Ki performed far better in his role as Hyeon Woo than in his role as Jin Do Jun. As Hyeon Woo, Joong Ki's expressions were more real - in moments of servitude, he was spontaneous, relenting, and in times of panic, his fear more raw, the helplessness he was supposed to feel more convincing. The reborn Do Jun, who had lived through all of the 2000s before, knowing what would happen when it comes to government politics, monetary policies, and global catastrophes, was the character in focus for much of the story, but even so, I couldn't feel the impact of this character the same way Joong Ki delivered Hyeon Woo.

The second time skip happened when Do Jun grew up, but we can assume he didn't finish his law studies or sat for the bar, because by that time he didn't need to - he just had to get really rich. Did he commit insider trading through his ability? Yes, of course - coming from the future, he already had information on what happened in the past, and utilised that information to earn a lot of money. But because of the supernatural circumstances in how he obtained the information, no one can prove that insider trading happened. This is the secret of the bulk of his success for most of the drama. Nevertheless, the first few episodes had a decent start and a reasonable flow of congruency.

The basis for this drama is how the rich and powerful Jin family operates their business. Whether one finds the business principles interesting or otherwise, with the most basic understanding of the subject, following the drama would not be a challenge. However, even with the most basic understanding of the subject, this is also where the flow of logic started to break, and repetitions set in. Every one or two episodes, a "twist" happens for the sake of providing some "shock value" to the viewers, but provides no progress in plot development. The ongoing crisis is merely dropped and waved away while another new trouble is brewing. And every one or two episodes, someone's office will be raided; they will be investigated for committing a business crime, but no worries, the cheap contrivances in attempting to produce anxiety rush in viewers peters off like a whiny balloon out of air when the climax ends. And so, for 14 episodes, the focus were placed on business operations, and the phenomenon of time reversal and soul-switching were not at all touched during all that time. How was this explained in the end? It's "redemption".

I never expected solid logic from fiction, but I was still hoping for some level of cogency. Reborn Rich quickly became boring and ridiculous to me as the episodes went on, and by Episode 8, the drama was a chore to watch. The human relationships in this drama also leave much to be desired, as no one is honest with one another. The closest thing to honesty was seen in the grandfather-grandson bond between Do Jun and Yang Cheol, but even then, the two exercised a moderate degree of caution against each other. The romance between Do Jun and Shin Hyun Bin's character Min Young was initiated early, but it was marred with doubts, mistrust and misunderstandings. Seong Jun's wife, who initially had a crush on Do Jun, was introduced as a highly intelligent and ambitious woman who eventually resigned to her fate as a marriage pawn to a less capable heir. She became a character who seemed to have a lot of cards on her hands only to be relegated to appearing once in a while, having all purposes stripped from her.

The final two episodes would only be a surprise if the viewer has gotten used to Do Jun's rich and comfortable lifestyle, thinking all would just end with him becoming the CEO of the whole Soonyang Group, marrying his lovely girlfriend whom he doesn't understand and who doesn't understand him, chugging along with a fat ass account loaded with money for the rest of his newfound identity. So maybe getting killed in the first place wasn't that bad after all - but nah. Off pops the bubble, the rose-tinted glasses shatters, 16 hours of a lifetime watching this drama gone, and comes the cries of despair of the ones heavily invested. No, I lied. It really wasn't that devastating. But Hyeon Woo did become better off - by becoming a new partner of Miracle Investment. And the way it transpired? No explanations required. Doesn't matter that a person currently under criminal investigation is not allowed by law to work in any business or finance-related capacity. It's okay, no one will look for this detail. When this happened, there were approximately 20 minutes left on the final episode, so the writers probably thought, eh, whatever, let's just wing it.

And of course the final nail in the coffin was a recorded phone conversation, which is the same like, way too many dramas out there. This wouldn't be absurd with today's technology, but we are talking about 2004 when people were still using the most basic flip phones. A majority of people still alive today have lived through this era with a flip phone. Phone conversations do not automatically get recorded. The phones in that era did not even have a recording function, what more to say a convo-recording function. Yes, this drama is fiction, but the idea of writing fiction is skillfully imbibing and presenting theories that the audience could not refute. It's usually either because the theory itself is a fact, or it is unproven and vague. To say a flip phone in 2004 automatically records conversations as soon as a call is made or answered is like saying carbonara tastes like chocolate, which it doesn't.

I will add that with all the flaws and absurdity typical of a Korean drama with a vengeance-agaisnt-a-rich-family setting, this was somewhat 2% better than Vincenzo and not as bad as Eve - which is arguably the worst drama of the year. Reborn Rich obtaining an 8.8 rating is not a testament to how good the drama is. Like many MDL ratings, it's a reflection of how many people have watched it and how many people love it. Correlation does not imply causation, so if Song Joong Ki's face is all you need to preoccupy yourself for a weekend binge sans sense and logic, by all means, watch it. But this isn't a good script by any definition of the word.