Novice screenwriter Yoo Song Yi and director Lee Hyun Suk tackle the renowned theme of time travel within their storyline with a conglomeration of staid cliches and tropes, plot holes as well as a mixed bag of characterisation. Nevertheless perhaps one thing which should be said is that even in the world of cliche K-dramas, the premise of “Hello, Me! “is pretty out there .

The drama centralises its upon the main protagonist 37 year-old Ha-Ni ( Choi Kang Hee). Once a stunning beauty and popular in her teens, Ha-Ni’s life has hit rock bottom after a tragic event in her life. By a whim of fate, Ha-Ni ends up encountering her 17-year old self ( Lee Re) who has somehow travelled twenty years into the future for reasons unbeknown to both Ha-Nis. As the current Ha-Ni struggles to juggle between keeping the appearance of her younger self from her older sister Ban Ha Young ( Jung Yi Rang) , mother Ji Ok Jung ( Yoon Bok In) and grandmother Lee Hong Nyeon ( Kim Yong Rin), Ha-Ni’s life may just hide a blessing in disguise with a new opportunity coming to rise. In addition to this, the mysterious involvement of younger conglomerate heir Yoo-hyun ( Kim Young Kwang) and actor Anthony ( Eum Moon Suk), reveal their mysterious links and feelings through their shared pasts with Ha-Ni .

The cast of the series were fairly versatile in talents. Whilst main actress Choi Kang Hee admittedly did feel slightly out of place within the series at first, she was able to deliver a brilliant performance which allowed viewers to become attached and feel moved by her character. Arguably, actress Lee Re did feel slightly questionable within her portrayal of Ha-Ni’s younger-self due to certain line deliverances, however, during more angst-ridden moments of the series, the younger actress did capture certainly more heartfelt moments behind her onscreen persona .

Admittedly , Kim Young Kwang and Eun Moon Suk weren’t entirely dire within their performances and did have some genuinely heartbreaking moments onscreen , however as their characters were played more for comedy and as the “ love interests” of the drama, their performances were restricted slightly towards their respected moulds as the “ male lead and second male lead” of “ Hello, Me!” . However, this is not entirely the fault of either actor, as whilst the scriptwriting should be commended for tackling convoluted and realistic subject areas such as bereavement, family , friendship, mental health and the prejudice and difficulties of ageing in South-Korean Society , certain characters felt respectfully moulded into prosaic roles over the course of the series which were hard to renounce.

In particular this can be seen through the younger Ha-Ni. Ha-Ni is supposed to highlight a stark contrast against her older counterpart by her fractiousness , optimism and self-confidence in given situations due to still being young . On the other hand, Ha-Ni respectfully felt overly immature and benign for a 17-year old by her impulsiveness and lacking rationality at times over the course of the series. Whilst admittedly the older Ha-Ni did confess that she was fairly sheltered by her mother and doted on by her father Ban Ki Tae ( Kim Byung Choon) during her younger years, it still felt oddly out of place for a character exposed to social interactions and academic expectations ( which were never really touched upon the series) in high school to not learn to mature slightly as a consequence.

However, over the course of the series and her interactions with her older self, the younger Ha-Ni does learn to become more altruistic by helping others, as well as encouraging the 37 year-old self through acceptance than her earlier snide comments towards older Ha-Ni’s appearance and circumstances. ( Taking “ self-depreciation ” to a whole new level in the beginning of the drama.)Yet this still seems to lead to two possible conclusions; Ha-Ni should have been written as a slightly younger character ( perhaps someone nearer her mid-teens than 17 years old ), or preferably she should have been given more time throughout the storyline to learn to mature slightly from the influences of her older-self.

Naturally, this leads us onto the older Ha-Ni. Whilst the younger Ha-Ni is by default the same individual as the older Ha-Ni, screenwriter Song Yi notably places an emphasis upon the 37 year-old version of the character being strikingly different than her younger counterpart. The current Ha-Ni is more taciturn, lacking in self-confidence and was hinted by her mother and sister to have struggled with depression and loneliness in the past. Annoyingly whilst the series did enjoy placing comic relief upon Ha-Ni’s “ unfortunate circumstances” in the beginning of the series and her naivety for the latter part with the feelings of Anthony and Yoo-Hyun towards her, the older Ha-Ni admittedly did have a lot of character growth from low self-esteem initially towards a more self-assured individual who learns to pursue her dreams in the process.

However, her pairings with the male leads often felt slightly disjointed in the grand scheme of the series. The pairing between Yoo Hyun and Ha Ni felt more fortified admittedly than the more complicated relationship between Anthony and herself ( both younger and older), however, this often resulted in the series struggling sometimes to portray Ha-Ni’s affections and feelings towards either male lead outside of expected plot line and setups.

Perhaps the one element that was tackled well within the drama occurred with Ha Ni’s interactions with her mother, sister and grandmother over the duration of the episodes , shown to grow and developed from slightly estranged ( due to her circumstances) towards more affectionate and trusting over the course of the series. It would have perhaps been slightly more intriguing to have touched upon Ha Ni’s interactions and complications around her grandmother. Although primarily this did serve a major part of the story ( without any spoilers) , this did feel a little underdeveloped towards exposing the more emotional difficulties and challenges ( especially with her mental health ) for the 37 year-old Ha Ni. Nevertheless, it was a refreshing and heartwarming dynamic by the presence of Ha Ni’s interactions with her family allowing her to grow to some extent as an individual, rather than merely an asset for “romantic” plot development.

On the other hand, the two male leads of the series are a little more complicated to address by their debased characterisation in parts. “Anthony” arguably had the most wasted potential as a second male lead and his respected involvement in Ha-Ni’s life due to his “ feelings” for Ha-Ni often being played for comical gags rather than exploring his more complicated reasons, personality and past. The drama did attempt to bring up Anthony’s past haunting him again nearer the ending of the series by this particular storyline (as well of course his earlier interactions with the younger Ha-Ni), however, Anthony never truly felt like a worthy contender of Ha-Ni’s affections due to being severely limited within personal growth and screen time with the main character.

Arguably, against his initial cliche archetype as the “ immature, younger rich male lead” Yoo- Hyun was more well-rounded by his reasoning behind falling for Ha-Ni as well as his primary growth as a character . Without revealing too much about the storyline , there are expected tropes which revolve around Yoo-Hyun over the course of the drama. However against some of his more annoying flaws being his childishness and immaturity at times ( as noted by his father ), he was an incredibly kind-hearted and altruistic individual, making his interactions with the older Ha-Ni fairly sweet. Similar to the older Ha-Ni, however, it was refreshing that the series did touch upon Yoo-Hyun’s heartfelt relationship development and complications from childhood with his father Han Ji Man ( Yoon Joo Sang). Although his relationship with Ha-Ni was undeniably sweet, it did feel underdeveloped for a major proportion of the series, often resulting in their relationship being more “ friendly” than having “ romantic undertones”. Nevertheless, their bond did serve to provide warmth and sincerity into the series.

The side characters of the series were honestly a bit of mixed-bag with genuine development besides our main protagonists. Perhaps the most interesting side character in the series who had notable growth from her initial introduction in episode 1 manifested in Oh Ji Eun. The estranged best friend and shadow of Ha-Ni from her younger years, Ji Eun’s position is reversed in the present by being a successful director as well , in a fairly happy relationship with fellow managing director Yang Do Yoon ( Ji Seung Hyun). However, there’s a lot more than Ji Eun struggles behind the scenes from her initial introduction by struggling with guilt over how she left things with Ha-Ni after they ended their friendship initially, and walking around eggs shells with her mother in law and one of the arguable “ minor antagonists ” of the series, Han Ji Sook ( Baek Hyun Joo).

Whilst it is prominent to see why Ji Eun was forced into the mistakes she made in order to hopefully win the approval of Ji Sook, it felt slightly poorly-tackled how the show left things with Ji Eun. Additionally, the other side characters of the series were mostly played off giggles or to lighten up the mood over the course of the series such as kitchen staff Kang Geum Ja ( Kim Mi Hwa) and Cha Mi Ja ( Kim Do Yeon) , the “ obvious secret couple”, Bang Ok Joo ( Go Na Eun) and Kim Yong Hwa ( Kim Ki Ri) as well as of course the duo Park Jung Man ( Choi Dae Chul) and Min Gyeong Shik ( Kang Tae Joo) consigned as Anthony’s managers also.

On the other hand, the ending for “ Hello, Me!” was fairly appropriate for the genre; predictable, yet nonetheless enjoyable.Ultimately, “ Hello, Me!” was a fairly heartfelt, uplifting fantasy, family story and romantic comedy about self-love and learning to lean on others. It was not a flawless show and some notable implausibilities of character development, a sense of overarching purpose and cliches did ultimately detract from more intriguing aspects of the series. Nevertheless, it was a fairly enjoyable and easygoing watch, perhaps something to easily binge-watch when bored or looking for something to fill-out during a lazy day, holiday or weekend.