Two Reporters In ‘Times’ Try To Fix The Present By Talking To The Past

In the Korean drama Times, the two main characters live in different times, but must find a way to work together to prevent a tragedy. Seo Jung-In and Lee Jin-woo are both reporters who are persistent at chasing down the truth. Jung-in, played by Lee Joo-young, is a successful news anchor, who idolizes her father, the nation’s current president. Jin-woo, played by Lee Seo-jin is an intrepid reporter, working for a small newspaper known as Times. He’s not afraid to get involved in stories that matter. Despite their shared profession they don’t meet until Jung-in’s life is suddenly not her own.

One day Jung-in wakes up to a completely different reality, one she doesn’t recognize, but in which everyone seems to recognize her. No one knows her at her former anchor job, but instead she works at a newspaper, previously called Times. In her new reality she’s shocked to find that her father was assassinated five years before, when he was running for office. It’s not possible, she thinks, but as she confronts others they assume she’s suffering a mental breakdown. With time and therapy she eventually believes the reality she once knew was a delusion, a coping mechanism to help survive her father’s death. One thing she can’t abandon is seeking facts about her father’s assassination. It’s a lonely cause since the case has been closed and she can’t interest anyone in re-opening it.

That is until she gets a call from Jin-woo. It turns out that he’s calling her from 2015, trying to set up an interview with a candidate’s daughter. She realizes he might be able to help prevent her father’s death, but at the same time she has worked so hard to shake thoughts of her former reality. Is talking to him going to change history or will it lead her into insanity?

The ability to reach through time to correct wrongs is an often explored drama theme. It’s featured in the currently airing Sisyphus, where someone from the future visits the past, as well as previous dramas Signal, Kairos, Alice, and Nine. It’s an appealing theme because it’s human to wonder if having made different decisions could set life on a different course. Also, sometimes it’s necessary to dig up the past to understand and fix the present, although outside of fiction, that’s not likely to involve phone calls or radio signals from another time or even visits from a time traveler. 

Since every drama attempt to change destiny results in unpredictable and not always positive changes, it will be interesting to see where this OCN drama takes Jin woo and Jung-in. Can they save her father’s life and if they can, what will it cost them? Will it require Jung-in having to see her father in a different light?

Lee Joo-young attracted attention in 2020, when she played the transgender chef Ma Hyun-yi in the drama Itaewon Class and also for her appearance in the film Baseball Girl, for which she won an Independent Star Award, plus a Rising Star Award at the New York Asian Film Festival. She also appeared in the dramas Something in the Rain and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo. Lee Seo-jin was last seen in the dramas Trap, Marriage Contract and Wonderful Days, as well as the film Intimate Strangers. The actor has appeared in a succession of variety shows, most recently in Youn’s Stay with actress Youn Yuh-jung.

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