Again My Life – K-Drama Episode 1 Recap & Review

Another Chance

Episode 1 of Again My Life stats with Kim Hui-Wu reading his prosecutor’s oath. He’s determined to keep people safe and do so by any means necessary. That much is especially apparent in the next scene as Hui-Wu heads down to the docks. A whole bunch of gangsters stand in a line opposite the police. The cops don’t have a warrant though, but that doesn’t stop Hui-Wu.

Hui-Wu approaches the criminals, takes one of their wood blocks and smacks himself upside the head with it. Sporting a thin trickle of blood down his head, he uses this as incentive to head in and attack the gangsters, making it out like this was an unprovoked attack. Hu-Wui works with the other officers, taking them down and saving the day.

At Gyo-Dae station, Hui-Wu is surrounded by reporters. There’s a big corruption scandal going on and Hui-Wu is convinced that Jo Tae-Seop is involved. The thing is, this guy has a lot of power and no one has been able to come close to knocking him off his powerful perch.

Despite gathering a fair amount of evidence and working day and night to build a case, he’s put in his place by his superior, Kim Seok-Hoon. He tells Hui-Wu that there’s no point as he may not be able to get a conviction.

Seok-Hoon is also crooked though and he’s aligned with Tae-Seop. That much is apparent when he rings through and tells Tae-Seop to prepare himself. Tae-Seop is more interested in affairs with the Blue House. He calls himself the Kingmaker, paying his way to the top in order to control the country. Specifically, he wants his man, Assemblyman Jin, to take the President’s seat.

With a mistress in LA used as blackmailing leverage, he’s tasked with taking pictures of a military base. In doing so, Tae-Seop will take care of the rest.

Tae-Seop is crooked to the bone, and he shrugs off questions from the press about murdering a head prosecutor in the past. Seok-Hoon invites him into the office, warning what’s happening with Hui-Wu and apologizing. However, this sort of corruption doesn’t phase Hui-Wu, who adds Tae-Seop into the interview room, calls him trash and berates him.

Sadly, Tae-Seop had got the jump on Hui-Wu. He takes out his key witness and systemically destroys the case. Their “secret weapon” has been kidnapped and left in a precarious position.

While Tae-Seop heads off to enjoy some spicy octopus, Tae-Soep heads to the scene of the crime and fights with the assassin up on the rooftop. Unfortunately, Hui-Wu is thwarted and eventually injected with a lethal cocktail of meth and alcohol. He’s to be made out to be a crooked, disgraced prosecutor. He’s also thrown off the rooftop, plunging to the ground below.

However, midway through his fall we cut forward to find Hui-Wu standing on the rooftop with a strange woman wearing red. This happens to be his guardian angel of sorts, and she cycles through key moments of his life.

Hui-Wu’s parents passed away in a hit and run accident and he has been bullied all through his life. These two moments happen to be the catalyst for Hui-Wu getting into MMA and eventfully becoming a prosecutor. He’s reminded of his fruitless endeavour was and how he should have had power before going after Tae-Seop.

Interestingly, this woman in red decides to give him another chance, allowing Hui-Wu to show Te-Seop a living hell. “You cannot catch the devil unless you become a bigger monster” She says, before fading out of view.

In doing so, we cut back through time, earlier in the timeline. Hui-Wu is working at a convenience store just after graduating high school. He’s younger and has a lot more time to play with. A lot more time to build a case against Jae-Seop too.

This timeline is also right on the cusp of Hui-Wu’s parents being killed. For now though, they’re still alive. Naturally, Hui-Wu is ecstatic and incredibly happy, hugging them both. This helps to focus Hui-Wu’s mind, determined to go after Tae-Seop but take his time to build a big case and destroy any chance of him bouncing back.

Unfortunaly part of reliving this timeline stems from having to redo all your studies again. Wow, what a nightmare. Anyway, Hui-Wu works hard, determined to study voraciously and change his circumstances. The thing is, the date is May 17th and on May 18th, his parents are killed in that hit and run accident. Hui-Wu is determined to try and change things but he’s not quite sure how.

Hui-Wu picks up his parents from work on the night in question but seemingly can’t stop the inevitable. A black car comes storming down the road and appears to run both of Hui-Wu’ parents over.

The Episode Review

Again My Life has an excellent cast and it’s helped by a solid screenplay too. If I’m being super critical, some of the sound effects are quite distracting but that’s a minor point in what’s otherwise a really solid opener.

It would seem like Tae-Seop has been at the forefront of all this drama since the very beginning, and potentially could be involved in the hit and run that killed his parents. If that’s the case, why would he do that? That’s still unclear but there’s a nice dynamic between the characters so far, and a simple but effective explanation for Hui-Wu being thrust back through time to change things.

The light time travel elements are simple enough to process and hopefully we don’t have any stumbling time jumps that lack logic ala. Sisyphus: The Myth. For now though, Again My Life gets off to a great start. This looks set to be a really solid Friday/Saturday night drama!