Life on Mars (2018) 라이프 온 마스
Directed by Lee Jung-hyo, starring Jung Kyung-ho as Han Tae-joo and Go Ah-sung as Yoon Na-young.
While investigating a serial murder case, Detective Han Tae-joo gets into a catastrophic incident. When he wakes up, he finds himself transported back to 1988, appointed to work at a police station in a small city. Believing he is there for a reason, he tries to solve the case from the past in hopes of finding a way back to his life in 2018. (Synopsis: Letterboxd)
Directed by Lee Jung-hyo, starring Jung Kyung-ho as Han Tae-joo and Go Ah-sung as Yoon Na-young.
While investigating a serial murder case, Detective Han Tae-joo gets into a catastrophic incident. When he wakes up, he finds himself transported back to 1988, appointed to work at a police station in a small city. Believing he is there for a reason, he tries to solve the case from the past in hopes of finding a way back to his life in 2018. (Synopsis: Letterboxd)
Been meaning to see this time-travel drama but kept postponing it. Now I really felt like watching it, and having seen 6 episodes I can say I totally enjoy and love this show. It's fast-paced with an interesting plot that keeps getting better, and I love the lead characters. Jung Kyung-ho as Han Tae-joo and Go Ah-sung as Yoon Na-young have great chemistry. Na-young is a character from 1988, and at that time the treatment of women police officers was appallingly sexist. I cringed every time her team leader (Park Sung-woong as Kang Dong-chul) and other team members ordered her around to make coffee. Han Tae-joo, coming from 2018, is the first one to treat her with respect and to recognise her potential as a full partner and valuable asset to the team. He always asks for her assistance instead of the other team members. (Ro Jong-hyun as Jo Nam-sik, the youngest detective on the team, is okay, but Oh Dae-hwan as Lee Yong-ki is totally worthless; hoping for some character improvement for Yong-ki.)
In the first episodes Na-young definitely proves her worth and even Dong-chul has to acknowledge that. Na-young is really a great heroine. I love her so much. She's sweet and caring, but has also bad-ass fighting skills and great analytical competence when it comes to police cases. (She majored in psychology.) She clearly has fallen for Tae-joo because of the way he treats her, and Tae-joo doesn't seem to be unaffected by her great personality either. I love chief Dong-chul's observations regarding our main couple looking out for each other and liking each other, even asking if they are dating after catching Na-young at Tae-joo's home twice. I'm really hoping for a romance.
I didn't like Dong-chul beating up suspects all the time and how he's not keen on getting evidence, even plants evidence if it suits him. But I like how he's not rigid in his ways and how he's willing to learn from Tae-joo. He gives Tae-joo the lead to handle things and thus trusts him. He also sees Na-young's potential and gives her more to do than just making coffee. Love the bromance between Tae-joo and Dong-chul.
The time-travel aspect is great. Han Tae-joo is in a coma after the accident and travels back to 1988 in his subconscious. Will he go back to 2018 if he wakes up from the coma, or if he dies, will he stay in 1988 and alter the future? I love the plot element with him meeting his parents and his younger self in 1988. Episode 6 has some cliffhanger so I'm excited to continue watching.