A Day ~ Can We Change a Key Event to Prevent a Tragedy?

“A Day” is a 2017 Korean film, categorized as Medical Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Time-loop, and Supernatural, and streaming on Amazon Prime.

• Memorable Quote: “I thought it was a dream. But it wasn’t.”

SUMMARY: Two men keep repeating the same day over and over. Rather than a dream it’s more like a real-life nightmare because each experienced a tragic event. They keep trying to change the outcome. Will they succeed?

♦ Why Do We Both Keep Repeating the Day?

In “A Day”, Dr. Kim Joon-Young is a top thoracic surgeon who cares more about his work than his nine-year-old daughter. One day, he is returning from a trip and is on his way to see his daughter. He witnesses a terrible car accident. Should he stop to render aid? After all, he is a doctor. But by the time he reaches the scene, they are putting the dead body in the ambulance.

Oh no! It can’t be! But it is! It’s his young daughter, struck and killed in front of him. Just when it seems like the worst has happened, Kim Joon-Young “wakes up” and finds himself back on the plane from the previous day. Returning from the trip again, he repeats the events and knows exactly what will happen. And then … it happens again and again and … He soon realizes he is stuck in a time loop: the day’s tragic events repeat themselves no matter what he does.

Kim Joon-Young is not the only one. Lee Min-Chul, an ambulance driver, is also reliving the same day. His wife died in the accident, and he’s experiencing the same loop of grief and loss. He is the first to notice that each “day,” the one thing that never changes is that Kim Joon-Young is always there. Together, they try to trace the cause of the loop and save their loved ones. They attempt to break the cycle by changing key events. However, as they dig deeper, they uncover that the fatal accident is not a random tragedy but is tied to something far more sinister: a child died because of something unethical Kim Joon-Young had done years earlier. But they only go back “a day” each time. How can the doctor fix what he did years ago?

Main Characters:

• Kim Joon-Young (played by Kim Myung-Min, “Your Honor”, “Pandora”, “The Detective K Film Series”, “Battle of Jangsari”, “Monstrum”, “Law School”)
• Lee Min-Chul (played by Byun Yo-Han, “Black Out”, “The Book of Fish”, “Mr. Sunshine”, “Uncle Samsik”, “Believer 2”, “Following”, “Hansan: Rising Dragon”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 6.8 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 3.3 out of 5 stars
• This is Barry: 2.8 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as MDL.

“A Day” is a time loop, as opposed to time travel. Time travel is my favorite “quirky” K-drama genre. The time loop was an interesting twist, or rather … loop. LOL.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

‘A Day’ (‘Ha-Roo’) – Review | Hollywood Reporter

Review: A Day (South Korea, 2017) | AsianMovieWeb

‘A Day’, South Korea’s version of Groundhog Day (1993) | reelthoughtsfromageek

Film Review: A Day (2017) by Cho Sun-ho | Asian Movie Pulse

Korean Movie: A Day ~ Explained – Why are they looping? | This is Barry

TRAILER/TEASER:

KoBiz, KoreanFilmBiz. “A Day (2017).” YouTube, Video, 14 June 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsmu3X6Wq9Y.

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You Might Also Like:

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• Alice (2020) – A time-traveling agent meets a woman identical to his deceased mother, merging sci-fi elements with emotional stakes.

• Kairos (2020) – Two people living in different timelines communicate to prevent tragedies, one loses a child, the other her mother.

• Nine: Nine Time Travels (2013) – The protagonist uses nine incense sticks to travel back in time and change the past; explores regret and moral cost.

• Train (2020) – A detective moves between two parallel worlds to solve the mystery of a loved one’s death.

• Tunnel (2017) – A detective from 1986 time-travels to the future while chasing a serial killer; uses the “time distortion” idea.

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