The Time ~ Time is Short, Do Something Meaningful

“The Time” is a 2018 drama series, with 32 episodes, and can be categorized as Romance, Crime and Mystery.

SUMMARY: A young woman believes her sister’s death is suspicious but the police write it off as a suicide. Her sister was at a hotel with a man who is a chaebol “bad boy” and the chaebol’s fiancee was also there. But that was all covered up. The chaebol was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Since he only had 6 months to live, he decided to so something meaningful with the rest of his life. He decided to help the young woman find out the truth about her sister’s death.  He also did not believe it was a suicide.

♦ Nobody Lives Forever

In “The Time”, these two quotes explain the entire story.

1. “All of us must die, but you act like you’re going to live forever.”
2. “Time is finite for everyone. How to spend your remaining time in a meaningful way? … Think about it.”

Cheon Soo-Ho is a chaebol nuisance. That’s the way he comes across to others. But even though he is rich, he is in a lot of emotional pain and mental anguish. Most of the time he’s angry with everyone, about everything. But if you want to trigger his anger, so he can release what he has pinned up inside, just say something about his mother. His fury will be unleashed. When you learn what happened to his mother, you kind of want to empathize with him. Still! There is no justification for taking out your anger and your feelings of resentment and mistreatment on others who had nothing to with what happened to you!

Ever Heard of the ‘Clean Up Man’?

Cheon Soo-Ho doesn’t worry about his bad behavior because his wealthy father hired a lawyer, Shin Min-Seok, who “cleans up” after his son. Shin Min-Seok won’t voice his anger and frustration openly, but HE HATES HIS JOB!!! Did he work hard and spend money getting his law degree to get a job cleaning up behind a spoiled brat??!!! He tries to suppress his anger but it’s not easy. Besides the fact that his job is not easy, it’s also WRONG! But if you cover up dirty deeds, each time you do, the job gets easier. You become desensitized.

When Ji-Hyun Met Soo-Ho, It Was Not Love at First Sight

Seol Ji-Hyun and Cheon Soo-Ho had an unpleasant experience when they first met. She made a mistake doing her job and it caused Cheon Soo-Ho to lose his temper and yell at her. She humbly got on her knees and apologized and then he accused her of making him look like the bad guy. Someone secretly took a photo of the incident and uploaded it to the Internet. Everyone was on the side of Seol Ji-Hyun and commented that Cheon Soo-Ho was a spoiled brat / heartless bastard. The online reports made his father furious. His bad behavior, in turn, reflected on the company his father owned and could cause a decrease in the value of the business. In other words, his bad behavior was bad for business.

Cheon Soo-Ho decided to go directly to Seol Ji-Hyun’s home and pay her to smooth things over. Everybody will accept money. That’s what Cheon Soo-Ho thought. However, Seol Ji-Hyun didn’t want his money. Their conversation got a little heated and she wanted to know why somebody who has everything has to be such a nasty person. She said to him:

• All of us must die, but you act like you’re going to live forever.”

Cheon Soo-Ho became angry but before he could respond he started feeling pain and passed out. Seol Ji-Hyun called an ambulance and he was taken to the hospital. He still had the cash in his coat pocket that he was going to use to pay her off. Seol Ji-Hyun left him in the hospital bed but took the money with her because he was unconscious and she didn’t want anyone to steal it. She had every intention of giving the money back! But she never got that chance.

Nobody Can Screw You Over Like Family

Seol Ji-Hyun’s mother always gets them – she and her sister – into financial hot water. She was angry at her mother and told her sister she was going to leave home and couldn’t care less what happened to her mother. She had already made several sacrifices for both of them.  Enough is enough! Seol Ji-Hyun left their apartment angry and returned to the hospital to check on Cheon Soo-Ho. While she was out, her sister found the money and when her mother saw it she took it! Of course, her mother lost the money in a foolish investment. Seol Ji-Hyun was angry with her sister for letting her mother take the money and said some harsh things. Her sister felt bad so she went to work for an escort service.

What Would You Do If You Only Had 6 Months to Live?

Meanwhile, when Cheon Soo-Ho regained consciousness the doctor delivered the bad news. He had terminal cancer and was going to die in 6 months. His reaction was typical. Shock. Upset. Anger. Denial. The diagnosis can’t be right. He doesn’t even use his brain that much. Why me? Once he accepted the truth, he went to a hotel room to get drunk. He called the escort service and Seol Ji-Hyun’s sister was the lady who showed up to entertain him. They both got drunk! Even though he was not sober, Cheon Soo-Ho called his fiancee, Eun Chae-A, and asked her to come to the room. He needed to discuss something important with her about their upcoming marriage.

When Eun Chae-A arrived, Seol Ji-Hyun’s sister opened the room door. She was surprised that a drunk woman was in her fiancé’s hotel room. Seol Ji-Hyun’s sister was stumbling and mumbling about not being paid. Eun Chae-A walked out to the pool and Seol Ji-Hyun’s sister stumbled behind her. She said something that provoked Eun Chae-A’s anger. Eun Chae-A swung her purse and hit her in the head. Then she threw the money in the pool and told her to go get it. She walked away and headed back to the room. Seol Ji-Hyun’s sister got in the pool trying to pick up the dollar bills. When Cheon Soo-Ho woke up from his drunken stupor, he found her dead in the swimming pool.

Cheon Soo-Ho is suspected of having murdered a young woman but he was drunk and passed out. He doesn’t remember a thing. That’s what he says so that the information Shin Min-Seok has to work with to prepare a defense for him. Shin Min-Seok has lost all of his ethics, scruples, and morals. He must have because he went so far as to cover up a possible murder, knowing the victim was Seol Ji-Hyun’s sister. He acted as if he cared for Seol Ji-Hyun; but how could he when he covered up what happened to her sister?

Shin Min-Seok did what he was paid to do. Visited the scene to gather information and evidence and get details from the spoiled rich kid so he could figure out how to clean up this mess!! Even though Shin Min-Seok found evidence linking Eun Chae-A, he covered it up. The young woman’s suspicious death was written off as a suicide.

A suicide? Seol Ji-Hyun was upset and enraged. There was no way her sister committed suicide. Cheon Soo-Ho did not know the woman who had died was her sister. He thought he would never have to interact with Seol Ji-Hyun after that first unpleasant incident. How is it that he’s gotten tangled up with her again? He saw her crying at the police station. He knew the story about the suicide was a cover-up. His doctor told him:

• “Time is finite for everyone. How to spend your remaining time in a meaningful way? … Think about it.”

Even though he could not remember what happened, he decided to help Seol Ji-Hyun find out what happened to her sister. He only had a few months to live and should spend that time doing something “meaningful”.

Main Characters:

• Cheon Soo-Ho (played by Kim Jung-Hyun, “Mr. Queen”, “Kokdu: Season of Deity”)
• Seol Ji-Hyun (played by Seohyun, “Song of the Bandits”)
• Shin Min-Seok (played by Kim Joon-Han, “Good Partner”)
• Eun Chae-A (played by Hwang Seung-Un)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.1 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.6 of 10 stars
• Google users shared a public rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 8.9 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Google users.

It wasn’t easy to find reviews for this Korean drama series.  I think the Viki rating is low because the lead male actor had to drop out of the series. The South Korean actor who was the male lead, Kim Jung-Hyun, was embroiled in controversy, scandal, and plain old gossip There were also reports about him dropping out of the series due to health reasons. Despite all of that, I enjoyed watching “The Time”. It had a good hook! As soon as they tried to write off a young girl’s suspicious death as a suicide, I had to follow through.

Here’s a tip and hopefully you will never have to follow this advice.

• If the death of a family member or friend seems suspicious to you, but someone tells you NOT to do an autopsy because that will be like killing a person twice … DO THE AUTOPSY!! A dead person is dead. You can’t kill them twice. If you have your doubts, it’s easier to examine a body that is still on the slab than it is to exhume a body from the grave. If they get cremated … a possible murderer might escape justice. Just a tip!

In the Interest of Justice

Here’s another tip. I learned this by watching an American movie. A family member did not want to perform an autopsy but at the same time, they tried to accuse the doctor of negligence or malpractice and say that they caused the person’s death. Of course, such an accusation can damage the doctor’s reputation and may cause him to lose his license. The authorities can not perform an autopsy UNLESS there is a suspicion of foul play. The doctor said he did everything that he could but the patient died. If an autopsy were performed that would prove he was telling the truth.

Since the family member kept refusing the autopsy, while accusing the doctor … the doctor turned himself in to the police and confessed to murder. Yes. It was a risky move. But by having himself arrested for murder, the police had no other choice but to perform an autopsy because autopsies MUST BE done for suspected murder. (I’ll bet you’re reading this and thinking ‘Ah hah! Hope I am never in a situation where I need to know this.’)

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Review – Time … This melodrama was a perfect 10 for me – until … | SubtitleDreams

Kim Jung-hyun and Seo Ye-ji: More Than a Superficial Hallyu Scandal | Seoulbeats

The Many Faces of Kim Jung Hyun | The Accidental Drama Qween

TRAILERS/TEASERS:

Viki Global TV. “TIMES – OFFICIAL TRAILER | Korean Drama | Lee Seo Jin, Lee Joo Young, Kim Young Chul, Moon Jung Hee.” YouTube Video. YouTube, February 19, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-fqd9qRLNE.‌