Who Are You – Twin Sisters Live the Same Life

“Who Are You” is a 2015 Korean drama series, with 16 episodes, and categorized as Romance, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, High School or Youth. It is streaming on Viki.

SUMMARY: Twin sisters living in an orphanage got separated when one got adopted. One lived a happy life and the other was bullied at school. But one day the adopted twin found out her sister was being bullied and took matters into her own hands.

♦ My Old Life was Horrible. My New Life is Wonderful.

In “Who Are You”, Lee Eun-Bi and Ko Eun-Byeol are twins, both living in an orphanage. A woman adopts one of the sisters but did not realize there was a twin. They grew up living completely different lives. Ko Eun-Byeol attended a private high school in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea, and was a model student with excellent grades, her mother loved her dearly, and she had friends. But she also carried the weight of a guilty conscience. One of the students died and she feels she could have done something had she not ignored the girl. Ko Eun-Byeol was not the only responsible party. The school officials had a hand in covering up the matter in an attempt to make everyone forget. However, someone keeps contacting her and following her around to make sure she doesn’t forget.

Meanwhile, Lee Eun-Bi lives at the orphanage and attends high school in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, where she is constantly bullied. She never complained to the school officials about it, but one day the bully took it too far. The bully lied and said Lee Eun-Bi had attacked her. Nobody believed Lee Eun-Bi when she said it wasn’t true. Lee Eun-Bi hoped to become a school teacher but the unproven accusation would put a black mark on her school record and could make it impossible for her to get hired. She felt like the situation was hopeless and attempted to commit suicide, but did not succeed because someone (?) saved her life.

On that same day, Ko Eun-Byeol was supposed to be on a school field trip with a group of other students. When the teachers did a head count, Ko Eun-Byeol was missing. She had mysteriously disappeared. They contacted her mother to let her know. Of course, the mother was distraught and couldn’t make herself believe the worst, i.e. that her daughter was not alive. Days later she got a phone call saying her daughter was in a hospital in Tongyeong. But the girl lying in the hospital bed was not her daughter. It was Lee Eun-Bi who looked exactly like her daughter. Since she never knew that her adopted daughter had a twin sister, why would she believe the young girl wasn’t her daughter?

But surely Lee Eun-Bi can recognize herself. Not quite. When Lee Eun-Bi tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge, someone dived in and saved her life. But the experience was so traumatic that Lee Eun-Bi suffered memory loss. When she regained consciousness there was a woman by her bedside saying that she was her mother. Since she didn’t remember anything, including her name, she couldn’t confirm or deny her identity. So her mother took her home and she began living the life her adopted sister, Ko Eun-Byeol, had once lived.

It was wonderful until she started receiving messages about something that had happened to a student. The message told her she couldn’t pretend it never happened. Lee Eun-Bi did not know what it was about since she did not have Ko Eun-Byeol’s memories. Gradually, her own memories started to come back and she remembered the horrors of being bullied. Life as Ko Eun-Byeol was good for her now. Everyone believed Ko Eun-Byeol had died. Couldn’t she just keep on living her new life with her new identity?

Main Characters:

• Lee Eun-Bi / Ko Eun-Byeol (played by Kim So-Hyun, “Serendipity’s Embrace”, “My Lovely Liar”, “River Where The Moon Rises”, “The Tale of Nokdu”, “Bring it on, Ghost” “The Emperor: Owner of the Mask”)
• Han Yi-An (played by Nam Joo-Hyuk, “Vigilante”, “Start-Up”, “The Bride of Habaek”, “Remember”)
• Kong Tae-Gwang (played by Yook Sung-Jae, “The Village: Achiara’s Secret”, “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God“)
• Teacher Kim Joon-Seok (played by Lee Pil-Mo, “The King’s Affection”, “Pinocchio”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.6 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8.2 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 9.3 out of 10 stars
• Google users shared a public rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewing audience.

There was no shortage of reviews for this series, and most of them were positive. I agree. Additionally, Kim So-Hyun, Nam Joo-Hyuk, and Yook Sung-Jae won awards for their performances in “Who Are You”.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Who Are You: School 2015 Korean Drama Review | Funcurve

Review: Who Are You – School 2015 | The Fangirl Verdict

[Review]: Who Are You: School 2015 | hangukhobby

“Who Are You – School 2015” hits highest ratings with Kim So Hyun’s double role appearance | koreaboo

#3 – Who Are You: School 2015 (후아유: 학교, 2015) | School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics – Monash University

TRAILER/TEASER:

KBS WORLD TV. “Who Are You EP.1  [SUB : KOR, ENG, CHN, MLY, VIE, IND].” YouTube, Video, 1 Oct. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkXw0NMJ3Jk.

♦