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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Kim Min-ha, Gong Myung
Rising star Kim Min-ha is premiering her first two post-Pachinko roles at this year’s Busan International Film Festival: the big-screen thriller The Girl with Closed Eyes and the utterly delightful fantasy romantic comedy-drama series Way Back Love, in which she co-stars with Extreme Job actor Gong Myung.
This six-episode drama from Korean streaming service TVing, which premiered half of its episodes at Busan before an expected airing in 2025, is based on the novel A Week Before I Die, which serves as the Korean title of the show.
Kim plays a withdrawn and depressed university student, who one day answers a knock at her door and is shocked by who she sees. A handsome young man in a sweeping leather jacket, delighted to see her, exclaims “Ram-woo! Don’t you recognise me?”.


The trouble is that her name is Hee-wan and the person at her door, who is actually Ram-woo, died four years ago. Ram-woo is now a grim reaper, and is visiting Hee-wan to tell her that she has a week left to live and to help her get the most out of the little remaining time she has.
As for the name switch, the show rolls the clock back six years to an April Fools’ Day during Hee-wan and Ram-woo’s high-school years.
For that year’s April Fools’, their classroom prank is to pair up and switch name tags to confuse their substitute teacher. That Hee-wan, high on life and a dynamo of energy, is a world away from the glum Hee-wan of the present.
She forces the unwilling Ram-woo to take part in the collective prank and they wind up being paired up. Hee-wan is so committed to the joke that she pretends to be Ram-woo wherever she goes, not just their classroom, which quickly gets the real Ram-woo into all sorts of trouble.

Thuggish teens that Hee-wan threw a milk carton at come looking for him, and their female classmates get very excited when they discover Hee-wan’s library rentals under his name – steamy BL (Boy Love) comics.
But the joke sticks and eventually everyone in school, including their teachers, calls them by each other’s name. Poor Ram-woo is resigned to his fate and accepts that he has become Hee-wan.
The show is split between Ram-woo and Hee-wan’s high-school days, as we follow their budding friendship, and the darker present, where, after years of switching names, the characters seem to have now switched personalities.
Despite being a grim reaper, Ram-woo is now the bubbly one, trying to coax Hee-wan out of her funk and remind her of the things she loved, even with her death looming in the very near future.

Most of the story is devoted to their high-school days, during which Hee-wan quickly falls for Ram-woo but struggles to confess it. We then discover that Ram-woo also has feelings for her, and is equally shy about revealing them.
Soon, other classmates develop crushes for Hee-wan and Ram-woo, further complicating things and making us desperate for them to reveal their feelings to each other before it is too late.
Way Back Love is effortlessly romantic and also side-splittingly funny. Even in a year that has already given us Lovely Runner, these first episodes put the show in the running to be one of the best Korean high-school romcoms of all time.
This is down to the good source material and the unusually strong direction, which combines fluid pacing and a great command of screen humour that keeps the show effortlessly zipping along.

Directing duties are split between filmmakers Choi Ha-na (More Than Family) and Kim Hye-young (It’s Okay!) on Way Back Love, which was created by Roh Deok, known for the big-screen romcom Very Ordinary Couple and the Netflix series Glitch, which previously debuted at the Busan festival.
But what everyone is going to remember about Way Back Love are its spectacular lead actors, who boast terrific comic timing and share explosive screen chemistry.
They are both ridiculously cute, with Kim showing real range after her profound dramatic role in Pachinko, while Gong knocks it out of the park again after his equally irresistible performance as Bum-woo in cult sensation Killing Romance.
You will be grinning from ear to ear and wanting to pinch Kim and Gong’s cheeks all the way through this vibrant K-drama gem. We cannot wait to finish the show whenever its remaining episodes hit the air.


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Kim Min-ha (left) and Gong Myung as Hee-wan and Ram-woo in a still from Way Back Love.

Gong Myung as Ram-woo in a still from Way Back Love.

Gong Myung (left) and Kim Min-ha as Ram-woo and Hee-wan in a still from Way Back Love.

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Kim Young-dae (left) and Shin Min-a in a still from No Gain No Love.

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With stand-out performances and strong direction, Way Back Love is in the running to be one of the best Korean high-school romcoms ever


With stand-out performances and strong direction, Way Back Love is in the running to be one of the best Korean high-school romcoms ever.
