Review: Go Back Couple (2017)

If you were given a chance to travel back in time and relive your past, would you do anything differently?

Image via KBS News.

Go Back Couple (alternate title Go Back Spouses, Confession Couple) is a 2017 South Korean television series that centers around Choi Ban Do and Ma Jin Joo, their struggles as a married couple and the second shot they take at life as they unexpectedly travel back in time. It is a drama that sounded very cliche on paper but delivers differently as you watch. It's quirky and hilarious, yet at the same time, touching and beautifully written. 

❀ RAVES ❀ »•»

1) Introspective and Full of Heart. Go Back Couple is an emotional roller coaster that's got a lot of thought and heart put in it. It's something that will grab you and carve its way onto you without you even knowing. It gave me the same feels that I had when I've first seen Reply 1997, and instantly shot up among my most favorite dramas to date because of its warmth. It's got a plot that dealt deeply with its characters' own feelings and emotions, so much so that it will suck you right into the story and the characters' own plights. Sure it might have sounded simple and cliche, yet in true drama fashion Go Back Couple was definitely all that and more.

2) Jin Joo and Her Mom. Kim Mi Kyung was a stealer as Jin Joo's mom in this show. I love how she served as a pillar of strength to Jin Joo—she was wise and loving and proved to us that a mother's love is not only the purest, but is also the most selfless love of all.

I love how Jin Joo got to say goodbye to her mom poignantly in Episode 12. Even though Jin Joo's mom couldn't really grasp the whole picture as to why her daughter had to leave or why she had been acting weird and clingy all along, I love how she suspended her disbelief and tried to understand where her daughter was coming from. Even when she found out that she wasn't bound to live long enough to witness Jin Joo's journey to motherhood, never once did she falter. Instead, she remained steadfast and strong for Jin Joo to lean on.

Special shoutout to this:

Jin Joo's reunion with her mom in Episode 1 was super heartrending! How she cried buckets when she realized that she had just traveled back to the past and thus gets a second chance to be with her mom who has long been dead tugged at my heart like crazy. The nostalgia and melancholy of a daughter to a mother was perfectly portrayed by Jang Nara and Kim Mi Kyung in this scene. It left a strong message about cherishing our parents while they are still around because whether we like it or not, our parents—be it our moms or dads, will not always be around us forever. As we grow up, they grow old, too. It is a lesson we already know but often fail to appreciate, which is why I absolutely love how Jin Joo's encounter with her mother served as a reminder of how important it is to show love and appreciation to our parents while they are still there.

3) Life Lessons. One of the greatest strengths of Go Back Couple for me is how it poses various life lessons poignantly well all throughout the show. Through Ban Do and Jin Joo's journey, we are able to rediscover the importance of family and the choices that we make in life. The experiences that our leads went through served as a reminder for us to not take the people we love for granted, as well as to deem time and honesty as something of significant value. But I think the lesson that resonated to me the most from this show is that even if we do get a shot at second chances, it wouldn't mean anything if we still have not learned from our past mistakes. Second chances aren't given, they're earned; and only those who work hard for it are the ones deserving of a second chance.

Choi Ban Do: "At one point in life, we begin to take some things for granted because we get comfortable and used to them. We live on considering the kindness of our love and the happiness that we have are something we deserve and then take them for granted. But we only realize this after we lose everything—even someone's existence itself is not supposed to be taken for granted."

Let me just add another one:

Choi Ban Do: "It's not easy to find something enjoyable in your life. What you want to do does not always align with what you need to do. If that doesn't happen, you need to make it happen. If you focus too much on the things you need to do, nothing will be left when you can't do what you need to do anymore. If you did something fun, at least you got that experience. Nothing lasts forever, so you should do what you want in that moment."

4) Son Ho Jun and OTP Chemistry. I didn't know who Son Ho Jun was prior to this show, so it was a big surprise to find him oozing with chemistry opposite Jang Nara. These two were perfectly cast as Choi Ban Do and Ma Jin Joo as not only were they able to portray the angst and maturity of their 38-year old selves compellingly well, they were also able to radiate the liveliness and youth of their younger counterparts quite believably well, too. Yet what I loved the most about this OTP was Ban Do and Jin Joo's growth. Through their trip back to the past, they were able to reassess where they stand in each other's life. By traveling back in time, Ban Do and Jin Joo began to see each other in a new light. They began to realize the important thing they have been missing along—the thing that made them fall in love with each other in the first place. Rediscovering this made them learn to appreciate each other more, and at the same time, cherish their new lives together as a married couple.

My favorite OTP moments were the tiny gestures that Ban Do does for Jin Joo, such as when he had rushed to the pharmacy to buy pads and meds for his wife when she was having period cramps in Episode 10. Even if Jin Joo has not asked for help yet, Ban Do was quick to notice the discomfort that she was experiencing that by the time she had finally asked for help, Ban Do was already there to her rescue. I absolutely loved the flashback that was added in this scene, and I melted along with Jin Joo as she recalled how Ban Do had always been patient and caring towards her whenever she had cramps during their married life.

5) Non-Linear Narration. Since Ban Do and Jin Joo traveled back in time, their 2017 life are now technically their past, as portrayed in "flashbacks" during their 1999 lives. But even if this is the case, we are not deprived of what really happened in the past—the one that actually took place in 1999—through epilogues that are cleverly interwoven into the show. Go Back Couple is a show that's good at this—it isn't distinguished by a specific timeline; yet the non-linear narration works. The said narration effectively helped in making the viewers understand each characters more, and I love how it has drawn me into the story much deeper than I had expected.

Image via Bugs Music.

6) OST. Go Back Couple is one of those rare shows that has both a beautiful and an emotionally driven OST. I think the last OST where I have felt sad and bawled my eyes out for still clearly remembering the emotions I have felt from some scenes in the drama (even if it has already ended) was Im Sun Hae's Will Be Back. For this show, Sohyang's Wind Song as well as Lee Seok Hoon's You and I tugged at my heart the most. 

Screw the show for using You and I in Ban Do's car of doom scene in Episode 11 because even if that very scene was nobly idiotic, I still cry like crazy whenever the song makes me remember Jin Joo's wails over a sorta lifeless Ban Do.

❀ RANTS ❀ »•»

1) The Ending and Time Travel. No gripes about the ending, it was satisfactorily done and the happy ending that Jin Joo and Ban Do had was really well earned and well deserved. My only concern is the use of the deities as a deus ex machina solution for the time travel aspect of the show. I'm well aware that Go Back Couple isn't a time travel drama per se. Rather than a central theme, time travel only serves as a plot device to get the story moving. However, I find it sort of anti-climactic to incorporate two deities as the reason behind the magic of Ban Do and Jin Joo's rings at the last stretch of the show. Even though I appreciate how the rings cleverly served as an agent for time travel and that weaving the deities into the story connects the time travel dots pretty well, my mind couldn't help but balk at how cheesy it was to have these deities thrown into the big picture like that. It's not really that big of a deal especially since Go Back Couple isn't really a time travel drama to begin with, however, I just couldn't help but feel sort of meh for the lack of a better approach regarding the said magic. Was I expecting too much because of all the time travel dramas that I have seen prior to this?

2) Missing People. I can't believe I'm seeing a drama again where a fun character goes missing in the end once more (here's to looking at you, Squad 38). So yeah, can anybody tell me where Dok Jae went? I want to know how he is and what he's doing in this redone future... More importantly, did he get to cut his hair? 🤪

❀ RULING ❀ »•»

Go Back Couple may not be a romcom that solely focuses on the grandeur of young, sweet love, but nevertheless, it delivers. It accounts for an absolutely beautiful tale of familial love and second chances, one that will play with your emotions, provoke your thoughts, and definitely stay with you for a long, long time.

TAGS: Confession Couple, Go Back Couple, Go Back Spouses, Jang Nara, K-Drama, K-Drama Reviews, Son Ho Jun   Edit