Hangul Name: 고백부부 Which literally breaks down into: 고백 (gobaek) = Confession 부부 (bubu) = Married Couple

Original Air Date: October – November 2017

Plot: 18 years into a marriage, a couple is struggling and is no longer living their happily ever after. Through magical rings, they find themselves transported back to their college years and have a chance to redo their choices in life.

Watched Because: This has been on my watch list for a while because my friend recommended it. I told her about my disappointment in My Roommate is a Gumiho. She said Jang Ki Yong who is the lead of Gumiho is the second lead in Go Back Couple and he was very swoony. So I thought I would give him another chance. In other gossip, he also is about to star with the amazing Song Hye Kyo in a new drama called We are Breaking Up and will enlist in the military on August 23, 2021.

My Review:

Go Back Couple is a somewhat melancholy and reflective drama which explores what happens years into a marriage when a couple stops communicating and supporting each other. It starts off with our male lead, Choi Ban-do (played by Son Ho Jun) over worked in his job and being trampled on by his boss. Meanwhile, our female lead, Ma Jin-joo (played by Jang Na Ra) is an overwhelmed and unappreciated housewife with a young son. The two are often fighting and not sharing their struggles with each other. The fighting culminates with them deciding that a divorce is the only way for the both of them to stop being so miserable.

Through a somewhat vague time travel incident, they both wake up 18 years in the past when they attend the same university but had yet to start dating. Having the chance to relive their life, they both decide to make the choice to not date each other and instead pursue other love interests.

I was a little confused by the time travel for a majority of the show. I wasn't sure if they were really dreaming or if they were really changing the past and thus changing the future. Or was it just a what if scenario and the future stayed in tack? And who was watching their son if they were time traveling to the past for so long? It's probably best to watch this show without thinking too hard about those questions and just ride with it.

This drama asks the question, "If you could go back in time, would you change the past? Would you make different decisions?" It was a really intriguing premise as our lead couple tried to change their past. But it also meant that their future would be different, the most glaring is that their son would never be born.

The drama is a short one at only 12 episodes. I had a hard time cheering for our lead couple to reconcile because they spent 9 episodes with them either fighting, tearing each other down or with the second leads. Jang Ki Yong will definitely give you second lead syndrome and Go Bo-gyeol was also really sweat as the second female lead ballet dancer. However, that love pairing was a little easier to move on from because they didn't have that same chemistry or tension between them. It really seemed like a crush and nothing deeper.

The most heartfelt scenes were when Jin Joo was with her mother who was deceased in present day. I think anyone that lost someone would love getting that second chance to hear their voice, eat a meal with them again and lean on them for support. They had some beautiful mother daughter moments with each other.

Mom played by kdrama veteran Kim Mi Kyung. She must get a life time achievement award at some point right?

I thought this drama handled well the themes of parent-child relationships, accepting your decisions in life whether it was good or bad, learning to love and learning to love again. I think if I was married and had kids I probably would have connected with this drama on a deeper level. But because I'm not, I don't think this drama hit me at the heart like a lot of other bloggers felt. I did enjoy it and I think the right targeted audience will abosloutely love it.

Final Opinion: Add it to your list – If you are over the age of 30. I'm not sure someone younger would fully appreciate the themes in this drama.

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