Hello, Me! – Ep. 1-2 Review

I always feel a little bit embarrassed for adult actors when they’re just totally outshined and outperformed by kids.

Hello, Me! is just getting started but I’m already dreaming about the future of Lee Re’s career. I wasn’t terribly excited when this drama was announced because I’m not a huge fan of either Choi Kang-hee or Kim Young-kwang, but the minute I found out Lee Re was going to be in it I was sold.

This review will be on the shorter side compared to what I did for River Where the Moon Rises and L.U.C.A.: The Beginning. While I did enjoy it, I simply don’t have as much to say as I did for the other two shows.

I love her freckles, no matter what anyone else says

37-year-old Bahn Ha-ni (Choi Kang-hee) is one of those classic k-drama characters: the down-on-her-luck Candy who’s just scraping by, forced to lower herself in order to keep a job that pays her pennies. The first thing the show does is kick her when she’s already down, just so we can all see how truly pathetic she is. I found this quite distasteful and trite when I first started watching, but once we’re introduced to 17-year-old Bahn Ha-ni (Lee Re), I become much more willing to see where the show will take us. Us so clearly seeing what Ha-ni used to be like in her youth piques my interest in how Ha-ni ended up being such a sad adult.

It makes sense that the shining star of such a premise would be young Ha-ni, who is played by such a sparkling young actress that it’s impossible not to like her. It’s easier to command the screen with such a bubbly character, and Lee Re is so fresh and bright that she lights up the screen whenever she’s on. I don’t envy Choi Kang-hee’s job, trying to make it so that her more grounded adult character doesn’t just kind of fade in the background when paired with her younger self. I don’t think she’s doing a bad job in the role, it’s just that at this point in the story it’s all too easy to write her off as bland and uninteresting. Judging by the direction I think this show is going in, I think this will change, but so far I find her very… meh.

Lee Re has been on my radar ever since seeing her play the firecracker of a sister in Memories of the Alhambra, where she similarly stole the show from Park Shin-hye and even Hyun Bin whenever she graced the screen. She stuck out less to me while playing Kang Han-na’s young counterpart in Start-Up, but I blame that more on writing than anything else. She didn’t really have much to do. Here, though, she’s back in full form, and I adore it. She and her adult counterpart both strike me as a bit dumb, but I find such behavior much easier to excuse in a 17-year-old than a 37-year-old, because OH MY GOD WHY WOULD YOU LITERALLY THROW OIL ON A FIRE YOU PYROMANIAC?! DID YOU WANT TO PAY FOR ADMISSION TO A BURN UNIT WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE NO MONEY????

Deep breaths… deep breaths… it’s fine… it’s just a drama…

The first episode of the show tried very hard to be funny, but none of the humor landed for me until the second episode when the fish-out-of-water hijinks ensued. I think part of this, besides the lack of Lee Re, is because the character driving most of the comedy was Han Yu-hyeon (Kim Young-kwang). I have to admit, Kim Young-kwang has never done much for me. I don’t think he’s necessarily a bad actor, but something about him just always rubs me the wrong way and I find he overacts too much for my tastes. To put it bluntly, he annoys the crap out of me. This is only heightened in this show, where his role is one of my least favorite archetypes: the clueless, spoiled rich boy.

I’ve had my reservations about these types of characters in the past. Louis in Shopaholic Louis is a perfect example, as is Ra-ra from Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol. Sadly, Kim Young-kwang as Yu-hyeon just as none of the easy warmth and charisma of Seo In-guk or Go Ara in their respective roles… at least, not yet. He, like our heroine, has plenty of room for growth, so I’m willing to see where his story takes us. For the moment, though, his character just turns me off. There’s only so much of “I’ll pay you back later” I can take. Nevertheless, I had similar thoughts at the beginning of Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol with Ra-ra essentially using Jun as her piggybank and ended up really enjoying her character and performance, so I’m willing to be proven wrong!

I feel like my words so far have been a little harsh, but I actually did enjoy the second episode of this premiere. I think it has a lot of potential to be poignant and heartwarming. I think everyone can relate to feeling like a failure and not living up to your own expectations for life. Imagine being confronted with your younger self, all your flaws and failures in life on full display for them to see. It makes the down-on-her-luck poor Candy story much stronger, because it’s not just about her and some guy, but a story about coming to terms with your past and learning to love yourself–literally.

I do find it a bit questionable that someone so full of herself would be so popular, as that kind of near-narcissism is often a turn-off for people, but I hope little Ha-ni’s confidence will remind big Ha-ni of who she used to be, and maybe still is. I look forward to seeing what Choi Kang-hee ends up bringing to the table, and I’m relieved that this premise likely means that the show will avoid doing what so many rom-coms do in making the second half of the show all about the male lead. Despite the inclusion of a love interest, this seems poised to be a very heroine-centric drama, and I’m psyched to tune in again next week!