Watching the first episodes of the entertaining new series, "Nine: Nine Time Travels," with its time-twisting plot was a pleasant surprise. It assured me that all the good time travel stories were not used up in 2012.
This might be hard to believe because 2012 was the year for kdrama time travel stories.
Stories that skip back and forth between the present and the past are more than a great way to bridge the gap between historical dramas and modern ones. As characters are whisked back and forth between centuries, there are great costumes and the latest technology. There's horseback riding and dating, a romantic look at past customs and a fresh look at modern ones. And these dramas appeal to anyone who ever thought they were born in the wrong time or place.
Inevitably in these stories, a problem in the past can be solved by something that takes place in the present. And there's always a romance that's star crossed by the fact that time separates the lovers.
Three time travel dramas stood out last year. "Rooftop Prince" connects a murder that took place in modern-day New York City with a murder that happened in the Joseon era. The murders somehow prompt the appearance of four men from the past at the rooftop house of a young woman in Seoul. One of them claims to be a crown prince but his new landlord doesn't buy it. The plot thickens when the prince, played by Park Yoo Chun, falls for another woman he believes is the reincarnation of his lost princess.
In "Queen In Hyun's Man," a scholar, born in 1694, risks his life to support the reinstatement of the unfairly deposed Queen In Hyun. A mysterious talisman takes him to the year 2012 where an actress has been cast as Queen In Hyun in a television drama. They fall in love but he is compelled to return to his own time and defend his queen.
In "Faith: The Great Doctor," a modern-day plastic surgeon gets kidnapped by a royal warrior and taken back to the Goryeo period. She is appointed Royal Physician but despite the honor yearns to return to her own time. Of course, love changes everything and bridges the centuries.
The time travels in "Nine" only take the hero back 20 years but they cause ripples in the present. In this drama, anchorman Park Sun Woo, played by Lee Jin Wook is haunted by a family tragedy. When he acquires nine incense sticks that can send him back in time, he tries to prevent all the things that went wrong, creating unintended consequences in the present.
It's a must-see drama for anyone who likes this fantasy genre.
