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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
4/5 stars
Lead cast: Kim Min-ha, Gong Myung
“Saving yourself is saving me.”
These are the words spoken by Kim Ram-woo, a Grim Reaper played by Gong Myung (Extreme Job), near the end of the magnetic Way Back Love, a vivid and emotional mix of mirthful high school romance and tragic fantasy drama.
He is talking to Jung Hee-wan, played by Pachinko sensation Kim Min-ha, who he appeared in front of one week earlier to inform her that she had a week left to live.


These characters share a deep connection throughout the show, which, initially, was vividly and cleverly expressed through an April Fools’ Day prank in which they switched their names. The gag has stuck and they have become one and the same, in life as in death.
This motif is initially presented as an endearing meet-cute but the consequences of their constant name-switching have deeper ramifications later on.
During a fateful trip with their friends Lee Hong-suk (Jung Gun-joo, Check-in Hanyang) and Yoon Tae-kyung (Oh Woo-ri, Friendly Rivalry), Hee-wan wins a raffle for a ticket to see shooting stars in an observatory.
Though she uses her name, it is actually a gift for Ram-woo. He gladly accepts and comfortably poses as her to enter.

He sees the shooting stars and reads the letter Hee-wan has given him, in which she finally professes her love for him. But tragedy strikes, and the observatory goes up in flames.
Later that night, Hee-wan’s father Jung Il-bum (Ko Chang-seok, Melo Movie) and Ram-woo’s mother Kim Jung-sook (Seo Young-hee, Twinkling Watermelon) arrive at the hospital. Though Ram-woo has died, it was Hee-wan’s name that was on the list.
It is only when she sees the bereft Hee-wan in the waiting room that Jung-sook realises what has happened to her son. What started as an innocent childhood prank has tragically bound Ram-woo and Hee-wan in death.
Ram-woo is not supposed to interfere with events that happen on earth. In doing so, he risks disappearing completely – but his affection for Hee-wan is so deep, he would rather vanish than have her join him in the afterlife after succumbing to her grief and guilt.

He came to tell her she was going to die, but his real purpose was to prevent that death. Only in doing so is he able to save himself, as he tells her just after the timer expires and he has escorted her off the ledge of a roof.
The bubbly high school romance that marked the first half of Way Back Love, which debuted at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2024, paves the way for an emotionally charged back half in this six-part series.
While the whole story switches between the school and fantasy timelines, the balance shifts largely towards the latter in the final three episodes.
Hee-wan is a dynamo of energy and goofiness as a teenager, but following Ram-woo’s untimely death she entered university as a shadow of her former self, taciturn and withdrawn. The brighter version of Hee-wan is largely absent in the latter part of the show.

Ram-woo was the reserved one back in school, but as a Grim Reaper he is unusually peppy and positive, traits that seem as though they have switched between them at the moment of his death.
With a smile on his face and content with the knowledge that Hee-wan is going to be OK, Ram-woo disappears.
Part of the earlier Hee-wan returns to her, and she is finally able to move on and reintegrate with society and her loved ones. Yet some of the reticence and fearfulness she inherited from Ram-woo remains.
Hee-wan and Ram-woo are forever entwined. In continuing to live on, Hee-wan keeps Ram-woo’s memory alive, while Ram-woo, in death, took some of Hee-wan’s fearlessness with him to face the great unknown.

While Way Back Love’s opening made it clear that tragedy was just around the corner, the spellbinding humour of those early episodes lulled us into a sense of comfort, allowing us to forget about what was in store.
When tragedy finally struck, the series did not shy away from sentimentality, but the lessons it offered on living with our pain and facing death were grounded in sincerity.
Way Back Love is streaming on Viu.


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This Korean drama mixes tragedy and humour in a tale of a Grim Reaper figure (Gong Myung) saving a guilt-ridden girl (Kim Min-ha)


This Korean drama mixes tragedy and humour in a tale of a Grim Reaper figure (Gong Myung) saving a guilt-ridden girl (Kim Min-ha).


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}This Korean drama mixes tragedy and humour in a tale of a Grim Reaper figure (Gong Myung) saving a guilt-ridden girl (Kim Min-ha)

This Korean drama mixes tragedy and humour in a tale of a Grim Reaper figure (Gong Myung) saving a guilt-ridden girl (Kim Min-ha)