Blue Birthday ended on September 11 with a happy ending. The show starred Red Velvet’s Yeri as Oh Harin and Pentagon’s Ji Seojun was a fantasy romance thriller series. While it wasn’t one of the biggest shows that was airing in 2021, it was surprisingly really fantastic. These were three things that we loved about the show.
[WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD]
The photo time travel
The show’s premise was about Oh Harin who travels to the past to save her first love, Ji Seojun. He died when they were eighteen. This element was really different from other fantasy romance thrillers. Harin travels to the past by burning photos that Seojun had taken 10 years ago. What was cooler about the whole thing is that Harin doesn’t even realise at first what has happened. She burns the photo and then suddenly wakes up in the past just a few days before Seojun’s death. What makes the time travel element more urgent is that there are only limited photos. This means that Harin has limited opportunities to travel to the past and find out exactly what happened with Seojun.
The twists
The show is filled with twists and turns at every episode. Initially we are led to believe that Seojun died of suicide. However, Harin doesn’t believe that’s possible, which leads to her investigation. Then once we know Seojun didn’t die of suicide, the number of suspects connected to his death piles. It switches from the many characters and everyone seems like a suspect. There are also various motives around his death which confuses the viewer even more. The greatest twist of course is whether Harin will save Seojun and what this will mean. There is also the fact that the rules around time travel are constantly changing as Harin changes things in the past. Oh and that fact that Seojun also knows about time travel and has been time travelling as well.
The past and future
When Harin initially gets the photographs she is warned that changing the past will lead to consequences in the future. The way that manifests is jarring and shocking. Every little thing that Harin and Seojun changes in the past has major rippling effects in the future. The changes to time travel also have significant effects. There is also the fact that what happens in the future can change things in the past. The mess to the timelines causes a lot of confusion and has us guessing until the end whether Harin and Seojun will be able to right the wrongs and have their happy endings.
Overall, it was a quick and interesting watch that showed Yeri and Hongseok’s acting abilities and made us very excited to see them in other roles.
Have you watched “Blue Birthday?” How did you like it? Let me know in the comments below!
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