[PREVIEW] SBS TV series “49 Days”

Main casts of SBS series "49 Days" - starting from left: Jo Hyun-jae, Lee Yo-won, Seo Ji-hye, Nam Kyu-lee, Bae Soo-bin and Jung Il-woo [SBS]

The intermediary period that lies between a person’s death to the moment he or she is born into the next life is called “Jung Yoo” (中有) in the Buddhist world. The period is known to last 49 days and the remaining family is obliged to hold a ritual on the 49th day of the death to bid that person be freed from his or her past sins and be born into a better world. It seems that this is the motif to new SBS series “49 Days,” about a story of a girl who falls into a coma and can be brought back to life only after winning the tears of three people aside from her family who will cry for her in earnest.

However, not much was revealed for the upcoming drama at the press conference held at SBS' building on Tuesday, apart from the basic synopsis. Shin Ji-hyun (Nam Kyu-ri), a girl from a rich family slightly spoilt but always cheerful, dies unexpectedly from a car accident which was not even pre-ordained by the god of death, himself. So the Scheduler (Jung Il-woo) decides to test whether Ji-hyun deserves another chance. To pass the test Ji-hyun’s soul ends up possessing the body of Song Yi-kyung (Lee Yo-won), a girl working in a local convenient store who is a complete stranger to her. And it is through Song Yi-kyung’s body that she has to win tears of sincere grief from three people who are unrelated to her in blood. First there is Ji-hyun’s friend Han-gang (Jo Hyun-jae) who has been in love with her for quite some time, Ji-hyun’s fiancee Kang Min-ho (Bae Soo-bin) and Ji-hyun’s long-time friend Shin In-jung (Seo Ji-hye). We do not know who will cry for Ji-hyun nor why her soul went to Yi-kyung’s body in the first place.

Characters inter-linked with twist in plots and spoilers

Still cuts from SBS series "49 Days" [SBS]

But a single action which is intended at hiding something can be a clue. Actress Seo Ji-hye who plays Shin In-jung said that she is the one who holds the key to the story but when asked how that works amid relationships in the drama as whole, she answered that she could not say more for it could serve as the spoiler to the twist of the plot. In the video clip for the preview clip, when Shin Ji-hyun asks the Scheduler why she has to become possessed with Song Yi-kyung’s body, he only answers “Here, there is meaning to everything and are all inter-linked.” Such makes Shin Ji-hyun’s car accident, made up of several chain-reaction crashes, even more interesting. It is quite common to think that you have led your life freely without hurting anyone. However just like Nam later said in an interview, “While shooting the drama I learnt that sometimes even a casual greeting like ‘Did you have your meal?’ could hurt someone’s feelings,” this drama tells of how much words and actions can bring about unexpected results within numerous casual relationships. How Song Yi-kyung, who leads a totally dejected life after losing her lover in a car accident, is linked with the rest of the characters in the story, the process of finding that out as well as what kind of life Ji-hyun has led, is all likely to be inter-linked with each other to form some kind of path.

In the end, 49 days is the time you take to cleanse yourself of your sins as well as reconfirm what they were. How will scenarist Soh Hyun-kyung, who wrote a story about how the evil deeds of the past can return to you through relationship between lawyer Seo and Ma Hye-ri’s father in the other SBS drama “Prosecutor Princess,” handle the relationship in this drama linked with both good and bad karma? And how will the story affect and result in the eyes of TV viewers? The first domino is set to go off in the evening of March 16.

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Reporter : Wee Geun-woo eight@
Editor : Lee Ji-Hye seven@
Editor : Heidi Kim heidikim@