Hit or Miss: Rakuten Viki’s ‘Again My Life’
Rakuten Viki revealed the trailer for Again My Life created by Studio S and Viu. It stars Lee Joon-gi, Lee Geung-young, Kim Ji-eun, and Jung Sang-hoon. It is an ongoing South Korean television series that is based on a web novel of the same title published on KakaoPage, which was also released as a webtoon. It premiered on SBS TV on April 8, 2022 and airs every Friday and Saturday at 10:00 PM. In addition to airing on SBS TV, it also premiered on Viki Global TV on April 8, 2022.
Rakuten Viki is an American video streaming service that allows users to subtitle content available in 200 languages as well as providing original programming. With its headquarters in San Mateo, California, it has offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea. In 2013, it was purchased by Rakuten and saw an increase of about 22 million monthly active users to 35 million. The company has partnered with BBC Worldwide to source original content. However, it also has signed distribution deals for original content with Hulu, Netflix, Yahoo!, MSN, NBC, and A&E, as well as TVB in Hong Kong, SBS in South Korea, Fuji TV in Japan, and Amedia in Russia.
The series follows Kim Hee Woo, portrayed by Joon-gi, who came from a rough start due to low grades in high school. However, he works his way up through university and passes the bar exam exhibiting his relentless work ethic. With this, he’s finally able to pay his dividends and become a public prosecutor. During his investigations, he must conduct a probe into a politician suspected of corruption, but it ends abruptly when a mysterious man kills him. While that seems like the end, it is later found out that he is alive due to the mortal realm. However, he finds that he must restart his academic journey from university while also trying to discover the truth about what happened to him. This leads him to meet Kim Hee Ah, portrayed by Ji-eun, who is an exceptionally intelligent young woman who happens to be the youngest daughter of a wealthy Cheonha business group. Their search leads them to discover that a shady group of rich power brokers may have played a part in his “death”.
The trailer starts off straight in the action as Woo is seen flipping on the ground and stating that the fate of others must change for him to have a life again. A wide shot of Woo showcases him standing in what seems like an empty school hallway as all the lights turn on beside him before an extreme close-up of his eyes. Not only do they establish the school environment, however, through these two shots, it shows the determination that Woo has. This series seems as though it’s filled with action and the relentless push to discover who killed him.
The tone seems to change as Woo meets Ah. The focal distance becomes deeper bringing everything to a more intimate setting. What’s interesting is that in almost every shot, there is a bright light source behind Ah’s head indicating the power that she holds; due to the family that she is a part of. The chemistry between these two actors’ flows showcasing the wonderful performances that are in this series.
Ji-eun and Sang-hoon’s characters are introduced as a slow-motion shot captures them all standing in a line. Woo seems to have cultivated his group that will help him discover some of the answers to who killed him and why. More action is shown on the screen as the tone once again shifts to a cooler atmosphere. As opposed to the vibrant, saturated colours shown before, this is instead centred with no room for mistakes. The camera whips and pans resembling John Wick as Woo takes down multiple opponents.
In terms of production, Lee Kyu-han decided to leave the series due to personal reasons on November 5, 20201, with Sang-hoon taking over the role. During production, one of the supporting actors tested positive for COVID-19 on December 25, halting production, however, it resumed the next day after no additional confirmed cases. Directed by Han Chul Soo and Kim Yong Min, this series recorded a 5.8% nationwide average audience share for the first episode and a 6.4% for the second. With 16 episodes for the first season, time will tell if this upward trend continues.
