[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Please Come Back, Mister" Episode 3

By William Schwartz on 2016/03/02 at 15:58 PST

As it turns out, the background for "Please Come Back, Mister" still isn't completely fleshed out, although by the end of the episode Yeong-soo and Gi-tak have managed to progress to the level of zany schemes against conspiratorial villains. It helps that they become aware of each other's existence here, finally realizing that they're in this game together in a scene that proves to be a bit of an out-of-body experience. Yes, that was a dumb joke. So are most of the ones in "Please Come Back, Mister".

While I can be a fan of dumb jokes in the right context, "Please Come Back, Mister" is rubbing me the wrong way by just being kind of loud. Yeong-soo manages to annoy just about everyone by having a huge crying fit for the stupidest possible reason, while Gi-tak is more loud in body language. I can't get past how ridiculous he looks spreading her legs out so wide. Is it really that hard for him to find some clothes that aren't a short skirt?

Although that's all really more of a personal taste issue. My sense of character sympathy is really badly skewed for this drama. It might be because Yeong-soo and Gi-tak's goals aren't that clearly defined. When Yeong-soo does voiceover about how terrorizing his family with morbid false revelations about himself, he rationalizes it as being for the greater good, but what greater good? Yeong-soo's ethical reputation is about all his family has left to be proud of anymore.

The way "Please Come Back, Mister" keeps alternating between serious drama and loud jokes is also a bit of a problem. It's weird how Yeong-soo and Gi-tak will spend a lot of time talking badly about themselves, provoking moments of choked emotions, and then the whole premise gets undercut by another joke. I feel legitimately bad for Yeong-soo's doppleganger. He just wants to be the guy who makes dad proud, but that's not what fate has in store for him.

Am I overthinking this? Probably. Logically it's obvious to see that the appeal in "Please Come Back, Mister" is mostly rooted in the way Rain struts around acting like a complete buffoon. "Please Come Back, Mister" is an excessively goofy low-brow comedy where body switching is the main selling point while the plot lingers in the background. As genre material it's probably doing exactly what it's supposed to do, so I can't really hate it that much. Even so, I really just want to get to a more concretely defined conflict sooner rather than later.

Review by William Schwartz

"Please Come Back, Mister" is directed by Sin Yoon-seob, written by Noh Hye-yeong and features Rain Kim Soo-ro, Kim In-kwon, Oh Yeon-seo, Lee Min-jung, Lee Hanee, Choi Won-young, Yoon Park and more

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Episode 3

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