While Shin Hye is trending #1 on Nate, here comes Yonghwa, trending at #10 today too :)

The fun begins on Mi-rae’s Choice (aka Future Choice), which held its first script rehearsal with the main cast several days ago. This is the time-traveling show starring Yoon Eun-hye as the heroine whose future self (played by veteran actress Choi Myung-gil, 51) finds a way to travel back to try to get her younger self to choose differently.

In the present day storyline, Yoon Eun-hye plays a bright and confident writer at the broadcast station where our characters work, while her leading man Lee Dong-gun plays a broadcast announcer with a brusque demeanor. Normally I’d figure it’s the heroine who’ll get through his prickly armor to win his heart, except for the fact that Future Mi-rae (heh, Future Future) is here to warn Present Mi-rae not to marry him. While she’s at it, can she tell Mi-rae to get a different perm?

(My big struggle with this premise: Whatever happened to learning from your mistakes, growing as a person, and building character? How are we to believe this isn’t just a selfish misappropriation of the wormhole device? Okay, not like other wormhole narratives are drowning in selfless heroism, but at least in Dr. Jin and Faith the travelers had no say in their jumps, and in Queen In-hyun’s Man there were royal plots to uncover with big life-and-death stakes. In Nine the guy was trying to prevent deaths and exact revenge against big evils, and in Back to the Future our guy had to fix the stuff he himself messed up. So within this context, time-skipping to smooth over your personal regrets seems like the kind of thing Fate would kick you in the for. And fine, maybe Fate stories don’t coexist with Wormhole stories in this world, only this is a K-drama, so of course Fate has to be somewhere, biding her time. Just you wait. She’ll get you.)

Annnyway, back to the show. Jung Yong-hwa is the other male lead and he’ll be a gentle, charismatic sort who also happens to be playing undercover boss. Han Chae-ah completes the love rectangle as a reporter.

Mi-rae’s Choice will follow Good Doctor and premieres October 14.

Han Chae-ah completes love square in Mi-rae’s Choice

This is shaping up to be a pretty good love square. Han Chae-ah (All About My Romance, Oohlala Spouses) will be joining the cast of KBS’s fall time-slip drama Mi-rae’s Choice, starring opposite Yoon Eun-hye as her rival for both men’s affections. That’d be Lee Dong-gun and Jung Yong-hwa, of course, and it looks like lovelines will go all four ways in this drama. Should be fun.

The new project from writer Hong Jin-ah of The King 2 Hearts and the PD of Crime Squad is set in the world of television broadcasting, with Yoon Eun-hye playing a writer, Lee Dong-gun an anchor, and Jung Yong-hwa a VJ (but really the grandson of the network CEO, playing undercover boss). Han Chae-ah will play a reporter on a morning show, described as cute and lovable, but also smart and cunning. She’s popular with the boys, and will have a love connection with both Lee Dong-gun and Jung Yong-hwa.

Also joining the cast is Choi Myung-gil (I Summon You, Gold, Miss Ripley), as Future Yoon Eun-hye. She’ll actually be the one to travel back in time to her former 32-year old self, to try and change the outcome of her life. OH. This was a surprise to me, mostly because I was totally assuming that we’d just have two Yoon Eun-hyes running around, only separated by a few years a la Operation Proposal. Instead, the heroine will suddenly start being followed around by a strange ajumma who starts nagging her about her life choices, and it’s really her future 37-years-later self. I… don’t know how I feel about this. It suddenly feels less dramatic with an ajumma chasing her down and being mom-like to her past self.

The kicker: she’s traveled back in time in order to stop herself from marrying Lee Dong-gun’s character. What? WHY? Clearly she’s crazy. I guess it’s a twist on your average romance from the get-go — a heroine who’s traveled back in time to STOP herself from being with the hero is certainly not your average bear. But what if he’s amazing and we want her to marry him anyway? Also, who do you get mad at if the main obstacle to romance is your future self? I mean, with all the roadblocks to dramaland romance as it is, now we have to worry about self-ing too?

Mi-rae’s Choice follows Good Doctor and premieres in October on KBS.

credits: dramabeans