Kairos (2020)

Don't sleep on this!

For time travel fans, Kairos is just what is needed to cleanse the palette after Alice's disappointing run last season. It's a mystery thriller with heartwarming relationships and a story that's not as it seems at first glance. The story takes place in 2 timelines, 31 days apart from one another. In the future, we follow Kim Seo Jin, a well-off director of Taejung Construction whose daughter is kidnapped and who feels like the world is falling to pieces around him. In the past, Han Ae Ri is a woman working part-time jobs to save up money for her mother's surgery. But when her mother goes missing from the hospital, she doesn't know where to turn.

For just 1 minute every night at 10:33pm, they are able to interact with one another across time. They use this advantage to try to stop the tragedy that's struck their lives and to solve the dilemmas that they both face. But this drama wouldn't be a contender for one of the best of the year if that was the only storyline. As we go further into the story, we realize that everything is intertwined.

Kairos is masterfully told. Everything fits together perfectly, everything has a reason and a purpose. The writers did an amazing job tying everything together and created a solid plot. You don't get that kind of writing much. It's not often I walk out of a drama feeling as satisfied as I do now. I loved the characters, I loved the story and the themes, and Shin Sung Rok's brilliant performance reaffirmed his acting skills yet again. I can't recommend it enough.

Nothing is perfect, though, and I do have a few gripes. Without spoilers, I can't go into detail. But like every other time-related story I've ever watched, there are logical inconsistencies with the time travel. While the plot is solid and well-woven, there are holes in the sci-fi aspect of the show. I know most people don't expect time travel dramas to make much sense, but for anyone who does, there is one aspect of the time travel in this that might get under your skin. Spoilers, can't say what, but you'll know when you see it. The second problem I had with the story was the wife. Her backstory, in particular, and some of the plot surrounding her. It didn't make much sense and felt entirely out of place whenever it was brought up, almost silly. Her side story did not fit into the plot at all. It felt like I was watching a skit off to the side while waiting for the main actors to come back to the scene, and sometimes it was enough to take me out of the story. But these things aside, Kairos is wonderful. The cast is amazing. The music, while nothing memorable, fits into the story perfectly. It's a tense, suspenseful tale of family and corruption and everything in between, and I loved every moment of it.

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Rewatched more than 3 times

Kairos is a drama that I love to rewatch in my holiday season. It's really a thriller drama that deserved a baeksang. I started to watch because the teaser is so good and the genre is my style. If you love Signal, you will also love Kairos.

What I like :
- I like the plot. The plot was made me sit of the edge. I loves whenever the lead's decision make a butterfly effect in their fate. Something changed in the past will affect the future.
- The cast is really brilliant. Shin Sung Rok, Lee Seyoung, Ahn Bohyun and Nam gyuri really played their character really well. I know the most shining star is Shin Sung Rok, but the other really showed their own charm. Shin Sung Rok lloked really cool when he played as present and future Seojin. He gave a different emotion and aura in two characters with different times. Seojin was never eaten in the drama and lose his child that made me shows empathy to him.

What I don't like :
- Sometimes the screen is a bit shaky

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Epic time travel drama ,, One month apart a lot happened

This drama is such a treat ,, it's really a thrilling time travel drama ,, the actors did an amazing job ,, the twists were amazing to the final episodes there are twists and turns
of course it has some flaws ,, for example
the mother who kept running from her daughter and being such a pain in her ass was too much
after half of the episodes passed there were a big change the writer neglected the other time for a while and was a bit lazy in writing how they still able to remember what had happened or never happened to them
the writer made for the drama a loop hole so he can get with anything illogical ,, he made the male leads remember the other timelines ,,only them for no reason at all
the only romantic story was between the cheaters ,, that was funny LOL
I actually felt sorry for the male cheater LOL
and at the final episodes ,, things get rushed and confusing a lot My head hurts so I stopped thinking just watched
the ending was nearly perfect ,, we didn't know how the calls just stopped or how the future them are living
over all this drama is soo good and I recommend it to anyone who likes time travelling dramas

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best time thriller drama ever

Honestly, I didn't know I would fall so hard for this drama. I tune in because from the synopsis it seems interesting and storyline did not upset me at all. I don't know why some of y'all said the camera was shaky and there were too many loopholes. I was too focused on how perfect the storyline was that I didn't see any imperfections. The fact that this drama deserve as much hype as TKEM (which was awfully bad) but they only got a small amount of support. Anyway, such an underrated drama that deserve more hype than dramas that have lots of loophole. The character development in this drama was so good and it was my favourite. Lee Se Young and Shin Sung Rok did an amazing job <3

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Time travelling (?) perfection

Time travelling motive has a special place in my heart for quite some time. And I mean movies, tv series or books, I don’t care, if it involves time travel, I want to see it. I think it says enough that aside of Kairos, I’ve just watched Signal and I am watching Tunnel right now. In span of a month.
Of course one may say that in Kairos there’s no time travel per say, nobody’s travelling in time, but let just include communication between different timelines in the same group here, since it’s such an interesting idea. And between three mentioned dramas, I think that so far, Kairos is doing the best job.
There’s this Hitchcock’s quote that everyone loves to put in situations like that. The one that everyone knows and it’s almost a cliche to mention. But unfortunately, it fits perfectly. Because Kairos starts with an earthquake (not literally) and then the stress continuously increases, basically till the very end. From the first episode, even before anything happens, the viewer is put in a state of constant pressure. We know that something is going to happen, and even when it happens we then know that is not over yet.
I’ve watched Kairos simultaneously with Signal, which is very similar when it comes to the main plot idea. And if you haven’t watched Signal and really don’t want any spoilers, please beware. Signal was for me this mythical series, praised so many times, that I had very high expectations towards it. And honestly, I was let down very hard, since between Kairos and Signal, the first one I liked much much more. And I think it was mostly because how emotionally attached we get to the characters of Kairos. In Signal viewer is distanced from the characters, there’s not much of a emotional bond there. But in Kairos, we get pushed into their lives. Plot is told from a very subjective perspective which gives us opportunity to see the characters lives as they see it. And sometimes it’s the reason why we don’t get the full picture.
Like Seo Jin. At first we see him as this caring father figure, before his daughter is kidnapped. Then we see some scenes when he’s nothing like that, he’s scolding his daughter for something she’s done by mistake. We see that at this point he values the company’s and his image more than his daughter well being. But then again, after some time we see how it really was. How he felt remorse that he didn’t tell Da Bin that it was not her fault. And we get this change of perspective couple of times, towards different characters and this makes the series so unpredictable. We really don’t know who to trust and who’s on which side. And at one point I’ve noticed that nothing in this series is as it seems to be. We explore this drama layer after layer showing more hidden lies.
And we’re spiralling in a very repetitive but not boring spiral. Things get more and more complicated especially that it started off as a pretty simple revenge story. Now it seems that everyone is more or less involved in events that are way above the original plot line.
I like how we have several side plots revealed but they’re clear and don’t really collide with main plot, but rather merge together in a very neat story. It’s actually evolution of past events thanks to which the next ones are explained. We soon discover that they have a deeper meaning and they’re all somehow connected.
And the characters. At first I thought that it would be impossible to manage the same characters in different timelines. I was sure that we’ll soon get lost in who’s when and what’s going on. But on contrary, everything was so well written, that sometimes the clock showing the date was not necessary (although sometimes very helpful, but when the action really sped up).
The characters are well written and very easy to like, even when they’re not so nice. Even bad guys have a good story to tell and their motivations are pretty clear.
This is the series that gets you hooked very soon and does’t let you go till the very end. I think that it was one of better dramas that I’ve watched for a long time.

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Well Executed Drama

I didn’t read up about the drama beforehand but I am glad I went in without any expectations.

The concept of the drama really intrigued me - the calls at 10:33PM & the fact that they were both 1 month away from each other (31 days). The significance of this was explained in the later episodes & I think this perfectly wrapped up the question of why this specific time period/minute was occurring.

However, I was quite confused between episodes 12-15
when the past Seojin figured things out & regained his memories. It felt as though the time period got messed up between future Seojin & past Seojin. But, I chose to ignore that aspect in order to continue the drama. This definitely was solved towards the end.

I am glad the characters did get character development which I believe Ep 8 was the trigger to.

I am pleased with the characters’ stories and the plot overall. It all connected at the end. I’m glad they didn’t choose to focus too much on more than what they did as this would have confused the plot.

Hyun-Chae (the wife) - her story concluded in the final episode which was good.

Every villain was punished and you could also say Hyun-chae got the poetic justice she deserved. She was greedy and her greed led to her being by herself at the end.

The cast did a wonderful job portraying their characters and the realistic emotions one goes through.

I do recommend others to give this drama a try!

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Best Thriller of 2020 for me!

I really admire time-travel shows done right and Kairos is definitely one of those!

The plot is solid and refreshing even within the time-travel genre, and a brave attempt is made to explain the reason behind the time travel phenomenon and how and why it was the way it was. It's very tightly written and the pacing throughout the show is very well done and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the 16 episodes.

I like the direction and the frequent shift between past and future scenes were depicted clearly with warm and cool tones and I was never left questioning which time period I was watching. The added date to the bottom of the screen to show the actual timelines was an added bonus that helped determine the passage of time while watching the show.

The acting was on point with the four leads doing very well. I loved Shin Sung Rok and Le Se Young's acting in this and will be looking forward to their next roles.

The music is okay, nothing remarkable but it fits the theme and tone of the drama.

All in all a very satisfying watch and highly recommended, especially for thriller K-drama watchers.

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A POWERFUL DRAMA WITH POWERFUL EVERYTHING

(plz dont read this....its just me writing down my shitty thoughts abt this drama)

I finally finished watching this drama and i am sobbing RN. The ending was perfection.
This drama was a rollarcostar with a perfect starting, perfect ending and amazing plot twists .....and more or less no plot holes
I would really recommend this drama to everyone who likes thriller suspense dramas....and it has the supernatural(time travel) element too....It has amazing acting, amazing plot, amazing everythinggg ..UGH i cant explain it but u should definitely give it a try if you haven't already.
The plot may got boring and predictable in the middle.. but i am glad i didnot drop it. With the snding it had, I am fully Satisfied.

(spoilers ahead)
I loved the chemistry between the main leads ( hae ri and lee seo jin). and ofc how amazing of a father seojin is to da bin. I love their father daughter relationship.

Thepremise of the show was kinda very difficult to potray and everything could have been ruined very easily if it was not done well. But the kind of cool (dark bluish) color grading in the present and the more saturated colour grading in the one month ago timeline really made a Change in everything.....in a good way

I kinda wanted to know abt lee taek kyu's background . But there exists people who just do everything and anything for money in real life... So he may just be one of themm

"others lived a life like yours or lived a worst life, but they still did not do the things you did." seo jin to his wife
yes factsss..This is really what it wanted to tell her through out the drama....she did have a sad past and all but doesnot mean she can do what she did to everyone....how she used everyone and ruined them

I knew from the beginning that the chairman of the Yujung constrction was too NiCe and daal me kuch kala he ...and it was true
And ofc i sensed that LSJ and HHR had some connection ...and it was true too
may be a side effect of watching many crime dramas these days lol

overall I loved this drama..the whole drama kept me in the edge of my seat and the ENDING was everything for me. It was refreshing to see a very HAPPY and realistic and satisfactory ending :)

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This is what a perfect thriller looks like!

I know Signal is very highly rated, despite Kairos and Signal having similarities, I found Signal to be draggy and not as thrilling as I suppose others found it to be. Whereas Kairos, had me hooked on for every single minute from the beginning episode, and I finished the whole series in a little more than 24 hours.

Firstly, the acting is brilliant, the cinematography is also very good. The way they have differentiated the past and the future by having past being a bit yellow tinted, was brilliant, and enabled viewers to never be confused.

The story was brilliantly executed, like every time related story, there are a ton of variables, and these variables from first moment the timeline changing continues to keep changing over and over with many unexpected twists till the last episode.

If you love a thriller, you will enjoy this series a lot, and unlike other series where we don't know the main villain till last episode, this series keeps you hooked by wanting to learn how ultimately the main leads will manage to solve everything and deal with the main villain.

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Very good!!!!

This was really really good! The outstanding acting and outstanding story!

Story: Time related dramas are really hard to pull off, because one really needs to pay attention not to leave any plot holes and make the changes done in the past affect the future in the right and interesting way. Well this drama did a very good job with that! They didn't avoid this problem by using a different time theory of many timelines. They just made every single step change the future and not only that. They also did really well connecting the past and the present later! I also liked that they are only a month apart from each other. It was kind of refreshing in a sense as I was used to dramas with big difference like 10 or more years. They also explained quite satisfyingly how the connection happened. The only problem with the story is the actions of Han Ae Ri's mother. I didn't understand her at all, and why exactly she was doing what she was doing. That was bothering me the whole drama but as it was overall very satisfying I decided to overlook it while giving it a rating. The other part that bothered me was Kim Seo Jin's wife's (played by Nam Gyu Ri) actions. But that can be answered by one's own imagination a little bit, so i decided to overlook it too.
Overall drama was pretty intense and very very interesting, it did got a tiny bit draggy in the middle but it came back on tracks pretty soon and flowed into a satisfying ending. Though if you are seeking romance here, you might not find it, as the characters were mostly focused on saving lives.

Acting: Well acting was astonishing here. All actors did a great job. I'm not a big fan of the female lead who played Han Ae Ri's role but for me this was her best role. Shin Seung Rok did amazing job with playing all versions of Kim Seo Jin. His wife and secretary were also great as well Ae Ri's friends. As I mentioned above i didn't quite understand Ae Ri's mother and Seo Jin's wife but still they played really well.

Music: I don't remember anything impactful for music so it was fine, just enough and not taking the attention away form the drama but helping with the effect of thriller.

Anyway It was great! with couple of small flaws but the good parts were soooo many that those are easily overlooked! One of the best dramas of 2020, sadly didn't get enough ratings but thankfully some actors did get awards! :) I also love dramas with good messages and this one had many nice ones!

P.S. I don't usually rewatch dramas so I put a random number in there

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I was pretty excited to watch this drama cuz I've only heard good things about it since it started airing till now. Someone told me that it's as good as dark in terms of handling the time travel thingy and they were right! To be honest, I don't wanna compare dark to this cuz 2 masterpieces cannot be compared so let's just leave it at that.

But my god I thoroughly enjoyed this drama so much and it was cleverly written! There was not a single moment that bored me and it's honestly hard to find kdramas as long as 16 episodes that doesn't bore me for even a second but here's this one! All the characters were so understandbly ( if that's a word lol ) smart . Usually thriller dramas starts becoming frustrating because of dumb characters but here this was not a case at all.

Usually mystery dramas either have police as main leads or else the police is corrupt or dumb and leads do all the work. Although here the leads do most of the work, the police is neither dumb nor corrupt and they do help them fairly.

The Villians are also interesting and entertaining and I loved how they weren't always labelled as the bad guys and we were explained their situations too. Atleast some of them.

I genuinely started liking the characters and got attached to them so that was a plus point. The story is full of plot twists but they are handled in a way so it doesn't butcher the story and characterization and that's what I love most about the drama.

Even though the plot/theme is nothing new and the drama does have some flaws but I think those flaws are very minor and shouldn't decrease my rating but still they exist so I'm giving it a 9.5 but it's a masterpiece for me for sure and is forever gonna stay in my favourites!

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Father's love

This is a story of a father's love to his child and as well as the love of a child to her/his parent/s, It's basically a thriller story of kidnapping laced with fantasy setting by adding a time-travelling phone which allows two people from different time to talk using a phone that connects them for a minute. The difference in time can be seen through the different color of the scene so that's good since it could be confusing since both timeline of before and after kidnapping are the setting of the story. It's a good story with an appropriate struggle from both the male lead and female lead. It lacks the romance, unless you'll count the affair of his wife with his secretary however, that is fine since the main genre of the story isn't romance but thriller and family. All in all, it was an okay story with handsome male lead however the question in my mind remained unanswered till the end. How were they able to communicate with the phone?

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