kdrama: Next/Rebirth
This is one, I think, that a lot of my flist will like more than I did(and I liked it a good bit) Rebirth is essentially about reincarnation and the idea that you're meant to love the same people in every life, even if it's not always in the same way. In the modern day, Ki-Bum is a surgeon and Soo-hyun is his fiance, a psychiatrist he's been seeing since medical school, and his younger brother Ki-soo, is an actor dating Jung-hwa, an actress in his company. Ki-bum and Jung-hwa meet by chance and are drawn to each other, unaware of their connection through Ki-soo(Min Ki-soo and Min Ki-bum seems kinda obvious to me, but maybe it's more common there?)
Because Jung-hwa has trouble sleeping(to put it mildly), Ki-soo takes her to Soo-hyun for treatment, and under hypnosis Jung-hwa remembers a past life where she was a noble cast down to the servant class because her father was declared a traitor for his political neutrality and she became a servent to Soo-hyun and both fell in love with Ki-bum, whose family had arranged for him to marry Soo-hyun. In another life, Soo-hyun was a courtesan loved by Ki-soo, a Koryo general, and against his wishes she was sent to ther mongolian cap to assassinate their general, Ki-bum, and they fell in love. In WW2, Ki-soo was working for the Japanese govt. and was hunting for Ki-bum, who was a reporter writing for independence and he was hidden by Soo-hyun, a nurse whose family Ki-soo had once served, and in ancient Korea, Jung-hwa grew up as the younger sister of Ki-soo, but she and Ki-bum were twins separated at birth(playing on what's probably the nicest asian myth about f/m twins, that they were lovers in a previous life) and when she and Ki-soo(neither knowing her real identity) are sent to assassinate Ki-bum's father, they fall in love(but don't make it to incest-type stuff)
It avoids retelling the same story again and again(about the only 100% constant throughout is that poor Ki-soo loves the woman who loves Ki-bum instead, and both women love Ki-bum) but throughout, it's shown that Jung-hwa's love for Ki-bum is selfless, while Soo-hyun's is selfish(sometimes obviously, sometimes subtlely) and that while Ki-bum will love Soo-hyun in some lives and admire her in others, he will love Jung-hwa, whether romantically or fraternally, in every life, so it shouldn't be a surprise who he apparently ends up with in the end(it's one of those ends where he's definately not with one, but will probably be with the other in about 5 minutes)
If I were better rested, I'd probably do a much better job of this...but basically, if the idea of reincarnation interests you, check it out. The first 2 eps are kinda slow, but the series itself is good.
Because Jung-hwa has trouble sleeping(to put it mildly), Ki-soo takes her to Soo-hyun for treatment, and under hypnosis Jung-hwa remembers a past life where she was a noble cast down to the servant class because her father was declared a traitor for his political neutrality and she became a servent to Soo-hyun and both fell in love with Ki-bum, whose family had arranged for him to marry Soo-hyun. In another life, Soo-hyun was a courtesan loved by Ki-soo, a Koryo general, and against his wishes she was sent to ther mongolian cap to assassinate their general, Ki-bum, and they fell in love. In WW2, Ki-soo was working for the Japanese govt. and was hunting for Ki-bum, who was a reporter writing for independence and he was hidden by Soo-hyun, a nurse whose family Ki-soo had once served, and in ancient Korea, Jung-hwa grew up as the younger sister of Ki-soo, but she and Ki-bum were twins separated at birth(playing on what's probably the nicest asian myth about f/m twins, that they were lovers in a previous life) and when she and Ki-soo(neither knowing her real identity) are sent to assassinate Ki-bum's father, they fall in love(but don't make it to incest-type stuff)
It avoids retelling the same story again and again(about the only 100% constant throughout is that poor Ki-soo loves the woman who loves Ki-bum instead, and both women love Ki-bum) but throughout, it's shown that Jung-hwa's love for Ki-bum is selfless, while Soo-hyun's is selfish(sometimes obviously, sometimes subtlely) and that while Ki-bum will love Soo-hyun in some lives and admire her in others, he will love Jung-hwa, whether romantically or fraternally, in every life, so it shouldn't be a surprise who he apparently ends up with in the end(it's one of those ends where he's definately not with one, but will probably be with the other in about 5 minutes)
If I were better rested, I'd probably do a much better job of this...but basically, if the idea of reincarnation interests you, check it out. The first 2 eps are kinda slow, but the series itself is good.