While You Were Sleeping

By Carla Suzanne Gulane

WYWS is directed by Oh Choong-Hwan, known for “My love from the star” and “Doctors”. I did not enjoy “Doctors” too much, but knowing that WYWS will be more of a sci-fi themed, I hoped Choong-Hwan will bring us another Award-winning Kdrama, just as he did with “My love from the star”.

Nam Hong-Joo sees dreams, that become reality. That is something we do not understand from the beginning, but that is made clear to us quickly and clear, the guy who dies in the gas station because he did not listen to the crazy girl who told him not to smoke, is a very good way of setting the theme of how serious her dreams actually are. And in her dream, that happens to be the opening scene, Nam Hong-Joo sees a strange man, who will later move in just across her), and eventually safe her life.

Jung Jae-Chan is a rookie prosecutor, who, well, is not the smartest tool in the shed, at least, that is what we see. He and his brother move in just across Hong-Joo. He also happens to know Lee Yoo-Beom since childhood, and Yoo-Beom, is, well, dating Hong-Joo.

Nam Hong-Joo sees a dream where her mother dies because of an accident Hong-Joo has created. So everything she will do from that moment on will be done in order to make sure this dream never becomes realty. But, as Hong-Joo said herself, future is set. She cannot change it.

But someone else can. Jae-Chan also sees the same dream. Almost the same. He sees how Hong-Joo is blamed for the car crash, even though Yoo-Beom caused it. Ang Jae-Chan has a long history with Yoo-Beom and accidents and lying. He knows what he can do. In his dream, Hong-Joo kills herself, and understanding that he could not live with himself if that would happen, Jae-Chan tries to change his dream, while Hong-Joo does the same.

I’ve learned that there are different versions of the truth. One major takeaway we’ve learned is that there isn’t always one version of the truth. Hong Ju, Jae Chan and Han Wu Tak might be able to see the future, but each of them sees a different ending, and their individual reactions could also alter the end result. This reminds us that in real life, viewing a single incident from different perspectives may turn up different versions of the truth as well.