Thirty Nine : A gentle reminder to live your life while you can!

 

39: A voyage to the end with your best friends!

 

39 is the JTBC drama starring  Son Ye-jin, Jeon Mi-do and Kim Ji-Hyun that aired on Netflix simultaneously. It's a 12-episode series directed by Kim Sang-ho, and written by Yoo Yeong-ah.

No of Seasons: 1

No of Episodes:12

Genre: Drama, Emotional

IMDB: 7.7/10

The Plot

39 is a storey of 3 female best friends who are in their 39s, single and independent. They are friends since their teenage and after spending their twenties and thirties together, they are now ready to welcome a new decade of their lives together.

The story starts on a very bright and positive note where 3 friends, defying all societal norms living their lives on their own terms.

Their happy and carefree world gets shaken to the core when chan-young played by Mido gets diagnosed with a terminal disease and is told that she has only 6 months left of quality living. She denied any treatment and decided to live the rest of her life with the people she love without being hooked to needles and confined in the Hospital.

Her friends initially opposed her decision but eventually supported her, despite knowing that it is going to be walking on the shards of glass they still decided to make her the Happiest Terminally Ill patient. 

So, the rest of the storyline focuses on the heartbreaking experiences of a soon-to-die person and more importantly the people around her. The story is told from a person’s perspective who is about to lose her best friend, so it's not a victim’s tale.

I know the plot sounds very cliched and similar but watch it once and then decide!

Review

The story offers a very fun and promising start so the expectation from the starting episode is a fun comedy series following the journey of 3 single middle-aged women who don’t give a dammn to the social norms. But that genre changes dramatically towards the end of the first episode only when it ended with Chan-young s funeral scene. So, yes I felt like I got tricked into signing up for an emotional drama in the name of fun and comedy.

But, the worst part is you won’t be able to put this series down once you start watching it. The story is so well written and incredibly directed that the characters on screen don’t cry that much but the audience sheds a bucket full of tears (that too every episode).

Having said that it's a slow burner and in the last couple of episodes you’ll feel the story being dragged unnecessarily. There are characters that have no such significance or part to play but they took quite a screentime. More importantly, they were not related to the main plot at all.

Writing

There are such beautiful and heartbreaking moments created where one can witness the depth of friendship and the immense pain of losing it. There is no such anticipated climax as the story runs in the background, but a lot happens in the season finale (which most probably is the series finale as well). Towards the end, a surprise message comes from the past, which makes it, even more, painful to watch. 

The story has a very powerful narration from Cha Mi Jo, who shares a very close bond with Chan-young which makes it even more impactful as it feels like someone is sharing a story of their personal loss. Needless to mention the incredible job done by the actors made these characters alive to the extent that the audience envies their friendship.

That's also the ‘X’ factor of this story as I said in the beginning that the storyline is very cliched but what makes it different is that it's not a love story or the story from the victim’s end. It's a story told by a person about how she lost her best friend at such early age. This show makes you wonder how important friends are in your life (which kinda will make you feel sad as well considering you don’t have one).

I would like to mention the name of the writer here, Yoo Yeong-ahas she has done it once again after writing masterpieces like Encounter ( I would recommend you watch it if you haven’t already). The writing in this show is very simple yet very complex as it's comparatively easier to write a storyline but it's difficult to create moments. As in the latter one has to create proper character analysis in order to reach that depth of emotions. Besides, it's just not emotions, that you’ll witness, it is a very fine blend of emotion and comedy that makes the scene lighter. That in the same scene, it is so heavy that you can’t stop crying and towards the end, you’ll see them partying and laughing as if nothing happened and yes it looks sensible! 

Another thing I like is how they unfolded the past. The 3 characters have a past and it has been unfolded in a very creative way. 

To share an instance, there is a scene of a conversation between MiJo and Chan-young where Chan-young’s whole love life and her past gets unfolded making the audience understand their current situation with no extra past flashbacks.

Direction

If anyone can transform a script into live characters with the utmost resemblance it's the director and he has done an exceptional job here. Considering it's an emotional story, you’ll never see any over-the-board crying, everything happens without words and is just left to the audience to absorb those emotions.

There is a hand-holding scene (one of my favourite scenes ever) where Mijo holds Chan-young from the back as she was unable to sleep. If you watch that scene there is barely any exchange of words, it's all silent. Yet, the scene is so impactful that you can understand the close bond between these 2 friends and again an emotional scene ends with laughter (that's the mark of this show).

Colours

The colours in this show are so creatively chosen that it gives a very modern touch to the set and looks very pleasing to the eyes. Most of the indoor scenes are shot at Chan-young ’s apartment where the colour combination is very unusual; Orange and teal blue which I know will look weird if we try to put them in our homes but in the show while filming it's just come beautifully on the screen.

Takeaway

If you are looking for a story of female friends then you should go for it. The only thing I would warn in advance is that the show’s emotional quotient is very high and you’ll probably feel heavy-hearted after watching it. So, if you are good at handling emotions don’t think twice.