49 Days (DVD) (7-Disc) (English Subtitled) (End) (SBS TV Drama) (US Version) DVD Region 1

Doll-like singer-turned-actress Nam Gyu Ri fares surprisingly well in the leading role of Ji Hyun, a privileged, happy-go-lucky bride-to-be who falls into a coma after an accident. A young grim reaper, or Scheduler (Jung Il Woo), shows up and offers Ji Hyun's detached soul a mission to save herself. She has 49 days to collect pure teardrops from three people (other than family members) who truly love her. During this time, she can borrow the body of the sullen, suicidal woman who caused her near death, Yi Kyung (Lee Yo Won), but she can't reveal her real identity to anyone. Yi Kyung works at night and sleeps all day, so Ji Hyun gets to use her body during the day. From here on, it's Lee Yo Won who takes over more of the drama's leading actress duties.

At first, Ji Hyun thinks that it will be easy to collect three teardrops. Instead, she learns that the people and relationships she's taken for granted are not as they seem. Her fiance and best friend are actually cheating on her, and there are too many factors that turn grief and friendship into something other than love. Collecting even one teardrop is difficult, let alone three. Ji Hyun finally begins to grow up, and understand herself and the people around her. But what will await her at the end of 49 days?

Ji Hyun's 49-day journey is full of K-Drama happenings. As Yi Kyung, she discovers the deep bond she has with friend Han Kang (played with grumpy charm by Jo Hyun Jae) - after a lot of romantic comedy bickering. She uncovers her dastardly fiance Min Ho's (Bae Soo Bin) plot to take over her father's company, while Min Ho unexpectedly falls for her. The drama also slowly unravels Yi Kyung's weepy backstory, and the fateful ties that connect Ji Hyun, Yi Kyung, Han Kang, and the Scheduler. If that doesn't already sound like a full plate, in the course of the 49 days, other characters start catching on that something's amiss, and launch their own missions to figure each other out.

Many of these narrative elements and relationship conflicts are common in Korean dramas, but 49 Days' relatively unique premise adds a twist to familiar conflicts, and the story refrains from going into melodramatic overdrive. This helps to balance the casting with the characters. Lee Yo Won is clearly a better actress than Nam Gyu Ri, but the drama gives space for the younger actress to grow with the role and the audience such that her Ji Hyun holds up with Lee Yo Won's Ji Hyun. The two actresses' ability to reinforce each other's portrayals of the same character is essential to the drama, and their pairing with Jo Hyun Jae's "Kang ah".

As winning as grumpy, upright Jo Hyun Jae may be, Bae Soo Bin and Jung Il Woo clock in more angsting mileage. Bae manages to eke empathy if not redemption for his turn as the bad guy who confusedly falls for the woman he betrayed in a different guise. Jung Il Woo provides early laughs as the flippant, motorcycle-riding grim reaper who grudgingly helps Ji Hyun out, but it's tears galore once his backstory kicks in.

49 Days gets plenty heart-wrenching when it comes time to collect the audience's tears, but the scope goes beyond the tragic love angle. It is less the romance that is heart-wrenching, but the process of coming to terms with life, death, separation, and oneself. In this respect, the drama aims for more than just making people cry. 49 Days isn't collecting any old teardrop, only the pure ones.