First Impressions: "Bad Memory Eraser" Is An Intriguing, Interesting, And Emotive K-Drama

How important are memories in life? And why are bad memories the hardest to forget? That seems to be the premise in which “Bad Memory Eraser” starts. This new K-drama starring Kim Jae Joong and Jin Se Yeon follows the story of Lee Kun (Kim Jae Joong), a once promising tennis player, and Kyung Joo Yeon, an icy psychiatrist who is eagerly working on a new procedure that would be able to erase bad memories from one’s brain. But could science really be the answer to the pains of the heart? That’s exactly what we will find out in this show!

Warning: spoilers from episodes 1-2 ahead! 

Being highly talented at tennis since a young age, Lee Kun seems to have a bright future ahead of him as the youngest winner of a world championship at barely 13 years old. However, the same day of his victory, he sees all of his dreams frustrated when he breaks his wrist trying to save his younger brother from an injury. With his incipient career now vanished, his family makes the decision to leave him behind and put his brother in his place to go for training to Australia. Having a successful child might be one of the biggest dreams for any parent, but to sacrifice one of your own children only to see that dream come true looks like too big of a price to pay. However, that’s exactly what Kun’s family does, and apparently he’s the only one who still has to carry on with the consequences of those decisions.

Fast forward to present time, Lee Kun is a depressed man with extremely low self-esteem due to the hardships he’s encountered throughout his life since his accident. He’s unable to shake off the ghost of his past, being pushed around by his own parents, having to work as his younger brother’s manager, and being mistreated by all the people who used to admire him when he was a child. Though his life clearly looks like a living hell, he still has something to look forward to and that is meeting his first love after a long time. As everybody needs a sliver of hope to keep on living, for Lee Kun that is the young girl he met the day his family abandoned him. She saved him from drowning in a river. However, his pitiful situation and insecurities make him doubt whether he should meet her again.

Coincidentally, on his flight back to South Korea, he meets Kyung Joo Yeon, a very professional psychiatrist, who, ironically, lacks a lot in the social skills department (something that proves to be more than problematic later on). She is working on an important project researching what might become a new treatment to erase traumatic memories. Although it isn’t shown what it is, it’s clearly hinted that Joo Yeon might have more than just an academic interest in this project, as she seems to wish to erase some bad memories of her own.

Their meeting, as with many K-dramas, isn’t ideal, since Lee Kun continues to meddle in her life unintentionally: first, by switching their luggage at the airport, which contains very important information for Joo Yeon. They also meet in the ER after Lee Kun has a triggering experience that causes him to suffer from extreme pain in his wrist. Joo Yeon points out that the pain that afflicts him comes solely from his traumatic memories rather than real pain, which she later proves by getting him out of his panic state. She sees that he is in a rather poor state so she tries to encourage him to meet his first love. But he cuts her off directly when he asks her what would happen to him if he were to ever lose those good memories that keep him alive.

The peak of their tense encounters arrives the moment Joo Yeon and her team accidentally loses the mouse which is the proof of their psychological research. Though this is a world of fiction, one would expect for a fancy laboratory to at least make sure that their cages are not broken. With the little mouse on the loose, she hurries after it, trying to save all the work she’s done so far. But as Lee Kun has proven to have very bad luck, he arrives at that moment, running over the little thing with his van. Despite trying to apologize for the incident and unaware of what he’s done, Joo Yeon charges against him with the full power of her frustration and hatred, not even realizing the damage she is inflicting on him. After this moment, she goes on and tries to save the future of her job by proposing to apply the experiment on a human subject, someone who might be in an extreme situation and in dire need of a second chance at life.

Surprisingly, Lee Kun arrives at the hospital, fighting for his life. With the approval of his family, he is subjected to the memory eraser, giving him the chance to forget all about his painful past. By the time he wakes up, he is a completely different person. Now that he doesn’t have the burden of his bad memories, he has the confidence and charisma that nobody thought he could have. And though he’s concerned about his lost past, even his family seems to accept the new version of him. The problem? The interference of Kyung Joo Yeon during his procedure makes him believe that she is his first love, and he’s determined to pursue her until she accepts his feelings.

Puzzled by the result of the surgery and conflicted by the side effects of it, Joo Yeon later on finds out that one of the reasons behind his accident was because he found his first love with none other than his younger brother, Lee Shin (Lee Jong Won). Completely disappointed by losing everything in his life once again, he confronts his family for the first time, pointing out all the mistreatment he’s suffered in their hands, giving us one of the saddest confrontations so far. Even more, by the end of the episodes, it is open to interpretation that there’s more to know behind Lee Kun’s accident. There’s not only the guilt that his parents feel for the mistreatments towards their son, but maybe even his younger brother’s implication in the matter.

With this new information, Joo Yeon sees Lee Kun in a new light and decides to keep the lie to protect this new chance he has to restart his life, maybe even to go back to being a tennis player. After all, that is exactly the goal of their experiment. However, as the memories disappear from Kun’s mind, will ignorance, or in this case oblivion, be a true blessing for him? And how will Joo Yeon’s impersonation as his first love turn out when his true first love appears in his life again? Since it’s too early to tell right now, we shall continue watching how things will unfold in the upcoming episodes of “Bad Memory Eraser”!

Catch the first episodes of “Bad Memory Eraser” below!

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Andy zar is an avid drama watcher, from K-dramas to C-dramas, she believes any weekend is a good weekend to enjoy 12 hours of binge-watching dramas. She loves romance, web comics, and K-pop. She is a declared “Subeom” and “Hyeppyending.” Her favorite groups are EXO, TWICE, and BOL4.

Currently watching: “Bad Memory Eraser”
Plans to watch: “You Are My Secret,” “Cinderella at 2 AM“