The Time Traveler’s Drama: A Chronological Map of Answer Me 1997

Then...

The best time slip drama of 2012 wasn’t about Joseon scholars traveling to the modern world, or doctors going back in time to Korea’s Goryeo period. Instead, it focused on a single decade in the lives of six young people from Busan.

Answer Me 1997 is one of those shows that has it all: lovable characters, a compelling storyline, and perfect direction. But what makes it truly stand out from the competition is its innovative puzzle-box narrative. Rather than following the traditional structure of a beginning, middle, and end that all occur in one unbroken chronological sequence, its plot is built like human memory, constructed of countless fragments of life strung together thematically at the whim of the person at their center. Like AM 1997’s script, our perception of the world doesn’t always obey the sequential logic of storytelling: Although effect often follows cause, in our minds the two sometimes occur the other way around. In the world of Answer Me 1997, we the viewers are time travelers, slowly uncovering big-picture reality as we journey from one strange, unimagined era to another—from family dinners during high school and teenage nights on the doorstep of a pop star, to ten-year reunions and the moment when a woman becomes a mother.

This looping storyline might have existed as a cold narrative experiment, but Answer Me 1997 uses the ability to time-skip as a way to fully explore the depths of its characters. By the end of the show, we know them just as they know themselves: frontwards and backwards and side to side, from childhood to adulthood, from beginning to ending and through all the points in between. This is why Answer Me 1997 feels like such a revelation: It weaves its characters from a never-ending supply of life experiences, just as we weave our personal narratives through the curation of our own memories.

Answer Me 1997’s first few episodes are true marvels, deftly carrying the viewer along as they bounce from time period to time period. But as the show continued, the storytelling edged toward the traditional—making the later episodes feel merely above average rather than extraordinary.

and now.

Partly because I’m so reluctant to give up this show, and partly as an excuse to pull apart its house-of-cards construction, I rewatched the first two episodes and created a chronological map—a boiled down recap that focuses on only the sequence of the most important events. Looking at the map, it’s easy to appreciate this drama’s densely woven structure. Just like in life, the present day is made up of thousands of past days, all vying for our attention as we go about the business of living.

Thanks to all this dizzy time slipping, Answer Me 1997 is a one-of-a-kind unicorn of a drama: it’s a supremely relatable show about how then becomes now, and how now—with the help of our memories and old friends—can become then.

CHRONOLOGICAL MAP

Throughout the map, flashbacks have been marked with dashes—what’s usually seen as the show’s “present day” is flush left, with every subsequent level of flashback marked by a single dash. (In fact, if I were to do this for the whole show, the dash structure would be even more involved—by episode 16 we realize that the true present day is actually February 2013. And then there are the flashbacks to the parents’ teen years in the 1960s . . . !)

Character List

Shi Won = SW

Yoon Yoon Jae = YYJ

Tae Wong = TW

Yoo Jung = YYJ

Episode 1—[Untitled?]

2012/July: Character introductions at the reunion; “Today, at this table, one couple will announce that they’re getting married.”

—1997/April: Character introductions

—1997/April 29: YYJ’s 18th birthday

— —1994/April 29: YYJ’s 15th birthday

— —1995/April 29: YYJ’s 16th birthday

— —1996/April 29: YYJ’s 17th birthday

—1997/April 29: SW gives YYJ coupons for this 18th birthday

— —1990: The funeral of YYJ’s parents

— —1995: YYJ and SW’s middle school graduations

—1997/April 29: TW punishes YYJ at school; SW travels to Daegu to see H.O.T.; the tape and t-shirt fiascos

Episode 2—Things Are Beginning to Change

(Note: * indicates a hypothetical time or date that’s been inserted to make following the sequence easier)

2012/July: The reunion, more hints about the soon-to-be-wed couple and talk about YJ’s impending boob job

— —1997/February: YYJ’s circumcision

—1997/April, 8 pm*: The card game; SW has run away from home

— —1997/April, 6 pm*: SW’s report card arrived; fight with dad (2 hours earlier)

—1997/April, 8 pm*: Back at the card game

— — 1997/April, 11 am*: At school, YYJ makes a bet (9 hours earlier)

—1997/May: YYJ loses the bet

— —1997/April, 11 am*: SW blames YYJ for taking her biology book; YYJ denies it (9 hours earlier)

— —1997/April, 1 pm*: SW and YYJ fight at lunch (7 hours earlier)

— —1997/April, 4 pm*: SW torments YYJ with the frog (4 hours earlier)

—1997/April, 8 pm*: Card game; SW discovers YJ’s poster collection

—Spring of 1997: The kiss

— —Childhood: Flashback montage

—Spring of 1997: The kiss; SW punches YYJ

2012/July: The reunion still more hints about the couple, and discussion of SW and YJ’s friendship


(P.S.: Due to a temporary brain malfunction, some readers got a glimpse of an unedited version of next week’s post this morning. [So embarrassing!] If you’re wondering where that other post went, come back next Tuesday.)