[In-Depth Look] If Your Choice Could Change Someone Else's Destiny...

Drama 'Kairos'

There is a woman struggling to live with her mother who suffers from heart disease. Han Aeri (Lee Se-young), 26, barely manages to earn enough each day to cover her mother’s surgery costs. Just as she is about to rejoice at the long-awaited heart transplant surgery, she hears from the doctor that the surgery is impossible given her mother’s current condition.

To make matters worse, her mother, who was hospitalized, disappears without a word. Then, a desperate phone call comes to Aeri. A man with an unfamiliar voice pleads urgently, "Please save my wife and daughter. Only you can save them." What choice would you make if you were her?

MBC’s Monday-Tuesday drama Kairos is a time-crossing thriller. It tells the story of two protagonists living one month apart in the past and future who cooperate through just one minute of phone calls each day to reclaim their beloved family.

Before airing, it was underrated and compared to the similar time-slip drama tvN’s Signal. However, once it aired, it received praise as a masterpiece comparable to Signal. Both works do not merely use the time-slip theme for genre entertainment but highlight a profound thematic consciousness about humans as interconnected beings through the intersection of past and future.

Signal was a work that, under the slogan "Our times are connected," recalled tragic events forgotten in the community’s memory to the present, urging social empathy. Meanwhile, Kairos tells a story where an individual’s choices have a more direct impact on others’ destinies, emphasizing solidarity even more.

Let’s rewind to the beginning of the story. If Aeri had ignored the desperate voice calling from the future, Kairos would never have even started. The time of Kairos flows powerfully into a new future from the moment Aeri responds to the plea of another in need.

The man who begged Aeri to save them, Seo-jin (Shin Sung-rok), lives in a time zone one month ahead of Aeri’s. Having suddenly lost his young daughter and wife, he miraculously becomes aware of Aeri’s existence and realizes that she is the key to saving his family. Aeri also begins to cooperate with Seo-jin upon realizing he is the only hope to save her mother.

Kairos focuses on how the choices of people at crossroads change others’ fates and ultimately transform their own futures. In this regard, another noteworthy character besides the two protagonists is Aeri’s friend Geon-wook (Kang Seung-yoon). The two different endings he faces at two critical moments reinforce the “benevolent choices” that Kairos aims to convey.

Aeri once saved Geon-wook’s grandmother in the past. Geon-wook was someone who could do anything for Aeri. However, when threatened with his life by loan sharks, Geon-wook betrays Aeri. His choice leads both Aeri and Geon-wook to ruin. Fortunately, fate grants Geon-wook another chance. Unlike before, he chooses to help Aeri and embarks on a new path of destiny with her.

Of course, opposite to benevolent choices are selfish and malicious ones. In the second act of Kairos, the evil choice at the root of all stories will reveal its true nature. Seo-jin, Aeri, and other main characters bear the scars of corruption committed by the large corporation Yoojung Construction. This massive evil choice altered the fate of the community. Kairos is a story of benevolent individuals standing in solidarity to reverse the tragic outcome.

Kim Sun-young, Popular Culture Critic