Way Back Love Review: A Sincere Portrayal of Youth & Grief

When the darkness of loss and the brightness of youth collide, the immeasurable pain that emerges can be a tricky thing to navigate. That’s the challenge behind every scene of TVING’s Way Back Love, a miniseries that aired in April 2025 and received international distribution through Viki and Viu.

Directed by Kim Hye-young and Choi Ha-na and written by Song Hyun-ju and Jang In-jeong, Way Back Love is a six-episode adaptation of Seo Eun-chae’s novel of the same name.

The series follows Hee-wan (Kim Min-ha) and Ram-woo (Gong Myung), two high schoolers who became best friends after a silly April Fool’s joke. As the years went by, they realised their feelings for each other were more romantic than platonic. However, that never came to light as Ram-woo passed away in an accident during their senior year. From that day onwards, Hee-wan lost her will to live. Years later, Ram-woo shows up in front of her — now as a grim reaper who came to tell her that she only has one week left to live.

Way Back Love is a bittersweet and timeless portrayal of the joy of youth, the complexity of grief, and the extreme courage it takes to live on. It celebrates the ones who have been lost as much as it celebrates the ones who are left behind, delivering an inspiring journey of forgiveness and healing.

This review contains very mild spoilers. If you prefer not to risk it, why don’t you pin our spoiler-free summary? It’s at the bottom!

Way Back Love & the Beauty of Youth

As we follow Hee-wan and Ram-woo’s adolescence, we’re reminded of how silly, innocent, and magical youth can be. The teenage version of Hee-wan, Ram-woo and their two best friends, Hong-seok (Jung Gun-joo) and Tae-gyeong (Oh Woo-ri), flawlessly illustrate the vibrant days that we only get to live when we’re young. Friendships are effervescent, intense bonds of camaraderie that seem eternal. Fights and blunders seem so tragic at first, but end up being so comical and easily overcome. Young romances are pure, messy, and charming as they blend embarrassment, awkwardness, and honest bliss.

The high-school universe of Way Back Love portrays its characters with tangible precision. They aren’t children anymore, but they aren’t adults yet either. Hee-wan and her friends are equally confident and shy, courageous and timid. They laugh and cry with the same intensity, trying to understand who they are, what they need, and how to get what they want. This accurate, joyful portrayal of youth allows Way Back Love to naturally add a layer of comedy to the narrative, reminding us that life isn’t all about tragedy — but it isn’t all about joy either. These moments are profoundly enchanting and, to an older audience, extremely nostalgic.

Hee-wan’s Adulthood: Grief, Regret, and Healing

The adult version of Hee-wan couldn’t be more different, however. After Ram-woo’s passing, she isolated herself from the world. She’s constantly lonely, hopeless, and angry. With the same — now painful — precision, Way Back Love illustrates grief and guilt in all its darkness, despair, and sorrow. Some of the credit needs to go to the great Kim Min-ha, who delivers an extraordinary performance here. The nuance she gives Hee-wan is something that goes way beyond the script, and it’s fascinating to watch her transform her character from a bright, cheerful teenager into a lethargic young woman who can’t forgive herself.

Hee-wan can’t forgive herself because her grief isn’t just about losing her best friend. It’s also about everything she didn’t get to live with Ram-woo. She blames herself for his cruel fate and mourns the loss of the future he deserved to live. All the laughter they won’t share, the confessions they won’t voice, the fights they won’t have. Hee-wan refuses to forgive herself for letting this happen. And in all her devastating pain, she fails to realise that it isn’t her fault. She can’t see that accidents happen, and sometimes, there’s nothing we can do to stop them.

Way Back Love as Hee-wan’s Story: Ram-woo’s Role

Adult Hee-wan is a character who might be alive but isn’t living. She’s indifferent to the world around her, drowning in a pain that seems endless. That’s when Ram-woo shows up as a grim reaper. As his passing took away Hee-wan’s will to live, he has to be the one who brings it back. Ram-woo didn’t really grow up, so his “adult” character possesses a strange mix of joyfulness, simplicity, and confidence. As an individual, Ram-woo is often seen through Hee-wan’s eyes, and the moments that explore his character are quite few. Hee-wan might then be the real main protagonist of Way Back Love, but it’s only through Ram-woo that she’s able to complete her character arc.

Grim Reaper Ram-woo is a key element in Hee-won’s growth. He works to understand Hee-wan’s grief and guide her through it, encouraging her to develop the strength she needs to face her past, forgive herself, and open herself up to the world again. The ups and downs of her mourning process receive a sincere and poignant depiction, taking us along this long journey towards acceptance. Hee-wan eventually learns to love herself, gathers the courage to face her pain, and realises that the ones we love always and forever live inside us.

Episode 6: The Strengths & Weaknesses

Even though the first five episodes are well-paced and engaging thanks to a non-linear narrative, the last episode feels a bit rushed. There are too many events and too many changes unravelling within a mere hour and I feel that the story would’ve benefited from a longer climax and denouement.

Despite being a bit predictable and rushed, Hee-wan’s ending is heartwarming and fairly realistic. Way Back Love makes sure to tell us that missing someone who is gone, our mourning, isn’t really something we overcome and move past. Missing and mourning someone is something that we do every day. It’s an invisible cloak we wear every morning: we constantly feel how soft it feels against our skin and how heavy it feels on our shoulders.

In Episode 6, Hee-wan learns to appreciate this cloak. She’s learnt a lot thus far but she’s still a work in progress. She realises that she needs to put in the effort every single day — after all, life is all about gathering the courage to do your best one day at a time.

Way Back Love: Worldbuilding & Technical Notes

This ending works well considering the goal that the series has in mind. What is important to mention here is that Way Back Love pushes aside worldbuilding and logic to focus on emotional depth.

The series wants to mostly explore the characters’ internal conflicts, developing how they face and respond to death. But, as a result, Ram-woo’s decisions and their consequences in the real world, as well as his existence as a grim reaper, are never properly set up or explained. Fantasy doesn’t work in Way Back Love as a genre in itself but as a plot device of sorts that allows for Hee-wan’s character arc to progress — and, of course, tugs at our heartstrings as we picture Hee-wan and Ram-woo living a bit of the life they would never get to experience otherwise.

What about the show’s visual identity?

Visually, Way Back Love relies on a lot of close-ups. With the amount of emotionally intimate scenes in the show, some of them feel a bit uncomfortable. As the characters bare their souls, showing their innermost pains, traumas, and fears, we sometimes feel as if we’re barging in on their moment. But that’s a valid stylistic choice — and we also have to mention that some compositions are indeed very beautiful and effective.

What I’ve been wondering about is the choice of colour palette and editing to emphasise the contrast on which the script relies. Or better yet, the lack of distinct colour palettes and editing. That is, the narrative finds its foundation on the complete difference between Hee-wan’s past and present. However, both present and past are visually presented in very similar ways, which means that the photography doesn’t respond to the script as much as it could have.

Either way, the entire cast offers incredible performances, and the story is framed by a soulful, appropriate, and powerful soundtrack — which you can find on Spotify.

Should You Watch Way Back Love?

Profoundly humane, Way Back Love combines the light-heartedness of youth with the heaviness of grief in a short yet undeniably impactful story. Hee-wan and Ram-woo’s tale is told through an honestly raw but thoughtful perspective, creating an emotionally resonant series that will surely touch your heart.

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