The webdrama I Am… was frustrating. The poor thing was lacking in so many ways. I was surprised no one pointed out the inadequacies and said, “Folks, let’s fix these before we shoot this drama.”
A scientist who has researched artificial intelligence leaves his android, Angel #1, in the care of his adult kids (Eun-Woo and Joo-Yeon) and they grow attached to it/her. The end. Really, that’s pretty much all there is to it.
Annie has the mind/intelligence of a high school kid, and since Cha Joo-Yeon is a high school science teacher she decides to enroll Annie at her school, passing her off as her younger cousin from the States. Annie is extremely strong (able to pick a dresser up over her head with just one hand) and she’s definitely intelligent but she doesn’t know about emotions and feelings. Although she doesn’t smile she still manages to make two friends at school.
Eun-Woo is a student at a university who lives with his big sister, Joo-Yeon. He is very hurt his father left the family in order to do AI research and therefore isn’t all that happy to have Annie live with them. Every now and then he will have a premonition dream. He also has a steady girlfriend.
Joo-Yeon is a high school science teacher. Her boyfriend is a scientist who worked with Joo-Yoon’s father on Annie. It is Joo-Yeon who decides to give the android the proper name of Annie. She becomes very attached to Annie and is protective of her.
For information about Jung Chae-Yeon, the actress who plays the part of Annie, you can check out my My First First Love review.
Park Seon-Woo plays the part of Eun-Woo. I wish I had some information for you about him but after searching the internet all I came up with is that he’s 30 years old and was in the movie So Cute in 2004, the Kdrama The Slingshot in 2009, and the Kdrama Angry Mom in 2015.
Here’s where I think the writing had a problem…
First, all we’re told is that Eun-Woo and Joo-Yeon’s dad is the scientist that invented Annie but we receive no details about his work. We also never find out why someone is after him or what happened to him after he was attacked.
Second, a bad guy is after Annie and we have no idea who he is or why he wants her. How do we know he’s bad? Well, he wears black, always has on dark glasses even at night, and Annie backs away when she sees him.
And third, Joo-Yeon is upset with her boyfriend but we never really find out why. They allude to the fact that he worked on Annie with Joo-Yoon’s dad but don’t say much more than that. Why did they not know where their dad was when her boyfriend worked with him, and why get angry at the guy when he thinks Annie shouldn’t be living with them?
The whole story is about whether or not Annie is able to develop feelings/emotions. At one point she asks Joo-Yeon, “What am I? Who am I?” and Joo-Yeon responds, “What do you mean? You’re my little sister.” Joo-Yeon sincerely thinks of this android as family. Annie has two buddies at school who like her when they think she’s a regular girl from America but what will they think once they discover she’s a robot? And (here’s a spoiler) Eun-Woo falls for her. So there are emotions directed towards her but does she ever feel for others? That, I’m not telling you.
If you want to see a show about an android I strongly suggest you skip this and watch My Absolute Boyfriend. Jung Chae-Yeon does an okay job as android Annie but Yeo Jin-Goo knocks it out of the park as the lovable android Yeong-Goo, and there’s a lot more substance to My Absolute Boyfriend.
I Am… was broadcast in 2017. It has six episodes which are about 15 minutes apiece and was distributed to middle schools and high schools in Korea through the Korea Science and Technology Foundation. If you watch it, and I’m not advocating you do, make sure you watch all the way to the end. After the credits are done there is more to the story and you’ll want to see that part.
There’s a fun scene in a karaoke room where Annie and her two friends are dancing and out of nowhere she does the old “robot” style dance (made popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s) to DIA’s song “Will You Go Out With Me?”. Probably not a coincidence that Jung Chae-Yeon (Annie) is a member of DIA.
I Am…’s music is okay but it’s not used all that much. There are some awkward silent moments, places where it would make sense to have some background music but there’s nothing, nothing at all. And the sound/microphones are a little muffled at times which only emphasizes how unprofessional this webdrama is. I’m okay with unprofessional if the acting is amazing or the writing is excellent but, unfortunately, that’s not the case with this show.
Nothing special where the setting/background is concerned. School, home, outside… all normal places which fit the show well.
The only reason I’m glad I saw this was simply because it scratched another title off my watch list. Sorry to say, I Am… suggesting you skip this one. My least favorite list just got longer, by one. Rats!
Score: 2.5
The Good:
Only an hour and a half in length
The Bad:
Unprofessional feel
Sound is weird in places
Music isn’t used enough
Way too many things that aren’t explained
Acting isn’t great
Heart and Seoul 