Dream to You (Episodes 1-4 review): Hyeri and Hwang In-youp’s healing romance is balm for those grieving lost dreams

Everything you’ve heard is true.

Assuming, of course, that what you heard, or rather, saw, came from Instagram reels and overjoyed tweets.

Four episodes in, Dream To You, starring the ever-reliable Hwang In-youp and sturdy Hyeri, seems to have finally scratched the romantic itch that most K-Drama fans have been craving for years now. Four episodes might still be a little too early, (sorry the betrayal of Dynamite Kiss still burns), but for now, we have two leads, a warm story about dreams and their fragility, along with a few sub-plots that promise to be just as entertaining.

Dream to You introduces us to Hwang In-youp’s Woo Soo-bin, an accomplished director who runs into Hyeri’s cynical journalist, Yi-jae — his former high school sweetheart. She is seething with resentment at the thought of him. He got to live the dream they once shared, while she was left behind.

As the flashbacks reveal, the sweet, innocent childhood romance was struck down on a bitter, grey rainy day after Woo Soo-bin walked away from their dreams together. And when it rains, it truly pours: Yi-Jae loses her dream, her first love, is trapped in the aftermath of a car accident that scars her forever. She is filled to the brim with sadness and regrets, and as much as she would like to blame him for everything, she tells herself in a searing moment, “My only regret is me.”

But life does offer second chances. The two are forced to work together, piecing together their old high school dreams and ambitions while attempting to rebuild the trust that was lost between them. Yet it is not easy to become each other’s safe space when years apart stand like a wall between them.

Dream to You till now, is a bowl of bittersweet whimsy, hope and the promise to heal oneself in the face of raging grief. It reminds you of the days of childhood dreams; the idealised joy of being famous. Hyeri lets us see the stark contrast clearly, between the hopeful school girl in the flashbacks, and the restrained woman trying to make a living for herself in a rather lonely adulthood, filled with responsibilities.

On the other hand, Hwang In-youp’s Woo Soo-bin represents those who had to follow dreams that were never truly theirs. As a teenager, he is a gentle, restrained soul, shaped by an abusive father who insists that he become a doctor. But Woo Soo-bin begins to believe that dreams might actually be possible after witnessing Yi-jae’s childlike enthusiasm. He wants to believe that her reality could become his too.

And then comes the rainy day.

Years later, he is the one who has fulfilled his dream of becoming a filmmaker. She has not.

The show, while serving up all the romance a K-drama fan could want, is also taking us on a journey through the many kinds of grief: the grief of losing a dream, the old version of yourself, and the person you trusted most.

For now, Dream to You is gripping, entertaining and emotionally generous. It keeps you hooked, and, after four episodes, it has given us enough reason to hope that it continues to do so.

Dream to You is streaming on Viki.