# Twinkling Watermelon (2023)

> A gifted CODA teen time travels through a mysterious music shop and lands in an unfamiliar world where he forms a band with other enigmatic young people.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/133433

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 16
- Episode runtime: 64 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, science fiction
- Created by: Jin Soo-wan, Son Jeong-hyeon
- Network: tvN
- Cast: Ryeoun, Choi Hyun-wook, Seorina, Shin Eun-soo, Choi Won-young, Seo Young-hee, Jung Sang-hoon, Cheon Ho-jin
- TMDB rating: 8.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27446493/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: none
- Tone: wistful, dreamy, hopeful, warm, melancholic

## What critics say

Audiences broadly acclaim the series for its music, youthful bond between the band members, and emotionally resonant story.

## Synopsis

Twinkling Watermelon (2023) is a South Korean science fiction drama miniseries created by Jin Soo-wan and Son Jeong-hyeon for tvN, a single-season limited series of sixteen hour-long episodes. Ryeoun plays Ha Eun-gyeol, a gifted teenager who is a child of deaf adults, and Choi Hyun-wook plays Ha Yi-chan alongside him. After stepping through a suspicious music shop, Eun-gyeol crash lands somewhere unfamiliar, where he gathers a group of mysterious young people and forms the band Watermelon Sugar. Seorina, Shin Eun-soo and Jung Sang-hoon round out a cast of youths and elders who orbit the band. The engine is simple and emotional: a musician longing for home, a strange displacement that keeps shifting the ground beneath him, and the work of making music with people he barely knows. Episodes lean on rehearsals, performances and quiet family moments as much as on the time slip itself. Its tone is wistful and dreamy, with a bright, hopeful surface and a melancholy undertow about youth as something brief and luminous. Fans of Reply 1988 and Hospital Playlist will find resonance in its warmth, friendship and music-driven romance, while those drawn to time-slip fantasy may also enjoy its sense of wonder.

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