In Twinkling Watermelon, Ha Eun-gyeol, a high school student, is the only hearing member of his household: his father, mother and older brother are Deaf, and the family talks in Korean Sign Language. That makes him the family's link to the hearing world outside the front door, a job he never applied for. The tvN series, which aired 16 episodes from September to November 2023, turns that role into the starting point of a time-travel story, and in the editors' view it is one of the warmest Korean dramas of the past year.
A CODA at the center of the story
Eun-gyeol (Ryeoun) is a CODA, a child of Deaf adults. By day he is a model student; at night he plays guitar in a band, a passion he keeps from his father. When the two clash over his future in music, Eun-gyeol walks into a strange instrument shop and comes out in 1995. There he meets his father, Ha Yi-chan (Choi Hyun-wook), as a teenager who can still hear and speak, and who dreams of playing in a band himself.
That reveal is the hook of the series. In the present, Yi-chan (played as an adult by Choi Won-young) is Deaf and does not speak, after an accident in his youth. Eun-gyeol befriends the boy who will become his father, forms a band with him called Watermelon Sugar and tries to steer him away from the event that will cost him his hearing. The drama never frames Deafness as a tragedy to be undone, though. It is careful to show the adult Yi-chan and his wife as people with a full, happy life, and Eun-gyeol's mission is complicated by what changing the past might also erase.
Sign language as a language, not a gimmick
Korean Sign Language has been recognized in South Korean law as the official language of the country's Deaf community since 2016, and the series treats it that way. In the editors' view, signed conversations carry the same weight as spoken ones: arguments, confessions and jokes all happen in sign, and the camera stays on the hands and faces doing the talking.
The most affecting thread belongs to Yoon Chung-ah (Shin Eun-soo), a girl who has been Deaf since birth. Her stepmother forbids her from learning to sign, and it is Eun-gyeol who teaches her. The drama is clear about why that matters: being kept from your own language is a form of isolation, and the scenes where Chung-ah begins to sign freely are some of its best. Shin plays her with a guarded stillness that slowly opens up. Seo Young-hee plays the adult Chung-ah.
The scenes where Chung-ah begins to sign freely are some of the best in the series.
Performances and the 1995 band
Choi Hyun-wook carries much of the energy as young Yi-chan, loud, reckless and very funny, and his scenes with Ryeoun have an easy, brotherly rhythm that makes the father-and-son twist land. Ryeoun gives Eun-gyeol a tired, watchful maturity that suits a teenager who has been his family's interpreter for years. Seol In-ah plays Choi Se-kyung, the star cellist of an arts high school whom Yi-chan falls for, a role that hides a second identity we will not spoil here beyond noting that she is credited as On Eun-yoo as well.
The band itself is a pleasure. Ahn Do-gyu, Yoon Jae-chan, Lee Ha-min and Lee Soo-chan fill out Watermelon Sugar as a manager, bassist, drummer and keyboardist, and the 1995 setting gives the series a warm, slightly scruffy nostalgia. Older actors, including Kim Hyeong-beom and Song Chang-eui, play the grown-up versions of the friends in the present-day scenes.
Where it stumbles
In the editors' view, the series is strongest in its first two thirds. The final episodes have a lot of plot to resolve, between the rules of time travel, Se-kyung's secret and the question of Yi-chan's accident, and some threads feel rushed. A few romance beats lean on familiar tropes, and Se-kyung's motivations shift more than the script explains. None of this undoes the emotional core, but viewers who like tightly plotted time travel may find the mechanics loose.
Key facts
- Korean title반짝이는 워터멜론 (literally "Sparkling Watermelon")
- NetworktvN, Mondays and Tuesdays at 20:50 KST
- Aired25 September to 14 November 2023, 16 episodes
- WriterJin Soo-wan
- DirectorsSon Jung-hyun and Yoo Beom-sang
- RyeounHa Eun-gyeol, a hearing CODA and guitarist
- Choi Hyun-wookHa Yi-chan in 1995 (Choi Won-young as the adult Yi-chan, Eun-gyeol's father)
- Seol In-ahChoi Se-kyung / On Eun-yoo (Lee So-yeon as the adult Se-kyung)
- Shin Eun-sooYoon Chung-ah, Deaf since birth (Seo Young-hee as the adult Chung-ah, Eun-gyeol's mother)
- Watermelon SugarAhn Do-gyu (Oh Ma-joo), Yoon Jae-chan (Kang Hyun-yul), Lee Ha-min (Lee Si-guk), Lee Soo-chan (Noh Se-bum)
Update: how it was received
Update, October 2026: Twinkling Watermelon was never a ratings giant at home. According to Nielsen Korea, it premiered at 3.1 percent nationwide, peaked at about 4.7 percent with its fourth episode and closed at 4.46 percent on 14 November 2023, modest numbers even for a cable channel. Its reputation grew online instead. Good Data Corporation ranked it the most-discussed TV and streaming drama in its final week, with Choi Hyun-wook, Ryeoun and Shin Eun-soo all in the top ten of the actor list. On Rakuten Viki it reached first place in about a dozen markets during finale week, including the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. In November 2025, two years after it ended, the series also began streaming on Netflix.
Editor's note: This story first appeared on kpop-fandom on 9 July 2024. It was rewritten and updated in October 2026: we corrected the description of the plot (Yi-chan can hear in 1995 and loses his hearing later; Chung-ah is the character who is Deaf from birth), added broadcast details, ratings and how the drama was received, and removed claims we could not verify.
Sources Soompi: Twinkling Watermelon script reading, Soompi: Twinkling Watermelon ends on high note, Soompi: rated most buzzworthy drama in final week, HanCinema: big worldwide hit for Rakuten Viki, Korea Legislation Research Institute: Korean Sign Language Act.