Drama: Reply 1988 (2015)
Main casts:
Hye Ri as Seon Deok Seon
Ryoo Joon Yeol as Kim Jung Hwan
Lee Dong Hwi as Ryo Dong Ryong
Go Gyung Pyo as Seon Seon Woo
Park Bo Gum as Choi Taek
Plot:
In 1988, Deok-Seon, Jung-Hwan, Sun-Woo, and Dong-Ryong are high school students and Taek is a go player. These five people have been friends since they were little kids. They all grew up together and are neighbors to this day. Their families are also very close to each other. They always hang around Taek's room and spend time together.
Duk-Sun’s family is poor and they live in a semi-basement house. Duk-Sun's father Dong-Il lost money due to guaranteeing someone else's debt. Nevertheless, Duk-Sun has a bright personality and enjoys singing and dancing. She always gets into fights with her older sister Bo-Ra.
Jung-Hwan’s family became rich overnight. Jung-Hwan is crazy about soccer.
Sun-Woo is a model student at school, a good son and a good brother at home. Sun-Woo’s mother has raised Sun-Woo and his younger sister alone after Sun-Woo’s father passed away.
Dong-Ryong likes dancing and hanging out with his 4 friends. He gives up going to a university due to his poor academic score.
Taek is a famous go player known as God. Since he dropped out of school, Duk-Sun, Jung-Hwan, Sun-Woo, and Dong-Ryong are his only friends.
How's their life in the year of 1988?
Comment:
First, I wonder why the main thing is that we, the audience, still need to guess who's the husband of the main female character? Why? Why? Why? Ah, maybe that's how a concept is for this Reply trilogy (trilogy? hahaha).
Ah...crazy...this is one of the drama series that I like. I have to say that I don't really like drama series. They're long and have a lot of episodes. If the first episode didn't catch my attention, don't ever think that I will watch the rest. I feel more comfortable watching variety shows or movies since they're short and more entertaining. But yeah, I have to admit that this series got me hooked since the first episode. I cried until my eyes were swollen. Funny thing is I haven't finished the two predecessors of this series - Reply 1997 and Reply 1994. Between the three, this one attracted me the most. May I will try to finish the other 2 series later.
The main conflict is about the love triangle, but the other conflicts that make the story more real. The relationship between best friends, between parents and their kids, between siblings, between neighbors, between man and woman, between a person and their job...everything is served really real. Some of the big events that were actually happened in real life also being put in the story so it even felt more real. I think I lot of people can be connected with the story. No wonder not only youngsters who watched this. The elders can also feel nostalgic by watching this. Even me. I can relate to some of the things too.
I hate the writer-nim. Why? Because they make Jung Hwan looks so pitiful. Somehow I feel bad seeing Deok Seon ended with Taek. Like how in the world a creature who doesn't talk to much all of the sudden confess to a girl that he likes her and on top of that the girl says yes? Me (and my friend, Sisca) speculate that the decision to make Taek as the sweet ending for Deok Seon's love story is being made in the middle of shooting this series. And maybe writer-nim feels like it is time to make something different from the 2 predecessors. Reply 1997 and Reply 1994 make the main female character ended with the main male character. So maybe for this one, they take another route. And as someone who pro towards Jung Hwan, I feel unwilling to support the decision. Totally. Haha. Writer-nim, wae yo? Give Jung Hwan a chance. Don't make the term "Nice guys always finish last" come true. Huaaaa...uri Jung Hwan-i
My favorite love story is actually coming from Jung Bong and Mi Ok. Though somehow the story isn't really told a lot and specific, but their love story still gets me and makes me more smitten.
As for the actors, I have to say that Hye Ri does a quite good job. She's okay instead of awesome. But still....At least she's okay with looking dumb and silly in front of the camera. All the other actors are great. They give us a balance acting. Not too much and definitely not lacking. They play the characters as realistic as possible. Kudos for all the senior actors who are acting are guaranteed.
1 thing that I don't like is the fact that the duration of each episode is insanely long. Each episode can reach almost 2 hours. Holy camoly. Why don't you just make a movie for each episode so there will be 20 movies to watch. Geez.
Ah. I didn't expect that in the end, I will like this series though the previous two not as successful as this in attracting my attention. I cannot believe that I could laugh-cry-laughagain-andthencryagain every single time because of this. My eyes were really swollen. I cannot believe that I could stay still and finish the whole 2 hours for each episode. Haha. Good job, writer-nim, for this third series. Thumbs up!
Ps: Junghwan, we're meant to be. Hahaha
