~ ITAEWON CLASS ~

 

 

~ 16/20 ~

Recommended by the K Family!

KOREAN TITLE: 이태원 클래스

ENGLISH TITLE: Itaewon Class

COUNTRY: South Korea

DIRECTOR: Kim Seong Yoon

SCREENWRITER: Kwang Jin

GENRES: Food, Friendship, Business, Romance, Life, Drama

EPISODES: 16

AIRED: January 31st, 2020 - March 21st, 2020

ORIGINAL NETWORK: JTBC, Netflix

DURATION: 70 minutes per episode

WHERE TO WATCH: Netflix

 

Main Cast:

• Park Seo Joon as Park Sae Ro Yi
• Kim Da Mi as Jo Yi Seo
• Kwon Na Ra as Oh Soo Ah
• Yoo Jae Myung as Jang Dae Hee

Supporting Cast:

• Ahn Bo Hyun as Jang Geun Won (1st son of Jang Dae Hee/successor of Jangga Co.)
• Kim Dong Hee as Jang Geun Soo (2nd son of Jang Dae Hee/DanBam part-timer)
• Lee Joo Young as Ma Hyun Yi (DanBam chef)
• Ryu Kyung Soo as Choi Seung Kwon (DanBam part-timer)
• Kim Hye Eun as Kand Min Jung (Jangga Director)
• Chris Lyon as Kim Toni (DanBam part-timer)

Brief Resume:

We follow the story of Park Sae Ro Yi, a young man whose life was turned upside down after he was expelled from school for standing up against a bully who turns out to be the son of his father's boss, the chairman of Jangga Co. His father is then killed in an accident caused by the same person who was at the origin of his expulsion, Jang Geun Won. Full of anger and sense of revenge, Sae Ro Yi will follow the steps of his father and open a Pub no matter what comes along the way, with taking down Jang Dae Hee as his ultimate goal. 

Many topics are treated in this drama such as the rich and the powerful VS the humble and the determined, tolerance, the business world, the importance of values, and many more. 

Diving deeper into the characters:

Park Sae Ro Yi

Sae Ro Yi, played by Park Seo Joon, is a man who always sticks to his values. No matter what the circumstances, he will always worry about his friends first. He never judges people (he's very tolerant) even if they have done things that harmed him which makes him seem very naive and stupid sometimes. He's also very ambitious and never loses sight of his goals, even if it might take a lot of time to achieve them. 

Oh Soo Ah

              

Soo Ah is an orphan and lives in an orphanage that was sponsored by Jangga Co and was very close to Sae Ro Yi's father. Because of her past Soo Ah always thinks about herself before others which led her to make decisions that would harm the people close to her. Despite her always deciding for herself, she never was truly happy, until the last episode where she finally did something right. 

Jo Yi Seo

Yi Seo is introduced as an incredibly smart girl who's also a sociopath (a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviour). She's younger than our previous protagonists and is friends with the second son of Jangga's chairman, Jang Geun Soo. She has many followers on social media and is very straightforward. She always gets what she wants and always knows what she does despite her young age. She is someone who would always be in the extremes: she either really loves someone or really hates someone, and she's either extremely nice or extremely rude. 

Jang Dae Hee 

Also referred as Chairman Jang, Jang Dae Hee is Sae Ro Yi's worst enemy. If we could describe him in three words it would be money, power, and Jangga Co. He is, in my opinion, one of the "best bad guys" we've ever had in Kdramas. He is powerful, smart (he still made a small pub become the most powerful company in the food industry), and evil. But he also thinks that money and power can make him invincible and doesn't take the human component into account when managing his business. This is what, in my opinion, made him lose the battle against Sae Ro Yi. Finally, this man is really heartless. Even when you thought that despite everything he would still care a tiny bit about his family, but he'll prove you wrong and sway this thought away from your head. After all, he'll always choose his company over everything else. 

Jang Geun Won

Geun Won is the first son of Chairman Jang. First introduced as a spoiled kid and a bully at school, his goal became to get his father's attention and to get recognised as the future chairman of Jangga Co. But his father never gave him credits for what he did and even worse, he cared more about what Sae Ro Yi was planning than what his son was feeling, which led him to act recklessly. Soo Ah not feeling the same way he felt towards her also didn't help in making him a better person. He had to take out his anger on someone and it always ended up on his younger brother.

Jang Geun Soo

Geun Soo is Chairman Jang's second son and Geun Won's younger brother. He's close friend with Yi Seo (they went to the same school) and loves her but never confessed his feelings. He's the complete opposite of his brother and his father. He never felt like he belonged to this family because no one really cared about him, not even his mother. So he moved out in a studio when he graduated high school and never accepted the financial help of his father, that's why he always took on part-time jobs. Geun Soo is a character you get attached to at some point, but he disappoints the viewer by being easily influenced. 

Ma Hyun Yi, Choi Seung Kwon and Kim Toni

Hyun Yi is DanBam's chef and was hired by Sae Ro Yi despite not having any previous cook experience. Later on in the story we learn that Hyun Yi is transgender male to female. Throughout the story she learns to assume who she is and how to overcome the stereotypes of the society. 

Choi Seung Kwon was also hired by Sae Ro Yi to work as a full-time waiter at DanBam. He is very clumsy and a bit out of place. Sae Ro Yi was his ex-inmate and hated him at first because of his constant optimism and determination. He thought ex-convicts had no future but Sae Ro Yi proved him wrong.

Kim Toni comes later in the story and wants to apply for the new part-time position. Because of his dark skin, the staff immediately thinks he speaks English and is a foreigner while he is Korean but has African roots. It is a good idea again to challenge the stereotypes, but they could've given him a slightly more important role. He kept on repeating hundreds of times "I AM Korean. My father is Korean. I can show you my ID."

The story:

Park Sae Ro Yi is a high school student who lives with his father and has to transfer to another high school because his father is going to work in Jangga Co's HQ. He ends up in the same class as Jang Geun Won and Oh Soo Ah. Because of his dream to become a police officer, Sae Ro Yi believes in justice and stood up against Geun Won who was bullying a kids in their classroom. Little did he know that this act will cost him a lot.  START OF SPOIL Chairman Jang comes at the school and accepts to let this slide on one condition: Sae Ro Yi has to kneel before Geun Won and apologize to him. He refuses and his father eventually loses his job but is very proud of his son. Sae Ro Yi's father decides to open a pub, something he always wanted to do. Unfortunately, he is killed in an accident by Geun Won. What's worse is that Sae Ro Yi will be sentenced to prison while someone else will be framed for Geun Won's crime END OF SPOIL.

Because he couldn't become a police officer anymore for a certain reason you'll discover when watching the drama, Sae Ro Yi decides to avenge his father and realize his dream to open a pub. He also swears that one day he'll take down Jang Dae Hee and his company Jangga Co. Several years later, Sae Ro Yi opens a pub in Itaewon called "DanBam" with a very "street" ambiance. He also reunites with Soo Ah he hadn't met for a long time. START OF SPOIL Sae Ro Yi knew Itaewon because Soo Ah talked about it in her letter she sent him while he was in prison. And as soon as he got discharged he went there on halloween and saw her. That's where she confessed to him that she wanted to work at Jangga Co. I personally would've slapped her and left, but Sae Ro Yi told her to do whatever she wanted because it was her life not his. And that's also where he explains that he plans to open a pub in seven years of time (no, that was not a joke) END OF SPOIL. The business starts with Sae Ro Yi as the owner, Hyun Yi as the chef and Seung Kwon as the waiter. 

Later on, Sae Ro Yi encounters Yi Seo who was a high school student when they first met. Yet again, Sae Ro Yi couldn't help putting his nose in a delicate situation where Yi Seo was about to slap a woman in the street. START OF SPOIL That woman was the mother of a girl who was a bully in her school. Yi Seo, who had more than 700k followers on social media, filmed the scene and exposed her daughter. That's why the woman was very angry and Yi Seo, in sociopath mode, slapped her END OF SPOIL. And because of a certain event caused by Yi Seo and her friends (that's also when Sae Ro Yi meets Geun Soo, the second son of the Jang family), Sae Ro Yi's pub will be suspended for a certain period. 

After the suspension, DanBam is running again but doesn't have a lot of customers, mainly because Jangga Pub has also premises in Itaewon. That's when Geun Soo and Yi Seo join the DanBam staff respectively as part-timer and manager. But just let me tell you that the probability you become a manager at 20 years old is extremely small. START OF SPOIL Geun Soo, who never felt that someone truly cared for him, saw in Sae Ro Yi the big brother he never had. He also wanted to make up for his mistake (you can't drink if you're under 20 years old in Korea and they presented fake IDs) so he asked Sae Ro Yi if he could work for him but told him it was just for money. And Yi Seo somehow fell in love with Sae Ro Yi (I personally think he was just an obsession) so she also asked him to work for him because she was constantly thinking about him END OF SPOIL. 

With the help of Hyun Yi, Seung Kwon, Yi Seo and Geun Soo, Sae Ro Yi will eventually overcome the hardships that will come along the way... but at what price? Watch the show to find out ;) !

My personal opinion

This drama has, by far, one of the best soundtrack albums. "시작" (start) by Gaho, "Sweet night" by V and "You make me back" by Woosung are some of my favourites. 

What's also great and I already mentioned it multiple times already is how the show represents the  represents the transgender community, how it exposes the stereotypes around foreigners and relationships with an important age gap, and how it denounces the whole scheme of the powerful and rich class vs the humble and "poor" class. 

I also like the messages conveyed through this show. Determination and values are key to success in your personal as well as in your professional life. Also, they show us that there's a huge difference between being ambitious and being hungry for power. Being ambitious doesn't mean forgetting your values along the way and being ready to commit the worst actions possible, but being hungry for power can truly turn you into a person whose sense of humanity is at its lowest. 

The sets are realistic and match the storyline. It would've been weird to have a scene with extraordinary backgrounds, however I have to give credits to whoever did the graphics for the opening. Whoever did that deserves a praise.  

Now, there are two things that bothered me A LOT in this drama: first the female leads, and second the ending. I don't know why but a lot of great dramas are ruined by their ending. It is way too dramatic and unnecessary! It really ruins the realistic aspect of the story. I mean, there was already this scene in episode 2 that was way too unnecessary (if you're sensitive to animal abuse, skip the part from 22:10 to 27:05) but there was no need to add an extra layer. START OF SPOIL This whole kidnapping idea just to make Sae Ro Yi suffer shows how much Geun Won was desperate, but in a world where the only way to survive is to be smart and have a plan it doesn't work. Instead of making your son twisting the head of a chicken, you could've made him smarter you stupid old man END OF SPOIL. 

Last but not least, the two female leads. I would say that one is really stupid and selfish (Soo Ah), and the other... is a psycho mixed with an obsessed sociopath (Yi Seo). No but seriously, Soo Ah always thought about herself and never about Sae Ro Yi. If you want to live your life fine, but don't expect a guy to abandon everything he has just to follow you and be with you. If you really love someone you should be ready to do some sacrifices. She never did. Well, not until the last 5 minutes of the last episode. She always acted like Sae Ro Yi didn't give a damn about her feelings while he always did and she never felt bad for what was happening to him even if her boss was behind all his problems. I wanted to slap her so many times. And Yi Seo... it's like she forced Sae Ro Yi to like her. Their "couple" didn't seem sincere to me. Yi Seo might have had true feelings for him, but Sae Ro Yi is too kind with everyone and loves everyone so I'm not so sure he made the difference between attachment/attraction and true feelings. And even though Yi Seo is incredibly smart (I'll have to give her that), she is, most of the time, rude and doesn't take into account other people's feelings. START OF SPOIL There was this scene where Sae Ro Yi and Yi Seo went to see the police officer who tried to solve the case in a fair way but was put back in his place by his superior. Yi Seo asked Sae Ro Yi about his story, and she literally cried. Well, I personally didn't believe she was sincere END OF SPOIL.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, this drama is not one of the most successful dramas of 2020 for nothing and I believe it has won many awards. I couldn't grade it higher than 16/20 because of the points I mentioned earlier, but I still highly recommend it to you. The actors really did an amazing job, especially Ahn Bo Young who was also praised for his role in the Kdrama "Extra Curricular" (which is one my watch list). 

That's it guys, I hope you enjoyed my review of the drama Itaewon Class! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and if you haven't seen it yet I hope you will. 

Love, Swan

Sources: Mydramalist, Wikipedia, Netflix

~ ANDANTE ~

 

 

~ 16/20 ~

TITLE: Andante

COUNTRY: South Korea

DIRECTOR: Park Gi Ho

SCREENWRITER: Park Sun Ja, Kwon Ki Kyung

GENRES: Comedy, Romance, Youth, Drama, Melodrama

EPISODES: 16

AIRED: September 24^th, 2017 – January 7^th, 2018

ORIGINAL NETWORK: KBS1

DURATION: 60 mins per episode

WHERE TO WATCH: Kissasian, Dramacool

 

Main Cast

• Kim Jong-in (aka Kai from EXO) as Lee Shi Kyung
• Lee Ye Hyun as Lee Shi Young
• Kim Jin-Kyung as Kim Bom
• Baek Chul Min as Park Ga Ram

Supporting Cast

• Jeon Mi-Seon as Oh Jung Won (Shi Kyung and Shi Young’s mother)
• Seong Byeong Sook as Kim Deok Boon (Shi Kyung and Shi Young’s grandmother)

 

Brief Resume

Andante tells the story of a slacker city kid, Lee Shi Kyung, and his sister, Lee Shi Young, who are suddenly transferred to a high school in the countryside. They move out with their mother, Oh Jung Won, and end up living in their grandmother’s house, a grandmother who doesn’t seem to get along with her daughter-in-law and who’s reluctant in welcoming her and her two children in her house (but ends up doing it). While our two high schoolers have trouble adjusting to their strange new surroundings, they will be able to count on their new friends Park Ga Ram, the town’s golden boy, and a mysterious girl, Kim Bom. Together, they will understand the true meaning of life and love.

The story itself is pretty down to earth with a lot of real issues being discussed such as illness and love in all its aspects. The romance is not too cheesy thanks to the unconventional character of Bom and the incredibly stupid but loving character of Shi Kyung. And as the story goes on, each character has its time to shine and we get to know more about everybody’s secret garden. If you you’re an adept of rom-com dramas, this one is for you.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The new surroundings of our two high schoolers are, to say the least, strange. First thing Shi Kyoung notices when arriving to the countryside is a girl hanging on a tree branch. The action takes mainly place in the school where students lay down in their coffin, pretending to “rehearse” their funerals” and the hospice, where Shi Kyung’s mother will work as a caretaker. In this hospice are many ill people, and I like how we get to know their stories, how did they end up here, what are their relationships with their family and how some of them preferred to go through their illness alone not to make their loved ones suffer.

The ending is predictable and expected. Bom loses her fight against brain cancer, Shi Kyung is devastated, but in the end, this happens in our everyday life. People die from cancer every day, and of course their loved ones are deeply affected. But life goes on. The only heartbreaking thing is that everybody had the time to prepare themselves as they knew about Bom's condition, but Bom died only two episodes after Shi Kyung found out.

 

Diving deeper into the characters

Lee Shi Kyung

Kai’s character, Lee Shi Kyung, is a typical high schooler who doesn’t care about school and grades, but rather how to conquer the heart of that mysterious girl who tickled his curiosity. It’s really easy to get attached to him, maybe because he’s desperately trying to recall memories of his dead father, and maybe because even if he’s really clueless about real issues in life he still has a big heart and wants to help everyone starting from Bom.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

There’s this scene in episode 14 where Bom and Shi Kyung are eating together and Bom can’t grab her fork because her hand starts trembling. Shi Kyung doesn’t notice anything and she asks him to feed her while hiding her hand under the table. This almost made me cry. Shi Kyung can sometimes make you cringe and I know it can bother some people (I think of one scene in particular where after discovering Bom’s brain cancer, Shi Kyung runs to the school and starts screaming and throwing everything in the air but in such a cringy way), but it didn’t seem forced to me. I think it’s because Kai has this “funny side” of Shi Kyung in him. If he’s not on stage, Kai can be really shy and can goof around a lot so I think he embraced Shi Kyung’s role really well.

Finally, his relationship with his mother is the typical relationship any son could have with his mother, as well as his relationship with his sister and his grandmother so this really adds to the realistic aspect of the drama.

Kim Bom

The first encounter the viewer has with Kim Bom in the drama is, to say the least, strange. Mysterious, secretive, and bad-ass are the adjectives that came to my mind during the first couple of episodes.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

But throughout the story we learn that her mother remarried after her father died and doesn’t seem to care about her, that her father died from brain cancer and that she has the same illness and will soon die. You may not like her at first, but in the end, you’ll understand that she’s just a girl who wants to live a life as normal as possible and as long as she can. Kim Jin-kyung (the actress playing the role of Kim Bom) surprised me with her acting skills. Her acting was really credible and she was really in control of her emotions. Whenever she felt sad, I’d feel sad too. Whenever she laughed, I’d laugh too. Whenever she felt lonely, I’d feel lonely too. That’s the power of good acting.

Shi Young and Ga ram

Shi Young and Ga ram had their own love story in parallel which I found refreshing. We would escape from Bom’s and Shi Kyung’s touching but heavy relationship and spend some refreshing time with those two.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

One scene I loved is where Ga ram and Shi Young went to the library after a bicycle lesson for Shi Young and found a lunch box on Shi Young’s seat. It was obviously prepared by Ga Ram and Shi Young was there like “my mother isn’t the type to prepare a lunch box for me”. It’s a small detail but that’s what makes the drama refreshing. And they also each fulfilled the roles of Shi Kyung’s and Bom’s best friends perfectly. In the last four episodes Bom’s condition worsens and she has a seizure in Shi Kyung’s house. She runs to a room and collapses in front of Shi Kyung’s mother who has been taking care of her at the hospice. Shi Young arrives at the scene and her mother tells her to close the door and keep an eye on her brother who still doesn’t know about Bom’s brain cancer. I will always remember the sadness in her eyes to see her friend like this, but most of all to hide everything to her brother.

Shi Kyung's and Shi Young's mother

I think this character is my favourite one after Shi Kyung. Not only she was Shi Kyung and Shi Young's mother, but she acted like Bom's mother once she found out her biological mother didn't really care about her. Yes, she was harsh on Shi Kyung because he wasn't the perfect student and because she wanted him to be a bit more like his sister (even the school's supervisor asked Shi Kyung if he really was Shi Young's brother because they were totally different personality-wise but especially grade-wise), but any other mother would've acted like this. She protected him like she could until the end. 

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

There was a scene that particularly touched me in episode 14 where she was talking to Bom's mother about Bom's cancer. She said "I contacted you because you're a fellow mother. I thought you would be heartbroken if you found out after Bom passed away. Now having met you I see I was worried for nothing. Until the last moment of Bom's life, I'll be the one to protect her." The words of a true mother.

The actress, Jeon Mi-Seon, unfortunately passed away last year due to suicide (she appeared in many popular dramas like Chicago Typewriter, Reply 1988, School 2015 and He is psychometric).

 

My personal opinion

I knew about this drama because of Jong-in (aka Kai from EXO) since EXO was, alongside BTS, one of the first Kpop groups I got into. At first I thought it was an excellent dramas without any major flaws to it because I didn't have much experience with Korean Dramas and Asian Dramas in general. But looking back, I think I might have wanted to skip some details. They would sometimes add so many side stories of ill people who were in the hospice that it would make you lose interest and want to go back to the main story. Those side stories might add some “emotional moments” but at the end of the day they would all, more or less, convey the same message.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

I would’ve also wanted to see more of Bom’s mother. When Shi Kyung’s mother meets with Kim Bom’s mother to tell her about her daughter’s illness, Bom’s mother replies saying that she did everything she could for her but that she reminded her of her lost teen age days because she got pregnant with Bom and married a man she didn’t love. I wanted to see more of her life now and to judge by myself if she was taking that much care of Bom or if she was just living her life as if she didn’t exist.

Overall, even if the budget didn't seem very consequent, it is a drama that shines through its characters and its storyline despite the lack of complexness. If you just got into Kdramas I highly recommend it to you, and if you have some experience you might get bored but you should still watch it (in my opinion).

Take care, and I'll see you all soon!

Love, Swan

 

Sources: Mydramalist, Wikipedia