K-Dramaland — Things I Liked About REPLY 1988 [JJ's Turn]

Things I liked about REPLY 1988 [JJ’s turn]

So I am at 15th episode right now. With a lot of discussions and involvements last two weeks, I roughly knew what to expect for the remaining episodes. It’s not very likely that I will change my perception, so, I will have a review on the positive points now, because the drama seemed to be at its peek at episode 13-15.

Actually, along with my friend, we have had a lot of arguments (during and even before I started to watch R88).I had R94 as my most loved one of Reply series, while my friend chose R88. I am not gonna change my choice, but it also takes a long writing to share what I love about R88.

1. EXTENDED DEFINITION of “LOVE”

With Reply series, I have seen the clear evolution in the inclusion of love and relationship. We started R97 with major focus on love lines and friendship. Then we had R94 with the inclusion of family, which I treasured the most in that edition. And with R88, we saw more of family (more siblings) and the neighborship.

I actually did not highlight the power of siblings in R88 until my friend alert me during our discussion on the “LIKES” (my bad!), but here and there, we pointed out many details on that topic. For a very rare occasion, we shared the same love for Bo Ra. Bo Ra is unconventional character for me, because in R97 and R94, the older siblings of female lead only remained in the memory, and they brought a lot of sadness (but valuable) to the series (suddenly, I remember that Sook-sook shares equivalent relationship with female lead to Noeul =)) ). Bo Ra brought the values and the pressures of the oldest sibling: to be the pride of the family, to be the one who sacrificed for younger siblings, and to be the one who wanted to do unconventional things (if joining protest and dating younger’s sister friend are counted). To some extended, I shared some similarities with Bo Ra, so I appreciated her.

About other siblings, I am not a fan of Jung Bong, but I enjoyed most of his scenes (and the fact that his name is quite near to ChilBong name made me laugh). His love with Jang Man Ok was joyful and hilarious as the same time. And who can resist cute JinJoo with all extra-large food & drinks???

Back to my point: the neighborship. I remembered one detail about Seoul people and neighborship in R94, but it did not the highlight, so I am happy that we had it in R88. Within the first 15 minutes of 1st episode, I was already impressed with the scene that food was shared among the neighborhood, what really made I miss my hometown a long time ago. The writer developed it so well that the connections among families are unbreakable, and it actually made us sad again, because we cannot experience those feelings much these days.

I laugh every moment when 3 eomma/ ahjumas sat together and gossiped random topics, 100% similar to my hometown. They brought the joy to the viewers, but as the same time, they reflected the care for each other, the indifference of families’ conditions, and the kindness of human being. It would be more interesting to see them, sometimes, angry with each other because of nonsense things, and then rejoin the gossips (or did I miss that kind of scene?).

The appas/ ahjushis looked to be overshadowed, but they have their own responsibilities, they had their strong care for family members, under those hilarious/ cheap looks. They can do 100 nonsense things, but for each father, I saw one highlight on the deep connection for their kids, as well as for the neighbor. I once thought that the legendary couple: Father Dong Il and Mother Il Hwa will lose spotlight. But it’s okay since they joined a bigger picture.

I will miss all the moments they have lunches/ dinners together with Miran eomma’s dishes (OMG, I loved the hamburger steak), every care the neighbor give to their precious gem” Uri Teak” or small Jun Jin,as well as all the “random conferences”. The reason is very clear; we cannot have those feelings nowadays. Ssang-mun dong is the reflection of what I experienced 10-15 years ago.

2. EVERY CHARACTER HAS THEIR OWN STORY

Actually, R94 already brought the variety of stories about the characters, but it’s more completed with R88 because we have strong understandings of the families’ relationship. And I appreciated that the writer and PD have developed each of the supporting character (but about over-developed Jung Hwan with the random ending, I will shared later), even random character likes Jang Man Ok, also had a very cute love.

Taking Dong Ryung as the example, I expected him to be a nerd like Bang Sung Jae in R97 when I started the series, but I was wrong. He’s actually a deep person with not-very-happy childhood because of neglect parents. But he’s been there to care for Teak, or advise Jung Jwan and Deok Sun. It would be more completed if he had some clear endings, but I cannot insist for all happy endings, otherwise there will be some random endings like ChilBong’s. Or mother Il Hwa, who was portrayed with more family concerns, comparing to the major gags in R97 and R94.

I once told my friend that, I love the whole R94, and now R88, but I do not share disproportioned love to any specific character (not like R97, I shared most love for JunHee!!!). And now I have my answer, I treasured the connections among them and each character gave me different lessons in life. Thus, I cannot classify them! (And within this post, I hardly mentioned the lead characters!)

3. UNEXPECTED LOVE LINES

To be honest, I am not very fancy with the question on husband’s identity. Everyone knew YunJae will be the one, Sseureki was quite obvious as well (actually I am glad that he is the husband). With R88, I already knew it’s Teak, and I have no special feeling as well!!! But beside that, I loved most of the love lines from others, just like Sam Cheon Po & Yoon Jin’s. It’s sweet one of Bo Ra and Sun Woo, the deep relation of Teak’s appa and Sun Woo’s eomma, or the “legendary” Jung Bong – Man Ok. We cannot clearly saw that when the drama began, but they developed so naturally. I like the fact that Shin PD did not overdo anything. People love other for their good and bad things, for daily connection, it’s something that happens in real life (not a long run husband-seeking game). And it’s funny to see many people hilariously considered Bo Ra – Sun Woo as the main love line.

4. MAXIMIZATION OF THE LOVABLE FACTORS FROM R97 AND R94

I will be very short of these points because they are clear to all people:

All the lessons about love, youth, family and relationship are valid and relevant to each people. And it will take 75936563463 posts to share about those lessons, so we have the Reply Challenges as well.

The link to Olympic 88 (funny thought here: Olympic 88 -> Hodori tiger -> Hoya -> JunHee kkkk), the student protest, the dethronement of Korean President… all of them are impactful and interesting to watch, even for foreign viewers.

Our legendary goat sound. Who can stop laughing for that???

All the memories of furniture, games, clothes…of year 1988, they crew did so well on this, just like R97 or R94. And, the language of that year, I believe. I am not Korean, but I identified some differences in the way they used words.

The repeat of some trademarks scenes: the confirmation kiss, the ginseng liquor, failed prediction of Dong Il father (I laughed hard when he again, predicted the future of Yoo Jae Suk), and especially, the massive meals of Il Hwa mother.

Many more that I cannot recall at the moment :]], but I also appreciated some not-so-relevant things in R97 and R94, which are skipped in R88

Thanks god that they did not put a “JunHee copycat” again. Binggrae was a well-executed character, he represented the uncertainties of the youth, I loved that. But the red car and “mixed” feeling for Sseureki, I am not very convinced. I am glad that Shin PD did not do the same this time.

No more idols/ sasaeng topic. ShiWon is the trademark for this topic, and everybody loved her for that. Na Jeong and Yoon Jin are also crazy for their idols, but their idols were just small part of R94. And now, no idols, only neighborhood stories!

5. SOME RANDOM THINGS I LIKE

I like the profession of Teak: Baduk or Go, just because I am a big fan of Hikaru no Go manga.

I like Teak’s room where all the kids eat, drink and sleep, just so memorable for me!

I like the swearing lessons, cannot resist laughing with those words from Teak, especially the “Michin Sekki”, it’s cute from every member of Reply gang to use this term.

I like all the food, especially hamburger steak (said before).

I like the gag on “DeokSun/ Sooyeon” name, and Jong Hwan’s cheating on Mi Ran eomma for allowance, so hilarious!

I like Sun Woo’s try for banmal with Bo Ra.

And 439572729 random things to be listed!

So that’s it. I will also have one post on what I don’t like, which I expected to be the same length, if not longer.

And to my dear friend, hope we can share some similarities. We already differed significantly with R88 ;;)!

[JJ]

Tags: 응답 하라 1988