K-Drama Reivew: Reply 1994

Written by Kidge.

Although this review feels a few days late, I think I needed that amount of time to process and recover from the experience of Reply 1994. It was at times the best and at other moments, most frustrating show of the year. I have no desire to upset anyone with my review, given the crazy nature of the fan wars. But I feel enough time has passed. Surely we are all just happy campers now…right?

Having given myself a few days to get over the several months of chain yanking that the writers of this show put us through, I can now comfortably say that I still loved this show. The fact that the whole, ‘who is the husband?’ drama was the central conceit of the show frustrated me. In fact I’m pretty sure most of the people watching this show were completely fed up by the end with the way they kept stringing it out. I won’t comment much on the husband thing, (don’t want to start any arguments now do we), but I will say that I was happy with the ending because I felt that was the way the show had been directed from the beginning. All the side streets during the middle half of the show and towards the very end, felt just like that, side street detours that would ultimately lead us back to the main highway. Not to say I don’t love those side streets. I would happily put my hand up for someone that nice and that freaking beautiful to look at, never mind adores me. Sigh. But I still loved both! How could I love the lead as much as the second lead? This is unheard of. Why show why??? My heart is still recovering.

Moving on. The thing that made this show great was the family that had been created at the boarding house. If not for the secondary characters, this show would have sunk under the weight of its own love triangle. It did sink to a slow crawl at times because of the crazy length of the episodes and some scenes, which the editors obviously didn’t take the snipping tools to. Despite this, I loved Haitai with his ridiculous hair and constant battles for love. His friendship with Na Jung was extremely cute and made for some truly heartfelt moments. Normally involving yelling and Samchunpo ora stupid dating decision by Haitai.

Speaking of Samchunpo: I really thought I was going to dislike this stick in the mud character. But who knew that when you mix straight laces with a terrifyingly controlling, tiny fan girl, you had comic gold and cute moments galore. Not I. But I have since been converted to the trend.

The parents are also comedy gold. Dad, why must you always yell? But apart from that, these two show a realistic marriage which has ups and downs but basically you live with each others faults. I love that. Plus they really are surrogate parents to the kids. I freaking love the fact that they all call them Mum and Dad. It is so comforting that Mum worries over them all and feeds them all waaayyy too much.

Binggeure. He was a character that I turned out loving, although wished that they had managed to do a little more with him. I really liked the way he pondered his sexuality because of his hero worship of Trash. Their puppy/mentor relationship was really cute.  It was a shame that they didn’t play out his relationship with DieDie over a few more episodes in order to make it land better with the viewers. As great as it was, I felt a little cheated because once they got together we like never saw them actually together. The cute cake scene was not enough for me.

If we could have spent more time on these side storylines and less on jokes that needed to be edited, and less time yanking our chains about who was the actual love line, this show would have been even better. I still loved it, for all the moments it did give us, like Reply 1997 cameos. I don’t think I have ever loved a cameo quite so much. I realised how much I missed those characters and was so glad to see them again. Sigh. Must re-watch.  

All told, I love this show. I love the characters, the music, the nostalgia, the substitute family and friendships which last a life time. The fact that I wanted to be a part of that family tells me that this show did most things right, even if there were a few frustrations and disappointments along the way.

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Mid-way Reviews: Reply 1994

Written by Kidge.

I freaking love this show. If I were in the habit of swearing (which I’m not) I would even use expletives to express that love.  But as I am a silver tongued soul, I will simply say that in recent months I have found myself hitting the refresh button on my browser at highly regular intervals on the weekend, in order to check whether the newly subbed episode has arrived yet. I can even be found raging at my laptop vigorously when it decides to overheat and die in the middle of watching said episodes, as I race down my stairs to find a less unreliable viewing instrument. Moving on.

I loved Reply 1997, so my expectations were quite high for this show, even at the beginning, and while the show is by no means perfect, it has managed to exceed my expectations. Which is no mean feat.

The show centres on a family who runs a boarding house in Seoul, which is inhabited by a motley crew of country individuals who are trying to find their feet in the big city lights as they attend university.  The main conceit of the show is the big question of who will marry the heroine? A tomboyish, straight talking gal played by Go Ara. This question is highly addictive, while also being responsible for many a charged netizen argument about which ‘ship’ will ultimately reign victorious. It is also accountable for my continual wish that I hadn’t started watching the show as it was airing, because I am now stuck, like an addict, waiting for each episode, hoping it will shed more light on the question.

And what a question it is! Unlike in Reply 1997, where I was convinced about who the heroine would end up with right from the start, Reply 1994 has successfully made me fall in love with both of the male leads. Oppa and Chilbongie have both cemented themselves into my heart so that whoever ends up with Na-jung, I will still genuinely feel the pang of bittersweet loss for the other. Given the most recent episode, I am feeling like the puzzle is starting to unravel, but I don’t want to call the game over before it’s really over, to paraphrase Yoggi Berra. Suffice to say that I frequently feel like I am melting into a puddle of goo when I watch these two, and their wonderfully played interactions with Go Ara. Well done, Jung Woo and Yoo Yeon-seok, you have ruined me for other male leads.

What is so fantastic about this show is that it is nothing like most other K-dramas out there. It is written and shot with a realism which you just don’t really find in most dramas. The characters and their relationships, platonic or otherwise, are the central focus of the show and the reason why you laugh, cry and generally find yourself completely empathising with their experiences. I truly love all the characters, with their bizarre idiosyncrasies. But mainly I enjoy their interactions with one another, and the way in which you can't help but want to be a part of the boarding house with substitute parents who look after you like you are their own.

The show has had issues with pacing. In reality I think they should have restrained themselves to 16 episodes, rather than the 21 we are now looking forward to. It would have forced the writers to use more concise plotting, and in particular ensure a slightly speedier reveal of certain characters feelings. Oppa’s opaque emotions were a serious frustration for a while there. Plus his motivations were quite weak. I actually think that this was in order to allow Chilbongie the room to grow and become a serious contender in the love triangle. Unfortunately though, I think this has negatively impacted on Oppa’s character and people’s willingness to be taken along with where the love-lines are now heading.

All of this aside, what this show has done so well, is take realistic moments in life and created wonderful characters that you can’t help but fall completely in love with.  Hands up if you stopped and laughed for a good five minutes when Na-jung farted in Chilbongie’s face. Yep, I was rolling on the floor.

So this is my mid way review of these two shows. I’m looking forward to the downhill run, and am pretty sure I will be devo when they are over.

But maybe you feel differently about these shows. Let me know what you think.

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