Itaewon Class (2020)

As long as you are alive, nothing is a big deal

If you think living in general is bothersome, you should watch this. If you are fan of Park Seo Joon (although who isn't), you should watch it. If you like quirky and strong FL you should watch this.

This was an epic revenge drama made impeccable by flawless acting. Park Sae Roy in start is a school student who stand ups against bullying. This particular action of his starts chain of events which leads to sending him to prison.

Post coming out of prison, he starts his journey of opening a bar. In due course he meets FL and some other people who will help him realise his dream. Bar is around which story revolves.

Leia Mais

Enjoyable, rewatchable and I love it for the daring social representations

The story of a wrongfully-accused young man’s journey in realizing his 17-year business plan to avenge his father's death. He recruits his trustworthy friends and acquaintances to run a pub in Itaewon.

Life lessons are learned right away, we got introduced to our protagonists and villains. A lot happened to our male lead Park Saeroyi. I got invested and rooted for his life in every aspect: from his dad to his first love, to his dreams. He doesn't give up although unfortunate events happened to him. I also respect these villains characters, they’re smart and driving the plot significantly, keeping us guessing how Saeroyi can win.

Park Seo Jun did so well portraying Park Saeroyi. His calmness has a certain charisma that brought his friends to trust him as their leader. I appreciate the uniquely written DamBam staffs. Each of them has their unique background and motivations, which is not often portrayed but needed. We need more positive highlights on social diversity. I love all their stories, especially Jang Geun So.

There’s also a character briefly shown on the 1st ep but appear again later in the 3rd ep, Jo Yi Seo. She is quite hard to describe and you need to just watch her. Her mannerism, face expressions, fashion, her abrasiveness fits perfectly together. She’s tired of the socially-expected life of studying hard, going to university, work as hard as possible until you die. She even wish for the world to end so she wouldn't have to live that routine. Kudos to Kim Da Mi for carrying Yi Seo as a very authentic female lead.

My quibbles are, the ending was overdramatic, the car fighting scene was too long. Also, I never believe the romance as they’re perfect as friends, why can’t man and woman be friends? Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed Itaewon Class, it’s a great underdog story, with uplifting and awesome OST!!

Leia Mais

One of the best shows I've ever seen. Every of the show was unique & had a different vibe from the begining. There were no cliches or any similarity with other kdramas. Everything about the show was mind blowing. eye opening & moving. The OSTs inspired me a lot & after 'CLOY', this is the 1st show which's OST have me captured even after ending it. The story was spectacular. It broke so many social taboos & pulled curtains of a lot of ignored social problems. Every character was iconic & had very strong stories to tell. Even the villain was an amazing person & had a painful backstory. The message this show bears is important for everyone. Always stick to your beliefs, be yourself, you don't need others validation about who you are, live a life without regret whatever the consequences. I learnt a lot from this show. A must watch show. Worth watching again & again.

Leia Mais

Good plot, romance and FL r weird

I felt like I had way higher expectations of this drama that what it actually is... so this is not a typical story and it has its sad background but overall it's all about hope persistence and hard work and they show that really well

My only problem with this was mostly the FL, the actress is really good but the character was so unreasonable violent and ill-mannered and while she gets better as her development she was still really annoying (to me)

Another thing is the romance... when pairing a couple with an age gap usually they show how the younger one is responsible and the older one isn't mentally old but here it wasn't like that and it was kinda hard for me to like them and it got to a point where I didn't want to see any romance at all (coming from a rom com obsessed teenage girl) hence my low rating

Leia Mais

Have Tissues!

This has been on my “Plan to watch list” for a few months. Normally, with a lot of dramas, I’ll watch an episode or two, then decide if I’ll continue, or put it on hold. Or, I watch a drama, get bored and fast forward through most of it. But with this, I was hooked immediately, and didn’t fast forward once throughout the 16 episodes. It had everything I loved. It had revenge, which was the main theme of this drama, love, heartbreak, friendship, and best of all, an ending that tied up all the loose ends. Oh, and did I mention revenge?... Park Seo Joon was excellent as the main character, and his emotions and heartbreaks really played out well, and it made you believe everything he was supposed to be feeling. As far as revenge dramas, this is the best I’ve seen. If you aren’t into that kind of theme, don’t watch it. But if you are, it will satisfy you, especially the ending. There is nothing I would change about it. Just be sure to have tissues, because it is an emotional roller coaster of sad, happy, accomplishments, failures, failed love, happy love, pretty much everything!

Leia Mais

I really recommend watching this series for many reasons:

All the actors and actresses are great and they fit the characters so well. They all made me cheer, cry, hate and love them.
Even if the main lead, Saeroyi, was annoying at times, the actor, Park Seo-Joon, is amazing in the role. My favorite character, one of the main female lead; Jo Yi-So, who is played by Kim Da-Mi is a perfect fit too.

The music is one of the best in any kdrama I've ever watched, so many good ones, and it worked with the story as well and never felt like an odd choice.

When it comes to the story, I loved to watch the story of how cruel life can be, and how we never should give up fighting for what we believe. I love how our main character learns what's important in life. The only thing that makes me not give the story a higher score is because of all the love triangles I realized I didn't really care about. It made me annoyed many times how characters kept loving people that clearly wasn't good for them. When watching, I felt like a lot of the love didn't make sense. Why does she/he loves this person? It felt like they just loved for the sake of it, to cause drama. But other than that, this series is a roller coaster, and I loved every episode.

Leia Mais

I enjoyed Itaewon Class. It was not your typical K-drama focused on triangle romance, rich vs. poor and good vs. evil. Of course, it had all of those elements but the real story behind Itaewon Class is about a downtrodden good guy with a quest for revenge upon the powerful family that did him dirty. I f*** with this concept so I definitely enjoyed watching our "good guy hero," get his revenge. Does he ultimately get there? Well, you will have to watch 16 very long episodes to find out. Itaewon Class also progressively took on racism and transgender acceptance which I appreciated for being bold but felt like it was glossed over. Itaewon Class really missed a good opportunity to take the story to the next level.

The 16 episodes were an easy binge. They were long but they were entertaining enough to motor forward. The ending started to drag... A LOT. There were way too many flashbacks, repetitive conversations between characters, and dramatic slow mo editing, especially towards the end of the show. This drama could have done without all of that. I felt producers should have devoted precious minutes instead to all of those missed opportunities that I mentioned earlier.

Overall, I did find Itaewon Class to be a really interesting story. The main characters were easy to root for, the main villains were easy to despise. It did wear a bit on my nerves at how conveniently characters happen to be at the right place, at the right time. Main character goes jogging around the city, happens to conveniently run into female lead. Female lead flies off of motorcycle, conveniently happens to land on male lead. You catch my drift? Major eye-rolling ahead, people.

Anyway, I do recommend this drama. What else are you all doing anyway during this pandemic?

Leia Mais

Was Good At First...

I liked this drama at first and it was good enough to make me watch it all the way through. But it went downhill in the last few episodes. Most of the characters are annoying. (Not the actors/actresses. They did a good job portraying such unlikable characters.) The ending seemed so forced and rushed. No, it’s not the worst drama ever but it’s definitely not the top of anything. I guess it’s like when they make a movie based on books but in this case it’s a webtoon, What I’m saying is, I think the webtoon is probably better. I should read it and see for myself.

(I have nothing else to say but I need 500 characters...)

Leia Mais

POW!!

Park Seo Joon (PSJ), like I hadn’t seen him before. From “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim” to OMG Park Sae Ro Yi! I loved every second he was on the screen in this story. However, here’s what worked and what didn’t work for me:

What worked for me was the story of a young man coming out of the dark, sticking with his principles, and standing in his truth. I loved how his character accepted responsibility for any and all of actions. Lots of great learning themes like, “emotions, love, and expectations are not give and take.” All of the bad guys did an amazing job! I sincerely have come to appreciate the outstanding level of acting Asian actors bring when portraying the ultra-bad guy. As an American, many times I am actually screaming at the screen about the depth of evil doing portrayed in these stories. For me, if at the end all I want is the bad guys to pay in the worst way for their nefariousness, I give all that credit to the actors (Yoo Jae Myung, Ann Bo Hyun, and Won Hyun Joon). I will certainly be on the lookout to see them again.

Park Seo Joon (PSJ) is perfect (period) in his ability to portray the tortured, disappointed, hurt, and angry young man. Part of the intrigue for me was just watching PSJ tell this story. Toward the end though, I found myself growing weary of the revenge aspect in this character’s end game. All that hate and pain only lives as we continue to feed it. Was Sae Ro Yi ever going to grow and realize that he drank the poison and is still waiting for the bad guys to die. While one can exact a revenge plan of action, the emotional toll is heavy on losses and expensive. Overall, the interest to stay the course to end of this drama was PSJ. I will continue discovering his storytelling as a new fan of his work.

The IC team all grew accordingly in most instances in this story. I loved the diversity, however awkward at times it felt. The awkwardness felt authentic, appropriate, and timely with regard to being new to the medium of storytelling in this instance for the culture. I loved the loyalty, and again, the consistent message to be sure to follow your own path. Live the life that serves your dreams. No one owes us anything and we don’t owe anyone, especially some misguided “fielty” that might include deferring our dream in honor of expectations. This message made the story worth watching until the end as each of the characters would have to step into their own understanding of it.

Here’s what didn’t work for me. The love interests, period. I did not love Yi-Seo as a character and especially as any love interest. The one salient point she made was in some later episode where she tells Oh Soo Ah, and I paraphrase, “while you’re just waiting on homeboy to come riding in to save you from your own delusions, Imma stick right here by his side become what he needs, and watch his heart melt for me. And so, we saw that happen. However, I just couldn’t get into who she was as a character. Both of these ladies were equally annoying and insensitive, I was not rooting for either of them to win his heart. Again, chalk that up to the actors, Kim Da Mi and Kwon Na Ra. Bravo!! I didn’t really miss the usual sexual tension in this drama. I was more interested in Sae Ro Yi. I couldn’t see him winding up with either one of them. Loved seeing the actress, Kim Yeo Jin (since Vincenzo in a better light) as Yi Seo’s mother, however, that character was just as annoying and shallow.

While the message to take responsibility for one’s own outcomes in life based on those experiences that build character, it was sad that Sae Ro Yi and bad guy, Jang Geun Won, were kind stuck in the past emotionally.

I would rewatch only to watch PSJ’s lovely face, fabulous acting range and to admire his talent. Otherwise, no because the female leads are just too annoying and uninteresting.

The production, story and soundtrack are very good. That’s my fifty cents worth! Enjoy!

Leia Mais

There are a lot of things that i had a problem with in the drama. First of all, why is it that when two people are shown as competitors, they also have to compete for liking the person. like if they have good and a healthy dating life, they cant be competitors. What i hated was that the women in the drama although started off as powerful women, they were eventually reduced to love interests of the male characters. The fact that the female character described as young genius multitalented athletic strong sociopath who had been to various places and had friends of varying nationalities and gender/ sexual identities was portrayed as a transphobic racist in the begining was kind of hard to digest. It portrayed paedophilia in certain parts. Also the typical chabeol shit , about being portrayed as the negative character.
Although this drama tries to be like about how we should let go of racism and queerphobia and stuff, but its like too cliche and fails to achieve that aspect and ends up being a typical kdrama about the chabeol as the villian.

Leia Mais

A Perfectly Told Story, what TV Should Aspire to Be

I was absolutely blown away by this drama. It's the first full length show I've given a 10. With an incredibly unique story and satisfying romance, with interesting and diverse characters with multiple and changing dimensions, with setups and pay offs executed perfectly and just the right amount of unpredictability, I was drawn in from the beginning and gripped until the end. I fell in love with every character, loving the enemies while also hating them, and rooting those who were trying to change or overcome hardship. Every emotion, I was along for the ride. When the characters cried, I cried. When they cheered, I cheered. When they loved, I loved. It's perfectly done, and I wish every show I watched from this moment forward were just like it.

It's not something to be taken lightly when I say I liked all the characters. In almost every other show I've watched, even the good ones, I tend to find a single character I care about above all others, and so my enjoyment of the show hinges on their experience and actions and plots. This time around, I cared about everyone. Not only did every person feel real and developed, they each were reaching towards their goals, all of them pushing past their own hardships. Instead of feeling for the characters through their attachment with the protagonist, I felt each one of them as a person, through what I knew about them and what I knew they valued. Because of this strong empathy, I was able to experience strong vicarious emotions in every situation. No moment felt unjustified or unearned. This one element is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of any show, and what makes or breaks whether you even decided to watch it, and whether it is memorable and exciting. These detailed and empathetic characters are exploited to their full extent, producing moments that lift you into the sky or crush you into the ground or set you on fire with rage, all while maintaining a balance of conflict and resolution that isn't too taxing on the viewer. Even better is that each character changes throughout the show, completing arcs which are believable and well-earned. I could easily name each internal flaw they all faced, although this is a spoiler free review and so I cannot (you can bet if there were spoilers the whole review would just be me ranting about every specific detailed that I loved). Long story short, the characters are perfect, and that's what's really important.

Let me quickly mention the diversity, which was extremely welcome amidst the generally homogenous production of Asian dramas. Perhaps there still isn't as much as we're used to in the west, but you have to admit they're making great strides. Obviously I'm referencing the Afro-Asian character Toni (although this could have been handled a tad bit better in certain areas), but what I'm really impressed by is the transgender character, Hyun Yi. She, after helping the other protagonists overcome their own preconceived judgements, manages to overcome her own flaws and learn to be confident about her identity, and the show fully accepts this identity in a mature way. Especially considering the often biased views of many other kdrama regarding even homosexuality, transgender representation is just great to see.

I loved the plot. Holy cow. I won't say it's the most genius plot, I've definitely seen shows that are smarter, but this plot embodies all that a drama should strive for. A clear set of values, a core message or two, and a thorough and interesting exploration of all these things wrapped into an intense and exciting main storyline. Where other shows might drop the ball while trying to subvert expectations, and others still might crank out something mind-numbingly predictable, Itaewon Class toes the line between the two effortlessly, leaving you without a clue as to where it'll end up but still being satisfying, justified, and most importantly gripping. This is one of the few long-form shows which have managed to keep me interested enough to binge it in a few sittings.

I hope I've said enough to convince that this is well-worth a watch. Don't judge it by it's premise like I almost did and just give it a chance to snag you and pull you along. I one hundred percent love this drama and implore you to watch it, as soon as possible.

Leia Mais