Responde 1997 (2012)

I watched it in 2012 when it's aired and wait for every episode with enthusiasm ...i re-watched it 4 - 5 times because it was so good!!!
the plot
the acting and all the actors-every one of them
the producing
everything was perfect
it was perfect because it's like i can get into the real authentic South Korean modern culture and at the same time it was crossed with my culture , it's like i can see the connection that it's not so far and different.
The drama itself was refreshing and special in the Kdrama TV landscape off all the 11 years i'm watching Kdrama. it was more like the Kcinema production
it was like this because:
1. The story was special and original as if you can see it's real contradictory from other Kdrama that combine fantasy storyline
Yet it kept the humor and the ingredient used in Kdramas
it was like a salvation for the Kdrama at the time because it was for me at list the pick of the Kdrama,(addicted - i watched everything and know every drama there is....so i get tired from the same old plot
but this one was a sunshine through the rain. I also know that Korean people especialy from Busan (where is the story took place) love this drama a lot.
2. The acting was amazing...so moving , i love then the actor Seo In-guk at that time he was at his second role i've seen and i waited to see him on the screen...from then on i can't even watch him because this drama was so perfect and he is keep choosing bad roles . so this was his life time role (for now:)
3. the love story is not so far from reality i know couple who fell in love in hightschool and still in love so it was very real fro me
4. every episode make you want to know more .you don't know how it will end
love love love

Leia Mais

Maybe it was just overhyped to me

It seems like EVERYONE loved this show, it's possible that I could be nothing less than disappointed. And I was very disappointed. There were some positives, and I'll get those taken care of first.

Seo In Guk as Yoon Yoon Jae - I love him as an actor. He's got that cool, serious look about him; his smiles are few and far between, the intense stares always serve him well. I liked his character as whole. I loved when he realized he liked her, and his support of his brother, as well as his friendship with Kang Jun Hee were extremely special. SPOILER HERE - when he discovered that Jun Hee liked him, I really appreciated that he didn't treat him any differently and he still loved him as his friend, just as he had all along. END SPOILER.

Hoya as Kang Jun Hee - I don't know if it was the actor or the storyline that I liked in this instance, but I must say that this was my favorite story arc of the entire show. And I do not watch BL, so it wasn't due to that. He played the role with such sensitivity, and he valued his friendship with Yoon Jae, as well as Yoon Jae's happiness over his own. I'm so tired of characters that will do anything the can to get the person to like them, at the expense of the other person's happiness. To me, that's not love, that's obsession.

So, that's it on what I liked. On the other side of the coin:

Jung Eun Ji as Sung Shi Won - there was never a time in this entire show that I liked her character. She was pouty, immature and abrasive, and I couldn't understand why ANYONE would like her. Plus, I felt like she was playing the older brother, she didn't like him but still dated him. I could never tell when she started liking Yoon Jae, and even once she supposedly did, she was never nice to him.
Lee Si Eun as Bang Sung Jae - this character was irritating throughout the whole show.

Brothers and Shi Won storyline - older brother was just TOO old, so that storyline was creepy for me.

Lack of chemistry between the leads. Partially, this was due to their antagonistic love/hate relationship (which was not healthy, by the way), but I didn't see the attraction between them AT ALL.

Editing/poor differentiation between time periods - sometimes they told you what year it was, sometimes it was a small time period between the scenes, but I didn't think things ran cohesively through the story. For example, in one scene, they weren't even friends at that time, but he called her his girlfriend. She dragged him away, saying they needed to talk, and the next scene cut to something completely different. From what I could tell, the talk, where they would explain why he was calling her his girlfriend, never happened.

Language - I'll be honest, I don't understand why, even if curse words are used, they need to be translated. I don't like to hear them or read them. Men calling the girls B*tches - never a good thing.

Needless to say, I couldn't recommend this show to anyone, but I'm glad it was so famous, if for no other reason than to introduce others to Seo In Guk.

Leia Mais

당신이 좋은 이유? 그저 그 사람이라서. 바로 너라서.

I started this first part of the Reply family hoping to get to the bottom of the odious goat bleating sound effect that all the three dramas were riddled with. Needless to mention I didn't find its origins. It just exists. But I was very surprised to stumble upon a respectful representation of gay character Joon Hee. It would probably be a lot to ask for a happy ending of his love line in 2013, but at least there were no mocking or deliberately "awkward" situations to make fun of his feelings.

The main nostalgic attraction point of the drama is the first wave of K-pop with H.O.T. and SECHSKIES and cultivated insanity of K-pop fandoms. The female lead Shi Won spends a considerable amount of runtime in lines to concerts and fan meetings and makes it a part of her personality. The male lead Yoon Jae though spends most of the time struggling to confess his feelings to Shi Won, and by the end it gets quite annoying and stagnant. There is a lot of charm from the supporting characters because the writers don't shy away from portraying teenage awkwardness in relationships and "inappropriate" obsessions like porn tapes that influence their perception of dating.

I cannot leave out a giant walking screaming red flag that the teacher Yoon Tae Woong is. All the drama he is almost grooming Shi Won and buys her attention with expensive gifts so she, a high school student, would agree to date him, a rich adult man working at her school because Tae Woong's previous girlfriend was Shi Won's older sister who died. It's fucked up. And you know, it's obvious why Shi Won is susceptible to his grooming. Her own father is so crazy entitled that he finds it appropriate to tell his daughter she looks awful and to shave her hair for any "wrongdoing", and the boys in the drama agree with him. The grooming is portrayed as romantic and totally normal behavior while the dad's repulsive character is portrayed as humorous and caring. No, thank you, don't drag this shit to the next generation of K-dramas please.

If I had to rate the Reply series, it would go like this:
1. Reply 1988
2. Reply 1997
3. Reply 1994
If you have watched 1988 you don't have to look into the other ones as they're on absolutely incomparable levels of quality and you won't find anything new. But Reply 1997 is much more laid-back and gives you the vibes of both 2013 and 1997. It's a double nostalgia shot.

Leia Mais

Почему стоит смотреть?

Все дорамы этой серии (Ответ в 1988, Ответ в 1994, Ответ в 1997) являются топовыми. Рейтинги просмотров в Корее просто зашкаливали. Каждый из сериалов позволяет понастольгировать и погрузиться в атмосферу времени, в которое происходят действия (1988, 1994, 1997). События каждой из дорам никак не связаны и в каждой из дорам показаны разные семьи, хотя актеры в некоторых случаях могут быть одни и те же) Чем еще замечательны эти серии — показывают что происходило в данное время. Например, какие кпоп группы были популярны в 1997, как Корея праздновала победу в чемпионате мира по футболу и как переживала всемирный кризис. В общем,для тех кто хочет больше узнать о Корее — велкам =)

Leia Mais

Loved it even more than 1988.

But I can’t decide who’s more adorable, Shi Won or Deok Sun. It’s a tie. These K-pop idols have some great acting talent.

But Deok Sun made the better choice, picking the nice guy over the asshole. I hate Yoon Jae. He treated Shi Won like shit, shutting out this person who’s like his sister even though she did nothing wrong. It was because of his own dumbshit, self-centered psychodrama. She never asked him to fall in love with him, and he didn’t even tell her. So what, is she supposed to read his mind? What a selfish dick. And then when she finally tells him she likes him and asks him how he feels, he says nothing? Why doesn’t he take it out on his brother instead of on Shi Won? Shi Won would’ve been better off with Tae Woong oppa, who always acts like a kind, decent person. Or with Jun Hee, another kind and decent guy, but too bad for her he’s gay (that aspect was handled surprisingly well in this show).

And the last straw for me is when Yoon Jae basically date rapes Shi Won. Come on you ship seki, no means no. You can’t break into a girl’s house and force yourself on her when she keeps saying no. And of course, his loutish behavior is rewarded. But I guess things were different in Korea in 2005.

Also, I wish they had cut back on all the references to pooping and farting. I know it’s a cultural thing, but this show had way more than most.

Another thing that should have been cut was most of the boy band fangirl stuff. Sure, it’s a big part of the girls’ culture, but we don’t need almost an entire episode spent on them camping out at the awards ceremony and getting into all the details of the rivalry because that’s just boring and irrelevant to the main story.

Aside from that, there was an admirably small amount of filler. 1988 had way way more filler, which is one of the reasons I like 1997 better. 1997 focused on a more reasonably small number of characters and showed them behaving in more realistic ways.

Leia Mais

OBNOXIOUS show with no heart or character, the worst kdrama i have ever seen

I came to this having LOVED Reply 1988. The show and characters in 1988 have so much heart, which is why i was surprised at how dislikable, obnoxious and ugly as people the cast of 1997 are, and how empty the show is especially having seen good reviews. The main character shi won, is an extremely spoilt, superficial selfish moron, who is obsessed with some appalling manufactured kpop boyband. The show has lengthy segments where we are forced to endure some of the worst fake pop music you will ever hear courtesy of kpop: its like someone repeatedly ramming skewers through your brain. I get it that some young girls are into this stuff... but having to listen to generic manufactured music like the spice girls shouldnt be forced on any innocent human. She has no brain, but that in itself isnt a problem: its that she’s such a disgusting person. She spends the entire show being a complete bitch, bullying, manipulating and using people, pretending to be cute in that retarded way useless girls with a sense of entitlement do, and demanding things; she never once says thank you when someone helps her or gives her something, does anything for or considers anyone else and has a tantrum every time she doesnt get her way. The weird thing for me, is this character type is not unusual - it’s the classic high school bitch, you know the dumb vain superficial selfish girl, with no brain no talent and no taste who bullies everyone around her - yet here she is presented as the main character, rather than the villain, we are supposed to care about. I found myself really happy when anything bad happened to her. She is the worst, and the show improves slightly when she, and the idiotic boybands etc she obsesses over dont feature so much but its still terrible. Horrible pacing, no feeling, soulless manufactured story, completely one dimensional characters, and nothing remotely fun, or interesting throughout. It’s much like the kpop world it refers to. All the girls are similarly braindead, with awful taste - like the girls at school who were into boybands and unable to think of anything except make up, and most are similarly bitchy, though perhaps not as bad as her. None of the male characters have any depth either but at least they are less obnoxious and revolting than shi won. This show is like the exact opposite of 1988. It has no heart, no feeling, no soul, and is a very superficial irritating non-story about a group of intensely dislikeable idiots who care about no one but themselves.

Leia Mais

For the most part, I really enjoyed this drama, there was a point that I binged some episodes. It's not an amazing drama but it's good. I really enjoyed Shi-won and her parents relationship as well as the relationship between the friends, it was really refreshing to watch. I also liked how normalised Joon-hee's (Hoya) feelings for Yoon-jae were played out to be.

The thing I hated the most about the storyline was the relationship between the main girl and the older brother, it was SO unnatural and forced. Could the writers really not think of another way to lead the story???
There were a few scenes that felt like fillers towards the end of the drama, e.g. the encounter between Sung-jae and the old woman, their scenes had no significance to the story. Also, the scenes between the father and his older brother also felt misplaced.

The OST wasn't memorable unfortunately :/ but that's not really significant as the drama didn't have a proper original soundtrack of its own anyway.

Leia Mais

I was prepared to give this a lower grade because of the family infighting (mostly between the parents) that dominated the first part of the show and it brought back not so good memories. Also for the wailing (I mean wailing, not crying) and temper tantrums from the daughter that got on my nerves (then I remember that she was supposed to be a teenager). The flashbacks were a good ploy and created suspense but could be a bit confusing at times. But it redeemed itself past the 2nd half. Quirky and funny show about friends, brotherhood, and family, but all those sheep "baa" prompts could be toned down. Loved that it was not as cliché like a lot of dramas but a realistic portrayal of first loves, unrequited loves, and 2nd or 3rd loves. Very down to earth and practical and certainly not your run-of-the-mill drama.

Leia Mais

Brilliant!

Sung Shi-won is no Sung Deok-sun, but I still really enjoyed watching this drama. Although I thought it was quite obvious who the future husband would be based on the casting, I still really enjoyed the suspense. The OSTs were extremely nostalgic and while I am not from South Korea, some items and aesthetics of the set reminded me of my childhood.

Indeed, while Reply 1997 is not as good as Reply 1988, I still think that this relatively old drama is worth watching. Props to Director Shin for being able to capture the emotions of the audience so effectively. There were so many heart-wrenching moments because of how relatable the drama is, and even if I did not personally encounter those moments in real life, I could still feel the raw emotions that the director wanted to convey. The quirky moments were also quite funny and I wonder if "Daddy Long Legs" in Hospital Playlist was a reference to this drama.

My only 'complaint' would be that I hoped to see more on their families instead of just the main couple, but perhaps I wouldn't think this way if I had watched this before Reply 1988. Overall, still a fantastic drama. The Reply series will always hold a special place in my heart.

In summary:
What i liked - set, concept, cast, story, OSTs
What i disliked - could have covered more ground

Star of the show: Yoon-jae (the puppy), Joon-hee (played by Hoya)

Rating: 9.5/10
Watch if you want to cry

Leia Mais