Itaewon Class (2020)

Impressive array of emotion and depth, exceptional music.

My favorite Kdrama song so far has come from this series. I am a bird, yo, now cook me some fries! How you make a song with such weirdly shallow lyrics so beautiful I will never know, but it's absolutely stunning to my rock-beaten eardrums.

The Kdrama itself has such a deep, expansive, and compelling storyline. The lead actor is exactly perfect for this role, he's basically a world-wise older brother who quietly, slowly, but persistently moves through life past every failure to success. The lead actress, at first I thought she was a side-character. Her character is both fun and annoying, she's a legit shallow brat at the start. But her character arc is exceptionally well executed and she ends up being the anchor for the entire drama. The actress delivers an absolutely masterful performance that has such a broad range from child to brat to growth to powerhouse. Both the main leads have such growth and intelligent story arcs that you feel like you are watching people actually progress through life. The whole thing was really well done.

I went into this drama like...wtf Itaewon Class?? I don't want to watch a school drama...I don't want to watch a cooking drama...meh this sounds boring. But it got such good ratings I decided to give it a shot. Boy is it nothing like its title. It's not a story about cooking, and definitely not a story about cooking, it's an inspirational story of overcoming absolutely devastating life challenges. Not by supernatural ability or even astounding talent...they overcome every challenge by sheer force of will and dogged persistence. It feels like it's a story about actual people that could actually exist.

The best part about this drama is watching the growth of the lead and side characters. You're anchored by the male lead and you watch as the other leads and side characters like water moving around a rock in the river. They are often so far from where he is at every step, and yet he brings them all into his gravitational pull and they end up with such a deep cohesion that you literally want to be one of the planets orbiting the sun that is the lead.

Dude does have the worst haircut of all time. Couldn't avoid mentioning that. Someone at some point needed to take this dude to a barber in the show so we'd all get to stop looking at that truly disastrous fringe. I didn't knock any points off for the bad hair though, since clearly it fit with the character's personality....but come on...

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I am a huge Park Seojoon fan, let me start by saying that. But, I am not a blind fan and I can acknowledge his faulty dramas (Hwarang I am looking at you). I don't normally write reviews for shows I don't love either, but I just feel so strongly towards this.

In the beginning, honestly this was a great show. I was in on it, even if both the female leads annoyed me to no end. However, I could acknowledge the distinctive characters, especially Yiseo who was a refreshingly unique, and although we didn't see eye-to-eye (she is a damn sociopath), I would prefer her character over a typical candy girl. However, it almost felt like her character was being forcibly redeemed through the loveline to show her less manipulative aspects but it seemed obvious and awkward. Her character was refreshing in the beginning, but became whiny, childish, and completely annoying. And honestly, I was not asking for her character to change or suddenly become kind, because, again, that would be unrealistic. But, what I would have liked is not some sort of general acceptance of her character, as if she was somehow good or "badass". She was constantly shown to get whatever she wanted without consequences, and I would have much preferred she didn't "get" Saeroyi. It would have been so much better as a plot device to almost "atone" for her actions and realize she can't have everything. Just finished watching Misaeng, and there are so many characters I absolutely despise in the beginning but now naturally love/like, and it really did not feel forced, I almost did not notice I now liked them. Comparing that to Itaewon Class just made her character's awkward growth even more evident. Saeroyi's sudden turn of feelings towards love seemed so sudden and so forced, they should have left their relationship as coworkers and completely omitted any romance, even with Nara's character. I would have much preferred they shown her as a first love that he now knows is in a different situation from the past and let her go. The themes of camaraderie, friendship, and loyalty were so much stronger than the romance, and were the strongest aspects of the show. They should have continued to built slowly on that instead of the uninteresting romance.

Saeroyi's character was also not the strongest, he felt like a typical Shounen lead. However, it would be a lie if I say I didn't love Park Seojoon's version of the character; much like Naruto, even though it felt kind of annoying watching him accomplish so much based on stubborn goodwill (because that is really not how life works), it did feel rewarding watching him win and did put a dopey smile on my face every time seeing him happy. Jang Geun-soo's character switch into becoming an antagonist was also so sudden and his reasoning did not seem enough to make such a drastic change.

The acting was great, Seojoon was incredible (although that is a bit biased). Yoo Jae-myung as CEO Jang was also great and Dami played her role well too. Nara still has a way to go, I was not sold on her acting. The supporting cast was also decent, some stronger than others.

Considering the story, in the beginning it was really interesting and I was really glad it covered inequality, corruption, and also a lot of societal issues. But, eventually the show began to battle itself trying to become too "woke". And often times, the marginalized characters like Toni were shown to be discriminated against, but then the problem was quickly swept under the rug. It felt as if the issue was half heartedly added to make the show superficially look "aware" without actual thought and care being added to exploring it. The fact that the main female lead was openly discriminatory but became nice at the end simply because she saw some profitable value from the people she unjustly disliked was not enough redemption or a valid reason to gloss over the issues. Again, the plot felt very Shounen manga like, i.e. unrealistic problems being thrown at the lead, while predictable solutions just happened to be there too. (What are the chances the guy he saved from being bullied just HAPPENED to become an excellent investment manager, making him lots of money, and still being connected to the other CEO lady? What are the chances that the boy who he just expelled for punching was also the same person that ended up killing his father?).

Overall, I was excited in the beginning and genuinely enjoyed but at the end, watching became a chore so I dropped it with 2 and a half episodes left. I love you Seojoon, but this was not my cup of tea and I really hope your next drama makes you shine brighter than this did.

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My dude. Where do I start? The series was so promising at the start. Probably could have been one of the best KDramas ever. I don't know what the fuck the writers smoked to come up with the most cliched drama bullshit love story after the 4 year timeskip. The series was going so well, the characters were well made, nobody was overly good or overly bad. The love story seamed to either go towards the initial love interest or towards a no love interest at all. Then, out of nowhere. We get a dumbass timeskip and suddenly the main character who has loved a certain character for over 10 years and has been shown in the series to love that character suddenly does not do so anymore? Seriously? and then to top it all off, we get the most forced "its the end of the series we gotta have some high stakes action" bullshit ever. This just took me out of the series and reminded that I am not watching someones creative work. I am watching someones soulless commercial bullshit that just attempted to appease the fans of the show when it was airing. What a disappointment.

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This is NOT a drama for those looking for cliche romcoms, as romance is not a central part of the story.

Itaewon Class is about fighting for what you think is right, even when everyone else is against you. It shows the best and the worst of the Korean society and humanity itself. It's proof that there's no good or evil, but people who make the wrong choices, and that it's easy to judge without knowing what the other person is going through. It shows the importance of our choices - if you make a mistake, you should take responsibility for your actions, but if you are doing what you think is right, no matter the outcome, you'll have no regrets. And above all, it has a very clear message: there's nothing you can't do if you try hard enough, you just need the strength to get up again every time you fall.

The characters all have their own stories, and they are perfectly played by the actors.

The OST is good, I might even add the songs to my playlist now that the drama is finished!

I'll definitely rewatch the drama in the future, especially next time I feel like giving up.

Thank you for reading!

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Promising Beginning but Don't Expect so High

IC got a promising start but went downhill later on. That's one of the flaws of most kdramas, they give you a very good start then mess it up in the later parts.

The things that I personally find that ruined the drama are these:

1. nonsense love triangle

2. Saeroyi achieving his goal through luck and connections

3. ridiculous characterization for Geun Soo (I feel bad for him, his initial character got so much potential but there's not quality development)

4. time skips

5. lack of chemistry between Saeroyi and Yiseo, I like them better as just business partners and friends

6. Soo Ah, Ho Jin, Hyun Yi and Toni's grandma are the key characters to actually destroy Jangga (especially Soo Ah), not Saeroyi

7. the nonsense kidnapping and fighting scene on the last two episodes

The things that I like:

1. strong and motivating beginning
2. versatility and inclusivity of issues
3. marketing strat (in the first half)
4. Dae Hee's kneeling
5. actor's acting
6. Saeroyi's consistency with his beliefs and attitude (except w/ the romance part)
7. APPEARANCE OF PARK BO GUM (LOL)

How I wish it happened this way:

1. Saeroyi learned business and marketing while reading books in the prison (I was expecting that at least he learned something after going out of the prison, it turned out that he just read Dae Hee's book. He just turned out to be a clueless businessman with a high dream but didn't even know the "basics" if not because of Yiseo).

2. Soo Ah being front to her feelings (I can't blame Saeroyi why he fell for Yiseo in the end, bcoz Soo Ah did nothing for Saeroyi).

3. No love triangle (or at least just subtle, but the drama gave emphasis to this).

4. Geun Soo's drive to be better so that Yiseo will see him, not an evil kid that he become like his dad (his character is so lame, I had so much hope for him at first bcoz he's different from his family, but he turned out to be one of them still).

5. Saeroyi destroyed Jangga bcoz of his beliefs that he learned from his father and from his life, his hard work, his knowledge, and most importantly, HIS COOKING SKILLS. He's given the potential to be a good cook and make signatured dishes. Unfortunately, it is Hyun Yi who made IC get its first investor.

6. Romance would work out better if they stick out with the initial expectations.
- Saeroyi being faithful to his promise to Soo Ah
- Soo Ah being transparent even a bit to her real feelings and helped Saeroyi behind still
- Geun Soo not being so blinded to his feelings toward Yiseo, and
- Yiseo respecting Saeroyi's space and appreciating Geun Soo

7. If not the number 6, at least they should have developed Saeroyi and Yiseo's relationship better. It felt forced and sudden. It didn't feel so natural for me.

I enjoyed a lot of Park Seo Jun's dramas, and Itaewon Class is pretty decent. But it's memorability and impact are not that much for me. I expected too much after enjoying watching Fight for My Way and Hwarang T^T

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The FLs

I really don't know where to start but I'll start with the story, the story was honestly really attractive and that too with a character like Seroyi made it enjoyable to watch in the beginning.

But the cliches in the drama didn't go unnoticed. I'm talking about the cliche where the writer tries to make the second FL into an "annoying" character, to make the main couple everyone's OTP, I was honestly expecting this but the Uniqueness of each character at the beginning made me think this wouldn't be the case. Even with how much, they try to make Soo Ah an annoying character I feel like she was a well-developed character, she knew what she wanted, went for it, and made it happen. Which I thought was something that made her and Seroyi similar.

Now, Jo Yi Seo, I'm gonna be really honest about her character. At the beginning of this drama, I loved Jo Yi Seo, cause she had an IDGAF attitude, she didn't let anyone take advantage of her or anything and that was totally lovable about her...Until she made something I believed was a transphobic statement towards Hyun Yi, a lot of people try to defend this action by regarding the development of their friendship, they became friends, good, but I don't remember watching any scene Yi Seo apologized ( correct me if I'm wrong). Not only did she do that she also made an offensive statement to Toni about his skin color, this seriously made me mad, what made me even madder was that there were some drama stans trying to defend this action.
(This might give anyone out there the impression they could say this to others).

This could also count as a pattern I noticed in some of 2020 Kdramas. And that is when it's so obvious that the writer is trying so hard to make the FL into a badass, and due to this reason these characters make an offensive statement but it's covered up with the fact that they're "Badasses." I Just Want Y'all to know a character could be cute, sensitive, respectful, and also be a Badass.

And for those who still feel like they had to hate Soo Ah or Jo Yi Seo for the sake of their ship, STOP, it's just childish at this point. I know it may seem like I'm hating on Jo Yi Seo I'm not cuz she's just gonna be a fictional character at the end of the day and due to the reason that I thought she was gonna be my fave character I wrote this review and I really think if Jo Yi Seo's character wasn't like data, she would have had amazing chemistry with Soo Ah, I have my reasons.

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I don't even know where to begin.....

How does one ruin a show that's starring Park Seo Joon, Kwon Nara, and Kim Da Mi? Well we have to give it to the writers of this show


Story

TRASH. Straight up fucking Trash. A story that looked beautifully written in the first 2-3 eps, and just went on a downhill spiral from there. The closest I can compare the quality of the story is to Bride of the Water god's: a fucking joke.


Acting

The show had good actors, even the supporting ones. I'll give them a pass: They all played their characters right, the story just brought them down. This is definitely Park Seo Joon's worst drama up to date


Music

The saving grace of the show (if there is anything left to save lmao). Good OSTs


Rewatch Value

No, I will not re-watch 16 hours of trash.


Overall

If you want a drama that's not sci-fi, but as unrealistic as a sci-fi is, then watch this shit show

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Worth your time, but not very memorable

This show will leave you with mixed feelings. It's both brilliant and disappointing, poignant and underwhelming. There are moments charged with emotional intensity sandwiched between scenes of unreal cheesiness. Sometimes the show trips up over its own habitual need to make the characters look cool. Other times, it sells a human story of how grief and vengeance can share an unhealthy relationship with each other.

I should start, perhaps, with the things that I enjoyed. The highlight was always going to be Park Seo Joon because how could it be anyone else? I watched him in Fight for My Way and he is even better here. His character is a sympathetic one, struggling to hold onto his principles because that is the only way he can honour his late father. Their relationship seemed interested but would have been better had it been fleshed out over an episode or two. Understandably, a lot needed to happen so this could not be done.

Kim Da-Mi as Jo Si-Yeo grew incredibly on me. Her character was the heart of the show in that as the story did, so did she as a person, learning to see the way as Park Saeroyi did. The show wrote her character - for the most part - really well and the scenes with her never disappointed.

I also appreciated how the show tackled tropes both in the social sense and how a kdrama show is meant to be. It delved into what it was to be transgender, as to whether ethnicity constituted nationality, rather too simply sometimes but quite well. The humanity of the protagonists shone through here. I also liked that the first love isn't the one he ends up with - although I'll get onto the problems of this later.

The music also complemented the show's tone quite well and bears similarities to Start-Up. But now, let's get onto the problems of which three existed:

1) the show moves too fast. A single episode can sometimes cover years. It leaves characters seeming static. Or sometimes a problem is encountered and then resolved too efficiently. Other things are not actually shown but swept alongside too quickly. How did they first fare as a new pub with customers was sped along. The business plan to go global wasn't shown but just told through an accelerated process. His time in prison. Throughout the show, there was this nagging sense of things rushing at a ludicrous pace while the characters themselves didn't change much.

The next problem is the love triangle. I liked Soo-ah's character at first. As an orphan, her need for survival as an independent woman was understandable. But we never saw her backstory so it was a case of telling rather than showing, which this show suffered from. The whole thing about her joining Jagga Co never added up to me and it culminated in her becoming increasingly hard to sympathise with. Had she joined to protect Park Saeroyi, it would have sufficed as an explanation, considering her own affection for both him and his father. But it was done by her need to survive. Which seemed strange because she could have done that anywhere else.

The show's rapid progress through time actually worked worse for her too. While others around her changed to some extent, she never did. She remained the quiet, silently suffering secretary of a boss she hated, a deeply immoral man who she wouldn't break away from. And so you come to realise that the love triangle wasn't really a triangle because there was no way she could have ever deserved Park Saeroyi. She never did anything for him, but instead for years waited, made him suffer, continued to wait, continued to serve a man who covered up the murder of someone who looked after her, and became increasingly difficult to sympathise with. Her conversation with Yi-Seo towards the end of the show highlighted this: whereas Yi-Seo was doing everything for Saeroyi, she did nothing. She might have been there with him from the beginning but she wasn't there for him. This was the underlying difference between both the women and why the love triangle, though done with nuance, became clear as to who would deserve him.

The final problem, which I'll keep brief is the conflict of the last couple of episodes. It was an unnecessary way to tie up everything because it didn't fit in with what the show had been doing. It was ridiculous and damaged my view of the show.

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I was so drawn by this show and just kept watching it. The first episode captured me into the story wanting to know what is going to happen. This story started from want revenge to ending up finding a found family at the end. I also loved that they add diversity to this show.

The OST was one of my favorites, maybe even one of my top 5. My favorite song is Sweet Night by V and Begining by Gaho.

Park Seo Joon is one of my favorite actors and I loved how he played Sae Ro Yi. Sae Ro Yi is one of my favorite character in the show he very true to himself which and his values. He has a positive effect on people around him and which shows that he will never be alone again.

The DamBag gang in general is one of my favorite friendship groups. I would do anything to be a part of this group. They have shown how loyal they are toward each other and basically created this family. I love the leadership that Sea Ro Yi has in this group, he showed what it means to be a leader and it left the group with positive impacts from him.

YI Seo was my girl !! I freaking love her! She is such a strong woman and didn't take crap from anyone.

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BEST KDRAMA EVER

I had no idea what to expect before coming into this kdrama, but I was blown away. By far the most entertaining show I have watched this year. I loved the revenge plot, romance subplot, tremendous acting, ost, etc. Surpassed all my expectations, such a different and refreshing show. Just amazing, deserves this high review from me. I especially liked the main two actors, Park Seo Joon and Kim Dami. Park seo joon is usually the rom com king, but I really liked his performance in Itaewon class, he had lots of emotion in his acting. Now Kim Dami was equally amazing. I had never heard of her before this show, but I am excited to watch her future works based on her performance in this work.

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