Beautiful Drama and an amazing story
I rated Itaewon Class a 10 out of 10 because I really think that this drama is worth the rating. Having watched many asian dramas, there are only two that I have felt deserved a 10 out 10 waiting and this was one of them.The story is heart wenching and had me crying so much at the beginning because I felt so much for the issues that our main protagonist had to go through at a young age and I was so touched at how he was able to rise up to every occasion that life threw at him. I love the diversity of thought and characters introduced here. How some characters were more accepting than others, and how the others had to grow and learn to accept and be open minded to people who saw the world and interacted with the world differently than them.
One of the things that really stood out to me with this drama was how many of the main characters came from single parent homes or they did not have parents at all. The one mother-daughter relationship that was portrayed in the drama, I thought was beautiful done and well portrayed. One of my favorite quotes in the drama came from a conversation that happened between Jo Yi Seo and her mother. The quote is the "That's not how I was raised." In the context of the show it makes perfect sense. Every single one of the parental-child relationships we saw shaped the lives of that child and how they were to ultimately live their lives.
Park Sae Ro Yi's dad raised him to be principled and good. In turn, Jang Dae Hee raised his children to with no principles. The defining moments of this show for me were in the little moments when you saw the human interactions, most especially the father to son interactions.
Was this review helpful to you?
short review;;;;
Great show!I joined it being sceptic, but I'm glad they turned it around. This show is def not something I'd expect from South Korea, knowing how conservative and narrow-minded it is. And that's just a fact, for the majority of people there and the media that gets produced as a result. :/ But I'm glad to see something like this getting exposure and being received this well. this shows that steps are being made to improve the inclusivity in drama plotlines going forward.
also I absolutely loved the main couple. Sad they only finally got together so LATE! TT I desperately want a S2 just to see how they're fearing afterwards, but we all know no S2 is needed.
Itaewon Class achieved all that it needed to in those 16 eps imo. a S2 would do it dis-service :(
Chris Lyon's acting could be better, but im honestly just glad they casted a black person that can speak Korean, and that he still did a good job! It was a little cheesy, but hey, it's progress.
the show did kinda feel like there were many things it was tying to achieve, and i rlly was riveted by the little revenge plot going on. i felt like i was watching a manhwa with power scaling come to life.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
It’s just bad for many reasons
1. The only likeable characters are the male lead and his friends who most of them belong in minorities, so that’s the only positive thing that has as a kdrama. The diversity.2. The female lead is so unnecessary mean. Not only that she’s racist and homophobic/transphobic and the only reason she “changed” towards the end is because she wanted the male lead to like her, which I find very wrong. You will say she’s a sociopath so that’s why, but please that’s not an excuse for everything.
3. The way the story goes on is a bit frustrating because everything happens fast and there’re throwbacks and then back to present, escalates at the start and at the end only. A bit messy I would say.
4. The love story between the leads is very forced because it gives you a very blunt ending. Not only that there’s a big age difference with the characters which makes you wonder are they really … gonna be together now!? Meh
5. The villains are not likeable at all obviously haha (you know sometimes you guilty like them) but in the end they’re the only ones making this kdrama interesting.
Was this review helpful to you?
strong female lead
I don't know if what I will say can be considered spoiler, so ⚠️⚠️[IMG=BWG].
[C]I just finished watching "Itaewon Class" and it's definitely one of my favorite K-dramas, not only because of the story itself, but also because of the characters (the story is good too, but what I really liked were the characters). It's a K-drama that makes you think from the beginning, at least that was my experience. I think it's a K-drama that brings good representation (although that might be an unpopular opinion). Something I liked is that each member of the Itaewon Class had a moment where we could learn more about them, their backstory, etc. This makes you like and maybe even relate to the characters.
[C]Something I've never had before while watching a K-drama, which is normal for almost everyone else, was the extreme difficulty I had in deciding which ship I wanted to end up together. Like, I was really loving Sae-ro-yi and Oh soo ah in the first two episodes, but then that ship got much weaker, and every interaction between those two made my heart sad because I could see it wasn't going well. On the other hand, there's Jo-Yi-seo (by the way, she's my favorite character), and every interaction with Sae-ro-yi was incredibly cute and funny, so I was like, do you understand me?
[C]In the end, I easily chose Sae-ro-yi with Jo-Yi-seo, I only had that difficulty in the beginning haha.
[C]Talking about Sae-ro-yi and Jo-Yi-seo, they were my favorite characters. Sae-ro-yi is a great leader, I love when he fights against everyone who mistreats his team (seriously, he's amazing). I liked Jo-Yi-seo's personality from the beginning, even though she has many flaws, to me she was amazing, I truly love her haha.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Apart from all the regular stuff that we see in a k-drama this one does a great job of exposing the many problems that we face in our day to day lives. Being a member of LGBTQ and a POC in Korea. I started watching this because of the title that seemed catchy 😄 Boy I'm not disappointed. The acting by all the cast members was just brilliant. Especially Kim Da-mi was too perfect for her role. From being a talented and troubled kid who has lost her interest in life falls in love with a person who is the exact opposite of her and then tries so hard to make him fall in love with her and being with him through his troubled times and helping him get his revenge on the people who was responsible for his father's death. Through this journey she also starts to see herself changing. She is simply amazing. The ML Park Seo-joon who was a socially inept guy and lost his father to men in power strives to get justice for his father and to make his words have power and to lead a life with no regrets and consequences. Even with a poker face he was able to connect with us so well through his actions.
The OST was amazing.
Overall it's a good watch. I would recommend this 💯
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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!!
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
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 wellMy 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
Was this review helpful to you?
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!Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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?
Was this review helpful to you?
