Reply 1988 (2015)

I needed a few days to rest my soul to write this review objectively as much as possible , because I swear, this drama is everything.

First things first, I'm not going to say I'm an expert on kdramas nor I've seen 100+ kdramas, so, take this from the newbie.

Reply 1988 just got a big big place in my heart. In fact, I watched the first two episodes and then held it for a month, not because they were bad, but because I was used to other kind of dramas, dramas with a lot of romance and illogical and ridiculous moments, I was not prepared for this realistic and slice of life (but still funny) kind of the dramas, but thank God I made the right decision.

The best thing (in a lot of EXCELLENT things): the characters ... they are so real and human, with flaws and good things.
In one hand there are these five main characters, who are teenagers experiencing their first love, living their youth and going through what life really is; and believe me, you will love them all. There are no good or bad characters, there are only humans (human teenagers). I thought it would be a problem with so many characters, but the drama manages to give them all protagonism, although one more than others.

On the other hand, there are secondary characters that do not lose in charisma and depth, who are basically the family of the teens, parents and brothers / sisters that made me fall in love, they are all so funny that I really can not believe that characters around their 50s made me pee in my pants of how funny they were, but above all, they were also human.

The plot is not the usual as we are accustomed to see: the characters are not trying to solve the mystery or defeat the bad man, it simply follows the life of a group of neighbors struggling through life, and this is one of the most amazing things: it may seem simple, but it makes you feel so many things. You cry, you laugh, and well, you also learn.

After finishing this drama, it gave me a feeling of nostalgia, and made me realize that life passes quickly and although I am in my twenties, I feel as if I already wasted it.

The bad: after thinking a lot, I would say the worst of the drama were the last episodes, they were so fast and they missed that special thing, the essence of the drama that made it extraordinary. I can not say they were bad-bad, they were just meh, they give me the feeling of losing the characters even before the drama ended, but to be honest, at that point you are madly in love with the story that it not longer matters If they are awful, you only keep going.

OOHHH, the other bad thing: will I ever get over the perfection of R88? I already tried with R97 (yes, I saw it in the wrong order) but i can't even compare them. My heart is tearing apart at the thought of not finding something as good as this in a long long time.

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I have watched all the previous installments of Reply. I will definitely say that I am immediately captivated by the warmth of Reply 1997, the liveliness of youth, and that nostalgic feeling of reminiscing youth. It was definitely a breath of fresh air. And so, I watched Reply 1994 and got so disappointed by how I was wrapped around the story and got Chilbong-ed in the end. So watching Reply 1988, was not an easy "yes."

I am unsure whether the show made the right decision in having the 90-minute format, but this choice led them to skip a week to cover up the whole length of their episodes. Also, this hurts the rewatch value of the drama. It's kind of quite a long drama for rewatching or marathoning. I have several friends who dropped the drama because each episode is just too long.

I don't doubt tvn's capability of creating actors and actresses out of their dramas. I have Kyung-pyo and Bo-gum since Cantabile Tomorrow and well, Gyung-pyo was already adorable. I don't know Jung-hwan and Dong-hwi yet so I am not to judge. I really had my doubts on Hyeri's capability to star in a Reply series since the predecessors were mainly focused on the female leads. It was a good thing that the guys were really good and that there were a lot of them that you don't get to focus and nitpick on Hyeri's acting, though I must say she did a good job. The ensemble (they really did well all together!) of the youths and the parents were so good that I loved every single bit of the show.

Reply 1988: Why do I love thee? Let me count the reasons...
1. Unlike its predecessors, Reply 1988 did not focus on the who-did-she-marry quiz show and instead focus more on how each and every one of our leads lived their youth and their relationship with their families. Show, you somehow manage to make it a deal to keep us thinking but not really dwell on who she ends up with.
2. You gave each character their own set of family. They were a daughter or son, a brother or sister, and a friend before being someone else's love. This gave each character more depth and life than the previous series.
3. I love that the kids have their own circle of friends, and so do their parents. I love how they share every mundane things in their life up to their lives' biggest challenges. You really did well on giving us such lovable parents for the main characters, show.
4. Just like the previous series, you have a certain theme or lesson for each episode that goes all around the neighborhood and shows how each family deals with that (There was an episode about how strong and weak fathers are at the same time.).
5. You made me love every single character of yours. They were written so well and given life so well. I was really sympathetic with every single one of them (though I still like Bora the least).
6. You made me cry and laugh through the downs and ups of the characters. This is how deeply touched I am with the characters and the plot.
7. I should really thank you, show, for the bromance you have shown me. Where will I ever see a Sun-woo and a Jung-hwan? A Jung-hwan and a Taek? A Sun-woo and a Taek? All the boys, and Dong-ryong? I always get kilig by that love between these boys. This is the real gem you had and THAT I REALLY LIKE THEM SO MUCH I CAN'T GET OVER <3
.

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I watched the Reply series in the recommended order (97>94>88), I was still very surprised, this was not at all what I was expecting. Looking at 97 & 94, while they are very special kdramas with lots of nostalgia, especially 97, they are nonetheless quite typical in many ways, they have many of the usual kdrama tropes & have typical love lines with very strong triangles with heavy emphasis on them, and all the flashforward scenes teasing the husbands make them that much worse. I accepted in advance that 88 will be the same & also checked who the husband will be in advance, having read that ppl were upset about the final outcome. I couldn't have been more wrong, I didn't feel sorry for Junghwan at all. I did not feel for a second that he was the main character, also there was no conflict between the male leads at all. I think this is the first time that the "love triangle" trope did not annoy me at all. Doksun is supposed to be the main character, but everyone had a lot of screen time & Bora kind of stole the show. This drama is mainly not about romance, but rather family, friendship and nostalgia. There were many touching sub-stories, there were so many heartwarming scenes. They just don't make shows like this anymore in the west, I don't think. The cast is outstanding, everyone was amazing. I usually don't like the Ajumma characters in most dramas, but here even they were awesome. I think over the course of the 20 episodes (about 25-30 hours) nothing overly melodramatic happened & yet I still felt quite emotional when it ended. (one of the best 4 hour long endings I've seen) In conclusion this show is extremely special. Goblin is still my favorite kdrama, but this one is on the same level, 88 is nearly perfect, this apples oranges comparison is pointless anyway. Even the OST is outstanding, it wasn't jaw dropping, but at the important moments the songs had strong emotional impact. The cinematography & the sets were also perfection, no surprise there though.

~~One flaw I found is that Tek remained Tek 6dan for many years, despite beating 9dan players left & right, I don't think that's how ELO works.

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family centric slice of life, didn't particularly enjoy it

Reply 1988 - 4/10
Reply 1988 is a relaxing show that is meant to be enjoyed on an evening with tea. It is something to watch with friends and family as nothing serious happens, it's a slice of life really close to reality.
Slice of life is one of my favourite genres, but did I enjoy this show? Nope. Because this show is stagnant. It's a plateau where NOTHING HAPPENS. it starts off well, it had me captured for the first few episodes because it showed alot of social background of people's lives in 1988 then I became indifferent towards it in the middle and almost wanted to drop it. The ending was pretty nice too, but not for me to love the show or save my low ratings.
My strife with this show is its repetitive nature in terms of situations, jokes etc. It shows little to no growth, I also didn't have any emotional connection to most of the characters, I didn't hate them nor did I love them. Some characters I outrighted hated them for most of the show aka the female leads sister / bora.
Another thing is even if you miss one or 2 episodes or a few scenes literally u miss nothing. Most scenes are insignificant and so many fillers. Most scenes are meaningless and show some dumb things some character does that is apparently supposed to be funny, but I didn't enjoy it. we had a goat sound for all the funny scenes, it was a little annoying though I didn't hate it but it wasnt pleasant.
I want to compare this with another slice of life made by the same producer, that is hospital playlist. Hospital playlist shows lives of people in a hospital and it shows reality, doesn't repeat situations or jokes, it has very lovable characters unlike the frustrating ones in this one. It is extremely insightful to people's life while visiting hospitals and the staff. It is 100 times more wholesome than reply 1988. It has not made me lose interest and is always relaxing.
I would have enjoyed this show alot more if they showed a bit more about the social problems and setting at the time period of 1988. I felt like they showed more of the shows, singers, ads and celebrities popular at the time which I couldn't relate to as I'm not a korean person, but I understand why the koreans loved this show. It's probably one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy the show.
*spoilers BIG SPOILERS SKIP THIS IF YOURE WATCHING OR PLANNING TO WATCH OTHERWISE NO POINT* the love triangle was just sad. I hated the guy she ended up with. He's the most boring character I have ever seen in my life. He had no charms according to me. He is sleepy, tired and stressed all the time and playing his lousy game. Not very street smart either, he needs help tying his shoes? Really now? He's handsome but that's nowhere a reason to ship the two.The second lead was relatively more interesting and had some life in him but he is just a coward so idk but I did ship them more than the one she ended up with. Basically I dont ship her with anyone especially not with the male lead.
Also the fact that they dragged this show to 21 episodes for literally no reason made no sense to me. This show had nothing much to show that justified it to be so long.
Now to the positive aspects of the show that saved the dying rating. This show showed EVERY characters life, there were no side characters, everyone was main. This was nice! It showed everyone's problems, lifes and touched upon lives of older and younger alike.
The music of the show including osts and the old songs was IMPECCABLE. I learned way too many good old songs because of this show. This reason single handedly increased the ratings by 3.
I really dont recommend this show to be an ideal slice of life or in general to anyone, but there are tons of shooters for this show who seemed to have really enjoyed it, so i guess it's your choice as I'm part of the minority who didn't enjoy this high rated show.

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Reply 1988 walks in the footsteps of Reply 1997, only focuses more on the family dynamics and the old neighbourhood friendships. However, it wasn't as good as the other reply. The main reason that I preferred the 1997 reply over this, was the duration. The 1988's episodes lasted almost two hours each! And they were twenty of them (kudos to the producers; that must have been a challenge). Maybe for some, that wouldn't be a problem, but I personally prefer my dramas short -er, as it's more easy to watch. And the long duration makes it tiring at some point. Anyway, the 1997 reply's main reason for success was the kpop fangirling, that created laughter. Plus, the romance was quite interesting, as it was mixed up with the back and forth of the story. The Reply 1988 had a nice romance, but it was a little predictable and the chemistry between the two of them wasn't that good (I would have preferred the girl to have ended up with another character, as they looked better together). The family stories were quite good, and for me, were better than the friendship-romance. But, in the end, it was a so so drama, with a story that didn't keep the interest till the end, so 3 out of 10, for the good performances.

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Honestly, this drama was everything I could ask for in a drama. Being a kid of the 80's who remembers watching the Seoul Olympics and remembers many of the songs that made their way across the world into Korean pop culture, this drama had an especially strong nostalgic feel to it. Watching Deok-sun peg her pants...bwahahahaaaa...instant flashbacks of countless minutes spent trying to get them just right LOL and those bangs....HA!!! SO thankful to have gone through my awkward stage before social media. LOL

It's not a romance, though that is a big part of it. It's not a comedy, but that, again, is a big part of it. It's a show about family and friends. For US viewers, think The Wonder Years and Parenthood all mashed together. Tears from laughing and crying were shed. It takes a lot to make me cry but this got me a few times for all the right reasons.

The remembrance of youth was the focus of the show. The neighborhood scenes made you either remember your own families/friends and the neighborhood where you grew up or wish you had one like this. The sweet and simple friendships are like comfort food. The strength they have for each other when times got tough is where you FEEL their connection. I wish people reached out this way more in today's world. I think we'd be better off.

I almost didn't watch this because I wasn't quite sure I liked it at the first episode (I get sidetracked by the hitting and yelling among families in Asian dramas) but I am SOOOOO glad I stuck with it. By the end I was wishing it wouldn't ever end. But the story was told and it was a wonderful story. Every family should watch it.

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The Best K-Drama I've Ever Seen

This was, hands down, the best kdrama I’ve ever seen, and quite honestly, probably the best TV show, regardless of country of origin. It hit me so deeply, and the characters were so good. Deok-sun, Taek, Bo-ra, Sun-woo, Dong-ryong, Jung-Bung, Jung-hwan, and the ommas and appas were all amazing. I loved them all so much, and I cried for the entire last half hour of the episode because I was so sad to see them go. They feel like my own family now. I loved how the show not only let me get deeply attached to the characters, but also had different focuses in its episodes, such as on mothers, fathers, first loves, and more.

It was masterful how the writers entwined at least four different storylines in the space of 1.5 hours, and how the actors drew me into their performances and made those 1.5 hours fly by. The historical accuracy and the setting of Ssangmun-dong were also really immersive, only occasionally changing to people’s schools or restaurants instead. It was amazing how the show managed to make the most mundane of things, like eating meals together, hanging out in Taek’s room, and Jung-Bong’s dad telling bad jokes the heart of the show. Slice of life is not my thing most of the time, and this show grabbed my heart and didn’t let it go as the characters - who felt like fully realized people living their actual lives - went about their daily lives. I really did love them all so much, and I’ll really miss them. I’m definitely going to rewatch this eventually, because it truly did leave an impact on me. It was powerful. 10/10 would recommend. I’m going to watch something else with Park Bo Gum (Taek) in it for sure.

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This is my fifth review. I don't leave reviews for every drama I have watched but this one deserves to have one. It stirred up a lot of emotions in me and the most overwhelming is nostalgia. This drama made me miss my youth - my highschool friends, my first love, my first kiss, my first heartbreak, my college dreams, the warmth of a family, of a group of friends who are as important as your family. If you are in your teen years, watch this, and learn from it. You will experience many things in your life but never overlook the importance of family and friends. It will teach you not to be afraid to take risks, to dream, to hope. It will make you laugh like a lunatic and cry like a baby. It will break your heart and sew it right back up but it will never be the same.

The actors are the best in the roles given to them. I love every one of them. My ship did not sail but I am still happy with the way things ended (that does not mean I was not brokenhearted). Prepare a lot of tissues and do not eat while watching this. You will either wipe your tears or choke LOL

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Random goat noises add rustic appeal

Really, there are goat noises everywhere, it’s slightly overdone, but the show is mostly amazing.

This will have spoilers, so watch out!

First of all, the feeling of this drama is amazing: the outfits, the music, the settings, the relationships. It’s unbelievably nostalgic and heartwarming, truly. It successfully drew me right into the character’s lives and I watched the entire drama in just two days, even though I usually struggle to get past the middle of a drama.

Secondly, the acting was pretty great, especially from the parents - I really cared about them and their happiness and when that happiness was threatened, I could feel the tension and the sadness in their eyes. Also, some dramas have these really cringe-worthy kiss scenes in which the actors’ lips are barely touching or they’re struggling to remain motionless for 45 seconds until the kiss ends. This drama had some amazing kids scenes, no doubt about it. It made it seem like those characters really wanted to be together and weren’t being forced to touch each other by someone behind the camera. 10/10 kiss scenes.

Lastly, what the hell?! Choi Taek? He wasn’t even around for most of the drama and he’s the one Deok Sun ended up marrying? It makes no sense and it ruined my entire month, maybe my year, we will see. Jung Hwan’s hesitation and nervousness and stand-offishness may have been unappealing for a different character, but it made him seem completely endearing and love-able and his failure to achieve what he wanted and the regret he felt and the way he told himself it was his own fault? Completely heartbreaking. He was such a human character and I really don’t know if I’ll ever get over what they did with the end of the drama. Additionally, they literally gave adult Taek Jung Hwan’s entire personality. The adult Taek we saw was kind of snippy like Jung Hwan was towards Deok Sun and seemed to be trying to conceal his feelings behind that. Taek acted like a baby, honestly, he couldn’t do most things well, he certainly wasn’t snippy, he was totally obedient. Honestly, it’s like even the writers weren’t happy with their ending.

In conclusion, this drama was so, so good, until it wasn’t.

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