The story was the only thing lacking in this drama, but not even by much. The only problem that occurred was that there was barely any cheerleading whatsoever. They used the sport as a background setting, and only ever included two performances in total (excluding the practice trials). But besides that, I want to thank the writers for so many things. For saving a perfectly salvageable villain who didn't understand any other way of dealing with her problems, for making the love triangle all so lovable and making me ship all three of them together with each other (yes, I shipped not only the end couple and the second-lead couple, but also the bromance), and for making all the characters so cherishable. And also, thank you for showing great character development with every single character, especially Seo Ha Joon and Kwon Soo Ah. I thought there couldn't be a single school drama that would beat Who Are You: School 2015, but here we are, half a year later, with an ever better school drama.
I think all of us can agree that the cast did a superb job, and all agree that when Ji Soo gets a role in another romance drama, he needs to win over the heart of his crush so all of his fangirls don't internally die. Anyway, Ji Soo did an amazing job and I felt so emotionally attached to his character. Angry Mom is a definite watch for me now. Moving on, Lee Won Gun. My new-found bias. I had previously watched his supporting role in Hyde, Jekyll, Me, but I never took much notice of his character as I always had my eyes on Hyun Bin. I never realized how well done his acting is. He is awesome, and my god, that smile of his! I found myself squealing every time he even so much as smirked. Anyway, Jung Eun Ji and N have definitely broken the idols-can't-act stereotype, and I am looking forward to watching more of their works. Finally, Chae Soo Bin. Her character was extremely irritable, but she was the first ever antagonist that I could never fully hate. Deep down, she was just a down-to-earth character who was trying to learn from her mistakes in the wrong way. And with that, Soo Bin had better rise to stardom very soon because she is a spectacular actress.
All of these soundtracks are just too lovable and I can't pick a favourite. There is Fly Like An Eagle, Rely, Shooting Star and Flower. They are all so amazing, I could listen to them all day long. Seriously, look up the playlist online and you can just sit there and listen to them.
Yes, oh god yes. I would do anything to have this series on disc so that I could carry it anywhere with me and just rewatch over and over again. Everyone has that one show that they could always watch, and Cheer Up! is one of them for me.
Overall, this drama was almost perfect, with only the flaw of not having enough cheerleading featured. Every single acting choice was amazing, the script and writing was brilliant, and the music is flawless. Please make more good quality school dramas like Cheer Up!.
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1Watching this was an absolute joy! It will make you cry, laugh, and grin! When you're in high school you get serious about studying, so you'll get accepted in the university/collage you aim for. However, it's also the time when you want to have fun and enjoy life with your friends. So the balance between these two is what this drama is all about.
I might be too generous with my rating but the show was that good. The plot line wasn't draggy and very interesting to the very end. The acting was perfect from main and support characters. The music was lovely and spot on. So obviously you would want to watch this drama again because it's so charming.
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The story isn’t dissimilar to most high school K-dramas. But the amazing thing about K-dramas is their ability to take the same storyline and types of characters, and present them in just a slightly different way to audiences. There’s definitely a lot of cute in this show and generally makes for an enjoyable and light watch.
I can’t say Eunji didn’t do a good job in this show, as she seems to do in every drama she is in. But one thing that does disappoint me is that the character Yeon-doo does remind me of the other spunky female characters she’s played in her previous shows. I do hope she tries out other types of characters in her future projects.
I’ve not seen Lee Won Geun or Ji Soo in any major projects before this. I’ve only seen LWG in Moon Embracing the Sun but that was such a small role. These two are a revelation in this show! Their characters are quite different from each other, but they share a close friendship on the show. It really looked like they were having fun playing these characters. They both stole my heart in this show, so it’s hard to go any further without turning into a rabid fangirl, so all I’ll say is I’ll certainly be on the lookout for both these actors in their future projects.
Super props to Chae Soo Bin for playing what seemed like an absolutely irredeemable villain who went all out to ruin the lives of our protagonists, yet with an interesting backstory that still managed to pull at my heartstrings everytime. I just wanted to give her chance to redeem herself every time, no matter how many evil deeds she had done.
On a whole, the cast have great chemistry and make the show such fun to watch. Of course, there’s also the fact that it’s a high school drama and personally there’ll always be a place in my heart for high school dramas.
Another good thing about this show is it’s short at 12 episodes. The ending did feel slightly rushed and that’s a small stain on this show. Otherwise, highly recommended!
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This review may contain spoilers
I have watched this, because I can be considered a fan of EunJi and this looked like it would offer light hearted comedic relief. I guess the show did not disappoint too much in that regard. The acting ensemble was truly outstanding, some of Korea's best actors appear in this drama & their performances were up to standard. EunJi plays the exact same character as in R97, I don't mind typecasting in this case, since the show was built around this specific persona. The OST is okay, although it's not memorable at all.I liked the main couple, their slow, but steady development in this genre is perfectly fine. I wouldn't say that they've had off the charts chemistry though. I hate triangles in general, but here it was bad in the sense that it served no purpose, generated no meaningful tension, felt like a writing quota type thing, you know how there is always a gay guy in american sitcoms as of late.
There are some obvious problems with how the characters & how character development are portrayed in this drama. It's always annoying, when a show isn't preproduced & the writers make major changes midway, because of feedback, or because there is outside pressure from sponsors. The way how they changed SooAh's character, or almost everyone's character in the White Tigers group mid way makes no sense whatsoever. I was applauding SooBin's performance in this "villainous bitch" role, but unfortunately she went from a villain to a troubled girl with a sad background & from that to a kind angel in the finale, this made very little sense to me, It could not have been any more unrealistic.
South Korean society has some rules & behaviors that are really backward and I dislike it, when these things surface in dramas. In SassyGG the primary obstacle for the main couple comes from the impending marriage of their parents. "Oh no, what will I do, if you become my dongsaeng" Other dramas have exhausted this trope to death too.. Not cool!
Now the main reason why this drama is bad is because the story is just terrible. It's normal for romcoms to have meaningless underlying storylines, or that the story is not in focus, but there is gotta be a limit right? I'm perfectly fine with the school slice of life genre, but the things that happen at this school are just plain bad writing, perhaps it's not as bad as in the recently aired drama "My Strange Hero", but it suffers from many similar problems, namely outlandish teachers, kids breaking under the pressure doing outlandish things, ajumma armies demanding justice and my favourite: kids fighting the school's corrupt leadership/principal. Abusive parents doing abusive things cannot even count as abnormal in this drama...
I do not regret watching this, EunJi kept me entertained all the way to the end, but I will not watch this again for certain.
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The acting was pretty decent. Eunji as Kang Yeon Doo felt natural and she was funny and cute in her own way. The lead male Lee Won Gun as Kim Yeol was a particular character you either liked or disliked. (Though it's hard to dislike him when his smile melts your heart like a puppy.) The promising actor Ji Soo as Seo Ha Joon also felt natural and quickly became my favorite character of the show. Though I won't say the acting was bad, it was easy to tolerate with a good cast with good chemistry.
The story line starts off really nice and the plot thickens as the issues spring up. My only complaint has to be towards the ending of the drama where I felt some of the issues were unresolved. The drama ends up pretty nicely but still leaves more to be desired. And while the whole bullying, school corruption, love triangle thing becomes typically cliched in dramaland, Cheer Up offers a refreshing take of youth enduring and overcoming obstacles and making friendships.
What I like about this drama is that it's easy going and easy to follow. The story doesn't drag and flows nicely. The cute and funny moments make for a light hearted watch. I would recommend this drama, despite it's minor flaws.
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The acting was ok, the fall onto the hero scene was used way too much just in the first two episode...The main actress is volatile (one time, she has her own standing and opinion then the next, she broke down and cry) It's either one or the other, dont create a character who is independent and not independent
They fast forward the romance between the two main actors way too fast...I mean, just in episode 3, I could already see that the main hero likes the heroine...I wish they make them hate each other and doesnt want to help each other at all but slowly unravel their relationship as the story progress
The school idea of 'good grade students will be treated well while bad grade students wont ' is cliche' and unrealistic...there is no school that has this much bias for rich good grade students over bad grade students...even if it exist in the real world, the students can easily go to ministry or education and report this misconduct of treatment and the whole sha-bang will be over within a week top
I'm being objective here and didnt watch this because i think the actor or actress are cute...so my review should be objective too
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I decided to watch this drama solely cause of Eunji. Eunji has something in her which makes her really fitting for teenage based roles. She has this charm about her which makes people love her. And her acting is just great. Do I have to mention her smile? That smile can light up a whole town! Lee Won Gun, why so cute?! That devilious smirk xD Ji-soo, was such a sweetheart. Can he please be a lead already? I can't see him in such roles again where he just takes hold my heart and then just crushes it into thousand pieces! He was such a marshmallow on the inside, ready to pledge his loyalty to anyone who would show him kindness. Lastly, N umm, I found his character to be dumb or maybe that was intentional but he was adorable nontheless. This drama played wiht my heart, like at first I wanted Eunji to be with Lee, but then I wanted her to be with Ji-soo,but then again I wanted her to be with Lee! I was just so confused who to ship her with! Both guys were great and I just could not pick one T.T Eunji had such great chemistry with both the leads! But, then again the ending <3
But, please can she be in a romantic relationship with both the guys at the same time ?! >.< I know that will make her a slut and that's impossible... nvm.:(
Soo-ah, about Soo-ah i just have no nice things to say about her. I hate her. I HATE HER SO MUCH. I wanted her to die for all the horrible things she did. I wanted her to pay heavily for everything. I don't care if she did those things cause of her mother and the academic pressure. She is a real bitch! And no, I didn't like her pairing with N. Hmph! But, she made me hate her that much so she must have done a brilliant job. I also liked the music in this drama.
Since this was about cheerleading, I expected a lot of cheerleading but the drama didn't focus on that much. Instead, it quickly shifted it's focus to Soo-ah and her misdeeds. At times i felt like Soo-ah was the main female lead. But, overall the drama was a fun ride! ^.^ It showed the school's corruption, discrimination, academic pressure, how the students of two different clubs dealt with it, how they became friends and lovers gradually and overcame the hurdles together while being guided by some lovely teachers.
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The thing is, guys: they promoted this drama using the wrong way. THIS IS NOT ABOUT CHEERLEADING. As a wise fellow already pointed out, this is NOT the korean version of Bring It On. It's the most wonderful highschool korean drama I have ever watched. It's about youth, growing up, about the real value of friendship and doing what's right even if all the odds are against you. I laughed, I cried. It was a turmoil of different and strong emotions.
Kang Yeon Doo is the person I would like to become when I grow up - and I'm already 22, hehe. She was always brave and positive when the situation demanded and I admired her so much for that. She never wavered (no, wait, she did. But that's ok, it showed she was human, and, besides, she always sticked to her values in the end).
Kim Yeol stole my heart right from the start with his crooked smile, there wasn't much I could do about it - not that I even tried. Lee Won Geun then became my new obsession and I can't wait for him to star in another drama (hopefully longer this time!! 12 episodes weren't enough T^T).
Ji Soo made me suffer of both leads syndrome. Though I was team Yeon Doo x Kim Yeol all the time, I confess I wouldn't be that mad if she ended up with Seo Ha Joon. He was just so precious, like a loyal puppy. &lt;3
I enjoyed this drama so very much I would wait desesperately for monday to come. It was my first time.
10/10.
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What I love the most about this series is the characters and their relationships. These characters were well rounded and believable. They all had their quirks, they all had their hardships and they all had their issues. You believe these are real students, with real family issues battling through one of the most difficult times in persons life. You see these struggling teens become adults over the course of the show. No character was innocent and every one of them made mistakes, as one does in life. I believe this show teaches some important lessons that will help you through life.
Not only do we learn that people make mistakes, and that these mistakes don't have to define you as a person, but we also learn that life is short. Don't get distracted by the drama and expectations or opinions of the people around you. Live your life and cherish your friends, you may not be friends forever but the times you spent together should be remembered. Its hard to see your future and all the challenges it might hold but you have to keep fighting because life is just too beautiful to give up.
I really love how this drama also addressed the hypocrisy of school institutions, the crazy expectations students are expected to fulfill and the large amount of undue stress students face from parents, teachers, the media and society. The students are battling each other for the best grades. The elite students study so hard they get sick and the less intelligent students feel like they have no chance. All of them are stressed in one way or another. These students are told that the decisions they make now will affect them in the future. Any mistake will be on there permanent record and a bad grade or lower rank is like the end of the world. When you're in high school, it is hard to see where your future will lead.
At the end of this drama, we learn that the future isn't certain and that's okay. Everyone is nervous and unsure about what it may bring, but with some good friends and a positive outlook, you can handle it. Life is hard, but cheer up!
I also feel how the relationships build in this drama are perfect. The romance between the two main characters wasn't rushed, it wasn't love at first sight and it wasn't head over heels. These two built a relationship over time and began when both characters were ready and mutually in like. It's as grounded a relationship than I have seen in a drama in a while.
I didn't care for the soundtrack, but I'm just not a big OST fan. I remembering one song repeating over and over again. It was stuck in my head for days and I am so happy I don't remember what it was. This is why my soundtrack rating was so meh. What I disliked about this series was that at some points it was just very hard to continue watching, not because it was bad, but because some moments were so heart-wrenching I just couldn't stand watching the characters go through it. Many moments just hit a little to close to home for me and it made it difficult to watch. I am extremely happy I forged through, however, because the ending was sol worth it and well deserved for the characters!
I would definitely recommend this drama to anyone and everyone. However, I probably won't be rematching it any time soon because, as I said, some parts were just hard to get past. This doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the series for what it has done. I just wan't to be honest.
Excuse me for this long review. I'm sure I sound preachy ( and this review is all over the place), but after having months to think on this drama, I feel that these are the reasons why this drama so interesting, unique, and refreshing. And the reason why I haven't been able to get this drama out of my head until I shared my thoughts!
( If I may fangirl for a second, OMG JI SOO!)
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Overhyped?
I have mixed feeling about this drama I had high expectations but it did not turn out that wellbecause of the following reasons this drama is quite deep in a lot of areas it's not simply the bicker between an elite group and non elite dance group
its way more than that and I respect it for that
the thing is that the wrongdoer in this drama was not punished properly according to me out of 10 incidents, horrible incidents 9 incidents were caused by one single person and at the end of the drama it seem that everyone else is sorry for her everyone else is blaming themselves for her
for what she did they are sorry
she did not get punished that while I agree that she was going through a lot of things but she chose wrong things
there was one boy also who was pressurized by his parent but he never chose anything wrong to do but she always did something wrong and was never ever sorry
she only felt sorry after she caused almost death to someone
before that she never repented but in the ending she was let off easily everyone was her friend everyone was missing her everyone loved her so much without any particular reason which I did not get at all
It. Did not satisfied my sense of justice
next is the female lead
excessively good !!she had a sense of justice but she never did the right thing to bring her back on the path no one can be so good and it was a bit unrealistic the way she reacted to every bad situation
she always try to protect the wrongdoer even after the boy got hurt
The cheerleading scenes were good though
If you are someone with strong sense of justice and however want a proper ending to a wrongdoer then I wouldn't recommend this drama because it would frustrate you to the limit as the wrongdoer will not meet its end and will not receive good punishment
it was actually frustrating for me for only this particular reason
After ninth episode I started skipping a lot of scenes because there was nothing more in the story any more and I was already frustrated because the culprit was not punished well
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... uh, okay. I haven't quite helped myself here - all of these things DO actually happen - but it's the WAY the writers play with these tropes which left me incredibly impressed. We are given stereotypes, sure, but we are also given fleshed out and realistic reasons for these stereotypes. For example, we aren't just given a rich girl who looks down on poorer students because "rich"; we learn the complex and dark reasons behind her behaviour, we see the effects of her behaviour from multiple perspectives, and parallels are drawn between what you are seeing in the drama and very real problems which teenagers in the real world are facing and struggle with. (One issue which really stood out to me is the very real and serious problem of high suicide rates amongst students who are pushed academically in the same way that a number of characters in this series are pushed - and they don't shy away from pointing this out to the viewer.)
It's a little difficult to try and get at the point I'm trying to make, but the best way I can put it is this. What the writers of Sassy Go Go have done is take the general "get up" of a school drama, analysed the stereotypes, tropes and over-used plot devices so many of them contain, and asked WHY. Why would this stereotype act this way? What could be happening to them to cause that sort of behaviour? Could a school-age teen really perform that kind of role, and if they could, how would it affect them mentally? Would the teacher of a school really react like that within this scenario, and if they actually did what would be the real-life consequences?
What we end up with is something which resembles a school drama on the surface, but actually becomes a very passionate and moving story about teenagers - and the people who look after teenagers - dealing with realistic, human problems that can be fully related to by the audience. Not only that, but instead of being given a clichéd "underdog hero defeating the popular villain" solution to everything, we get far more interesting storylines. Things which happen that are so unfair it makes your skin crawl, but with no hero to swoop to the rescue; teenagers with real flaws and serious problems making really serious mistakes; adults tiptoeing between doing what is right and what puts bread on the table; and all manner of plot points which I never expected to find in something as fluffy as a school drama.
The 9 is because although I do absolutely love what they've done with this, the fact that the drama needs to be based of stereotypes in order to "make its point" means that despite everything that goes on, if you've watched enough of these dramas it's therefore possible to sometimes predict the outline of entire episodes within a few minutes. However, it is the journey you take to get there which contains the real meat of the show, so it was barely an issue and I'd still recommend Sassy Go Go to anybody. :)
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