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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.Was this review helpful to you?
But for the cast, I totally love Eunji & Seo In Guk's actings.
I also love the storyline which described a fangirl perfectly. How fangirls would even skip school just to see their favs and how their favs RUINING their own life hehe.
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Normalises Paedophilia
Don't watch this. There is a romance between a teacher and female student treated as if its normal and no big deal. It's creepy inappropriate and frankly disgusting given the other details revealed.I honestly don't know how this writer went so low. Though it seems to be a bit of a prevalence in dramas at that time and even still to have inappropriate incest fake incest age gap weird plots.
The acting of what I watched was good but holy crap it was just such a crap horrible cringey creepy drama. I canniy understand an 8.4
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This review may contain spoilers
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.
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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
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There should be trigger warnings for this show but no one is talking about it
First of all, I did enjoy the show a lot. It was nice to see a fan girl character that was also tough and resilient. Yoon Yoon Jae is adorable. They have a gay main character, and even though they did him a little dirty, he still wasn't there as the butt of a joke which is better than most K-Dramas.However, I can't believe no one talks about how utterly creepy and disgusting the older brother is. He is a predator. There should be warnings everywhere about it, but almost no one is talking about it. I would go into deeper details about the things he does in the show, but I don't want to have to put the spoiler warning on this review and risk someone not reading. So here's the warning: there is a child predator in this show, and everyone acts like its a totally okay thing.
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How it all started
LIKEWhat Yoon Je did to Shi Won to verify
The very blur Hak Chan especially in boy-girl-relationship
DISLIKE
Shi Won's character is irritating at times
MUSIC - personal fav
Confession - Deli Spice
Candy - H.O.T
REWATCH VALUE
Five for now not intending to re-watch
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Great series but…
Loved the show a lot but I think they did a injustice to jee-hon( the gay character. He was so important as a character to the series as a whole but justice was never truly done for him . You’llUnderstand what i mean when you see it . I hope kdramas just become a little more progressive with gay characters in the future but besides that the series was amazing, I had a small problem with the main couple because she be crazy but eventually relented because I saw how crazy he was towards the end too. 😂The music was a bit mediocre
especially some very bad singers .
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Hmm... I couldn’t really get into Reply 1997. It took until after the timeskip to really get invested in some of these characters, and by that point I was already 2/3rds of the way through the show. It’s not a bad show, just very unremarkable. Hopefully, the other Reply shows, 1994 and 1988, will be more interesting.
Oh, and I absolutely hated the dumb sheep noises. It’s like the creators didn’t trust their audience enough to understand when something is funny, so here’s a bunch of baa’s to get them to laugh.
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