Why this is a must watch drama:
1) The friendship between the 2 leads and among their classmates. From BFF to BGF, this is a fresh concept which I enjoyed alot. Nowadays dramas tend to be a little too unrealistic for me- I don't believe in 'I-love-you-once-I-see-you'. The BFF to BGF pace is just nice here, giving the drama a realistic touch.
The friendship between the classmates is a must watch too. I believe many viewers enjoyed the 'current-vs-past' concept. The 'present' scenes intersect the 'past' scenes at the correct moments, either adding on the the tension audience is holding or highlighting the fact that despite being 10 years later, friends will ALWAYS be friends. Nothing change. All the childish quarrels classmates have when they are teenagers (about idols) are dismissed. The 2 leads still share a 'predator-vs-prey' relationship lols. He still do the little things that seem insignificant but are not.
They might have matured, but they still hold the teenager bit in them. Eunji (I forgot her character's name) is still crazy over HOT even when she has a kid and is pregnant with another. Her fanatic actions are still prevalent, leaving her husband in despair. (those are the funny scenes!)
2) The highlight of the 1990's KPOP fandom and Korean sports arena, when HOT, ???? (forget the English name)and SES are the limelight, followed by DBSK. The era when there are no lightsticks but balloons, when fans have to really queue outside the bank and skip school to get the tickets (now we have the internet), when fanwars are literally fanwars (now different fan groups have 'fanwars' over the internet. It is alot 'darker' now!)
After watching i really appreciate how we can fangirl/boy over our idols with much ease with technology developments. We can purchase our tickets online, we can catch a glimpse of our idols through photos posted on the internet, taken by fans everyday, we are able to catch up with what our idols are up to blah blah blah. We tend to take these priveleges for granted at times.
But some things remain in the fandom though. Fanwars are still prevanlent, queuing for tickets overnight too, fans waiting outside their idols homes/hotels just to catch a glimpse of them.
I guess even if the world has developed economically, human mindsets (going all out for idols) just don't change that easily.
3) The fact that there are no bad characters. The parents are so jolly, especially that of Eunji's. So this drama is very lighthearted, we need not be frustrated over unreasonable mother/father-in-laws who are against our very much anticipated love.
4) Although there are many new actors/actresses, their acting is considerably good. So I can safely say they have the looks + skills!
5) The OST. Although it is very simple (I think only 1 song - 'All for you' sang by the 2 leads), it is enough to enhance the drama. The lyrics revolve around the leads relationship, and the melody is catchy.
This shows proves that a good show need not be one with fanciful OST sang by big shots, or a cast consisting of award-winning actors/actresses, or a director with excellent directing skills. Everything are just average, but it is how well these aspects (right choice of cast, OST, storyline, directing, acting etc) complement each other that make this drama so successful!
I strongly recommend KPOP fans to watch to increase our exposure on the 1990's KPOP arena which is not known to many these days. If not for these pioneer KPOP idols who set the base, the KPOP industry may not be as successful now. Drama fans will enjoy it too for its good storyline!
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After many months of procrastinating I finally decided to watch this drama. I kept hearing all over the place that it was a really good drama and I finally decided to check it out for myself.
This Drama was so different from your typical Korean Rom Com, I liked how they didn't shy away from some subject matter. They just presented a true story about what teens/people go through as they are growing up, nothing was exaggerated (yes, there were some parts where I wanted to throw my shoe at the screen but I got over it), it was funny, quirky and most importantly true. Oh, and I loved the whole idea of the FANGIRL (H.O.T.) theme and that is was set in 1997.
There really isn't anything else I can say about this drama just watch it you won't regret it. Well, you might regret not watching it sooner like I have.
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Entirely different to most dramas and brings in a sense of nostalgia to those who grew up during the 90's. I could relate to the characters as I could see my friends in them. I remembered getting told off by my father when I watched TV and sang instead of studying.
Initially, I kept getting confused as to what was happening and then figured out how the episodes were laid out. It was crafted beautifully without missing the story.
What I loved the most was how realistic the drama was. The audience would have gone through a few or more of the depicted events in real life. Best of all it didn't have the 'near misses', the annoying misunderstanding which gets cleared only god knows when, the frustrating promises of 'I can't tell you because I made a promise to this evil friend of mine who is sabotaging our relationship'.
All in all well worth the watch! I'm going to miss watching this drama and afraid I'm not going to get to watch a good one in a long time :(
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The whole drama is written as a look back from the present to the past, starting from the year 1997. Each episode is written around a particular theme or life lesson - very poignant and stirs up feelings of nostalgia within you.
The ensemble cast in this show is quite hilarious - a good mix of experienced and amateur actors who have good chemistry. Eun Ji from A Pink gives a great debut performance. Seo In Guk too, though Eun Ji steals the show.
A high rewatch value for the fact that the show can teach some lessons we need to learn again and again throughout life, no matter what age we are.
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It makes you feel nostalgic, remembering your school life.
It has each element: be it romance,friendship,humour,emotions,angst..
One of the most important aspect about it is that each and every character in this show has depth and is well defined.
Everyone has acted so well: all our main 6 characters, Yoon Jae's hyung, Shi Won's mom and dad, or any other characters in the drama as well.
My favorite one was Eun Ji Won as Do Hak Chan!!
The OST is great as well..
The drama is perfect in all aspects..
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This drama is about friendship, family and love. Its funny, poignant and simply beautiful. I liked all the different types of relationships that were depicted not just the usual boy meets girl scenario but also brotherly love, good friends, husbands and wives and family ties.
The writing was excellent I cannot praise the writers enough the way they kept the viewer guessing until the last episode without making it contrived or cliché. It was a joy & frustration to watch. The actors did a brilliant job too, my particular favourites being Yoon Jae and Joon Hee.
This isn't an overly dramatic makjang or a slapstick romantic comedy, its a wonderful realistic portrayal of ordinary people and the ups and downs in their lives over a period of 16 years, told in a refreshing, funny and heartfelt way. I LOVED IT!!!!!
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While it was obvious that the main characters were Shiwon and Yunjae, the writers did an amazing job of making all the other characters relevant and flushing them out over the course of the drama.
Adding to that was a great and relatable cast. Though some performances might have been a little lacking or dry in places, I was impressed with the young actors who made their debut in this drama. Lead actress Eunji shocked me the most and I can't wait to see her act in the future. Her role in this made me a fan and I'll be watching for her!
When I have the time, I definitely plan on watching this drama again and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys feeling nostalgic, no matter what decade you grew up in!
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Guys, I am not going to lie. I cried, I did’t cry because the ending was sad, I cried because…it was so good. That’s it, this is deffinently the best drama of 2012. I don’t know how you can top this. Like seriously, my heart goes to this drama, it might actually become my favorite drama of all time.
A teenage drama done right. I mean there were no flaws in this drama, and if you find one, your searching way too hard there buddy. Because this drama was pure and innocent to its youth that it portrayed. Though I was only 6 when this drama was taking place (for the most part), my teenage years arent that far behind me, and I can sort of connect my youth to this drama. I am not an old woman, but I am becoming an adult as each day goes by, and watching this drama, I could remember all the things that went down when I was a teenager. There were scenes that I could really relate to, and that is what makes this drama so amazing. They captures life in is most raw true form.The characters in this drama, they didnt even seem a bit fake to me, they had amazing personalities that are oh so true to real personalities. They werent all these cookie cutter people that we see in dramas now a days. Not the omg so perfect type or the oh so ever bad type, they were in the middle ground, being true people with true emotions and feelings, going through real life situation. And I stand in applauded the writer or writers of this drama, for getting human life and teenage romance and drama so perfectly.
The characters in this drama were probably the most realistic characters I have seen in a long time. They all had their own personalities that shinned, even if they werent always the center of attention. You never really knew what they were going to do, it wasnt as predictable as some characters in dramas now a day. In dramas now a days you can tell if someone is going to be this huge bitch, and you already expect things to go down, but with this, you never knew how they were going to react or what they were going to do and that made it so realistic. And even if you knew they were going to fail at something, you would still root for them, because they had this charisma about them, that showed that they were going to give it their all, most of the time.
There is a lot of stuff I want to say about this drama, but I don’t want to give it all away so I wont go in much detail because this is a drama that you actually need to watch. I loved the format of this drama as well, going from 1997 to the present, and so forth, it really kept the mystery to this drama. And it frustrated you when it was in the present and it would give you clues to who ended up with who and what happened to make someone this way and what not, but then would totally confuse you the next minute when they switched to 1997 or the early times. But then somehow they would show you you a scene that for example marked a couple, and it would flash to the present to show that outcome. I also loved how each part of the drama complimented the other part, if someone was saying a story about something that happened to them, it wouldnt not just be a time filler, there is actually a connection between that story, and a story of one of those characters or more , and it would show you that. It was perfect and it’s really hard to explain without going into detail of a scene and what not. And can I say that the parents in this drama are so perfect. They really were true parents, and the relationship between the two, and their children is utterly perfect. The daughter father relationship is perfect , and it reminded me of my dad and our relationship. We may of loved each other more than anything, but that didnt keep us from fighting and yelling at one another, and yet then showing how much we cared for one another. It was great and it really warmed a place in my heart every time I saw it.
The acting in this drama was on point. Though some may say that some parts were a little over dramatic, I think not. The crying, and the tears, the fighting, and they yelling, are all part of their characters, and once you get ot know their characters you can see that sometimes some of t hem are a little over dramatic , which in turns makes those actors act that way, and it totally fit. They were so good at portraying their characters, I forgot that they were actors and actually thought they were those people. And that makes it even better to watch, because we don’t see our favorite Idol or actor portraying someone, but when we see them as that character, it makes it even better, because that shows that their acting is that good. I don’t know if its the acting or not, but the story of this drama and the way it is formatted could most likely be so flawless that the acting really didnt matter, but I liked to believe that it did.
I am just going to take a moment and praise the lead character (female) for her dedication as a fan. Sometimes fangirls get a bad rep for how obnoxious they are, and I can understand that, I can sometimes be a little out of hand when it comes to a kpop group and what not, but this girl, she shows the true crazy side of a fan. She goes to any limit for her oppa, and that is beautiful. Some people may not understand that, but she is the fan girl that we all really want to be deep down inside. She loves Tony (H.O.T) more than life, and that is a true fan girl. Though she does some crazy things, and embarrasses her self, her love for her idol is one of a kind. And I absolutely love that they portrayed her as one of those fan girls, that made this drama even better.
And speaking of embarrassment, everyone knows that when you’re a teenager, we have some of the most embarrassing moments of our lives, all the time. We say things that we shouldnt be saying, and do things that we most likely shouldnt be doing and people see and we get so red in the fact that we wish we could die, or feel like we are dying of embarrassment. These characters are no different, and I loved that. Every embarrassing moment was so priceless and that goat noise when it happened, was just icing on the cake. It cracked me up every time. So if you thought this was just a teen romance drama, you probably are wrong, because there are many moments that will make you crack a smile or laugh really hard, because you probably can imagine these type of situations happening to yourself, or this has happened to you and you know how embarrassing that is. That is what makes this drama so good, that its so realistic it hurts.
I really want to talk about the couples in this drama and the parings, though you might have seen a whole tone of them via tumblr thorugh gifs, but I want to talk about how I feel about them, and how I would of liked them to work out, or if they did work out how I liked. And how I felt about each of them, and their stories, but I dont want to do this on here. I dont want to give anything away, since the gif sets on tumblr basically ruin it for you, for those who have seen them, but I dont discrouage you from watching this drama because of those, because this drama is too good to pass up, even if you have seen some of the key momemnts through those sets. Its better to see them with words and in motion rather than in moving pictures that repeat themselves. If you understand what I am saying. But I will be posting something about those couples and the characters and how they made me feel and how sometimes I wanted to slap some courage into them, and I will post the link to it on here at the bottom when it happens, and just post a link on the dashboard as well.
So overall, my tiny heart is exploding with excitement and sadness about this drama. Excitement that it was so good, that I can hardly control myself, and sadness that it had to come to an end. But I do hear that there may be a second season, but I dont know how they would keep this story going, and if they bring a new cast, it might not live up to this one, but I would watch it to see. So all I can really actually say is that you should watch this drama. If you havent got that this drama is amazing form this long spew of random thoughts that I cant keep controlled in my mind, because of how good it was, then I guess I will just say it plainly. THIS DRAMA ISNT ONE TO OVER LOOK, YOU WILL REGRET IT, AND YOU SHOULD JUST GO WATCH IT NOW. Understand? Good. So if your looking for a good, heartbreaking, heart-mending, heartwarming, stomach busting laughing good, amazing all around well-rounded drama that wont leave you bored or enthusiastic, you should probably go watch this now. I mean who doesn’t like a perfect drama now and then? Go do it, you will not, regret it, and if you do, I will write you a letter of apologies that my opinion and review was misleading. Guaranteed you will like it or your money back! (lol)
Yeah, I am pretty much a fangirl for this drama.
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Not the worst kdrama I've seen so far, but it was only "so so".
Would recommend watching it though if you've reached what feels like a dead end because you can't find anything else to watch, ha.
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Reply 1997 was a drama which conveyed a part of my past and that's why it probably hit me right on spot. This drama... I love, for so many reasons.
The story line was very much unique from all the drama's I have watched. It did have a full on Rom-Com taste in it (like all the usual Rom-Com Kdrama), but the funny... the funny never stops in every episode, even though I was already tearfully crying out because of a heart breaking scene or because of a heart warming moment; the comedy never stops. Cliches were still used but I should say the writers have done that in a very creative way. I like the fact that they have used a bunch of odd personalities and put them together in a kind of relationship that would bond them as friends for life, then add their family members into it... TADA! You get a really great story to tell. Since all of these characters are peculiar, even from a deep to shallow background of each person I never got tired of watching each one's side of the story. That's how they make the fun come out.
For the main characters, I couldn't really pick my favorite. Even though we have the "very main" characters within the story, I still couldn't really put them as my favorite. Maybe I would put bias on Yoon Yoon Jae because of his good looks, but other than that I still equally loved every character. I also personally think that their accents were cute, it was real and was not irritating (since they are all from Busan it would eventually seem natural, right?). Then there were the consistencies in their characters which I am so happy for, because not even one actor deviated from their role.
To pinpoint the specific characteristics of each cast, I liked: Shi-won's boisterous attitude, Yoon Jae's undying love and loyalty, Yoo Joong's inconsistencies, Joon Hee's secrets, Hak Chan's annoyingness, Sung Jae's eccentricity, Tae Woong's indifference to money/fame and lastly Shi-won's parents; her dad who bickers a lot and her mom who cooks mountain of food for some apparent reason.
Music wise, it added impact on the drama but it wasn't something that really got into my head for me to remember much.
This drama is re-watchable, very much... but a vital segment in the story makes this unappealing for a re-play and that is the mystery part. That actually perked my interest into finishing the drama in the first place - "the guess who and what happened to whom?" guessing game was one of the important thing in this drama. But once you are over that, this drama would not be as interesting as it was the first time. I re-watch this for the sole reason of feeling giddy over the love triangles and the petty arguments. Those scenes were still awesome even for the second time around.
Over all Reply 1997 made it to my Top 10 best drama's and I would definitely recommend this to everyone. But this drama would most suit those who had lived in the 90's, got addicted in boy bands and lived life with loyal friends.
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This drama is one of the best drama I have ever seen! First I did not want to watch it. But I am happy now i did! The story is amazing. The frindship between them. All actors played there roles so good! I cried, laughed and loved with them. The parents were gorgeous too. It was the first time that I liked the parents as much as the other actors. I had never thought that this drama were so good. I had the same feeling with coffee prince (all time favourite)!
cheabal give this dramam a try .. I am sure that you will not be disappointed!
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