ltspada
This review may contain spoilers
Not overly comlex but a solid drama nevertheless
8.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2018/2019 South Korean Romantic Drama with 16, 70 minute episodes. An alternate title is "Revenge is Back."
Kang Bok-Soo (Yoo Seung-ho) is a junior at a prestigious high school who does not take school seriously until he is paired up with Song Soo-jung (Jo Bo-ah) when a teacher pairs poor performers with high performers in an attempt to spur the poor performer to higher levels of achievement. Bok-soo is smitten with the feisty and beautiful top student. Oh Se-oh (Kwak Dong-yeon) is the son of the school's chairwoman and Bok-soo befriends him when he is new to the school. Se-oh is psychologically abused by his controlling mother and quickly becomes jealous of Bok-soo for his happy home life and engaging girlfriend. He plots to split up Bok-soo and Soo-jung after a failed suicide attempt by pinning the event on Bok-soo. He convinces Soo-jung that Bok-soo intentionally attempted to hurt him and she testifies against Bok-soo ending their relationship and resulting in Bok-soo being labeled as violent and expelled from the school. Nine years later Bok-soo has led a life struggling doing a series of call as you need it odd jobs for a company is friend created. He has the opportunity to return to the school to finish his studies and decides to take the opportunity to exact his revenge on the two people who betrayed him. Can the young people overcome all of the misunderstandings that led them to this point and forge a new future?
Spoiler alert** From the title I expected Bok-soo to be in a savior role for Bo-ah and he is but only peripherally. It is labeled a romantic comedy on several sites and I found there is very little comedic element to it. It is more of a serious drama with just a few slightly amusing scenes. I think it is a cultural issue but I had a very hard time grasping a person of Bok-soo's age returning to high school. Perhaps it is an issue with my own personal mentality but I would have a very hard time every forgiving someone who had failed to believe in me at a critical point. The fact that a person who is supposed to care about me would believe I had done something so horrible without even asking - I cannot envision getting past that even if it was someone I had been in love with. I would be unable to get over that level of betrayal. I would forgive but only to the level of having that person as a friend but not as a close friend and certainly not as a romantic relationship. That being said I was disappointed that Bok-soo and Se-oh never rekindle their friendship even on a basic level. Bok-soo takes the perspective with Se-oh that what he did was unforgivable. In Se-Oh's case his mother was so abusive that I think she drove him to do it and I felt like Bok-soo should have realized it. He had more of a reason than Soo-jung. I really loved the Bok-soo character he was so loving and loyal to all the people in his life. He also had such a strong sense of justice and would go that extra mile to protrect those he felt were suffering any kind of unfairness or injustice. Bok-soo's mother was also such a kind and caring character it made it easy to see where he would have gotten his traits. This was a very sweet story with only a little bit of complexity but that is okay. Yoo Seung-ho has such a refreshing way of portraying the characters that you root for him because his characters are sweet yet vulnerable.
Kang Bok-Soo (Yoo Seung-ho) is a junior at a prestigious high school who does not take school seriously until he is paired up with Song Soo-jung (Jo Bo-ah) when a teacher pairs poor performers with high performers in an attempt to spur the poor performer to higher levels of achievement. Bok-soo is smitten with the feisty and beautiful top student. Oh Se-oh (Kwak Dong-yeon) is the son of the school's chairwoman and Bok-soo befriends him when he is new to the school. Se-oh is psychologically abused by his controlling mother and quickly becomes jealous of Bok-soo for his happy home life and engaging girlfriend. He plots to split up Bok-soo and Soo-jung after a failed suicide attempt by pinning the event on Bok-soo. He convinces Soo-jung that Bok-soo intentionally attempted to hurt him and she testifies against Bok-soo ending their relationship and resulting in Bok-soo being labeled as violent and expelled from the school. Nine years later Bok-soo has led a life struggling doing a series of call as you need it odd jobs for a company is friend created. He has the opportunity to return to the school to finish his studies and decides to take the opportunity to exact his revenge on the two people who betrayed him. Can the young people overcome all of the misunderstandings that led them to this point and forge a new future?
Spoiler alert** From the title I expected Bok-soo to be in a savior role for Bo-ah and he is but only peripherally. It is labeled a romantic comedy on several sites and I found there is very little comedic element to it. It is more of a serious drama with just a few slightly amusing scenes. I think it is a cultural issue but I had a very hard time grasping a person of Bok-soo's age returning to high school. Perhaps it is an issue with my own personal mentality but I would have a very hard time every forgiving someone who had failed to believe in me at a critical point. The fact that a person who is supposed to care about me would believe I had done something so horrible without even asking - I cannot envision getting past that even if it was someone I had been in love with. I would be unable to get over that level of betrayal. I would forgive but only to the level of having that person as a friend but not as a close friend and certainly not as a romantic relationship. That being said I was disappointed that Bok-soo and Se-oh never rekindle their friendship even on a basic level. Bok-soo takes the perspective with Se-oh that what he did was unforgivable. In Se-Oh's case his mother was so abusive that I think she drove him to do it and I felt like Bok-soo should have realized it. He had more of a reason than Soo-jung. I really loved the Bok-soo character he was so loving and loyal to all the people in his life. He also had such a strong sense of justice and would go that extra mile to protrect those he felt were suffering any kind of unfairness or injustice. Bok-soo's mother was also such a kind and caring character it made it easy to see where he would have gotten his traits. This was a very sweet story with only a little bit of complexity but that is okay. Yoo Seung-ho has such a refreshing way of portraying the characters that you root for him because his characters are sweet yet vulnerable.
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