Diana96
Israel
but even though you can find unique parts within the story that just make it worthwhile and truely enjoyable, fore me those parts were most of the story.
the drama is realistic(in a good way), fun and romantic.the soundtrack is more than amazing.the acting is perfect (In my opinion)and the combination of ariel-lin and chen-bolin is great.Its definitely a good one and you shuld watch it.There is without a doubt
something special about this drama! =]
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This review may contain spoilers
An optimistic heartwarming revenge story that's all about the people
Firstly, I have to point out I'm not a big fan of revenge plots and rarely fall in love with them like I did with Itaewon Class which has a more refreshing and modern take on the usual one man VS corporation storyline.I liked that this time, It wasn't a story of a tragedy but rather a fantastically optimistic telling of a person who got back at those who wronged him by not abandoning himself, his values or his precious people. Our main lead Sae Ro Yi got knocked down hard, at an early age, having lost his father, his dream of becoming a policeman and his freedom. Now following the footsteps of his greatest nemesis, he chooses a new dream, opens a restaurant and with the help of friends he met along the way they work together towards becoming the leading company in the food industry and thus taking his revenge on the current number one's leader.
------storyline gets a 10 from me
***Moving on to the characters/acting:***
1.Park Sae Ro Yi (SRY from now): SRY doesn't get much of a character development throughout the show nor does he necessarily have to. He is pure, inspiring, ambitious, never strays from his believes and protects his people no matter what. The consistency in his character is what makes him a such a great one and what draws people to him. Park Seo Joon never disappoints.
2. Oh Soo Ah (SA from this point): has to be the comment section's favorite character.SA is an orphan who relies only on herself and her ability, never asking or taking help from others, and always thinking and acting according to her best interests. She ends up receiving a scholarship from Jang Ga, the leading corporation in Korea's food industry which is also lead by our main villain and later gets accepted to work there. She is also SRY's first love. All and all she is a very well-written realistic character and the only flaw I find in her is her behavior towards our main lead. Despite also liking him she is always passive, never encourages him and acts as the devil's messenger in times not even by necessity, making me wonder does she really like him at all.
3. Jo Yi Seo: My personal favorite (sadly it seems I'm a minority): YS has some sociopathic tendencies, although never officially diagnosed, is a social media influencer with a large following, an extremely capable person and a genius who looks pretty like an angel but in truth is somewhat of a devil (loosely quoted). She meets our hero, falls in love with him and decides to do everything in her power to help him achieve both his dream and his revenge consequently becoming the new manager of his restaurant.
What I find so refreshing and endearing in her is how she, a 20 year old at the beginning of the show, never doubts her capabilities, bases her dream around a man but never feels apologetic for it or lets it diminish her value as a person. She strives to make him happy and to make him fall in love with her trough her actions as her financial and mental independence allow her to follow through with her decisions. YS's and SA's characters demonstrate that there are many ways to be a strong female, particularly YS who is both a strong female and is hopelessly in love with a man (because somehow dramas have them girls suddenly become all week and dependent on the man, and also a bit of change from the male lead who is always pulling strings for the girl is always a blessing). Now, some of YS's behavior is bit controversial and not to everyone's liking, I say you have to judge for yourselves how you deem her behavior to be as I find there's a big double standard in many of the comments on her.
4. villains: for the villains we have the CEO Jang Dae Hee (JDE) and his son Jang Geun Won (JDW). Honestly both actors did a good job, I pitted JDW and could never completely hate him even when he lost all hope of redemption as he was but a mere result of his father's values: the strong pray on the week and regular people outside of Jang Ga's ranks are livestock (there's a pig and chicken metaphor here but I won't get into it). But the true villain star is You Jae Myung who instead of hate got all my admiration for his acting skills and I secretly wanted to bow to him in admiration of his versatility. He did an amazing job playing a cold, collected, prideful and arrogant CEO who believes he's above everyone else. Also, apparently no makeup makes a scarier villain and those freckles should be added as a skill in his resume for playing bad guys. Overall, the "evil" characters weren't over the top and you could understand their reasoning. the only downside goes to JDW character development toward the end, frankly he lacked true conviction for his extreme actions and was kind of meh when he could have been a big source of feels and sobs from the viewers.
The side characters were awesome apart from Jang Geun Soo (the CEO's second son) who wasn't developed properly, and you got to give kudos for the diverse representation of people on the show.
----- charecters and acting get an 8.
***OST***: I have no complains-------it's a 10,I keep listening to it over and over. It fitted perfectly with everything that was going on in the drama and gave me a lot of feels.
***Rewatch value***: 7 because revenge still isn't my pick to relive boredom and yet Iteawon Class was simply too good.
***To sum it all up***, Itaewon Class had The Best Most Satisfying end for a drama I can remember in my almost 11 years of watching almost exclusively Kdramas and had me holding my breath for episodes come Friday and even during the entire week's wait. I don't like to criticize things especially if I enjoyed them so much, so even though it had some problems and sparked a lot of debate, I give it an overall 9 - to be objective , though i hardly am (in my heart it's still a 10).
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Noona romance done right
story and characters: the drama is centred around a 33, soon to be 34, female lead who needs to navigate a difficult click based office politics while also facing pressure from her mother due to her age to get married quickly. The romance plot line is between her and a younger by 12 years assistant. I liked how she is portrayed as a strong but feminine female lead that doesn’t need to completely abandon what is considered traditionally feminine. She has ambitions but I like how she says that she only wants to advance her career as far as her abilities take her (that’s not to say she is not competent, she is really competent) but she knows when to step back and put other, more important to her, things first. She is very rational through the end. The male lead is cute and youthful but mature and provides exactly what she lacks. He is very kind, loyal above all else and likes to take care of people. She is also very loyal and takes care of people although for her this aspect is especially prominent in her work life. Overall they complement each other well.
There are two romantic subplots between the ML’s best friend and a female coworker of theirs and the FL’s best friend and her husband. I didn’t care much for the first and was partial to the second.
The first relationship is centred around a guy fearing to start a relationship amidst professional uncertainty and seemingly fruitless struggle to achieve his dreams which would then force him to leave Shanghai and settle for a safe and stable yet unfulfilling and boring (in his eyes) life in the suburbs.
The second romantic subplot deals with a couple coming to an agreement before marriage about their future way of life only to discover a few years later that their needs and wants have changed and they need to choose again whether they should stay together with one side settling for the sake of the other or they should part in order to satisfy both of their wishes separately. Overall I found the second romantic subplot more appealing mainly because they deal with more profound issues and issues that are slightly more relevant to me, while the first romantic subplot also seemingly had an interesting theme but was a little boring for me.
In general I think many Chinese contemporary dramas tend to spend too much time on subplots and supporting characters which leads to the main romantic relationships not being as flashed out as they could have been or to too much background noise (as I call it, which is basically everything that is unnecessary for the progression of the general plot). This Drama also has this sin although I gather many would still enjoy this show despite or because of it.
There is also a plot line revolving around the mothers of the two leads which in the case of this drama, was a breath of fresh air and one of the best portrayal of parents and different parents in CDramas that I can remember. They had very different personalities and you could see so much of them in their children. While one mother was always in support of her child the other was always in opposition but the parents’ motivations were always grounded and relatable. The had a fantastic dynamic together and it was enjoyable to watch.
Acting: the acting was great. I have no complaints about anyone. Dylan Wang truly acted the character’s age which is another aspect I liked.
Music: nothing memorable on that front.
Rewatch Value: Chinese dramas are long and while this drama was fun there was nothing so memorable as to require a rewatch (which I couldn’t say for “You Are My Glory’).
To sum this up, I would give ”The Rational Life” a solid 8. This drama truly lived up to it’s name and was wholly rational till the end and while I did get bored at times and maybe skipped trough some moments it was worth the time spent.
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