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High School Return of a Gangster korean drama review
Completed
High School Return of a Gangster
1 people found this review helpful
by Slay_rylle
Jul 2, 2024
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 8.5
This review may contain spoilers

The end was good BUT felt plain at the same time…

Before I start, huge shoutout to the writers for not making feminine characters cringey or ´useless ´ !

****

I enjoyed it so much ! I would totally recommend though they are little flaws but first let me give my thoughts on the characters !

The body swapping thing was done in a good way and benefited the character that needed the most in this show : Yi Heon. BUT people not noticing how it could have no longer been yi heon in that body at some point, making too much mistakes (on the honorifics, on his culture and on the way he has of speaking) even deuk pal’s best friends was quite concerning. Especially when he even stopped talking to them like he was yi heon and kept relating things only him could know and that even if you tell to someone else you wouldn’t give those extremely precise details (like the price of the suyuk). In episode 6, after more revelations, they still stuck with the idea he was their boss’ son, he tried at the beggining (a few minutes lol) to not drop honorifics but he quickly did and nobody seemed to notice…I mean it could have been credible at some point because he was an outcast and no one really heard him talking ´properly’ but this became unrealistic at some point. At least Se kyung noticed from the beggining something was off.

Talking about him (Se kyung), I loved his character so much because he had depth,and a lore/ background. If the series wasn’t censored, I feel like with his family situation, he is quite closeted and that’s understandable honestly seeing how abusive his father is.
Then his father is such a garbage ! Even when confronted to what he did, what scars he left on his son, he decided to stay blind… Using a track app, spying on him through camera, through his ´friends’, or even telling a little child he should be strong and to watch the dead corpse of his beloved dog is just beyond EVIL!!!

And se kyung’s mom was at the beggining a hope for me, I thought she would save him from his father (after the call she gave the father, saying she’s gonna come back after the end of the business trip she was on) but judging by how long and violent the abuse (verbal and physical) has been and by the fact that she was never near him even in the flashbacks, I quickly lost every hope…

Jae min had the best character developpement to me. He took the time to start even realizing how bad he was being bullying others but what I liked was that he was receptive to the punishment at some point. I appreciated seeing the process from realization to regret and remorses. He, contrary to his ´friends’ actually learnt from their excuses.

He even had trust in his friends when they started lowkey bullying him and wanting to hand him to gangsters because he considered them as his friends. But as it’s often said, in a group of bullies, each of them is susceptible of turning their backs and ending up bullying on of their ´friends’ and that’s what jae min’s ´friends’ showed.

I loved how he became a better version lf himself and even got closer to his young sister !

Deuk Pal’s pals (pun intended !) will always have a special place in my heart because of how close they’ve always been and even after his death never stopped trying to avenge the person who represented their family at this point. For this they will always have my respect !

Yi Heon and his family (his mother) deserves happiness they suffered so much as well. The chairman was never showed but I hate him with all my guts as I hate se-kyung’s father. He never actually cared about him. He shouldn’t have has an affair with yi heon’s mother if he wasn’t able to take responsabilities and act like the father he is ugh ! Giving cars, money etc.. doesn’t replace love !
The secretary, Lee Mi Kyung will always have my hatred because she was a big part of the abuse yi heon underwent…

The staff of yi heon (the driver and the housekeeper) also are such good supportive characters!

The class of yi heon turned their vests as soon as he ´changed’ a bit. I didn’t expect he would accept/ forgive them that quick smh but they turned out to be quite nice especially the group of girls and the guy he started hanging out with afterwards (expect when they started doubting him after the bullying allegations tho… Fortunately, the doubting part didn’t really last).

- LOVED THE AESPA AND NCT (IU as well) REFERENCES BTW!! -

Before I finish by something that REALLY bothered me, Jae hoon was a character that was annoying. I will always remember the moment se kyung told him politely to f*ck off !

Once again as many pointed out censoring the gay romance in here was a mistake since you could sense they had a background together, especially by the way se-kyung was always looking at yi-heon, taking care of him (don’t get me wrong many close friends do that) BUT they had the chemistry and I can’t help but feel it was still implied. Also at the beginning when deuk pal was reading yi heon’s diary, the way yi-heon was talking about wanting ´to be se-kyung’s friend’ was giving crush (also friend crush smh- yk when you wanna be friends with someone so bad-). I know I proved it could be just a close friendship representation but knowing they were supposed to be dating in the webtoon but that it was changed (because of the korean society I assume) just makes it feels quite off…

Something doesn’t really click, wasn’t the tablet supposed to be broken since the beginning ??? I mean he was frustrated reading yi heon’s diary and he broke the tablet with his hands so how come he could access the same diary on the tablet (end of episode 7) ? ?


The cast is incredible as well as their acting. The OSTs are completely accurate and fit in the mood of the series !

I honestly don’t get why people are mad at the end because it was a greag closire to both yi heon and deuk pal.
Deuk pal got to bid real goodbyes to his relatives (dongsoo, jeoncheol and the boss) but also se kyung. On his side Yi heon got to have an explanation session with se kyung. Everything was so emotional in that last episode ! I mean yes I hated the fact yi heon actually left tho because this felt plain to me, he deserved some happiness as well… ???. I’m bawling my eyes out rn.
I MEAN I FELT LIKE I WAS GETTING PREPARED (BY THE WRITERS) THE WHOLE TIME FOR THE RETURN OF YI HEON FOR HIM TO ACTUALLY LIVE BUT ENDED UP HAVING DEUK PAL (I LOVE HIM THO) LIVING IN HIS PLACE. IT WAS KINDA OFF CONSIDERING HE ´LIVED ´ (EXPERIENCED) MORE THAN YI HEON.

Jae hoon being sincere and regretting his actions was not on my wishes yet I appreciated it. He’s gaining more of my sympathy smh
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