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Reply 1988 korean drama review
Completed
Reply 1988
5 people found this review helpful
by Nicolelodeon
Jul 16, 2021
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 10
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0

Can MyDramaList allow more than a 10 for the rating?

Woooh!!! What a super duper awesome ride! For someone who knew the ending and a big portion of the scenes, Reply 1988 succeeds in still capturing my heart from beginning to end. I’ve put this drama in my PTW list for the longest time, and I really really wanted to watch this drama at least once in my life because all I heard was how good this drama was. But as some of you know me from my reviews, I tend to avoid watching deep dramas, since I don’t want to cry a river while having people in my house watch me LOL. But I thought these past few weeks was the perfect time to start watching this drama, since I’m on my self-quarantine. So I did start, and wow, I think I found MY DRAMA.

Where do I start? This drama is just spectacular! From the casts, the acting, the storyline, all the editings and all the very beautiful quotes, everything was just beyond perfection. Never have I ever seen a drama and thought, “Wow, why is the acting so natural? Are all these lines an ad-lib? Why don’t they look like they’re acting? It must be nice to act without having to memorize the lines since all the lines you’re going to say is so relatable and realistic, and you’re just going to say whatever is in your mind.” There was one scene that shows how two families in the same neighborhood goes out to a restaurant and have dinner together, and everyone was shouting and running outside happily, and I thought, how relatable is this? I literally felt the pure joy they were feeling, and it made me so amazed with how brilliant the screenwriter and the director was! I saw enough deep dramas about life, friendship and family, but it was my first time to watch such a lifelike and a relatable drama. Although I could relate to the feelings and emotions portrayed in most of the dramas I’ve watched, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a drama or even a film that has the same conflict as what you experienced right that moment. When I saw the scene where Deok Sun had a hard time finding her dream, I felt a pang in my heart because it was the exact same thing I’m dealing with right now. I thought Reply 1988 would only be great and relatable to those who lived in that period of time, but as someone who was born in the early 2000s, I just think this drama discusses so many problems that still happen today.

I usually thank all the directors, the screenwriters and all the staff and casts involved in the end, but I really really want to thank everyone involved in this drama. For the casting directors, thank you. Thank you for picking beautiful actors and actresses and those that really fit with each of their characters. For the casts, namely Lee Hyeri, Ryu Junyeol, Go Kyungpyo, Lee Donghwi, Park Bogum, Ryu Hyeyoung, Ahn Jaehong, Choi Sungwon, Ra Miran, Sung Dongil, Lee Sungkyun, Lee Ilhwa, Kim Sunyoung, Choi Moosung and Yoo Jaemyeong and our little Kim Seol, thank you for bringing the characters to life. Thank you for acting out Deoksun, Jungpal, Sunwoo, Dongryong, Taek, Bora, Jungbong, Noeul, baby Jinjoo and all of the characters so perfectly for us! You did so so well and for that, I thank you. Kudos for all the directors and the screenwriters for the amazing storyline and for the idea to use the parents’ casts’ real name for their characters—it really helped me know each of the talented actors and actresses name better! Kudos as well to all the editors who worked so hard and managed to give us beautiful illustrations, and beautiful editings that brings a big smile to my face everytime I watch them.

No drama has ever made me cry this much, laugh this much, smile this much and hurt this much. It was super hard to say goodbye to this drama, albeit painful to watch at times. Since I watched this drama long after it ended, I knew who end up with who, all the sad scenes, even the alternate endings which I’m grateful it didn’t end that way. Love triangles are one of the things I don’t enjoy watching, moreover if there are no clear reasons to hate the SML, so I really tried my best to like the FML more, but I clearly failed at this one. The only problem I had with this drama is the way it ended for the SML, who clearly don’t deserve all that painful scenes. But it’s okay, all the happy family scenes showed in the end was all worth it, and it clearly made up all those painful and tearful scenes I had to watch in the last few episodes.

The balance between the sad scenes and the funny scenes are awesome! The transition between all that tearful scenes, the heartfelt scenes and all those painful scenes to the funny scenes and that ridiculously happy scenes were just so smooth. It’s like one minute you cry your eyes out watching a really touching scene, then a funny character like Mr Yoo or Dong Ryong comes up and does something funny. I’m thankful for those funny characters, because without them, I’m not going to be able to sleep well at night, because I’ll still be crying thinking of the scene.

Lastly, let me talk about the music. The music was just amazing! If I could rate more than 10 for the music, I definitely will! I am one to enjoy 80s music to begin with, so the OSTs and all the retro musics picked for this drama just fits well with my taste—Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You, How Deep is Your Love, Time of My Life, I Just Called to Say I Love You, Right Here Waiting, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. Some of the OSTs was a remake of old songs which I know some of it and loved them—Purple Rain and Don’t Worry.

For those of you who plans on watching this, prepare your hearts! Prepare tissues as well. Hang on tight because you might fall off your seats and your belly might hurt from laughing. You might also wake up with swollen eyes because you’ll cry your eyes out watching heartfelt and relatable scenes. But you’re not going to regret watching this drama one bit! Everything was just the way I liked them: dramatic but meaningful. “I can’t go back to my youth, or to this street. They are both the same. Time will always flow. Everything will pass by. Everything will age. That might be why youth is beautiful. It shines blindingly bright, for just an instant. But, to it, you can never go back. A time when many tears were shed. The time of my youth was like that as well… To the things that are already gone, to a time that had already passed, I want to say a belated farewell. Goodbye, my youth. Goodbye, Ssangmundong.” Goodbye Reply 1988! Welcome to my top 3! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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