SKY Castle (2018)

VERY THOUGHT-PROVOKING DRAMA WITH AMAZING ACTORS

What an outstanding drama. Unique plot. Beautiful script. Amazing characters. I was addicted from start to finish. I had to drop the other one I was watching just to see how this played out and I was not disappointed at all. While most dramas about rich families just focus on their pampered lives, this one takes you down a path where you learn that behind all the prominence is pressure. Pressure to succeed and pressure to have children to succeed after you. The parents in sky castle will do anything to solidify the future of their children, but at what cost?

The main characters were multi-dimensional, thoughtfully written, and the actors executed their roles perfectly. There were quite a few scenes that got me emotional, and the well-written script enhanced the performance of everyone involved. The young actors and actresses in the cast gave great performances (especially Chani. He's an idol but he was very good at emotion), but the veteran cast stole the show. The housewives were undoubtedly the foundation of sky castle and their husbands were handfuls to match. My favorite family was Ye Seo's family. Fave character was Soo-Im. Her family was the only one I never got frustrated at and genuinely rooted for.

Overall I give this drama a 10/10. Even if you weren't a kid who grew up in a suffocating household like the sky castle children, there was still a lot to take away from this. I think the main themes are that what society dictates as success doesn't always bring happiness to those who achieve it and that one's happiness and self-identity should always be put above other people's expectations. There are other interesting themes and dark undertones. I agree that episode 16 was dragged out but it was only so you could see everybody get a happy ending but it's definitely skippable. I also think the ending was realistic because there will always be people in the world who crave money, status, and accomplishments to satisfy their greed. But it is never too late to realize one's errors and make amends for past mistakes and heal what is broken.

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Just incredibly amazing

This
drama is just awesome. It is very well
written, all of the actors did a perfect job.

The cinematography is just perfect. The
direction is perfect too. The OST gives me
goosbumps and is always played at the
perfect timing. Every character is very
well-written and the drama has full of
twists and turns.

It a serious drama with serious topics but
the fact that it still makes you laugh out
loud at times is just fabulous. Its like the
drama is so perfect that it controls your
emotions. It’s a full roller coaster of
emotions and the fact the villain in this
drama isn’t shown as the “ most evil”
person is so much amzing. Like in other
dramas when they show that villain is the
worst person.

This drama showed us the perspectic of
the villain too and her reasons as why she
does the stuff she doing now. All the
characters have their own flaws. Mostly
dramas try to show that the main leads
are down-to-earth and are just perfect
but this drama did the exact opposite. It
showed how the main characters were
flawed a lot.

Also the drama gives a very strong
message to not only the Korean society
but to the whole world that why should
you pressurize your students so much to
study. Its just an awesome drama and I
just don’t have words to explain my love
for it.

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It’s VERY Good

Although I was intrigued just by reading the synopsis of the drama, I still went into this not knowing what to actually expect. Before watching, I read a few reviews and comments and saw how a good bit of people actually didn’t like it bc they felt it was highly over exaggerated and unbelievable but trust me, it’s not. Parenting like that of this show actually happens in parts of the world and once those viewers understand that, they’ll realize that this drama isn’t as fictitious as they want to believe it is.

Anyway, on the the actual drama: First of all, the actresses/actors deserve awards bc I’ve seen so many shows/dramas/etc. in my 22 years of living but never have I seen such amazing on screen chemistry and talent. The only other drama I can say even comes close is Just Between Lovers.

The story and plot are both intriguing with many twists and surprises to keep the viewers hooked. And don’t even get my started on the ending omg. I swear, there NEEDS to be a season two but I’d be okay if there isn’t.

Please everyone, just go watch this. Some parts may make you want to reach through the screen and strangle a few ppl, but you’ll keep coming back for more. I guarantee it.

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I wish I could explain it in words how much I love this drama. I have watched almost 75 Asian Dramas and recently when I watched this, it became my No.1. I never knew a Korean Drama can be this good. This drama deserves to be nominated for Emmy Awards (most famous awards for American Series).

The acting was Oscar worthy by almost all the actors and that makes watching this drama even more exciting.

I am so emotional right now. This drama has a place in my heart that no other drama has. I resonate with this drama so much.

I hope I get to see something more brilliant like this in future.

At first I thought it was overrated. But I am now sure after watching it that it deserves more love. As it's a Masterpiece

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Made me intouch with my emotions

When I finished watching this show I’ve never thought that I could feel what I felt when I finished this show. I’ve watched many dramas but I have never been so in touch of my emotions after watching SKY Castle. When something happy happened I felt happy, when something was funny I laughed and when something was sad I cried my eyes out. No other show has made me think these feelings.

When I finished, I couldn’t just help just reflect on society and just realised how much in my life I’ve taken for granted. It sounds sad but after seeing what happened to Kim Hye-Na I’m just so grateful that I have parents who look after me and love me.

There were characters in which truthfully pissed me off but at the same time I couldn’t hate them because they were doing their actions out of greed or love, in the end they all were eaten away by guilt and eventually mellowed out and because decent human beings and lived their lives without lying to themselves. The OST “We All Lie” holds so much meaning to me after finishing SKY Castle because it showed me what lies can do to a person and how it can eat someone inside.

I highly recommend this show for your own enjoyment and also you could learn a life lesson while watching this show like I have and I’m most definitely going to live my life to the fullest and try to change myself.

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The story overall is good, I relate to the story because I have lived similar incidents.. But the ending was too sweet for me as if another writer did it, if Hiye na didn’t die the ending will match the story but with her death which passed by as nothing & meaningless I didn’t like it. In the end the solution for the writer was not to study which didn’t fix anything but ignores the whole problem & present to us how spoiled the kids are because their parents will spend on them so they can do what they like. On the other hand, Seo Jin which was the main problem & villain for me, gets everything, the man, the happy ending, her mother in law liked her, her daughter changed which also gets everything in the end without a time to process the change or repent their sins.

as for the acting it was good though sometimes they either overreacted or was impassive & has no emotions.. but Kim seo Hyoung did a marvelous job as her role & acting skills was amazing.. which was the best amongst all.

Overall it was a good drama with lots of incidents but the twist in the end ruined the dark theme of it.

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An Unforgiving Mirror of Ambition and Parental Pressure

SKY Castle is a hauntingly brilliant drama that dives deep into the darkest corners of parental ambition, academic pressure, and the fragile line between love and control. Set in a luxurious neighborhood where South Korea’s elite doctors and professors reside, the story follows four mothers—Han Seo Jin, Noh Seung Hye, Jin Jin Hee, and Lee Myung Joo—each fighting with silent desperation to secure their children’s futures at the top universities, especially Seoul National University. But what begins as a simple tale of academic competition quickly evolves into a complex web of secrets, psychological warfare, and emotional breakdowns.

The arrival of Lee Soo Im and her nonconforming, more down-to-earth family disrupts the fragile ecosystem of SKY Castle. Soo Im’s presence challenges the other mothers, who are used to controlling every detail of their children’s lives. She questions not only their parenting styles but her own choices, especially as she begins to uncover what truly happened to the family that lived in her new home before her—the mysterious case of Myung Joo’s family and their ties to the chillingly calm college coordinator, Kim Joo Young.

What makes SKY Castle so powerful is how universally it speaks to the cost of success and the danger of tying a child’s worth to academic achievement. The mothers in this story are not villains, though they often act ruthlessly. They are women shaped by a system that equates prestige with happiness, and they have internalized that belief so deeply that they lose sight of the people their children actually are. Their motivations stem from fear—fear of failure, of losing status, of being seen as “less.”

Each character embodies a different response to this system: Han Seo Jin, with her double life and desperate need to maintain control; Noh Seung Hye, who begins to question everything she once believed; Jin Jin Hee, who blindly follows the advice of others just to stay in the race; and Lee Soo Im, who walks into this world like a quiet storm, full of compassion but slowly pushed to her own moral limits. And then there's Kim Joo Young, a character so unnervingly calm and calculated that she personifies the ruthless machinery behind the façade of academic excellence.

The children are, in many ways, the heart of the series. They are intelligent, talented, and entirely human—yet crushed under the weight of their parents' unrelenting expectations. Their anxiety, depression, rebellion, and even obedience feel raw and familiar. Watching them struggle isn’t easy, but it’s necessary.

SKY Castle isn’t just a drama—it’s a slow-burning psychological exploration of how ambition can erode relationships, ethics, and even love. It's not only about South Korea’s education culture, but a broader, more universal message: when success becomes everything, humanity is the first thing we lose.

The show is stylish, suspenseful, and brutally honest. It holds up a mirror to society and quietly asks, “What are we really doing to our children in the name of love?” The answer it gives back is not comfortable, but it is unforgettable.

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Schadenfreude ❌️ The Pride Monster ❌️ & The Helicopter Crash °irony laden excellence°

In the end, it always comes back to the parents. In the end, S🏰 is a masterpiece.

Oh, these people are vile. “They say they love me, but they should be honest and say they need something to brag about,” says one kid. What's a rich, narcissistic, vapid, entitled mom to do?

S🏰 is an upscale gated community. There's a new family moving in. They're decent folk. The rest of the families are hyper-competitive moms next to (though successful professionally), worthless men as fathers. Then there's others around the edges who prop up the horrible, oppressive charade w/ everything they have.

Yeom Jung Ah plays Han “Seo” Jin / Kwak Mi Hyang. She's a woman who ruthlessly got what she wanted when she married. Her daughter, Yiseo, excels. She MUST be accepted at the best medical school. We eventually meet Seo's mother i/l and realize that she, herself, is a big disappointment. She's using her daughter to get her mother i/l's approval. It's very sad. The actress is phenomenal, as evidenced by my escalating stress over the fact that I couldn't strangle her. She would run over Buddha to get her daughter accepted. Nothing can turn her. Not if the world were to burn down would she change course. Pride makes people that delusional.

‘What do I do now? What do I do if the word gets out?’ A woman's less than what's-considered-respectable past (her father sold beef offal😱) is in danger of being exposed. Smoke & mirrors are everything to these people. It's all vanity. See how much effort they put into being phony to impress people that they don't even like! (Normies are insane). Meanwhile, the woman who knew her when they were growing up together is thinking: “I've only heard about collective selfishness. Now that I've experienced it, I realize that it's a nightmare.”

S🏰 is a 2018 release that is rated 88 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 20 75-minute episodes. It's about the human tragedy of pride. Pride is a liar, pride is the opposite of love, and pride destroys. In ep15, everything ratchets up.

The themes are parenting, motivating kids to be their best, what that means, but most of all, pride. S🏰 features extreme competition, the same thing that motivated the author of Squid Game-8.4.“I've never let loose & had fun. I've never played 1 game in my entire life. We've never gone on 1 vacation,” says 1 top student. Everything has been about 1 goal.“ “Those women use their kids to fulfill their greed. They can act all high and noble, but to me, they're nothing,” an outsider opines. This is why SK has the 4th (now the 3rd?) highest suicide rate in the world. “Competition to get into college ends up killing so many kids every year. But our society isn't changing at all.” This is a country where its residents are under so much pressure it literally is too much., It makes one wonder why people don't rise up & demand change. I guess that takes too much energy.

The new neighbor (Lee Tae Ran portrays Lee Soo Im) doesn't fit in at all. She's genuine. She doesn't put pressure on her son b/c he's self-motivated. She wants him to be /happy/. The 1st thing she does is disrupt Book Club, quite inadvertently. She couldn't be more strange if she was a reptilian alien w/ a forked tail. Her husband, a surgeon, was plucked out of obscurity to (hopefully) run the dept. All the other denizens of S🏰 have been reduced to 2 emotions: gloating smugness & rageful jealousy.

Yoon Se Ah plays Noh Seung Hye. I thought she was really good in My Sassy Girl-8.5, an underrated show, imho. This performance only cemented my opinion. She's fantastic. Since 2005. most of her features round up to 8 with nothing under 6.9.. She's been fitting in at S🏰 & acquiescing to her husband, who excessively preens to compensate for his innate feelings of inadequacy combined w/ his yeasty ego. Personally, I think this dame can act her butt off. Her husband, Cha Min Hyeok, is a Law professor. He's smart, but not as smart as he fashions himself. That's the trap so many intelligent people fall into - believing they know everything. He runs Book Club, which is often just him and the toxic egotist, Kang Yiseo (Kim Hye Yoon) bantering. Her lens is so thick that she interprets everything she reads as an affirmation of her egocentrism. She's the worst type of person, & Cha is an insufferable know-it-all. He has no insight at all but gives us a nice demonstration of philosophical gymnastics. ‘What is being selfish?’ Cha queries. “It's doing something that will help you reach your objectives,” answers egotist, Yiseo. Prof. Cha concurs, asserting that being completely selfish is how you become selfless. (!?) All this is complete tosh, of course. It's what narcissists say to justify how they are. Selfishness is being self-focused to the neglect of others & what they want, & it usually involves a lack of empathy. It's being an @$$hole. It's also existing in lies.

Oh Na Ra has quietly been in some of the best stuff ever. She usually plays a sweetheart, but here she begins as the most shallow and toxic sort. She's has room for growth and she will grow during S🏰. Kim Seo Hyung plays Kim “Joo” Young, an austere academic coach. She's a supreme ice queen. She's wonderful in Mine-8. Stern, and rigid, she's all-business. In ep10 she has a fit of laughter and it's actually a bit chilling. Her smile is terrifying, oily and creepy. She should do horror.

Song Geon Hee is one of the most miserable kids, Park Young Jae. Park You Na portrays Cha Seri, an older sibling, back from the States on break from Harvard. Cho Byeong Kyu of The Uncanny Counter plays Cha Ki Jun, one of the Cha twins. (About TUC, S1 is 8.4 and it's fabulous. S2 is insultingly awful. It's one of the worst cases of second season syndrome I've ever seen).

Kim Bo Ra is Kim Hye Na, a classmate who Woo has his eye on. She's a cutie. She was also in My Only Love Song-8.7, a hilarious show that I adore. Director Jo Hyun-Tak gave us The Atypical Family & Snowdrop, while writer, Yoo Hyun-Mi penned Snowdrop & The Bridal Mask. I'll watch anything of theirs. Every shot, the decorating, the lighting, the costume ~ everything ~ is carefully orchestrated in S🏰. The use of music is also skillful. Endless Night is particularly sad. They found a balance between decorating the houses with upscale decor and making them look institutional and impersonal. Everyone seems to have partition walls in their house. Does it signify cages, division, and the illusion of privacy? These partitions are beautiful but we can see right through them.

The Cha household is excessively dark and there's prison bar imagery everywhere. Hye & Min are in a tense argument over the design of the Study Room and have a showdown. He has already cut up her credit cards. He sits for dinner. It's instant ramen. The dining area is underlit shades of industrial grey & almost every element is a straight vertical or horizontal. We're in a very rigid household. His drab jacket is the color of excrement. She's spectacular in a form-fitting scarlet lace dress. The revolutionary? They work out a deal. The tea kettle 🔊💨 in the background. “Enjoy your dinner.” Magnificent.

Many touches make for superb filmcraft.There's a touching moment in ep6 when a mom cuddles her son and admits that she's not sure if all the pressure she's been putting on him is the right thing. “There's no answer,” she (too casually) surmises. The camera pans out & we finally see what the blue & white figurine really is. There's overly bright shots that are not flattering to the skin. I can't tell if that's deliberate or not, but I suspect it is to show that under the bright lights we are all flawed. None of them are as perfect or special as they believe. Despite the heavy subject matter, they even manage quite a bit of humor..

The pyramid. Life is a pyramid for Prof. Cha. Only 1 reaches the top. He's done okay, but he wants his kids to surpass him. Pyramids can be a scheme. Education has become a pyramid scheme. Large student loans enslave graduates. Colleges believe they have a monopoly and they have resorted to chain restaurant mentalities. They are overpriced, they serve up junk food, and they also are quite the propaganda machines. Education is vitally important, but that isn't what's going on at most colleges. They are doing everything but teaching useful skills and critical thinking. They are bankrupting us at the same time. If your child is interested in tinkering with h/h hands, don't discourage it out of hand. Plumbers, electricians, and other handy people are the new millionaires. There will always be a need for them.

“Do you know why God gave us kids? You should learn that there's something you can't always control.” Control. It's the biggest illusion of them all. One family reached the point where someone had to give in or someone had to die. “I don't want to be your son anymore… I don't want to live in hell anymore.” “We've wasted our lives,” yells dad. “Love one another. As I have loved you. John 13:34,” reads the plaque on the wall. It's interesting that the person who committs suicide receives a Christian funeral. We're to infer that s/he didn't even believe s/he was going to get another chance. People who ascribe to reincarnation are often shown as using suicide for a reset. It makes it even more tragic, from one perspective, b/c this person had given up all hope.

“There's no such thing as friends. There is only self & self-achievement.” Prof Cha spent a fortune on a test prep booklet, & his sons shared this info w/ their mates. “You mindless idiot, they're your competitors. It's the same as sharing your bullets w/ your enemies! Didn't I tell you to think of your school as a battlefield? Everyone beside you is the enemy!” By the end he was screaming. “I don't agree w/ your dad,” their mom tells them later. “You did the right thing. Competing w/ others makes you lonely. I believe true success is living a life that's not lonely.”

If one puts too much pressure on the kids they will be driven underground, we'll see. Oh the irony! In ep9 a father is exultant with celebratory pride. The /truth/ will devastate him. But the other S🏰 denizens enjoy their schadenfreude, or a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people. “I know people in Washington who will cut off your life support in order to charge their cell phone,” I read once, and find it totally believable. These people embody that coldness. They're absolute ghouls. There's no tragedy that they don't think about turning to their own benefit. And it all comes back on them, ironically.

The moms are held in direct contrast. “You can't stand by and do nothing while your kids are being tormented. You have to protect them.” says the unselfish mother; the one who only wants happiness for her family. “I cannot give up on your life... No matter who yells at me or throws stones at me… I will do anything," says a mother who has been singly obsessed w/ her child's college admission. Her child is melting away in front of her, yet she still believes her own lies about herself, what she wants, and what /really/ motivates her. Meanwhile, her progeny is fast becoming NOT her disciple. For just a moment, her child paused & started to appreciate what really matters while realizing how revolting her family's values are.

Two characters start to channel Reverend Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter. Their guilty consciences are eating them alive. “Cut out the rotten parts now. You must do it while you still can.. life is long… Think about 10 or 20 yrs from now. University? … it's no big deal. But the guilt of {spoiler🚫} will haunt her …You reap what you sow.” In the wake of his own family tragedy, rather than schadenfreude, this speaker tries to help his friend avoid mistakes.

“When will you stop obsessing about what other people think of you?” A grown man demands answers of his mother, because this problem is multi-generational, and continues into adulthood. Pride is always hungry. It's never sated. “How can you call yourself human?” When one hears that from 2nd and 3rd parties, one should stop and reflect, croche? Don't dismiss all feedback on autopilot. “I thought I was a rational person, but I found out that I was very biased,” we hear one character reason out. We see the first cracks in their inhumane resolve. Finally.

“After this incident, I realized that being able to eat together w/ my wife & son is enough to make me happy.” Once they drop the pretense they can merely love one another. “That's why I'm going to try my best to be a good dad, & a good husband, & a good son. I don't want to end up regretting anything in the future.” 1-by-1, the parents see how off-course they've gotten. The theme is, ultimately, regret. All the above leads to regret. Pride is radon w/ no color, odor, or taste. We can't see how it poisons us. But it does poison us & makes us blind to all our stuff. It isolates us. Isolation doesn't make a good life.

“I believe true success is living a life that's not lonely.”

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

Racket Boys-8.3,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Reply 1988-8.6,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Be Melodramatic-8.7
Familiar Wife-8.5,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
Birthcare Center-8.2,
Call It Love-8.4,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Revenge of Others-8.6
Itaewon Class-8.9
Law School -8, Why Her?-8,
Misaeng-9.1,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
Mine-8,
Blood Free-8.5
My Mister 9.5,
I'll See You When the Weather is Fine 9
Anna-8.1,
Something in the Rain-8.6,
Wonderful World-7.8
Awaken-8.7

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A Riveting Indictment of Tiger Parenting...

As someone who was forced to go to dental school by his doctor and dentist parents, the plotline and trailer for this K-drama immediately captured my attention. Melodramatic and manipulative though also exciting and engaging, I can see why this drama is the second-highest-rated drama in Korean cable television history. Topical and relatable, this series showcases the detrimental effects of strict tiger parenting. 'Sky Castle' should be seen by all parents who push their dreams on their children, viewing him as trophies to brag about rather than as human beings with their own dreams and goals.

On a side note, it's hilarious how the parents were so obsessed with their children getting into medical school, but not finishing it. I absolutely ADORED Professor Cha's and Soo Han's families! They were easily my favourites out of all of the families at Sky Castle.

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