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Hard Work Pays Off
His attitude and his hard work...he is such a good man with a strong goal and zeal.I don't like Soo Ah even though she has a goal she shouldn't be like that and should have supported him and been with him through his hardships and thats what people say right one will find you while you are chasing the wrong one.Yiseo is talented and supported him and been through the rough times and proved that in everyman's success there is a lady behind.A good Story doesn't require any romance but there is love.I totally liked this drama.I have seen many Park seo joon's dramas but this stand's front and now he became one of My Favorite Actor and Oppa ❤️❤️.Was this review helpful to you?
A must watch!
This is one of the best Kdrama I’ve watched. When I fist heard about it I thougt it’s just another love story like other kdramas right now but when I started watching the 1st episode I can’t stop watching another episode. I also became a fan of PSJ because of his amazing acting in this drama! I love the storyline coz it’s not your typical Romantic drama, it is full of emotions! You should be emotionaly prepared when you watch it. The Soundtrack is also the best! I’ve been listening to it again and again! Love it!Was this review helpful to you?
Good for people who only watch kdramas to see their favorite actors.
For people who only watch kdramas because the actors they are simping are in it, this "review" is NOT for you. So keep scrolling.--
Itaewon Class has been touted as a KDrama which "tackles" prejudice towards transgender, foreign parentage and ex-convict discrimination. But apart from several repetitive lines about the difficulty of getting employment as an ex-convict, a half episode about a transgender being outed in social media and a "redemption" arc for an American actor presented as someone with Guinean mother, the entire drama hardly focused on these touted topics.
It's safe to say that kdramas have a long way to go before it can confidently incorporate these themes in Kdramas. I just hope we don't see the same bullying porn so rampant in Kdramas.
At its core, this is a revenge porn dressed as a pub KDrama but with less drinking.
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Seeing Park Saeroyi (Park Seo-joon) constructing his life based on injustice was a lesson. His motivations always are revenge and this made him reach great things, money, friends, respect... But even with all this, his life always was sour. He wasn't satisfact with nothing until realizing the value of his life and what really moved your heart. On the other hand, we had President Jang (Yoo Jae-myung), that started your journey with the right ambition, but in the middle of the way lost his principles and let this ambition drag him to the end of the well. Saw this journey was pretty intense and made me reflect on my own ambitions and what can move me. Still reflecting on this. Without talking about the important topics that were trate in the drama, as preconception with gender and color of skin. If here in Brazil this is topics that still are delicate, I imagine the impact of this in Korea.
But talking about the production... The recent dramas are doing a great job showing visceral things to the audience. The places, the acting, the OST... Everything was very good and impressive. I loved Kim Da-mi as Jo Yi-seo! What character! She was totally consistent and funny! I love to have a female lead that was insensitive for once, even when she was totally crazy about Saeroyi. I'm not saying that this was healthy or that I agreed with this behavior, but I thought was new entertainment between so many female leads that look the same. Recently we have the amazing Ko Mo-young on "It's okay to be not okay", but I still thought Jo Yi-seo more unpredictable and different.
I love the close and how they put the heal of Saeroyi as a priority. We have romance and friendship, but the peace of Saeroyi with himself was the most remarkable thing. And how this journey tasted? Just sweet!
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Happiness. The warmth I share with you.
I cannot even begin to explain how heart wrenching and emotionally uplifting this drama was. This drama has to be one of the most unique ones I have watched till date and without doubt it has secured a tight spot in both my heart and rewatch list. I have watched a lot of dramas in my seventeen years of existence and this has to be one of those rare dramas that literally has everything I have wanted in a Kdrama; LGBTQ represantation, a culturally diverse cast as well as complex characters with determination. The romance between Park Saeroyi and Jo Yo-seo is just a warm little bonus that made my heart melt.Was this review helpful to you?
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Finally
At last a kdrama with a tiny bit of romance that didnt make me want to smash my tv!!! An edgy drama with good characters, plot and the slightest bit of romance (rather than the usual absolute smothering of romance that kdramas are ruined by). Female leads didnt get all mushy and destroyed and played a stromg major role in the entire story. And best of all the cute, unlikely romantic winning female, actually got the guy in the end! Its been a long haul through a mountain of absolute dross to finally find this diamond of a series (strong girl Bong Soon at last has someone else on the podium)Was this review helpful to you?
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I loved itaewon class for the revenge, romance, healing and the ost.
It was really satisfying revenge, like marry my husband. I have seen a lot of hate in the main couple and the SML. Many wanted Saeroyi to end up with Soo Ah. My thoughts:1. Soo Ah, Yi Seo, Saeroyi
Soo Ah never deserved Saeroyi. It's admirable she was an independent person and made a life for herself. It was not easy to change her way like how she did in the end. She is the most miserable character in the drama. But what she did to Seroyi was a massive. A massively worse version of using the other person like how Yi Seo did to Guen Won and Saeroyi to Yi Seon. But what made it worse was that she is not an immature kid and knew all along the extend of what she was doing, all on the excuse that Saeroyi will not be hut no matter what she did.
When Soo Ah used Saeroyi to justify her life, Yi Seo honestly wanted royi to be happy. In a way yi Seo and royi bet their lives in each other. They might have trouble being in a relationship, but for me they are perfect for each other.
What she did at the end was too little too late.
2) Geun Won
Usually I hate the SML and the love triangle in most series. But I did not hate Geun Won as a SML, but only as a misguided and irritating antagonist in the later episodes.
3) The ending
It is understandable that some did not like how the tone of the show changed from beginning to end. But it felt really natural to me. Especially the goosebumps raising 2 kneeling scenes. The last episode was absolutely perfect. Also the scene when the chairman was eating the tofu stew in the pub.
All in all, it was an inspiring, heartwarming and satisfying drama for me!
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Sometimes Great, Sometimes Insufferable
So when I first signed up for this site about a month ago, I sat down and did reviews for all the dramas I could remember watching. Tonight something relating to Itaewon Class came up (a show I watched only a few months back) and I couldn't remember talking about my biggest issue with the show. Turns out I accidentally forgot to do a review for this one, so let's get into it.Occasionally someone's character in a drama is so nasty, awful, cruel, idiotic, annoying, narcissistic, etc., that I will struggle to want to watch anything with that person again. Usually that's a nod to how great of an actor they are, but this is definitely not one of those cases, as everything I've seen written about the FL's character Oh Soo Ah (Kwon Nara) in this drama has been weirdly positive. Despite that, I thought she was vile. Them writing that she wasn't actually the one who turned him into police for the underage selling as if we're all supposed to go, "Omg... I was sooo wrong about her!" after EVERYTHING else she did from the time he met her until the end of the drama... give me a break.
After all Park Sae-Ro-Yi (Park Seo-Joon) did for her, after all Sae-Ro-Yi's father did for her, she behaved that way? Not just once either. It was one selfish, narcissistic, cold-blooded decision after another. All I kept thinking throughout this whole movie was that he was 100% correct about her from the first time they met, and the time as kids after that was fake af. She had always been fake, and he was always unable to see it.
You can say what you want about Jo Yi-Seo (Kim Da Mi), and sure there were times where she was definitely wayyyy out of line, but at least she was real. Brutally honest and real. And of course, that brings us to another example of Soo Ah's fakery; the introduction of a beautiful, strong, and determined female who knew she wanted Seo-Ro-Yi from the beginning. After years of treating him either like sh*t, like she was too good for him, or like he didn't exist at all, suddenly she's interested in him when she learns this girl is? Bffr
The rest of the cast was decent. I loved the transformation of Choi Seung-Gwon (Ryu Kyung-Soo) over time and I also really loved his relationship with Sae-Ro-Yi. I definitely feel like they shafted Kim To-Ni (Chris Lyon) at the end a bit. They definitely should've all been more involved and more together.
Also, the romance thing went on for too long because every time he didn't return feelings, I didn't really care except for the fact that he'd then go and do some stupid sh*t for Soo Ah. I also hated the trans thing. It added nothing to the story and was totally irrelevant. The actress, Lee Joo-Young looked the same in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo so it feels like they were just like, "You have a boyish haircut, what if we make you a dude trying to be a woman for funsies!?" Like, instead of writing her as an interesting person, they just did this.
I was worried I'd feel the same about Chris Lyon being in it because Netflix tends to throw random diversity characters into shows so they give the appearance of virtue, when in reality there's just no good reason, and they can't be bothered to create one. I didn't dislike his placement at all though. They storyline with his dad and grandma and them hiring him to speak English because they assumed he could speak it... that all makes sense.
Anyways, I don't think I'd rewatch because it was too infuriating.
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Overall- would recommend to everyone
I watched this drama because i had previously seen dramas with Park Seo Joon and i was interested in watching this one. I think the story was interesting to follow through most of the series. I liked how there was a continuation of a sentimental moment Saeroyi had with his father before his father passed away early on in the series, the way the wine tasted. I think it was clever how the mention of weather the alcohol was sweet or bitter also reflected how things were going in each characters life. i think there was the perfect amount of suspense in this story and there was always something going on. I actually ended up really liking the character of Jang Geun Won despite the fact that he was meant to be unlikable through the series because of his actions i pitied the character because i think it was because of family pressures and not nececerally spite.Was this review helpful to you?
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Refreshing for me!
This drama really felt so fresh to me. I appreciated that for the most part things stayed relatively low stakes and focused on character relationships. There was some less believable aspects of the story and the character interactions, but for the most part it stayed grounded and realistic. This feels rare for a lot of dramas sometimes!Those last few episodes after the final time jump though..... Woof. they really leaned so hard into the drama tropes! So much hospitalization, kidnappings, a coma, they did it all. It was like they strayed from the traditional drama writing for too long and they couldn't resist at the end.
Overall I thought the actors did well, I loved the music, and the story kept me interested.
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Good show with some issues
The reviews on here for Itaewon class are very interesting with a lot of very high or very low scores. At the end of the day I think it's somewhere in the middle.I think Itaewon's biggest failing is the story, it's a revenge story but not a particularly good one. The ML is wronged and he spends the show attempting to get revenge, but it's not very interesting. It's a weird mix of "the best revenge is living well" and also attempting to take down his enemies. This really ends up being framing for a charming restaurant slice of life and romance with a great cast.
Kim Da Mi and Park Seo Joon play off each other very well with Kim's outgoing and forceful character picking up the slack for Park's more limited dialog. Watching them run a restaurant is great and the three employees at DanBam are good and fit in well. I want to give the show extra credit for having a transgender character and handling her well.
While I don't think the revenge plot is great Yoo Jae Myung does play a great villain. His actions are sometimes uncaring, sometimes cruel, but always feel like they're coming from the place of a real fleshed out character with his own motivations.
My largest issues with the show come near the end. The pacing starts to suffer and the writing starts to feel the need to inject extra tension and drama into the last few episodes rather than letting the story come to a more natural conclusion.
But at the end of the day I really like the show, it was my first kdrama and while it isn't my favorite it's certainly above average and the cast and setting are great.
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