This review may contain spoilers
There are times when you need someone to stand by you
*** Minor Spoilers***The series Iteawon Class follows Park Saeroyi (Park Seo Joon), a high schooler with a dream of becoming a police officer. However, after making critical decisions in high school, his life drastically changes. After arriving in Iteawon, a district known for its vibrant nightlife and clubs, Saeroyi and his friends open a small bar called "DanBam" to redeem himself.
As Park Saeroyi's business rival and nemesis Jang Hee (Yoojae Myung) owns Jangga, a fire competitor and the fuel and marker for Saeroyi, Iteawon Class follows an engaging and fast-paced plot that kept me hooked throughout its 16-episode run. Saeroyi's journey from expulsion to leading DanBam is inspiring. The series looks at ordinary individuals' struggles for justice and dreams. All the characters are great, but other than the two main pub leaders, I found Joy Yi Seo (Kim Da Mi), Ma Yi the chef (Lee Joo Young), Jang Geun Won, the bully (Ahn Bo Hyun) and Park Saeroyi's father Park Yul (Sun Hyun Joo) pivotal. They aren't perfect, they are different people from all walks of life. Pick ten random people at your workplace and try to avoid any clashes of personalities.
The cast delivers pretty convincing performances, bringing the characters to life and making things more relatable. Park Seo-Joon performance as Park Saeroyi showed determination, passion, leadership and charisma. He had that presence and strength about him that positively impacted his team and his personal life. Saeroyi was flawed and suppressed at times; however, when you bring enough passion, the right individual will enter your life and assist you on your path to your destiny.
The Iteawon Class is well-shot from a visual point of view. It had effective cinematography and attention to detail to capture the characters' emotions. The series captures the essence of Iteawon, from its bustling streets to its hidden nooks and crannies. The production design helped a lot. Before the series I really didn't know too much about the area until that Halloween disaster in 2022.
Iteawon Class's music and soundtrack are a big part of the experience. Mood and atmosphere were enhanced by the music choices. Overall, Iteawon Class was an engaging and entertaining drama. Themes of justice, redemption, and friendship and love. To this point the series is locked in at #8 for my all-time best Korean dramas. I don't give it ALL 10's but it resonates well with me!
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One of the best KDramas of 2020!
For those that are sceptical about watching this drama, do yourself a favour and watch it now!! I have only recently finished watching this drama and I can easily say that this is in my top 10!Firstly, I just wanna mention the OST!! Each track matches the scenes really well, particularly Start Over and Stone Block. These two are the ones that I can just listen to or jam in the car all the time. I also love Still Fighting It. Just every time I listen to that song, it’s very uplifting but at the same time it makes me feel nostalgic and sad in a good way.
I love all the characters from the leads to even the supporting characters. Everyone would expect me to choose the ML as my favourite character but the FL is the one that stood out for me. It was sooo refreshing to see a female character who was a badass and can fight back rather than always being a damsel in distress. It was so satisfying watching her scenes. Now although the leads are what makes this drama, we must also give credit to all the supporting characters. They really uplifted the show and gave that light and funny element that we always crave for in dramas, making it a fun and enjoyable watch.
As many of you already know, Itaewon Class is a slice of life type of drama. So don’t expect a big plot with many twists and turns. It has none of that. It has a simple plot and it is very character driven. I know a lot of you get turned off with character driven dramas cause even I do sometimes but this is one of those times where it’s an exception. IT IS WORTH YOUR TIME.
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My favorite scenes (which I really want to rewatch once I tired of living)
🍜Ep 2 00:06:05
Ep 3 00:58:03
Ep 5 00:47:15 00:53:30 00:57:19
Ep 6 00:10:43 00:26:25 00:36:30
Ep 7 00:43:00
Ep 8 00:41:13
Ep 9 00:49:24
Ep 10 00:26:56
Ep 11 00:39:03 00:44:19
Ep 12 00:51:00 00:59:23 01:05:40
Ep 15 00:18:48 00:46:19
Ep 16 00:37:55
At the first time when I heard about this drama, I thought this drama is overrated because there is Park Seo Jun as the main character. THAT'S NOT TRUE. This drama was another level of revenge plot. I would like to rewatch this drama once I feel tired and sad. JJINJA WORTH TO WATCH!
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This review may contain spoilers
One thing I would like to pinpoint was how well this drama handled the sensitive topic of racism, transphobia and orphanity. The mtf trans character was played by a woman which made me really happy since trans women are women and trans men are men just like any cis person. Yeah she was played by cis actress but still it was a development. Tony's character was also nice and I liked the Park Sae Ro Yi was supportive of both of them.The stylists made an amazing job with all the costumes as they were absolute fashion goals!
Overall this was probably my favourite drama of 2020. The sixteenth episode was a bit meh though but overall the drama is worth watching.
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Friendship & Revenge
ITAEWON CLASS (2020) was a fun, fast paced revenge drama filled with quirky characters, with humor, action, drama, friendship, business and teeny bit of romance. This series was really well made and well written, although a bit predictable in some ways (love triangle etc). I watch a lot of series / dramas and find some similar storylines among many of them, especially in revenge dramas. However, I really like the diversity of characters, as well as the bonds of friendship featured throughout."An ex-con opens a street bar in Itaewon, while also seeking revenge on the family who was responsible for his father's death."
Overall, this was a fun Kdrama, and definitely worth the chance. It had heart-warming aspects, as well as humor and drama. Somehow both heart-wrenching and light-hearted. A fun watch & great to see more of South Korea's city of Itaewon in a show.
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Never felt any chemistry between ML and FL
I watched the show for the male lead. He’s such a talented actor. And the story of revenge was great. I just never got behind the young female lead. Her character is obnoxious. I get that, for some reason, the writers wanted to make her offbeat, but why anybody was interested in her never made sense. She was heartless, intentionally mean, arrogant and way too young for the male. I just don’t understand why a character with his thoughtfulness, would ever fall for such a young, childish and selfish girl. And she stayed mean and obnoxiously self absorbed until the end. Anyway, that made no sense to me. It was the weakest component of a show for me. she would’ve been better as a sidekick to him and a supporter. But putting them as a love connection just never worked and for me, made the show not work.Was this review helpful to you?
best revenge for your enemy is your success
My expectation is high before I started to watch this drama.I love how good the cinematography was, so colourful and feel so fresh. The characters in the drama were interesting enough. some of them have unique and strong characters which is inspiring.
The first episodes make me interested, it tells story about how struggle ML to reach his goal. How big his intention to do the revenge. This drama definitely describe "best revenge for your enemy is your success", that's what the ML was fighting for.
Bu when it comes to the last episodes, there are some of the scenes that were predictable. and I didn't feel interested to watch more, I felt so bored, so I stopped on the episode 15, just because I thought that I know what would be happened, and I was not curious to watch till the end. I'm sorry.
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Started okay, but stopped being interesting
I started this drama because it was really popular at the time, so I thought "oh, it must be good", but I didn't enjoy it.I liked the initial storyline of Seo Joon's character fighting this rich guy's evil son and going to prison for it then vowing revenge, but then the whole plot just kinda falls flat and stops being interesting. You keep thinking something's going to happen that will surprise you and it just doesn't.
I didn't like the character of the female lead at all. She was just annoying. Nothing against the acting there, just hated the character.
Not Park Seo Joon's finest acting, but I guess that's because the script didn't give him much to work with because I think he was alright in Hwarang. His expression just never seemed to change from straight-faced.
But no, from my point of view, I wouldn't watch it again.
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The romance made sense to me
Each to their own opinion but I just can't fathom SooAh and Saeroyi as endgame. And while the idea of them is nice because they have history that goes way back, and how awesome would it be to end up with the one person who has been there since the beginning of your struggles. But the reality is that they were just not meant to be. And honestly, SooAh is just not ideal for someone like Saeroyi. Homeboy has been through hell and back, he has seen the darkest of the night, felt the greatest pain and losses. He does not need someone unpredictable like SooAh who if given the chance, will drop Saeroyi without hesitation if she were to be offered something of greater importance. What someone like Saeroyi needs, is loyalty. Of course Saeroyi is smart and thinks ahead, reason why he made a plan. But he was simply too vanilla (for a lack of better word) He needed someone just crazy enough to carry it out, and Yiseo was like the missing piece to his puzzle that he's been looking for all along. She was young, ambitious, and clever but most of all, she was loyal to the core. She wasn't wishy washy with what she wanted but made it clear multiple times she is dedicated to this one man and when everyone else just watched and hoped for the best, Yiseo not only fought with him, but she turned his dream into a reality!And at the same time, it also benefitted her. I know some people might feel like she does nice things only to get on Saeroyi's good side, but for a sociopath like her who before, cares about no one but only winning, to want to become better because of Saeroyi, or even just do nice things for others because of him, I think that's already pretty great in itself.
All in all, these two really complements each other. For Saeroyi, someone whose had a rough life to have someone completely dedicated by his side, and for someone like Yi-seo who lacks empathy for others, but to meet Saeroyi and just feel for this guy, his perseverance and determination, and to want to bring happiness to this dude, but also wanting to do better things because of him. Chefs kiss.
I'm also really tired of the first love = true love trope, so I am glad he ended with Yiseo. It proves that time isn't a measurement of love. No matter how long Saeroyi has known SooAh and clung onto her, Yiseo+Saeroyi proves that love is built through loyalty, teamwork, trusting in each other and having one another's back. All of which Saeroyi's and SooAh's relationship lacked even though they had the advantage of knowing each other longer.
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This review may contain spoilers
The characters can be SO annoying
Genuinely I cannot finish this drama because I'm fed up with Soo Ah and Yi Seo. I find them both really annoying and it soured the plot for me. And as much as I love Sae-Ro-I as a character I find that his love for Soo Ah ruins the plot, I get that he wants her to be true to herself, but she's literally working for the man who is responsible for Sae-Ro-i's misery, I find that inexcusable. I know they're trying to show that everyone has their own way of fighting for what's right, but I can't stand it.Yi Seo is so annoying too, although smart she's rude and tries to play it off as being witty. Every time I find myself trying to like her, she'll say something annoying and I go back to hating her. I think the main issue is making her have a crush on Sae-Ro-I, I think it takes away from the plot. It just seems so unnecessary for her character. I find myself getting too fed up with the romance aspects and everyone's crushes, then the actual revenge aspect.
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Honestly Just Don't Start
It started of brilliantly with the story of Park Seroyi setting up for a story of revenge but it slowly got worse and worse as it became less about the revenge and the weird, tangled love triangle that became oh so repetitive. Especially with Yi Seo and her whiny selfish self. I couldn't even finish the last two episodes. Should've dropped it earlier.Was this review helpful to you?
