This review may contain spoilers
The ending is nuanced and here's why:
⭐ My Review of Highschool Return of a Gangster
(My rewatch values don't matter because I never re-watch and music doesn't matter to me. So, take those specific ratings with a grain of salt!)
So I just finished Highschool Return of a Gangster and honestly? I loved it. I know a bunch of people were dragging the ending, but I’m gonna be real their complaints don’t make sense to me at all.
The drama follows this suicidal, depressed student who actually ends up killing himself. A gangster dies at the same time while trying to save the kid—their souls switch and the gangster ends up in the student’s body. The whole story is basically the gangster trying to fix the student’s life so that when the soul eventually returns, the kid can live peacefully.
But the twist? At the end, the switch almost happens, but Yi heon refuses. He literally says he has no will or energy left to continue living, and that it’s enough for him that the gangster can be happy in his body. His soul just… disappears. And I liked that. I genuinely get where he’s coming from. Depression isn’t “fix someone’s problems and poof, they’re fine.” It’s about your will to live, the energy to keep going . And he didn’t have that anymore, even with the “better” life waiting for him.
People were mad that the KDP ended up taking over the kid’s life “too easily,” but honestly? The man actually wanted to live. He tried. He fought. He even hesitated when the Yi heon refused to switch back. But if someone has decided they can’t keep going, and somebody else actually can live that life happily, then yeah that person is the one who’s able to live it. That was Yi heon's choice.
Then there’s the whole “friend” discourse. People were losing it over how Se kyung was okay with the KDP staying but not his “old friend.” Like… THEY WERE NEVER FRIENDS. Y’all blind. He avoided the Yi heon the whole time. He didn’t hurt him on purpose, sure, but he also didn’t help him. The real friendship only forms after the soul switch, with the gangster. So of course he wants the gangster to stay. That’s literally the person he bonded with. We get to watch the scene where the friend apologizes and that's the only reason the yi heon's soul lingered around. Se kyung wanted Yi heon's soul back because he wanted to apologize and genuinely didn't understand who the stranger was in his classmate's body. That doesn't mean Se kyung was anything more than just a classmate to Yi heon, his real friend or should I say—his bestfriend is and always will be KDP.
And honestly, everyone whining about “bad writing” seems to forget the most important detail: the Yi heon died that day. Whether there was soul-switch sorcery or not, the boy who jumped off that bridge did lose his life. KDP fixing things wasn’t the “purpose” of the story. He didn’t even know he’d stay in the body forever. He just wanted to do one good thing before actually dying.
To me, the real point of the drama shows itself at the end: Yi heon's choice, the reality of his depression, KDP’s will to live and how their stories collide. It’s messy but meaningful and that’s exactly why I liked it.
The reason why I gave this a 8.5 and not a 10 is because of my own expectations. I was expecting this drama to be more mafia focused. Perhaps a balance between the highschool and mafia theme. I also didn't like the way the female antagonist was handled and the poor representation of addiction recovery.
(My rewatch values don't matter because I never re-watch and music doesn't matter to me. So, take those specific ratings with a grain of salt!)
So I just finished Highschool Return of a Gangster and honestly? I loved it. I know a bunch of people were dragging the ending, but I’m gonna be real their complaints don’t make sense to me at all.
The drama follows this suicidal, depressed student who actually ends up killing himself. A gangster dies at the same time while trying to save the kid—their souls switch and the gangster ends up in the student’s body. The whole story is basically the gangster trying to fix the student’s life so that when the soul eventually returns, the kid can live peacefully.
But the twist? At the end, the switch almost happens, but Yi heon refuses. He literally says he has no will or energy left to continue living, and that it’s enough for him that the gangster can be happy in his body. His soul just… disappears. And I liked that. I genuinely get where he’s coming from. Depression isn’t “fix someone’s problems and poof, they’re fine.” It’s about your will to live, the energy to keep going . And he didn’t have that anymore, even with the “better” life waiting for him.
People were mad that the KDP ended up taking over the kid’s life “too easily,” but honestly? The man actually wanted to live. He tried. He fought. He even hesitated when the Yi heon refused to switch back. But if someone has decided they can’t keep going, and somebody else actually can live that life happily, then yeah that person is the one who’s able to live it. That was Yi heon's choice.
Then there’s the whole “friend” discourse. People were losing it over how Se kyung was okay with the KDP staying but not his “old friend.” Like… THEY WERE NEVER FRIENDS. Y’all blind. He avoided the Yi heon the whole time. He didn’t hurt him on purpose, sure, but he also didn’t help him. The real friendship only forms after the soul switch, with the gangster. So of course he wants the gangster to stay. That’s literally the person he bonded with. We get to watch the scene where the friend apologizes and that's the only reason the yi heon's soul lingered around. Se kyung wanted Yi heon's soul back because he wanted to apologize and genuinely didn't understand who the stranger was in his classmate's body. That doesn't mean Se kyung was anything more than just a classmate to Yi heon, his real friend or should I say—his bestfriend is and always will be KDP.
And honestly, everyone whining about “bad writing” seems to forget the most important detail: the Yi heon died that day. Whether there was soul-switch sorcery or not, the boy who jumped off that bridge did lose his life. KDP fixing things wasn’t the “purpose” of the story. He didn’t even know he’d stay in the body forever. He just wanted to do one good thing before actually dying.
To me, the real point of the drama shows itself at the end: Yi heon's choice, the reality of his depression, KDP’s will to live and how their stories collide. It’s messy but meaningful and that’s exactly why I liked it.
The reason why I gave this a 8.5 and not a 10 is because of my own expectations. I was expecting this drama to be more mafia focused. Perhaps a balance between the highschool and mafia theme. I also didn't like the way the female antagonist was handled and the poor representation of addiction recovery.
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