Antonella

I really compliment you on the parallel between Gi Cheul and Jay Gatsby, which I totally approve of. You were also very astute in observing that the same woman (Eui Jeong/Daisy Fay) is the driving force behind both men's ambition to achieve high social position.

"Not a lot of noticeable characters beside these".
I was extremely impressed by Choi Jeong Bae (the actor Lim Seong Jae is phenomenal). He was right about everything and he was the one who was pushed into the corner the most until he was removed, even though he was probably the most faithful. He is the only one who understood from the beginning that Jun Mo and Eui Jeong both had something wrong; if Gi Cheul had listened to his intuition about them from the beginning, he wouldn't have lost everything. Although Jeong Bae stole from Gi Cheul, his loyalty was far greater than everyone else's, so he is another character who has great ambivalence. Honestly, it is not clear to me why Seo massacres him. He is also the one who finally realizes that Gi Cheul is trying to screw the whole team and abandon the drug dealing. I did not quite understand whether the drugs sold by Jeong bae were stolen from Gi Cheul or the Japanese, in which case he would be the cause of all Gi Cheul's troubles with the Japanese. I was a little perplexed in the scene where he punctures the tire... it is not clear whether he is involved or not in what happens that evening, maybe it is a plot hole.

"he has lost his dream, his crew, and his hyung (Seungho)"
Who is Seungho?

I too wrote in my review that the female characters and the interactions of the three couples should have been entrusted to a female screenwriter.

I too thought the female characters were terrible and wrote so in my review. It's not a question of how many kisses. What happens between those two people? Absolutely nothing. So what is the plot telling us? That absolutely nothing caused the end of a marriage, or that a policeman disloyally lets that a ridiculous female drug trafficker escape who he apparently cares absolutely nothing about? Ah, but you have to understand, it is implied. It is easy to write scripts by implying. You either put a romantic subplot or you do not. The usual man with the emotions of a spoon who thinks he is giving lessons to women who understand ten thousand times more about emotions than him.

Are you referring to a Christopher Nolan film in particular?

Honestly, the "Reply 1997"'s triangle was not predictable, I kept thinking that Shiwon would marry the older brother until the middle of the last episode.

Your review is very beautiful. Although I am more critical of this drama, I share almost everything you have written, especially regarding the emotional involvement, the admiration for the Korean people who have suffered and fought so much, the affection for all the characters and their suffered stories. Above all, I loved Hee-sung and fully share your description of the character. The way he died left me stunned, but I think the screenwriter wanted to connect his death to that of Eugene's father, do you agree? Until the end he paid for the mistakes of his parents, as if his grandfather had put a curse on him. How many tender and poetic people like Hee-sung succumb to the violence of the world, today this tears me even more.