Fleeting Youth
I watched Reply 1988, and I feel robbed!
I enjoy watching movies without hype and prejudice. I like to have zero to NO impressions when I start anything. Concluding how I want to feel about a movie without external interjection is one of my favourite parts of watching one.
I wrote this exactly two years ago, but I never published it until today. I still feel mostly the same way about the drama, so here you go, a movie review from a lover of dramas.
Any K-drama fan knows how easy it is to be ensnared by snippets of a movie scene, edited and posted on social media. They are usually better than the thriller and are 98% the reason any K-drama series is watched. However, once there is any form of pressure or lauding, I avoid that movie like the plague. It only makes sense that I watch Reply 1988 in October 2023 after everyone’s opinion is all but forgotten.
This series made me mad! 20 episodes of what could have been pure gold, snatched away from me because of an overly sentimental writer. Like most K-dramas, there are lessons in almost, if not all, the episodes. I enjoyed watching the kids grow, make mistakes, learn and try again. My favourite part, however, was Min Ra and her Husband, that man was a vibe! I loved how they made several efforts to remain youthful, how they played around, got married again, and how Min Ra did her best as a mother without pushing Jung Hwa away. I love how they could rely on each other; this is an art we have lost. They shared meals every day, and between the rich and the poor, there was barely a difference. They practically ate the same thing every day.
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As much as I loved all of these, I really was rooting for Doek Sun and Jung Hwa. From the beginning, I knew he liked her. He looked at her differently and saw her differently; he deserved his childhood love as much as Choi Taek did. I hated the fact that they both felt they had to give up their love for the other person, just because they were friends. They both made Doek Sun suffer unnecessarily. She felt unloved and unwanted because of the countless rejections. From Sung Woo to Choi Taek, all of them hurt that girl. The writers made Taek look insipid for most of the movie, and the thought of them together, even up till the 19th episode, where we finally got the dumb reveal, made me sick. I was so scared they'd try to kill Jung Pal off just so Doeuk Sun could be with Taek. Very infuriating!
She also liked whoever liked her. You could tell she just wanted to be wanted. While her sister Bo Ra was strong and intentional about what she wanted, Doeuk Sun floated like a Sharpie on water. She went with the tide. I hated Jung Pal’s confession; they made it useless. Such passion and love over five years, made into a joke because they wanted the guy without education and a lot of money to get the girl. Aiiiesshhhh!!! Just thinking about it is making me even more upset, chincha!
As I sleep tonight, I’d picture Jung Pal and Doeuk Sun together. I liked their love, I accept their love, I want their love. I will see Il Hwa and Mi Ra laughing together on their wedding day and watch both of them argue about nothing in my subconscious. I will picture the flight attendant and Air Force Lieutenant hugging themselves after being apart for so long, enjoying their music together. I’d laugh at Doeuk Sun’s horrible maths skills and basic English. I could tell they really cared for each other, not because of some warped dependency based on one person’s kindness or need to mother the other, but because they just did.
I have a love-hate relationship with Reply 1988, with time and fleeting youth. But it taught me that life is so unpredictable and fleeting; you should act now with all the audacity that you have. You should also never take your community for granted. We are struggling with building and maintaining communities these days. This is your sign to cultivate the one that you have. Believe me, you were never meant to do this thing called life alone.
