Evanthe
What price would you be willing to pay in order to get into an Ivy Uni?
I was hesitant to watch this drama at first but due to all the positive reviews I told myself I'd give it 2 episodes...I was hooked on the first episode. This had so many life lessons and many times I could relate with the children and with the parents. I remember growing up being taught that my grades defined my value, I was considered a gifted child since young and always came 1st place until I entered my last year of middle school which is when I first started slipping from a straight A student to a B student. I was taught that if I didn't make it to a top university, that meant that I was nothing by one of my parent, while the other didn't care if I was a straight A or B student so long as I got a good college degree and didn't fail classes. In this way I was able to relate to Kang Ye Seo and her drive to needing to be number 1 no matter what, and also with Woo Joo who parents trusted him and gave him so much love.
There was betrayal, greed, love and defining what success as well as happiness is. It left me reflecting on my life and having conversation with one of my parents about what it was like growing up with certain expectation but asking them also what would be the price that they'd be willing to pay in order to get their child into an Ivy League University.
Story: Without spoiling anything, the drama is about 5 women and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to have acknowledgement and have their child get accepted into a highly regarded Med school (at the level of Harvard, Yale, NYU, Princeton, ect), we also get to see the children life with those expectation where they need to study 24/7 and being defined by their grades. At the very beginning it leads to one of the children breaking all ties with their parent and thus one of the parent deciding to unalive themselves and the other reflecting on how they got to that point. Shortly after a new family moves in that throws a wrench on how things are done and shows that letting the child decide how and if they'll study can also lead to success, we also have a character who had to do everything Themselves, taking care of Their sick parent while getting top grades only to be left alone deciding that the world of the rich owe Them more for their suffering. We have a study coach who has a 100% acceptance rate which we later find out how that comes to be. In the end, we end up thinking about the sacrifices each character made and if it was worth it.
Acting: The acting was topnotch for me, one moment I was laughing at JinJin and her family antics, the next moment I was pissed off with Ye Seo and her mother, the next I was crying in frustration with the twins and their mother, or cheering for Woo Jin and his parents who were his number one cheerleader. What I love the most is the character development and how each actors/actresses brought that to the table.
Music: No...this is where I feel like they failed, sometimes the background music felt too loud and for me personally their theme song "Is this even true(A.N:I think that's the name)" was too distracting and not in a good way, I even found myself responding a few time "Yes, this is really true now stop asking!!!!!!-_-" But I am very picky with my music so it might just be me.
Cinematography: There are times where the shots were absolutely beautiful and so were the outfits as well as house design but other times where I wanted to know who the cameraperson was to sit down with them because it was too shaky, or felt too amateur which took away from some important scenes and had me skipping scenes sometimes, in frustration.
Overall score: Overall I'll give it a 9.5 out of 10, this is one of those that I'd happily rewatch every few years and would recommend, in fact, I recommend that those who are parents, or are going through a hard time, to watch this. There are so many life lessons, the ending also made me wonder if we might be getting a second season.
There was betrayal, greed, love and defining what success as well as happiness is. It left me reflecting on my life and having conversation with one of my parents about what it was like growing up with certain expectation but asking them also what would be the price that they'd be willing to pay in order to get their child into an Ivy League University.
Story: Without spoiling anything, the drama is about 5 women and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to have acknowledgement and have their child get accepted into a highly regarded Med school (at the level of Harvard, Yale, NYU, Princeton, ect), we also get to see the children life with those expectation where they need to study 24/7 and being defined by their grades. At the very beginning it leads to one of the children breaking all ties with their parent and thus one of the parent deciding to unalive themselves and the other reflecting on how they got to that point. Shortly after a new family moves in that throws a wrench on how things are done and shows that letting the child decide how and if they'll study can also lead to success, we also have a character who had to do everything Themselves, taking care of Their sick parent while getting top grades only to be left alone deciding that the world of the rich owe Them more for their suffering. We have a study coach who has a 100% acceptance rate which we later find out how that comes to be. In the end, we end up thinking about the sacrifices each character made and if it was worth it.
Acting: The acting was topnotch for me, one moment I was laughing at JinJin and her family antics, the next moment I was pissed off with Ye Seo and her mother, the next I was crying in frustration with the twins and their mother, or cheering for Woo Jin and his parents who were his number one cheerleader. What I love the most is the character development and how each actors/actresses brought that to the table.
Music: No...this is where I feel like they failed, sometimes the background music felt too loud and for me personally their theme song "Is this even true(A.N:I think that's the name)" was too distracting and not in a good way, I even found myself responding a few time "Yes, this is really true now stop asking!!!!!!-_-" But I am very picky with my music so it might just be me.
Cinematography: There are times where the shots were absolutely beautiful and so were the outfits as well as house design but other times where I wanted to know who the cameraperson was to sit down with them because it was too shaky, or felt too amateur which took away from some important scenes and had me skipping scenes sometimes, in frustration.
Overall score: Overall I'll give it a 9.5 out of 10, this is one of those that I'd happily rewatch every few years and would recommend, in fact, I recommend that those who are parents, or are going through a hard time, to watch this. There are so many life lessons, the ending also made me wonder if we might be getting a second season.
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