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  • Location: Germany
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Big Ass Moon

Germany

Big Ass Moon

Germany
Record of Youth korean drama review
Completed
Record of Youth
0 people found this review helpful
by Big Ass Moon
Mar 5, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Amazing Family and Career Drama

Upfront: I do not understand why this doesn't have a higher rating... I stayed up until 7am to finish this! Let me give you the rundown as to why:

PRO
- This was the first kdrama I've watched (admittedly, I haven't watched a ton) where the story and the characters felt emotionally and psychologically realistic. It's amazingly written and acted and there was no drama for the sake of drama, everything happens for good reasons and all the characters react to problems in individual and believable ways. They felt like real people, not like cardboard cutouts, which is always something I'm looking for in a drama.
- Park Bogum is an amazing actor and he does a fantastic job. Period.
- All the family relationships (Hyejung's, Jeongha's and Haehyo's) were really interesting and realistic. I could especially relate to Hyejung's situation and I cried several times seeing his sweet relationship with his grandpa. I was so happy that most of their family difficulties could be put to rest by the end. It felt really earned, too.
- There were several amazing quotes in this and I might rewatch this drama just to write them down.
- I'm curious about the realities of the acting/modelling life so I found all the behind the scenes stuff really cool. I also liked how seemlessly they wove the scenes from the movies/dramas they shot into this drama. It's a bit overused, but I like this joke where you watch some really intense action scene and then someone yells "cut!" and you realize that action scene was just that: a scene, and in reality everybody is at a movie set. They did that a few times. On the same note, I liked that they actually put in the effort to shoot some real scenes for movies and shows that the characters are in and used that to further the story instead of going the cheap route and omitting those things. (My favorite of those being the first movie that Hyejung is in, where he gets to beat up Park Doha. He had such a menacing aura, I would've watched the whole movie but alas.)

Now for the stuff I didn't enjoy 100%, but keep in mind these were minor things (tho I write a lot about them, but that's down to me being able to talk forever about very small things that annoy me, so take that as you will).

CON
- They did my boy Haehyo so dirty. That guy was really nothing but soft and nice and supportive and encouraging and he got jackshit for that. It's not like he didn't have a character arc, bc there was definitely something satisfying about his development. I just felt like he kinda got the short end of the stick in the end. Not even mentioning Jeongha... He was so in love with her and she was so damn rude to him all the time... It got kinda infuriating towards the end and after a cople times I really started wondering why he even liked her.
- Speaking of which: I wasn't super happy with Jeongha. Park Sodam is incredibly cute and pretty (I was in love with her hair in this drama btw), and obviously a great actress, but for me she gave too much of a dead-pan performance. I got almost nothing from her, which stood out because both both Park Bogum and Byeon Wooseok gave really emotional performances (and that's not even mentioning the amazing supporting actors like Park Sooyung who plays Hyejung's dad and Han Jinhee who plays Hyejung's grandpa). I saw her in a state of normalcy, frustration, or happiness. Those were all the emotions I could identify. It's not that her portrayal of the character wasn't realistic, bc Jeonha definitely felt like a real person, it's just that the way she played the character was a bit unlikable bc of the lack of emotions. For example, when she delivered her breakup speech, it felt like a kindergarten teacher explaining something to her students instead of a girlfriend making an incredibly emotionally difficult decision and trying to tell her boyfriend about it.
- Like so many others I also didn't really understand why Jeongha broke up with Hyejung in the end. I empathised with the crushing weight of his immense popularity, I totally understand how that would put a relationship through the ringer, but that wasn't mentioned at all when she broke up with him. So why did she do it? I sure couldn't tell you.

In conclusion: The family drama aspects, career aspects and friendship aspects of this drama are amazing and some of the best written and acted stuff I've ever seen. The romance on the other hand... Gave me very little. You should still watch it for the other stuff.

But that's just my two cents.
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