Nikuman
Germany
This review may contain spoilers
This was PERFECTION.While I gotta say that most of you guys won't agree with me, I -as a 90's kid- know exactly what kind of feelings are necessary to fully understand this drama. Many of you guys are in your teenage years. While I'm only 20 years old, it might seem to appear as a 'back in my days'-speech, but I can't help it!
Since I grew up with many things taken from the 90's, I can refer to many things which happened in Reply 97.
Story:
Simple, but awesome. You really get a great view on the slowly modernized way of Koreans raising their kids. The possibilities to go from A to B where limited as heck -at last in comparison to our train and subway systems nowadays- and I can still remember the issues I had as a kid trying to cut down some of the old video tapes in order to get rid of the commercials of my recordings. As you can see, nostalgia is going for most of us on while watching this drama. Most importantly though to me is the fact of mentioning a topic which is still a no go in Korea. Being homosexual. While I have some homosexual friends -some of them being Korean- I was quite happy that the script writers didn't stop themselves from mentioning this quite important aspect in everybody's lives.
Acting:
I loved Eunji and Seo In Guk the most. Well not particularly because they've been the main couple, but it's just that they had some great chemistry going on between each other.
Other than that I still can't get over the fact Lee Shi Un (Bang Sung Jae) was played by a 30 year old guy while Hoya is only 23 years old. Meaning: Impressive acting!
Music:
What can you say about the music? Being a devoted fan myself, I can't rate it low, nor can I give it a 10. Everybody's taste is different, so since this was a story about idols and stuff back in the days it's better to say nothing than criticizing or praising it endlessly.
Rewatch Value:
HECK YEA! The thing about romantic dramas/slice of life dramas in general is that they aren't like crime or mystery series: You can actually predict the ending and if not it's just a minor surprise compared with crime series. I find it quite difficult to re-watch a crime/mystery serie while knowing the whole background of it. You spoiler yourself, BIG TIME, while slice of life dramas are just trying to catch the zeitgeist at a certain time.
Overall:
10. Obviously. While I didn't mind Reply94, I think that Reply97 met everybody's expectations perfectly, since you saw many old fashioned styles, devices and so on..
Recommended for those who want to kind of gasp some nostalgic kind of view on a time they've never experienced before, while being entertained.
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I really liked this drama. Even though I do agree on other reviews that the serie was torn apart into every piece, but I liked that aspect. Otherwise it wouldn't have been a real crime serie!
But the story is marvellous. It's construct shows a real difficult and interwined system and their people involved, but they found a great solution, so everyone understands the serie.
The Cast was also very persuading. I really cried a lot watching these people having hard times even though I have to say that the main relationship lacked a little bit. It wasn't as strong as I thought it was, even though several actions shew their deep bond.
The music was well choosen. A sad thing was that they only had a small amount of music, so some music came all the time, which annoyed me sometimes.
When it comes to the Rewatch Value, I don't really recommend it. You get the plot very well and as soon as you watch it again, you know directly what happens. It's that type of serie which explains the most important details in the end and if you watch it from the beginning with the knowledge of the end. Everything is ruined...
Overall I give this drama a 9, but my personal liking is a 10, because the actors were very good. I don't understand those low ratings, because this drama uses the Hitchcock style in a special way and it makes you hyped to go on watching. I never felt like stopping!
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I totally recommend this drama. I've been looking for a drama which tears me apart but has a smooth finish. This one was absolutly worth my time. It is full of emotions, full of questionable problems. You can easily put yourself into the protagonist's shoes without slipping out of them ;)
I personally recommend this drama to those who are true believers in love and that, no matter what happens, love can happen anytime, anywhere even though we are practically talking about a couple who are as different as the European culture in comparison with the Asian culture.
This drama found a great mix of setting up tension in helpless moments and the way of finding solutions. Everything seems just so right and understandable in its own way. People might think that finding normal solutions might be easy, but as the short summary above explains 'He travels 300 years into the future of modern Seoul...'; having a valuable and meaningful ending in these time machine series is pretty difficult and I met so many weird endings who didn't really make sense to me before.
This drama totally rocked and still rocks my world. I watched it 3 times already and I recommend it to everyone.
The acting is marvellous. I'm kind of disappointed though that the main actress only had supporting roles before, because her work was amazing. She always made me feel sorry for her in any situation, independent from the man who is not your typical modern man.
This serie has its own magic and you defenietly can't compare it to others simply because the main couple catches your heart in a blink!
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