Watch With Me!: “Reply 1994” Ep. 1+2

Or: Like, the best thing to happen all year!

BE ADVISED: This post contains spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

Oh. My. Gosh. Y’all.

It’s here.  Reply 1994 is here!

Image: forums.soompi.com

Along with just about everyone else in the fandom, I was obsessed with the original  (also known as Answer Me 1997) when it aired last year.  I counted down the days, or more honestly the hours, until each episode hit DramaFever, and then you best believe I was stationed at my monitor, eyes front, often hyperventilating a little bit as soon as I got home from work.  It was kind of scary.  But not unwarranted. See, as many of you can attest, there is a pretty standard outline and feel to most Kdramas these days.  You have your standard Big Four Love Square, your evil parents, big conglomerate oppressing the little man, piggy-back rides, comas, amnesia, occasional fantasy twist, etc.  And don’t get me wrong, I love those dramas in a big way.  But this was the first one I had ever seen that felt like I was watching real people living real lives.  It had a definite indie film feel that I loved, not to mention the fact that even though the Love Square existed, it wasn’t conventional in that there were no “evil” characters. The actors felt like part of a true ensemble cast, rather than compartmentalized into individual roles.  Not to mention the fact that there was not a bad performance in the bunch.

Image: koreandrama.org

Seriously.  Check it out if you haven’t seen it.  The point is, I was super ridiculously excited when I found out they were coming out with another drama based on the original.  And now that I have seen the first two episodes of Reply 1994, I can tell you that I am definitely not disappointed.

The writers and director kept some of the quirky details of the original drama like the sepia filter and random sheep bleating, as well as the original theme.  Which I loved.  Most exciting of all, the mom and dad are back!  And Mom still makes way too much food.  But what is awesome is that even though the show has the same feel as the original, I think that it will be able to stand on its own.

Premise: Those of you who watched the original series probably found some similarities in the premise of this one.  There is a main female lead who we first meet in the present day.  The heart of the matter is that she is married to He-Who-Has-No-Face, and the viewer is called to figure out the identity of the mystery husband by taking a trip into the past.  One there, the viewer must find him among the heroine’s group of friends from her misspent youth.

The writers of the current series have given us Na Jung (Go Ah Ra), a 20 year old college freshman, who has recently moved to the Big City from the countryside with her family.  Her parents run a boarding house for other out of town students.  Na Jung’s family is made up of her mother and father (Lee Il Wa and Sung Dong Il, who reprized their roles from the original series) and her adoptive brother, nicknamed “Trash”.  The house holds several boarders, including HaeTae (Sun Ho Jun), a goofy endearing character with fantastic hair, Jo Yoon Jin (Min Do Hee), the oft silent, slightly creepy fangirl, and Sam Chun po (Kim Sung Kyun), who spends most of the episode trying to find his way out of the subway.

Then of course there is the single room, which has been home to many a strange boarder, but has yet to find a permanent occupant.

When we first meet Na Jung and Yoon Jin, they are both in their late 30’s, married, and ready to get sentimental about the good old days, when basketball was a BFD, and life revolved around obsessing over celebs and fangirling out.  And I guess studying sometimes, but whatever.

Sound familiar to anyone out there?

Anyway, this first scene raised two very serious questions:

1. Who did she marry anyway?!

2. Is that her kid I just saw leaving for school?

The wedding video they watch in the first scene is time stamped 2002, a good 8 years after the story begins.  In the video, a big deal is made out of the fact that Na Jung is wearing a borrowed wedding gown that doesn’t fit.  And after the kid heads out the door, Yoon Jin mentions that it doesn’t feel like that long ago that they were freaking out about him

Just saying.  It’s a thing.  And it makes the whole “Who Got the Girl?” question even more frustrating. Sigh.

Episode 1 was mostly an introduction to the characters.  One of the things I find so interesting about this series of dramas is that so much of the writing is focused on character development rather than plot.  And while that structure is great for fiction, it can be really hard to pull off on television.  Who wants to watch something where nothing happens?

The reason I think it works is that the story never tries to be more than a coming-of-age tale.  In the real world, getting older doesn’t feel like a linear process.  For most people life doesn’t revolve around a single, over-arching conflict.  And what the writers have done so masterfully here is to truly emulate life that way.  Each episode is a separate vignette, but they all come together to form the lives of the characters.  I really feel like I am watching these characters grow up.  And that makes them even more engaging.

Now let’s talk about these characters a little.  I felt immediately connected to Na Jung, not only because she is the epitome of the obsessed fan, but because of how good Go Ah Ra’s performance has been so far.  There have been a lot of cases in TV and movies when I felt like a role was playing the actor rather than the other way around.  But here, the actress has mastered this character, and it shows.  Don’t get me wrong.  Na Jung is over the top.  She has a scream like a fog horn, and she’s not afraid to use it.  But the acting never felt forced or overdone.  I just felt like I was watching Na Jung be herself.

A great deal of the first episode is devoted to poor Chun Po.  As we say where I’m from, bless his heart.  I identified with him because I too am from a small town, and I was not gifted with a sense of direction.  If I came from the country and was set adrift in Seoul right now, this is pretty much exactly what would happen to me.  Except I would have a harder time asking for help, since I don’t speak Korean.  Proof: I went to NYC once on a trip with my college, and my first time on the Subway I accidentally sat on a homeless man.  I also really liked the fact that Chun Po is co-narrating the show with Na Jung.

HaeTae and Yoon Jin didn’t get as much airtime in Episode 1, but I loved their quirkiness.  In Episode 2, HaeTae makes friends with Chun Po.  My favorite scenes of these two were when they were sleep cuddling, and when they went on a double date to KFC.  Hysterical.  Yoon Jin also turned out to be a fan of the same basketball team as Na Jung, which I thought was a really great way to bring her into the story.  Also, this girl might be quiet most of the time, but she can curse a man flat.

Of course, the stand-out pair in this cast so far is Na Jung and Trash.  In the first episode I thought they were really siblings, which is why I was kind of confused by their dynamic.  But when we found out that Trash is actually the best friend of Na Jung’s brother (now deceased), their weird chemistry made a lot more sense.  I crazy love this pair. They really feel like they have a brother/sister bond.  They certainly duke it out like siblings.  But then at the same time, their devotion to one another really came through.  And then their was that whole “Romance Alert!” moment when poor Na Jung was in the hospital, and my emotions got all topsy-turvy.

The Plot Thickens:  So, at the end of the episode, Na Jung’s parents decide to pick their future son-in-law from among their boarders.  Which I am so down with.  Turns out all the guys we have met so far come from really good backgrounds.  Not to mention the fact that I already love them, so it’s all good.

But hark!  I see a plot twist on the horizon!  The single room has been rented out to a new guy nicknamed BingRae (Cha Sun Woo).  And he jut so happens to have a hot baseball star cousin named Chil Bong Yi (Yoo Yun Suk).

And I mean, y’all know the deal.  We gotta watch out for this cousin.  Because I just don’t KNOW now!

See you next episode, and stay tuned!