Itaewon Class

Itaewon Class

7/10

Itaewon Class

Genre:                                                    Episodes: 16                                      Year: 2020

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Park Sae Ro Yi is an ex-convict who opens a bar in Itaewon after the death of his father. Sae Ro Yi’s goal is to become the number one food cooperation in Korea, and bring down Janga- the current top food company.

Cast:

Park Seo Joon (Park Sae Ro Yi)

Kim Da Mi (Cho Yi Seo)

Kim Dong Hee (Jang Geun Soo)

Ryu Kyung Soo (Choi Seung Kwon)

Lee Joo Young (Ma Hyun Yi)

Chris Lyon (Kim Toni)

Yoo Jae Myung (Jang Dae Hee)

Kwon Na Ra (Oh Soo Ah)

Ahn Bo Hyun (Jang Geun Won)

Kim Hye Eun (Kang Min Jung)

General Thoughts:

There was a lot going on in Itaewon class. It was a compelling and immersive story, with lots of different aspects- and the story went for over 15 years! There were some really good things going for this show, but there were a couple of little hiccups along the way.

Despite revenge plots being nothing new, this show was very unique

So far as being a successful adaptation of the webtoon, I think ‘Itaewon Class’ really succeeded. It didn’t have the cartoony vibe that some webtoon adaptions have, and while some of the events certainly felt like lucky breaks, the drama still held a sense of realism. The characters never felt one-dimensional or pigeonholed into their archetype. And there were a load of characters in this show.

And now I understand when people say 'Chestnut Haircut'

Park Se Ro Yi was an interesting character to have as our hero. He had similar personality traits to a lot of heroes in other underdog stories- proud, loyal, but he also had some unusual characteristics thrown into the mix. One of the more interesting aspects to Sae Ro Yi’s character was his patience. In most underdog tales, the victims are champing at the bit to get their vengeance and right the wrongs that had been done to them. Unlike them, Park Sae Ro Yi didn’t mind waiting 5, 10, 15 years in order to exact his revenge perfectly the way he had planned. This prevented Se Ro Yi from becoming a rash character that made foolish mistakes, which made him easy to like as a viewer, and prevented setbacks in his revenge plot from feeling like his own fault. It also made it obvious to see why other characters chose to trust and follow him. Sae Ro Yi was a man with a plan, and he was meticulous enough and confident enough to make sure that his plan would come to fruition- who wouldn’t want to trust and follow someone like that? The other thing I found unusual about Sae Ro Yi was his unforgiving nature. This might not seem so apparent- as he is very lenient towards both Soo Ah and Geun Soo who work with Janga against him, but comes into play a lot as the story draws to a close.

If you screw him, he don't want you back

If Sae Ro Yi had been the hero in any other drama, he probably would have offered both Soo Ah and Geun Soo a job in his company after he took over Janga. Buuuut he doesn’t. They both made the choice to go to Janga instead of sticking with him, so Sae Ro Yi was content to let them weather to consequences of that choice.

But the old man's an *sshole, so my sympathy only goes so far

Which was resigning once IC took over Janga. And before this moment, it was when Chairman Jang came to Danbam to ask Sae Ro Yi to not take over Janga. The old, sick man got on his hands and knees and begged and apologised. The scene was a little uncomfortable to watch to be honest- not saying I wasn’t glad to see Chariman Jang being thouroughly brought down, but Sae Ro Yi’s continued hatred towards the man was a tad scary and a tad unsettling. Other K-Drama heroes would likely have relented, told Jang that bringing him down was all he ever wanted and having done that was now satisfied and even filled with a bit of pity. Not Sae Ro Yi. There was no pity and no remorse in Sae Ro Yi when he left Chairman Jang on the floor to go take over his company. It was unexpected, and further enhanced the traits that made Park Sae Ro Yi himself. He was determined and he did not waver. He promised Director Kang that if she worked with him to bring Janga to its knees, he would help her take the company. And that’s exactly what Sae Ro Yi did. It was consistent with his character, and his character was part of what made ‘Itaewon Class’ such an interesting drama to watch. Is was a similar thing with Yi Seo.

I was NOT expecting this whacky girl to be the heroine 

She was definitely not your usual K-Drama heroine. The simple fact that she was the heroine instead of Soo Ah was a step away from the norm- Soo Ah had the childhood connection, the relationship with Sae Ro Yi’s deceased father, and was Sae Ro Yi’s first love. That just SCREAMS K-drama heroine. Only not this time.

First time ever childhood memories did not win out

Instead, our heroine was a self-centred, manipulative girl who didn’t mind stepping over other people to get what she wanted. And yet, she was still somehow a very likeable character. Yi Seo often did things that viewers wouldn’t consider ‘right’, such as playing with Geun Soo’s feelings and pushing him to take over Janga (albeit jokingly). I think it was Yi Seo’s stroke of realism and practically that made her more of an endearing character. While Sae Ro Yi tended to live in a bit of a fantasy land where get his vengeance on Janga without having to compromise any of his relationships, Yi Seo felt like she was living in the real world. Sadly, outside of a K-Drama, business owners do have to make hard decisions, and some of those decisions involve having to fire people when they don’t perform. While it was great for the storyline to have Hyun Yi magically transform into an amazing chef who was the top of the country, it did feel somewhat unbelievable. However, as Hyun Yi was an endearing character, we obviously didn’t want to see her fired and could sympathise with Sae Ro Yi’s choice to keep her on.

Also, if Sae Ro Yi had fired Hyun Yi we wouldn't have had this cute 'lil friendship

But on the other hand, all us viewers who live in the real wold know that Yi Seo was right and that Sae Ro Yi would have a better shot if he hired a chef that could actually cook and had some level of experience. It was through situations like these where Sae Ro Yi and Yi Seo’s ideologies clashed that we started to discover more about their characters, and started to sympathise with Yi Seo using her strong practicality to try and help Sae Ro Yi achieve his goals, even if they didn’t see eye to eye on everything.

Man, he'd be kinda frustrating to work with though...

On the flip side of Yi Seo, who was likeable despite feeling like she shouldn’t be, we had Soo Ah, who it felt like we should like, but we just didn’t. The show started out by giving her a really interesting and unusual character- she seemed nice enough, but wasn’t the type of person who would put other people before herself.

So turns out neither of our female leads were all that nice

It was actually quite a refreshing take on a character. So often in K-Drama we get female characters who are all things nice, and will think of themselves second in order to help other people- because kindness is something to be admired and is a good quality in a romantic interest. So Soo Ah wasn’t exactly unkind but she wasn’t going to let her life be uprooted by anyone else- it’s why she didn’t speak out against Geun Won’s bullying, and why she never stood up for Sae Ro Yi. But how could we fault her for that when we see Sae Ro Yi’s life get derailed so badly after he called out Geun Won’s bullying? So while she was a different sort of character, Soo Ah wasn’t initially dislikable. But once Yi Seo was in the picture, the show kind of fumbled its handling of Soo Ah’s character. While the two girls shared a lot of traits, they were also very different. Yi Seo was so confident in herself that she jumped at the chance to help Sae Ro Yi, fully believing that her skills could help make him into something special. She used her realism to back hard choices that occasionally made her look like a heartless person.

So different, yet so similar

However, Soo Ah appeared more cowardly, never willing to risk anything for Sae Ro Yi, even though she was great at her job, and would probably be able to pick up a job at another company easily if she left Janga. Instead of Soo Ah using her realism to support her actions, she used it to defend her inaction. It made her a hard character to understand, and made her seem like she was taking Sae Ro Yi’s affection for her for granted

If you hate what your job is making you do then LEAVE

(which she kinda was). Her choice to stay at Janga despite her evident discomfort at some of the things she had to there made it hard to sympathise with her struggles- because she wasn’t actually doing anything to try and change her situation herself. She made an easy choice when she was younger (allow Janga to pay for her university studies and living expenses), and then never seemed to want to jump off the line she had chosen. I wish the show had introduced the idea that Soo Ah was gathering information on all Janga’s misdeeds earlier, as it then would have made so much more sense why she wasn’t quitting her job- she was just waiting for the perfect moment to strike and deliver the finishing blow. But instead, we spend most of the show thinking she’s gutless and slimy and way too self-centred. In my opinion, I think the drama worked best when it was focusing on the cast as a whole rather than the love triangle anyway. DamBam was filled with interesting characters, and I love the risk the show took with some of its characters. Transgender people are still getting a tough time in the West, and South Korea isn’t exactly friendly to homosexuality either.

Yay, progressive K-Drama- who would've thought

It’s wonderful to see the media starting to explore these issues, and having these minorities as well fleshed out characters, rather than just token, cliched characters. ‘People With Flaws’ had an excellent storyline on the prejudice and hatred homosexuality often receives, and ‘Itaewon Class’ took a look in on the struggles of being transgender.

I have seen exactly two K-Dramas with a non-Asian in the main cast

I’m not one for making a character a minority simply for the sake of being inclusive, but I enjoy a show that is willing to take a look at some of the tricker aspects of a character and explore it completely. Hyun Yi was so much more than simply having a tag on her that read ‘transgender’, and was a complex character in her own right. The show didn’t shove it in our faces, but presented it as an aspect of her character, and showed her struggles when the story focused on her- the same way it did when the show focused on Seung Kwon’s gangster background. It was a part of her character, not her entirety. It was similar with Toni’s character. We were given snippets of the racism he received on a daily basis, and were shown how small comments (such as ‘yeah, but you don’t look Korean’) could really end up hurting him. Of all the DamBam charactres, Toni was given the least amount of screentime, but he was still an interesting character, and I’m glad he was included. I wish that Chairman Jang had been a bit more of an interesting character though. When he was first introduced it seemed like he was going to be a bit more of an intriguing antagonist. However, as the show went on he just sort of slipped back into cookie-cutter nasty, old rich man.

Ah yes, traumatise your son. I'm sure that will make him a great leader and will in no way backfire on you.

Which was pretty disappointing. When he got sick (which as a whole I found a pretty disappointing story turn), the drama played with an interesting idea that Chairman Jang and Sae Ro Yi had become the most important people to each other because they were so consumed with their revenge that they had no lives outside of trying to destroy each other. Which is a fascinating concept to toy with. But it was left to be a mostly unexplored concept, as by that time the show had turned its attention to its loveline.

This guy sure had a lot of free time for someone who was supposedly running a company

The pacing of the show was pretty good, with each episode having enough in it to keep it interesting. There were cliffhanger moments that made me want to watch the next episode right away, and I was endlessly curious as to how the show was going to end. I do think the show slowed down a lot as it neared its end, and the storyline and characters became less engaging as the story entered its final stages- this drama started out a lot more strongly than it finished. 

What Was Great:

Underdog Buildup:

The start of this show did a great job at setting up the story and letting the viewers know what we were in for. This wasn’t no easy-breezy rom-com situation. The build up of the relationship between Sae Ro Yi and his father was done wonderfully,

Predictable but still sad

and it was lovely too see such a mature, respectful, loving relationship between a father and his son. Nice K-Drama parents are ever so hard to come by. Of course, this also set alarm bells ringing. No K-Drama parent this wonderful ever makes it out alive. And I was not wrong on that front. The car-of-doom (while an overused trope in and of itself) was done brilliantly- everyone who was watching had a deep impending sense of doom watching Dad ride his scooter alone at night. But having the car hit Dad from behind rather than the side was an unexpected shock. It was fast, brutal and had a wisp of intentionality about it. I always appreciate a car-of-doom scene that happens quickly and doesn’t give the victim time to anticipate or avoid it. You know. Not like that OTHER car-of-doom scene this show had. By having such a strong relationship already developed between Sae Ro Yi and his Dad, we were able to feel the full impact of Dad’s sudden departure. We felt the heartbreak, injustice and complete helplessness that Sae Ro Yi was feeling, which is what is needed for a good under-dog story to gain traction.

He was even nice to kids that weren't his, so he was like double doomed

The scene of Sae Ro Yi refusing to kneel and apologise to Geun Won did a fabulous job of introducing the main villains in Janga, but also served as a great way to quickly and effectively endear Dad to the audience. How can you not love a man who is willing to lose his job so that his young son can stick to his principles? While this moment certainly defined Sae Ro Yi as a character who wasn’t going to back down or falter under pressure,

Are...are we going to have a murderer for a hero?

it also served to cement the wonderful relationship between father and son. Which made Dad’s death so much worse. More than expelling a  student who had done nothing wrong, more than supporting an egotistical, abusive son- the murder and cover-up of Dad is what solidified this drama as a great underdog story. We were all on Sae Ro Yi’s side when he went to kill Geon Won- and I personally wasn’t sure whether the drama would take that route or not. It’s a great testament to the show that its viewers didn’t know whether they would turn their hero into a murderer or not. In any other drama (except ‘Smart Prison Living') this would be absurd to even consider, but here I seriously thought that Sae Ro Yi might become a murderer. He didn’t. But he totally could have. Being imprisoned for the assault of Geun Won, the man who killed Dad, was just extra salt in the wound. But what really got blood boiling and made it clear that Chairman Jang (and Janga by extension) were the main villain, and not Geun Won, was having Chairman Jang visit Sae Ro Yi in prison and demand another apology. It reeked of supremacism, and the scene clearly showcased the oncoming power-struggle between these two men. The opening episodes of ‘Itaewon Class’ were compelling, gripping and addictive, and set the story up really well.

This is the scene that solidified that Chairman Jang is a despicable human

It created a sense of excitement for Janga’s eventual fall, but also somehow managed to not be too depressing. By having his expulsion and imprisonment not seem horrific to Sae Ro Yi (his father’s death was the biggest horror of his life), the drama was able to give us hope that Sae Ro Yi would succeed in his revenge without us becoming too depressed about Janga’s complete power over Sae Ro Yi.

Acting:

Ohhh my goodness- all the acting in this was phenomenal. Park Seo Joon is such a powerhouse. He’s never by any means been a poor actor, but each new role he takes on seems to show his development as an actor and become his best role yet.

Park Seo Joon is absolutely killing it

In every face-off with Chairman Jang, Park Seo Joon was brimming with tension. He was brilliant at expressing Sae Ro Yi’s emotions for Soo Ah- particularly when it came to making these emotions seem more like a habit than actual feelings.

I'm not crying, you are

While we could see that Sae Ro Yi believed what he was saying, the way Park Seo Joon acted in these scenes belied the gradual fading of romantic emotion, and made it appear to us (and other characters on the show) that Sae Ro Yi was fooling himself into thinking he still liked Soo Ah, because he has always been a man of his word and he told Soo Ah to come to him when he had taken down Janga- not knowing that his feelings would fade during that process. But the scene that really made me appreciate what a fine actor Park Seo Joon is was the scene of him farewelling his father during his near-death experience. I won’t lie, I thought the writers were draaaaaaawing that scene out for everything it was worth and that it could have (and potentially should have) been half as long. However, Park Seo Joon was delivering such a heart wrenching performance that I stayed invested in the scene as it continued. I think it was a great feat for him, and Sohn Hyun Joo who acted as Sae Ro Yi’s father, to be able to keep such high intensity emotions going for the length of time that scene took.

Man, they sure took a long time to cross that bridge

Kim Da Mi also did a fabulous job as our heroine. Yi Seo was a difficult character, as she had so many traits that were just not very nice. She was self-centred and selfish, and didn’t mind walking over other people to get her way.

Satisfyingly sassy

However, Kim Da Mi was able to flip that and somehow present these traits as something somewhat appealing. She focused hard on displaying Yi Seo tenacity and determination, which while they could sometimes manifest in inappropriate actions, are overall desirable traits. It’s even more amazing when you take a look at Kim Da Mi’s rather small filmography- this is her first drama ever! She did an excellent job as a spunky and unusual character, and made Yi Seo a very memorable heroine. Of the Janga side, I thought Ahn Bo Hyun was fantastic. He was so antagonistic towards our hero, but was able to fill Geun Won with such a sense of loneliness and displacement, that it was easy to be struck by these huge moment of pity and sympathy for him. While Ahn Bo Hyun was excellent at being a threatening and aggravating presence, it was these broken moments of vulnerability that he played so well that elevated Geun Won from being your average *sshole chaebol heir. 

What Wasn’t:

After the 4 Year Time Skip:

The four year time skip is really were most of the problems for ‘Itaewon Class’ started. Things that the show did really, really well suddenly weren’t working as well post time jump.

It was kinda boring when everyone was all...successful

Pre time jump all our characters were getting developed really well, with each of them having their little moment in the spotlight- but due to this big chunk of time missing for us as viewers, we suddenly didn’t really know who these people were anymore. They had developed and changed so much over the four years that weren’t on screen,

I think the writers cared more about revenge than the viewers did

as those four years had some pretty darn substantial changes. I mean, IC goes from one restaurant to a huge company. All our characters are CEOs or Directors. And most of our characters are relegated to the sidelines. The episodes after the time skip are pretty solidly dedicated to trying to kick the romance between Sae Ro Yi and Yi Seo along. Oh and so that Sae Ro Yi could succeed in his revenge. Which he couldn’t have done as simply the owner of Danbam. I wouldn’t have even been mad at this show if we hadn’t seen the final takedown of Janga. Had Sae Ro Yi given up on his revenge and just lived while trying to develop his own company while falling for Yi Seo, I would have been just as happy. While we saw just how much Yi Seo cared for Sae Ro Yi, all Sae Ro Yi’s emotional growth happened during the time skip. His actions towards Yi Seo didn’t change that much, so it was a bit of a struggle to understand why he was suddenly falling for her after four years, when outwardly nothing had changed. The pacing of the show after the time skip also felt weird and wrong.

I thought there was supposed to be a good brother but they're...they're both jerks

Things that should have been big emotional points of the show just didn’t come off right because they were happening at the wrong time. Soo Ah’s betrayal of Janga seemed kind of moot, as Sae Ro Yi had already put in all of the ground work and Janga was already on its way down.

Why is Soo Ah even still a thing at this point

At that point it felt more like Soo Ah had nothing to lose rather than that she was taking a risk to avenge the only father figure in her life and his son that she ‘loved’. Sae Ro Yi’s revelation that the people in his life (including Yi Seo) were more important than his revenge completely missed the mark because at the time of him realising this, he’d already basically carried out his entire revenge plot. Geun Soo had weirdly switched from a cute puppy into a ginormous d*ckbag, and the show just had absolutely no idea what to do with his character after the four years. He was there…but he also kinda wasn’t. Geun Soo was in a lot of scenes, but all he seemed to be doing in those scenes was reiterating that he was in fact, a ginormous d*ckbag. The four year time skip totally threw off the momentum of the show, and while it made sense for the company progression (what can I say, you need time to build a large, successful company), it left the characters feeling weirdly stunted and unfamiliar.

Lacklustre Loveline:

Hm yeah. While Sae Ro Yi and Yi Seo were both interesting and engaging characters in their own right, the loveline between them just wasn’t all that convincing.

Yi Seo is better than Soo Ah, but she's not quite good enough to save this loveline

I didn’t want Yi Seo to be with Sae Ro Yi because I shipped them together, I wanted them together because I didn’t want Soo Ah to be the one ending up with Sae Ro Yi. Quite honestly, I would have been pretty okay if he didn’t end up with either of the girls. I think the main reason that the romance didn’t hit the right note, is that p

Oh well, I guess there have been worse lovelines

retty much all of the important development between Sae Ro Yi and Yi Seo happened during the four year time skip. We saw Yi Seo fall for Sae Ro Yi, but we never saw Sae Ro Yi fall back. He was just somehow there. It was a logical progression for their characters to end up together, but at the same time that’s not the only thing you need for a satisfactory love line. There wasn’t a big enough difference in Sae Ro Yi’s behaviour towards Yi Seo from the time when he saw her as just a friend and a manager to the time that he was supposedly in love with her. Rather than a steady growing of feelings, we were given a relationship that sort of froze once Sae Ro Yi made his feelings clear, and then jumped ahead during the time we weren’t privy to in the time skip. There chemistry between Park Seo Joon and Kim Da Mi wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t explosive either. They had a cute, respectful vibe between the two of them, but it didn’t exactly translate over into romance as well as it should have. There were a lot of things that ‘Itawon Class’ did well, but crafting a convincing loveline was just not one of them.

Recommend?

Hmm, if you’re a lover of underdog stories then sure. If you’re wanting a solid romance, then probably not.

It was an addictive show