School
2015- Who Are You?
6.5/10
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| School 2015- Who Are You |
Genre: Episodes: 16 Year:
2015
School
Romance
Melodrama
Synopsis:
Go Eun Byul and Lee Eun Bi are
orphaned twins who were separated as children after Eun Byul is adopted. Eun Bi
remains in an orphanage in Tongyeong, where she is viciously bullied by other
girls in her school. Eun Byul lives in Seoul with her adoptive mother where she
is popular and doing well with her studies. Eun Byul’s class take a trip to
Tongyeong, and while on the trip both twins disappear. Days later, one of the
twins wakes in the hospital with no memory, while the other is still missing.
Cast:
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| Kim So Hyun (Lee Eun Bi/Go Eun Byul) |
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| Yook Sung Jae (Gong Tae Kwang) |
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| Nam Joo Hyuk (Han Yi An) |
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| Lee Pil Mo (Kim Joon Seok) |
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| Jo Soo Hyang (Kang So Young) |
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| Lee David (Park min Joon) |
General Thoughts:
I’ve not had any experience with the
‘School’ franchise before, so I can’t compare this drama to any of its
predecessors, but only as a stand-alone drama. So basically, we get another
drama that has a rocketing, if not brilliant start, before rapidly declining in
the later stages.
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| The second half of this drama in a nutshell |
The story has brilliant initial setup, where we are
introduced to two different worlds with two separate sets of characters, and
then watch as these worlds collide. There are hidden mysteries, horrific
villains and a broken, yet inherently likeable heroine to cheer for. It appears
as though the writers have sat down and meticulously mapped out a spectacular
universe for our characters to live in, with a storyline that knew exactly
where it wanted to go. And then it all turned to poop.
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| How I looked trying to hold onto hope for this series |
Because we realise that
actually, no, our writers haven’t meticulously mapped out anything, and the
storyline has no idea where it wants to go- so it just flounders around for a
couple of episodes before ultimately collapsing under its own weight. What a
bummer. On the upside, the acting was phenomenal, bar Nam Joo Hyuk (sorry!) who
was passable, and struggled with a haphazardly constructed character. Lee Pil
Mo was criminally underutilized. He was dazzling in any scene he was in and
killed it as the conflicted teacher who wanted the best for his students. He
had great scenes with both Gong Tae Kwang and Park Min Joon, but was weirdly
absent from the lives of our twins. Which was peculiar considering he and Eun Byul
were being harassed by the same person. Jo Soo Hyang was spectacular. I hated
her so much. Which is a missive credit to her acting- she embodied the vicious,
relentless bully so completely. Never before have I wanted to see a boy smack a
girl- but Jo Soo Hyang as Kang So Young made me want Tae Kwang to whack her
teeth in. And Yook Sung Jae! Sungjae! Long live Yook Sung Jae! I didn’t even
know he was an idol (sorry BtoB)- he delivered such a believable, lovable character with
such apparent ease.
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| Oh my God- let me love you forever |
Granted, Tae Kwang was probably the only adequately
written character in the whole series, but that doesn’t take away from how
brilliantly Sungjae was able to convey his underlying emotions. His acting was
seamless and natural, and he was definitely able to stand alongside Kim So Hyun
without being outshone or outacted. Sadly, you can’t really say the same for
Nam Joo Hyuk. Unfortunately, he did fall victim to one of the worst cases of character
misconstruction I’ve ever seen. I mean, what were the writers even trying to do
with his character? He was so completely devoted to Eun Byul before making an
unexplored, unexplainable switch to being head over heels for Eun Bi. Say what
now? Not to mention he just stands around looking wistful for the large
majority of the series.
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| Just get out of my face, Han Yi An |
The only time I felt any compassion or sympathy for
poor ol’ Yi An was when he was injured and he came to realise what a
devastating impact that would have on his swimming career. But even how he got
that injury was stupid- it was like the writers were just throwing in any
random reason to force Yi An and Eun Bi to interact. The budding bromance
between Tae Kwang and Teacher Kim as always welcome.
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| Best relationship in the whole school |
It was perhaps the only
relationship dynamic that the show actually got right. It was beautiful to
watch how the same man had such a different, yet equally influential impact on
these two men. Tae Kwang’s father was a source of inspiration and then crushing
disappointment for Teacher Kim, and an unscaleable obstacle for Tae Kwang. It
let our little viewer hearts go nuts with the teasing of the hyung-dongsaeng
relationship. And while I did appreciate the snazzy new hair- I did find myself
missing Tae Kwang’s blonde cut. The villains were set up beautifully, but then
fell by the wayside in favour of cramming in more love triangle goodness (insert
sarcasm here). It seemed as though the writers realised halfway through that
they had no idea how to make these threats make sense and didn’t have time to
construct a satisfying conclusion, so they decided to crush the mystery-villain
storyline beneath unbearable amounts of poorly constructed teen angst. Because,
you know, nothing saves a drama quite like colossal amounts of senseless
teenage angst. Then again, sloppy as the story was, it did have its moments. I enjoyed that the drama showcased how children are a result of their parents- but that's not to say that
all difficult children have bad parents.
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| "It's lethal to give your child the wings to fly while forcing them on their knees." |
It was more a depiction on how
abandonment and pressure can have devastating effects on children, even when
their parents have the best intentions. The drama was scored beautifully. The
music always matched the mood, or provided a clue on what kind of ambience the
writers were aiming for (because with indecisive Eun Bi, sometimes it was hard
to tell if the mood was getting romantic or awkward). The differing instrumentation
of ‘Reset’ (by Tiger JK) provided a nice continuity to the drama without
ruining the mood or overusing the song.
What Was Great:
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| Eun Bi would have been the worst character ever without Kim So Hyun |
Young Actors:
Kim So Hyun finally gets to showcase
exactly how awesome she is. We’ve seen hints of it before- but she really got
to let loose here. Even though the twins weren’t exactly written as the most
dynamic characters ever, Kim So Hyun was able to bring her own energy into the
roles. She was able to deftly handle the differing personality traits of
the two girls- even when she was acting as Eun Bi acting as Eun Byul. Even moments in the drama where the girls’ characteristics were blurring and
becoming similar, Kim So Hyun was always able to clearly show the audience
which twin we were seeing on our screen. Sungjae just stole the show as the mistreated,
hard-on-the-outside-smooshy-on-the-inside schoolboy. I just wanted to reach
through the screen and give him a hug. Or slap Eun Bi for not giving him
a hug.
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| He was all kinds of amazing |
Setting and Setup:
This drama had a stellar beginning.
Characters were set up beautifully, with past and future relationships being
hinted at. Mystery was everywhere and we were given one villain out in the open
(So Young) in Eun Bi’s world and one in the shadows (Soo In’s sister) in Eun
Byul’s world.
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| Secrets and drama and conflict, oh my! |
After the disappearance of Eun Byul we were given a shift in the
power plays going on around Eun Bi. Suddenly she has a great support system of
family and friends who love her (well… they think she’s Eun Bi, but still).
This causes a great shift in power between Eun Bi and So Young. Which is
fantastic- we all wanted it and it was always awesome to see Eun Bi backing
herself against her tormentor. Not only was it interesting to watch this shift
in the drama, but it was a poignant point to display how bullying can only
effectively take place when those around turn a blind eye. The second someone
else questioned So Young’s treatment of Eun Bi (whether it be one of the boys,
Eun Bi pretending to be Eun Byul, or Eun Byul herself), So Young was visibly
shaken, confused and more unsure of her actions. It looked like this was paving
the way for a dramatic collision between Eun Bi and So Young, with Eun Bi
finally being able to take her bully down a couple of pegs. Sure, this never
actually happened- but it was exciting to look forward to it while it was still
in the realm of possibility. It was also a smart move to set this as a high school drama- because had the story been set anywhere else, it would have just been a tad ridiculous (I'm looking at you, 'Bride of the Century'). Much as I’m tired of love triangles, the love
setup seemed promising as well.
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| Please don't screw it up, please don't screw it up. Oop. You screwed it up. |
You’ve got two sisters (and twins at that) and
two boys. The math adds up. Throw in a little confusion about which sister is
which and you’ve got enough conflict in there romance-wise, but a conflict that
is easy enough to clear up. But then, similarly to everything else in the drama, the
writers found a way to ruin it.
What Wasn’t:
Loveline Mishandling:
It was so stupid. It was so, so
stupid, and it remains my biggest issue with this drama. There were four main
characters- two boys and two girls. The girls didn’t hate each other either- they didn't even see each other as rivals. Regardless of how predictable an ending that would have been- it was the one
that made the most sense.
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| They just don't make sense together- no matter how much you try and force me to believe it |
Now, I know I tend to get up in arms whenever the boy
I like best isn’t the one the heroine ends up with, but I’m not unreasonable.
What I consider to be a successful love triangle is a situation where there is
a conflict between three or four characters regarding a romantic relationship,
and the writers gently guide me in the direction they want to go. This drama is
not an example of a successful love triangle.
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| I'm sorry- you don't want me to fall for this ball of cuteness? |
As we continued our merry way
down the road that is this drama, I could see the beautiful boat that was Tae
Kwang. I was on that ship. I was on that ship so good. Honestly speaking, was
there anyone that wasn’t? His ‘competition’ Han Yi An had less than no
development, and had only marginal character to begin with. Then suddenly the
writers were throwing in massive ‘HAN YI AN’ roadblocks that pointed to the
drama’s end. But we didn’t want to go there. We’d seen where we wanted to go,
and the writers weren’t letting us get there. It was frustrating to say the
least. The basic rule of love triangles is this: don’t make the secondary man
unquestionably better than your endgame man. Personally,
hard-exterior-soft-interior guys are right up there with handsome idiots.
They’re wonderful and I have a total weakness for them- so of course I was
going to be swooning over Tae Kwang. But where’s the rule that you can’t have
two awesome, differing males at the same time? Whenever Tae Kwang was
getting character development, Yi An was suspiciously absent. Whenever Yi An
was getting screen time (because he never actually got any development), Tae
Kwang was hard to find. In some dramas this issue can be deemed passable as the
final romance happens between the heroine and male who was most recently
developed and given screen time. But no, we go from giving all this
attention to Tae Kwang, his feelings and situation- and suddenly Eun Bi is
shafting him and choosing Yi An.
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| Boooo Han Yi An, booooooo |
It was like Chil Bong all over again. Not
loving that. Seriously, writers. Didn’t you learn? You can’t give us abandoned,
unloved outcasts who choose to do the the best with their lonely lives after
meeting the heroine, sit them next to a happy boy who’s been loved all his
life, and then expect us to be happy when our heroine turns her back on the
outcast. We don’t like it when that happens. We never have, and we never will.
We want our lonely boys to get some love too! Not only was the handling of the
two boys’ characters poor, but there was no fluidity in our heroine’s choice-
or Han Yi An’s for that matter.
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| They know literally nothing about each other |
For starters- Han Yi An doesn’t actually know
our heroine. He’s known her while she’s been pretending to be her twin sister with
missing memories- and that doesn’t count. Even then he was making comparisons
to the ‘her’ in the past and pointing out all the differences. I suppose you can argue that he didn’t dislike
those differences- but he still thought she was someone else. When he
discovered that she was Eun Bi, and not Eun Byul who he’d grown up with, Yi An
was quick to distance himself and had no real interactions with Eun Bi beyond
putting her down and telling her to get lost. And that all makes sense- because
he’s been nursing a crush on Eun Byul going on ten years now. But then he finds
his love Eun Byul again and suddenly he’s all ‘Oi, nah. I think I like your
sister better.’ There was no gradual progression from one girl to the other- he
was just suddenly there. This only gave the impression that it was the face he
liked and everything else was secondary to that. He liked Eun Byul, but then
found a girl with the same face and a less abrasive personality, so he drops
Eun Byul to go for the twin. Either that or he simply can’t stand losing to Tae
Kwang and couldn’t bear letting him have the girl- even after he found out Tae
Kwang was never actually crushing on his girl.
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| Do you see two girls? I see two girls. Two boys, two girls- makes perfect sense to me |
I personally would have
preferred if Yi An’s great love had simply turned out to be swimming. Because
frankly, the most interesting aspects of his character revolved around him identifying as a swimmer, and his loss of purpose immediately after his injury.
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| For f*ck's sake, someone help him- I don't even care who |
Simply having Eun Bi be the friend that encouraged him to go after his dream
again would have been enough- they didn’t need to get romantic about it. On the
other hand, Tae Kwang was someone who actually needed the romance. He didn't receive adequate amounts of love from either of his parents, and didn’t have any
friends either. It became increasingly frustrating to watch him go all out in
supporting Eun Bi, only to have her completely overlook him at every turn
and never pay attention to his needs. In the end, all Tae Kwang got was a father who was slightly less of a butt- but all the scars were still there, and are we just
going to ignore the six months that poor boy spent completely on his own while
his father was in prison? Apparently so.
Quick Fix:
None of our villains were brought down
in a satisfying way. The award for most ridiculous conclusion ever would have
to go to Soo In’s sister. She’s spent at least a year harassing Eun Byul and
Teacher Kim via text messages, and goes as far as entering the school under
the guise of a student-teacher to have more access to them.
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| Actually the least threatening villain out |
She’s painted as a
vengeful woman who won’t settle until the two people ‘responsible’ for Soo In’s
death are trapped in eternal suffering. But then Teacher Kim says he’s always
felt guilty, and Eun Byul cries and says she had a hard time too, and suddenly
our rage-filled sister is satisfied. What. Even. And what was the deal with all
Eun Byul’s screaming and tripping out? Was that older sister or just her being ‘haunted’ by her memories of Soo In? Because
she seems way too mentally stable to be hallucinating to that extent, and
sister’s resolution becomes even more unsatisfying if she’s actually been
stalking and scaring Eun Byul all this time.
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| Eun Byul fighting all Eun Bi's battles for her |
And then we have So Young- who was
a great antagonist for the most part. We were given insight into why she enjoyed
stepping on those weaker than her- but we never spent enough time on her
backstory to sympathise with her. Thank goodness- it was nice to have a
character we could just flat-out hate. She became less and less threatening as
the drama continued and Eun Bi started making more friends on her own, and it
seemed like we were just waiting for Eun Bi to give her what was coming to her.
But then the last episode seemed to want to make a last ditch attempt to garner
sympathy for her by showing what a giant monster her father was- but by this
time it was too late, and we were all still calling for her head. However, in
the end she just transfers schools (though she can’t escape her past as
all her new classmates already know what's she's done) and even Eun Bi tries to give her the
smallest piece of comfort. Totally lame. I’d waited all drama long for Eun Bi
to finally stand up to So Young, but it never came.
Twin Fallout:
With a drama that bases its main
conflict on twin shenanigans, there’s always the risk of having characters that
appear too similar. Now, I believe all credit for that not happening rests
solely with Kim So Hyun- because the writers did not help her at all.
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| Forget the writers- Kim So Hyun did all the work |
We all
know that Eun Bi has the courage to stand up to injustice- it’s what got her
into trouble in the first place, and she even has a few moments where she
stands up to So Young as she’s gained confidence from pretending to be someone
else. However, apart from those few glimpses, Eun Bi is a rather boring
heroine. She just stands around, not doing very much while her world changes
around her.
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| I swear her progress actually went backwards |
I had a lot of respect for her in the beginning as after she
regained her memories she decided right away to return to her actual life,
rather than continue lying to everyone around her. But after Eun Byul’s mum
drags her back, her character reverts back to shy and introverted- even when we
knew she had a little more substance buried in her somewhere. Next to Eun Bi we
have Eun Byul- who is far more worthy of being our heroine in my books. Sure,
she’s a little rude and arrogant, but she stands up for what she believes is
right after experiencing the guilt that comes with backing down due to fear
and/or ignorance. She had the honesty and maturity to sit down and talk her
feelings out with Yi An (whereas Eun Bi just stood around looking confused and
uncomfortable whenever either boy spoke to her) and even worked to reveal the
truth behind Soo In’s death. But then the writers totally shaft her character
and send her overseas. Writers, are you actually trying to see how angry you
can make the viewers of your show? We’ve waited 16 episodes for our happy
family of Mum, Eun Bi and Eun Byul- but all you gave us is the name tag ‘Go Eun Bi’.
Re-watch?
Dear Lord, no. I hope Kim So Hyun
moves on to bigger and better things- because she’s definitely proven herself
to be an actress capable of taking on a complex female lead. I also hope this
series did something to spark Yook Sung Jae’s acting career because I really
want to watch him in something where he gets the girl.
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| I vote they shoot the whole thing again- but this time Tare Kwang wins |
