Answer Me 1997: Episode 16 (Final)

227 September 21, 2012January 24, 2016

by girlfriday

It’s the end of the road for our journey back in time to the ’90s, and the goodbye is bittersweet. We get rewarded with some answers and even some new surprises, as we close the chapter on first loves and find out how everyone grew up—along with, in spite of, and because of them.

The finale set a new record for cable programs: average 6.22% ratings on tvN, a combined 7.55% (with all four networks that aired the episode), and an episode high of 9.47%. Hot damn.

SONG OF THE DAY

Kim Gun-mo – “Beautiful Goodbye” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 16: “The Reason First Love Can’t Be Realized”

We open the same way we ended Episode 15: Shi-won’s parents wait outside the maternity ward in 2013, as the doctor comes out and asks, “Who’s the husband?” Yeah, get in line, lady. Some of us have been waiting eight weeks for that answer.

Both Tae-woong and Yoon-jae arrive, huffing and puffing.

Fall 2005. Yoon-jae goes out for dinner and drinks with his coworkers, and his boss points out what a nice couple he’d make with the colleague next to him. She’s a classmate from college and admits coolly that she tried for four years, but Yoon-jae never budged.

Another guy says it’s because she drinks too much, but Yoon-jae says he likes it when a woman can drink…

Cut to: Shi-won, downing a giant beer with her coworkers. Her sunbaes wonder if her boyfriend doesn’t mind her drinking like a fish, and she laughs, “He doesn’t know!”

Aaaand, Yoon-jae is standing right behind her. Ha. He came to pick her up after his dinner, and joins them. Here he gets asked the same question, and he growls, “It’s the thing I hate most in the world!”

He mutters at Shi-won that if she drinks and sleeps at the station again, she’s dead meat, and refuses to pour her another beer. Aw, but look at her pout! Give the girl her beer!

Once they’re alone, it turns into a bigger fight, with Yoon-jae naming all the times she slept at the station, got carried in by some other guy, or caused a giant scene with her fanclub friends.

She mocks his awesome memory and scritches his puppy chin, and he runs his hands down her face. Some things never change. He screams, “I’m not kidding! If you do this one more time…”

But that’s as far as he can go, and Shi-won knows it. “What? Then what?! WHAT? You gonna kill me?” She knocks her head into his chest, challenging him to a fight. Pfffft. Don’t do it. She’ll kick your ass.

He backs down immediately, “…then I’d get… really mad.” He whines like a little kid that her boyfriend doesn’t like it, so can’t she just stop drinking so much? She has a demand of her own—can’t he stop with that annoying Seoul accent of his? He immediately changes it back at her request.

He tries to follow her up to her apartment for “coffee” again, and gets denied. He argues that they practically lived together their whole lives, and she points out how different now and then are.

He can’t resist, “Why, do you see this oppa as a man now? Does your heart race when you see me?” She kicks him in the shins and calls him a cab before she heads inside, and he sighs that he’s so close.

He gets in the cab and it drives away… and then zooms right back. Awww yeah. He falls all over himself to run up the stairs, but then gets stumped at her door, wondering how to proceed.

Omg, are you trying to unlock her door without ringing her doorbell? Dumbass. I hope she kicks you where it really hurts. He tries his birthday, her birthday, and then wonders, “Nah, it couldn’t be…”

He looks up Tony oppa’s birthday and tries it… and the door opens. Ha. Once a fangirl, always a fangirl. She gapes to find him walking through her door like he owns the place.

He sits down and demands freshly brewed coffee, and she snaps back that he can shove whatever she gives him in his face. Pfft. He asks if she’s gained weight, and she points out that he asks that every time she ties her hair back. Well that answers that question.

He drinks his coffee and she tries to rush him out, and he desperately searches for ways to bide his time. Finally she’s shoving him towards the door, and he agrees to leave… if she gives him one kiss.

She agrees just to get him out the door, and backs him up against the wall. She grabs his face and gives him a little peck on the lips.

He lets out a sigh and chucks his jacket on the floor, “Are you kidding me?” and slowly starts to back her up against the kitchen counter. Rawr.

She’s practically lying down on the thing by the time he goes in for the kill. Swoon.

They come back up slowly, still kissing, and we fade to black.

Back to the hospital in 2013. If we have to watch this scene one more time, I will hurl something. Tae-woong and Yoon-jae run up, and Yoon-jae stands, barely breathing, “I… I’m the husband.”

Well of course you are! Huzzah!

He hands Tae-woong his stuff, and Hyung gives him a pat of encouragement before he goes in. Mom and Dad wonder how Tae-woong found the time to come by, and urge him to go back to work.

He says he just stopped in to name the baby—Yoon Seung-ho—and rushes back out. Dad figures that since the husband is here, they can go grab a bite to eat, but Mom has a hard time leaving, worried for “our baby.”

Dad says she’ll be fine, but Mom means Yoon-jae: “She’ll pull all his hair out, the poor thing!” Dad: “That’s his lot in life. It’s his fault for marrying a gangster.” HAHAHAHA. I luff Dad, so, so much. They run off like a pair of teenagers playing hooky.

Inside the delivery room, things are going exactly as predicted. Shi-won expends most of her energy yanking Yoon-jae’s hair out, screaming, “THIS! IS ALL! YOUR! FAULT! You son of a bitch!”

They’re crying, and he’s apologizing, and I’m dying of laughter.

Back to the reunion in 2012. By now, Yoon-jae is a judge in Daejeon, and he and Shi-won are a weekend couple. Their friends tease them about when they had time to make another baby (Whaaa?), and worry that Yoon-jae will have a hard time making it up to Seoul when she’s due.

Shi-won says she can do it without him, and Hak-chan tells him it’ll be better that way—he’ll just get his hair pulled out and get cursed at up and down. Shi-won: “I wouldn’t do that! What am I, some gangster?”

Their friends all wonder how they were when they were dating, and Shi-won swears they were just like any other couple, with the coyness and the push and pull. Yoon-jae just stares blankly and completely contradicts her.

Back to 2005. Shi-won’s getting better with the goodbye kisses after each date, and Yoon-jae does his adorable fist pump after she’s closed the door. Why so geeky?

He sends her cute little text messages, wondering what she’s up to, and she sends back replies like: “Pooping.” And “You crazy bastard.”

He sits around getting no attention while she plans fan events for Tony oppa, and he grumps at her to show him half the love she has for Tony. She calls her love for Oppa pure, while Yoon-jae only has a one-track mind.

He stammers, “Wh-wh-what, like I was the only one who liked it?” Ha. He argues that her head is filled with nothing but Tony, and says he’ll crash and burn, calling him a monkey bastard.

Shi-won yanks his hair and they go at it like little kids, punching and screaming. Yoon-jae narrates:

Yoon-jae: Locking a wild lion up in a zoo doesn’t mean that overnight it’ll give up raw chicken for carrots. No matter how much an environment changes, a lion is a lion, and a rabbit, a rabbit. Sung Shi-won is Sung Shi-won, and Yoon Yoon-jae is Yoon Yoon-jae. We met, and dated, and loved, in our own way.

Shi-won visits Yoon-jae’s apartment for the first time, and they share a plate of mandoo sent by Mom. I love that he eats the filling and she eats the cover.

He asks casually if she thinks this is okay for a newlywed apartment… but gets no response from her. It starts to make him nervous, “Wait, are you planning NOT to marry me?”

In their usual manner, she remains completely silent while he jabbers on nervously that he’s not asking but he’s just asking, yunno. After a long pause, Shi-won asks, “Is this… a proposal?”

He swears it isn’t, and then gets upset, wondering if she plans to marry some other guy “after making me like this.” Ha. Or maybe she has a special proposal she wants to receive? But she tells if he does some stupid romantic and mortifying proposal, she’ll kill him and then die of embarrassment.

That gives him the courage to ask now, “So then you’re going to marry me, right?” He uses her own move back on her, and gives her till the count of three to answer, or he’ll kiss her ten times.

He inches closer as he counts: One… Two… Three…

Shi-won: “Okay.” She says it like an answer to Mom nagging her to clean her room.

He smiles and tells her to say it to his face, so she turns and yells it over and over. He leans in to kiss her and she jerks back, “What? I answered!” Haha. He tells her that this is what people in love do, and kisses her.

She looks around the apartment while he does dishes, and stops at a picture of Joon-hee and Yoon-jae. She asks if he’s been to Joon-hee’s new place (he has) and if Joon-hee said anything when he was leaving.

Yoon-jae hesitates, and says no. Shi-won sighs.

Back to the weekend when Joon-hee moved out, right after the big dinner date switcheroo by Tae-woong. Joon-hee marvels at Tae-woong’s honesty—the fact that he was able to be honest about his feelings for Shi-won and not sweep them under the rug, even telling him the winner could tease the other about it. Otherwise they might’ve spent the rest of their lives feeling awkward about it all.

Joon-hee sighs that it’s better to be ridiculed for something than to keep secrets. Aw, Joon-hee. Yoon-jae says he knows Hyung better than him, and suggests Joon-hee go into psychiatry and look into people’s hearts and help them out.

Joon-hee: “But I don’t know my own heart. Maybe after I figure mine out.” It kills me that he can’t say it, and that Yoon-jae knows it already. He packs up the rest and the mover tells him to check one last time to make sure he didn’t forget anything. He goes back up and lingers in his room.

Yoon-jae comes out dressed for work, and asks if it’s so bad if he leaves something behind. Aw. He says he’ll come visit the new place. The only thing Joon-hee can manage to say is to do well on his test at work and buy dinner if he gets a promotion, and with a hand to Yoon-jae’s arm, he just says, “I’m going.” But then Yoon-jae calls out after him, “Joon-hee-ya…” Eeeee!

He stops by the door, but doesn’t let himself turn around. Yoon-jae walks up behind him, and backhugs him (awwwwww) and just stands there without saying a word. *tears*

It’s such a bittersweet moment, and done so perfectly without words. Joon-hee smiles, and Yoon-jae says they should have dinner soon. He just pats Joon-hee on the shoulder, still holding him, as we fade out.

A few months later. Shi-won and Tae-woong chitchat over ice cream, and he teases that he’s better looking and taller and richer than Yoon-jae, but she still likes him better?

She nods with this goofy grin and says in her totally honest way that she never had sparks with Tae-woong, but does with Yoon-jae. She says that she didn’t feel it before even when they kissed, but now, she’s happy just seeing his face. Aw.

Yoon-jae arrives at Hyung’s office to find them giggling together and immediately pouts, “What were you doing?” Shi-won says “date,” while Tae-woong spills the beans that she was telling him how much she liked Yoon-jae.

He immediately changes his tune and sidles up to her, saying she should tell him that to his face. He wants the three of them to go out to dinner, but Hyung says he got roped into going to some concert, complaining that his students are crazy fangirls. That elicits a defensive rant from Shi-won about the merits of fangirldom.

He leaves and they wonder whose fangirls they are. Cut to Tae-woong rolling his eyes as he drives a group of his students singing along to DBSK. His students insist he has to attend, and hand him a pair of tickets, asking him to be the contact for a member of their fanclub, since they’ll be too busy screaming.

He waits near the concert venue and then the ticket owner calls to find him… and it’s the doctor. She’s embarrassed to be caught in full fangirl mode, but he surprises her by (quoting Shi-won) and saying that she must’ve used her fandom passion to succeed in other areas of life.

She’s impressed that he gets it, and he smiles and says he’s got pretty long history with fangirls. Heh.

Shi-won and Yoon-jae go to eat, and she orders the exact same way she did when they were in high school—loads of food for her, nothing for him.

She whines for him to let her have one drink, which connects her to the same request to “jagi-ya” at the reunion, where the boys all tell her no. And this time we see Yoon-jae specifically answer her no, and to think of the baby.

Then we see Tae-woong introduce the doc to Yoon-jae and Shi-won, and he calls Yoon-jae “the brother I love,” and starts to introduce Shi-won.

That connects him to the reunion, where we heard him introduce Yoon-jae the same way, and then we get to hear him finish this time: “and the sister-in-law I love.”

Back to introducing the doc, where Shi-won arrives to the table with a tray of two extra-whip iced mochas and regular coffees, and Yoon-jae reaches for his, wearing his couple ring.

And then to the reunion, where we see the same hand reach for the mocha, and Yoon-jae bop down for a mouthful of whipped cream. He complains that she wears that couple ring because she lost her wedding band not one month after they were married. Ha.

Back again to the meeting with the doc (Show, you’re giving me whiplash here). Tae-woong’s wife-to-be insists they don’t have to cut in line to get married first, but Yoon-jae says Hyung should be first, and they can take their time.

Shi-won agrees wholeheartedly, “and besides, we could break up.” Yoon-jae scowls. Doc says it would delay their baby-having though, and Shi-won gapes, “Baby? Why would you say something so scary?”

She swears up and down that they have ZERO plans to make babies anytime soon, and Yoon-jae scowls again.

The very next morning, Shi-won comes out of the bathroom utterly peeved, and screams at Yoon-jae to wake up, waving a pregnancy test in his face. Hee.

She beats him silly with the nearest stuffed animal, “I TOLD you to be careful! You careless ass!”

Pffft. He doesn’t even know why he’s being pummeled.

Reunion, 2012. A little girl runs up to the table calling for “Mommy,” and runs into Shi-won’s lap. And then Daddy swoops her up in his arms. Aw. She came with the grandparents, who come bearing sacks of food (of course).

They wonder how Tae-woong found the time to come, and he says he wanted to see everyone, and anyway he’s here to give Shi-won his car.

Shi-won tells her parents it’s past Daughter’s bedtime, but Mom says she’s glued to the TV these days, staring at her new idol crush, and running around saying that she’ll marry him.

Dad says that’s right—where you plant beans, you get beans, and where you have one fangirl, she’ll give birth to another. Hee. He tells Shi-won to deal with it, like it’s payment for the hell she put him through.

Yoon-jae says that stuff doesn’t matter to him, and Dad admits now that he always thought Yoon-jae one marble short for marrying Shi-won. HA.

Mom still fawns over Joon-hee, asking if he’s married yet and still wishing he were her son-in-law. Cute. Dad still berates Sung-jae, and smiles at the news that Hak-chan and Yoo-jung are getting married… and then asks if they aren’t getting married after making an accident baby like those two over there. Hee.

Yoon-jae swears they were going to get married on that day anyway, but Mom asks if he thinks them idiots, knowing full well they hijacked Tae-woong’s wedding because of the pregnancy.

Before they head out, Dad turns back to tell them to make good memories, because there’s nothing better (that doesn’t cost a cent) in all the world. He sighs happily, thinking of his memories with Tae-woong and Yoon-jae’s dad.

Tae-woong smiles warmly and says he’ll be home soon so they can play Go Stop tonight. (Awwwww, do he and his wife live with Mom and Dad? So sweet.)

The reunion comes a close and everyone streams out of the restaurant and into the rain. Sung-jae stands in the doorway between Hak-chan and Yoo-jung talking about where to go on their honeymoon, and Yoon-jae and Shi-won cuddling.

He stares back and forth between them, growing increasingly agitated, and finally blows up, asking if they don’t feel sorry in the least. They’re all like, why?

He reminds them of all the teenage tears and recriminations, and sighs, “They say first love doesn’t can’t be realized, but you guys are amazing.” Yoo-jung responds by inviting him along on their honeymoon, and he storms off in a huff. The funnier part is, she wasn’t kidding.

Yoon-jae says that if Hak-chan and Yoo-jung get married, they’ll have attained their first loves, but Yoo-jung corrects him—Hak-chan wasn’t her first love. Uh, awkward, since clearly this is the first that Hak-chan’s hearing of this.

He asks who it is, but Yoo-jung just glosses over it. He pulls her old line, “Let’s break up,” and runs into the rain. She shouts that she doesn’t even remember who it is (and betrays a tiny glance up at Yoon-jae) and runs to his side, saying, “Who cares about first love? The person next to you now is what matters!” And they walk off arm in arm.

Yoon-jae (voiceover): First love. The reason everyone’s first love is beautiful is not only because the love was pretty. At the time of first love, there was a youthfulness that didn’t know how to be wise, a me who was pure to the point of cruelty, and a you whose fire I couldn’t handle. It’s because I already know that I can never go back to that youthful, innocent, passionate time.

Yoon-jae says the weather is nice (“Because I’m with you,” awww) and Tae-woong and Joon-hee come out to join them.

Yoon-jae (voiceover): First love is reckless. Without calculating, it throws everything in with pure passion, and inevitably fails. But that’s why it’s dramatic—the reckless tales wrapped up in experiences or feelings that you can never have again.

Joon-hee comes out and Shi-won offers to drop him off on their way. He says someone’s coming to pick him up. Yay! She smiles knowingly.

Yoon-jae looks at him in surprise, and they just smile at each other. I’m so happy Joon-hee found someone. He’s the last to leave the party, and there’s something so bittersweet about that.

He waits in the rain, and a car pulls up. We don’t see who picks him up, but Joon-hee smiles as he gets in the car.

Yoon-jae (voiceover): First love is a time. Once it passes, it’s gone. Now you have to give a new love and a new time a chance. It might not be the experience or the purity of first love, but out of that scar is a love that grows and becomes a little more mature—you have to wait for an adult love. Only those who wait can dream of love.

We see the fateful moments that we thought were Tae-woong’s first encounters with the doc, but then a flashback shows that they actually ran into each other the day he went into the record store to buy H.O.T. CDs for the first time.

Back to 2012, as Shi-won drives the brothers home. Yoon-jae asks what kind of medical seminar is keeping Hyung’s wife in Japan over the weekend, and he sighs that it’s not a seminar—it’s a DBSK concert. Haha.

Apparently she also became the entire fanclub’s president, which is hilarious, for the two very different reactions it gets from the front seats. Yoon-jae sighs that Hyung’s gonna have a hard time spinning that as a presidential candidate, while Shi-won is freaking out that their family finally has someone important in it.

She grumps that Busan chapter president is as high up as she could get, and blames the city she was born in. She and Yoon-jae bicker the rest of the way, and as Hyung gets out, he tells them not to fight.

Yoon-jae’s like, that’s not fighting. Shi-won (still calling him Oppa), says that when they actually fight, cops have to be called. They drop Tae-woong off and then the rest of the car ride gets dicey, as they start to argue.

Yoon-jae (voiceover): When romance passes, life comes. Purity gets dirtied, passion freezes over, and youth turns to shrewdness as you age. That innocent era’s first love becomes fatigued and exhausted daily routine… and is why first love appears to be something that can’t be realized. Because those who succeed at realizing their first love… don’t tell you.

Yoon-jae says he hasn’t asked in a long time, but if he and Tony oppa fell in the water, which guy would she save first? She vaguely remembers being asked this before, but he says (quite nervously, which cracks me up) that some things have changed since then.

This time her answer is: “You. Just you. Who else would I save before my husband?” He beams, calling it his life’s great reversal. Hee. But then when she says she loves him, he calls her out on being the mother of two and still going to visit Tony’s mother’s store. Well clearly, the girl’s loyal. You should know.

Yoon-jae (voiceover): Succeeding at first love is nice too. There’s comfort that’s even better than your favorite sweater, but also an excitement that you can find when you’re tired of that comfort. As childhood playmates, as first loves, as lovers, and as husband and wife, we live through the same times, share the same memories, and grow old together. A familiar excitement. It’s nice.

As they drive away swearing at each other, we see the license plate on the car: Live forever 1997.

And then the final flashback, to 1997, when the group gathered for a photo in the park. Hak-chan sets up the camera, and Shi-won berates Yoon-jae for ruining her once-in-a-lifetime signed t-shirt from Tony oppa, when he used it to sop up some spilled soy sauce.

Sung-jae says he’s lucky to have walked away with his life. As the camera timer starts to wind down, Shi-won asks if he’s really sorry and feeling repentant, and waves a fist in his face…

And then just before the shutter goes, she opens her hand and he leaps back, terrified at the frog sitting in her palm.

Yoon-jae: “I think I broke my arm!” Haha, so that’s what landed you in the hospital?

Yoon-jae (voiceover): It was fiery and pure, the time I long for. Do you hear me? If you hear me, answer, my ’90s Me.

COMMENTS

I feel the same way about the finale as I did about Episode 15—that the show is better when it’s shorter and tightly edited, without letting conversations meander indulgently. But by the last two episodes we’ve come to love these characters so much that we indulge the excess, which probably helps to ease our goodbyes to the show as well. Overall I’m happy about the finale and it delivered exactly what I wanted—a satisfying resolution for everyone and some nice contemplative reflection on what it’s like to be young, told from the perspective of characters we’ve watched grow up over the course of the series.

I would have liked to get Shi-won in on the voiceovers in the end, or even let each character have one that fit their endings, though I don’t mind that Yoon-jae had the job of wrapping up the story for everyone. I think the finale rests entirely on the strength of the past episodes though, in that it made us nostalgic for the young versions of the characters as if we’d known them for years, and not just a few weeks. For me, everything past the time jump (post high school to 2005 and beyond) doesn’t hold a candle to the early years—it’s as if the show is on the same trajectory as its characters, with a fiery passionate youth that blazes so bright… that it can’t help but wane and cool as it gets older. It was still fantastic in the later years, but didn’t have that incredible spark it did when the adolescent rollercoaster was in full swing.

But when it was, man was this show amazingly accurate about the highs and lows of being young. I appreciated everything about the heart, the humor, the gut-wrenching tears, the utter humiliation, and the moments of self-discovery. And of course the attendant soundtrack, which made me feel all the more like I was reliving my own youth along with them. What I loved most was that each character was written as a full person—as if they were the stars of their own dramas. It’s not often that characters are written this way, to feel like real people, no matter how little we might see of them. And despite some conversations rambling on forever, the ones that mattered—the powerful emotional beats—were delightfully sparse, sometimes silent. It’s a two-way street with good writing and good directing, to give a scene the space to breathe, and to direct it so that the moment and the breath matters. This show had that perfect combo in spades.

There were certainly times we all grew tired of the baby daddy mystery, but it certainly laced the show with enough crack that it scored a new ratings high for cable. What the show did right within that overarching story was its whimsical (and sometimes very complicated) use of flashbacks, flash-forwards, flash-forward-and-back-within-a-flash-somewhere. It played fast and loose with narrative time, and built an emotional throughline across decades, days, and minutes between different sets of characters, all converging on a similar idea. Those were the strongest episodes, in a series full of strong episodes.

In the end it was always the family that really got me—the one that Mom and Dad cobbled together out of the rubble when each of the two core families suffered such massive loss. The brother relationship, what it meant to them to have surrogate parents, and how Shi-won couldn’t lose either of the boys from her life because they were family to her—no matter which two characters you paired out of that family, there was something so amazing to come out of it. Dad and Shi-won were a sentimental favorite, but of course the heart of the show is Shi-won and Yoon-jae.

I love that theirs is a relationship that survives not because of some idealized version of first love, but because they acknowledge that first love is beautiful because it’s a moment in time, and is as much, if not more, about who you were in that short burst of time. That you stays in the past, because you have to grow up. It’s the idea that even people who end up with their first loves have to give up on the notion of First Love, as if it’s some magical ideal. Life goes on, passion fades, but love can always change and grow. Their happy ending is not in realizing their first love, but in finding someone to grow up with.

227

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101 kinac

September 21, 2012 at 11:17 PM

Sigh. My life always feels so empty after a good drama. TT__TT The characters are so adorably quirky and real I really grew, pitied, and laughed along with them in this drama. I especially love how it can do it while including in poignant scenes. Sometimes, dramas really can take a pause and take in the moment, like this drama has done superbly well. My favourite themes were about families and how you can't stop yourself from falling in love. Especially when the boys said they liked the girl because she was pretty, was the part that stood out most to me. They thought they were pretty, because it was them. <3 You really can relate to and agree with the themes in this drama. I will never forget this show and it's characters. Answer me, 1997!

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102 anna

September 21, 2012 at 11:22 PM

JAYSUS!!!! THAT RATING! It's even better than To the Beautiful You ratings. Imagine if this wasn't on cable, the ratings would have been through the roof! Congrats to 1997!

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103 cashew

September 22, 2012 at 12:59 AM

reply 1997 is one of the most poignantly done dramas i've watched in years. kdramas have always been super draggy and tiresome to follow because it takes dramatics and histronics to another level. reply 1997 harkens back to the days when jdramas were good - the length and pacing, the youth angle, the simplicity about the story and what is simply heartfelt, forthright storytelling. And this has got to be the best use of time as a storytelling device everrrr - the writer and director must've gotten awesome experience doing 1N2D and all that editing. All the relationships were done beautifully and oh so heartfelt and honest. Well yes, the brothers falling for the same girl trope borders on makjang but ultimately, it wasn't the main focus. The main storyline of 'who's shiwon's hubby' was there, but it was never really a focus because deep inside we knew the end-game. It was simply the main storyline that allowed all the other people in their lives to breathe and live like real people, people we may know..

tvn's 3 offerings this year have been stellar. QIHM created an epic love story that made me feel like going out to find my own Boongdo. Havent watched SUFBB but by all accounts, I probably should. But reply 1997... I love it so much it hurts. When we said good bye to 1997 and fastforwarded to 2005 and 2012, it felt like we already said goodbye to those 1997 memories. Then when the drama ended, we had to say goodbye to these characters that we loved in 1997, 2005 and 2012. All over again. Oooof. Yoonjae and Shiwon may be the main couple and end game, but I love every single one of those characters dearly. So much such that I probably wouldnt want to meet them in any sequel everrrr. Please freeze the moment and let them live there in eternity, in my memory.

Dramabeans, thank you for the journey.

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bd2

September 25, 2012 at 12:17 AM

I'd add "I Need Romance 2012" to the list of top-notch tvN dramas for the year.

There are other K-dramas which don't go into histronics like "Coffee Prince" and "The Man Who Can't Marry."

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104 Gom

September 22, 2012 at 4:07 AM

Just woke up from an intense binge-watching session last night. I'm still pretty hungover so I'm not sure if I'm saying anything coherent right now.

God, HOW MUCH DID I LOVE THIS SHOW? HOW MUCH? Only my puffy eyes can tell.

I don't think there's any other Kdrama out there that was able to tell perfectly what every single one of us goes and have went through. At some point, I was just shaking my head because I kept on saying, This is exactly what happened to (insert name of friend here). Or worse, This is exactly what happened to... ME.

What I love about this is that despite the differences in language, ethnicity, area, or culture, in the end, going through youth and all its ups and downs is pretty much universal.

... And that is a K-drama ingredient that is so difficult to find and to perfect. That universality. So difficult that most of the time, despite how much high and low emotions you've invested throughout its 16-episode run, you still leave the drama feeling exactly the same as you were when you started the first episode, or empty even. This one didn't make me go through the usual biting-my-fingernails emotions, but I'm definitely not walking away from it empty-handed.

I'm going to place this drama in a safe box under my bed and unearth it when the right time comes. I just know I'll need to watch this again, if only to remind me that yeah, I pretty much survived all these as well. I wasn't alone in it after all.

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105 yanyanhye

September 22, 2012 at 7:24 AM

Best drama for the year!=) It's been a long time since I went cray cray for a kdrama and this just sucked me back to the place I was a few years ago :D

Thanks GF for the recaps and also since I first read about the drama here, thanks for introducing me to this show!

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106 NN

September 22, 2012 at 8:32 AM

Thanks for the recaps and especially for introducing this drama to us. I won't have checked it out if not for GF's rave about it in the recaps of the first few episodes.

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107 skwonto

September 22, 2012 at 10:15 AM

You perfectly and eloquently summed up my feelings about the show's quality. The earlier shows were beyond amazing. When they stepped into adulthood... My expectations were high. It's just hard for me to understand how they create quality in the beginning and let the ending be so weak. Finish strong... have they not heard of it?

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108 tam

September 22, 2012 at 1:01 PM

There are very few drama's that hit my heart and sticks! this if definitely one of them! I completely agree with javabean & girlfriday from beginning to end the story, characters, and production were strong. This drama will continue to be an all time favorite of mine. You can easily hit reply and not get tired of it but discover more, it's like a never ending treasure chest. It was truly unique and funny. it doesn't matter what culture you come from you can completely relate to the highs and lows of first loves, teenage passion, and the golden days of being carefree and emotionally pure minus calculating. I really enjoyed and loved this drama! :o)

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109 giddy

September 22, 2012 at 1:51 PM

Thank you for the recaps, GF! Was not drawn to this drama at all until I read some recaps and jumped on board midway. But loved every moment of it and savored this gem of a drama. The writing and acting were amazing, and though I felt a little let down at the last episode, after reading your recap, actually like it a lot more with the little nuances that were missed in the subs.

All the storylines were tied up nicely, and I thought that even Joon Hee's was handled well--the backhug was a great way to end that chapter of their lives as roommates. I agree that it would have been awkward if JH had confessed, knowing YJ's love for Shi Won. So even if he kept it to himself, we did get a hopeful ending for him.

It bothered me that Shi Won was so difficult even through their dating, but I guess she stayed true to her character and only gave us tiny glimpses of her affection for Yoon Jae. The point was that they did love each other, but showed it in a different way. For me, it was a full circle back to her parents whose fighting drove her crazy, yet this is the same kind of relationship she now shared with Yoon Jae.

Most Kdramas fall short on the last ep. cuz they do such an amazing job of storytelling all the way to get to the end--it's hard to go any where when already at the top. It's rare to find that total package. But this is one drama that will top my favs list--2012 has been a banner year for amazing dramas!

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110 Me

September 22, 2012 at 3:34 PM

So glad that everything fell into place in the end. Much thanks to the director for keeping Joon Hee and his feelings so honest. Joon Hee's line at the end is so powerful for me. It's just awesome that for a Kdrama, they were willing to respect love in all its forms. I just love this show and I can't put everything into words.

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111 whatsthescenario

September 22, 2012 at 4:22 PM

The simple moments between Joon-Hee and Yoon-jae were a delight. The morning when Joon-Hee whispered in Yoon-jae's ear to wake up breakfast and the back hug in epi 16. The one moment I wished the lead was actually gay. Then he could turn around, kiss him passionately and fulfill all my secret fangirl fantasies.

Then, when Joon-Hee and Tae Woong emerge up to street level at the end of the reunion climbing the stairs side by side (ShiWon and Yoon-jae are waiting outside) , I almost had a wish that they were gay for each other. HAHA! another fangirl moment. Sorry. I wish we could have seen who was in the red car that came by to pick him up.

I really loved this series and will watch it all over again. Definitely cracked my Top 5 favorite Kdramas. I love when writers fully understand their characters and let them develop organically, in a way that seems natural.

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112 ar_arguably romantic

September 22, 2012 at 9:33 PM

Thanks for the recapping this series, javabeans and girlfriday!

My face was split into a huge grin for almost entire episode (the backhug scene was the only sad moment for me...). My cheeks are sore now! I love how everything wrapped up, along with little surprises. And I'm so glad we ended with their 1997 selves. I was rewatching the earlier episodes of Answer me 1997 and it had finally occurred to me to wonder what happened to Yoon-jae's arm. Now i know!

I do wish that Sung-jae had more of a story or a background. I'm a bit sad that everyone is pairing off and that he's sort of left out and single.

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113 kdramafan

September 23, 2012 at 2:54 PM

Wow. What a wonderful series. I rewatched from beginning to end and it was fantastic. I loved the characterization and like someone said there was no secondary characters. Everyone was the star of the moment.

Like someone also said this series was primarily not about love but family. I loved mom and dad and the relationship of the Yoon brothers. They were awesome. Also the family relationship among the six friends was great. I'm trying to find different words for fantastic but it's very hard to. ?

It's sad to see the end of the series since it provides such laughter and tears but it also brought closure to all the characters. I miss you cast, crew, and events of Answer Me 1997!!!!!

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114 lucertola

September 25, 2012 at 11:11 AM

Thank you show for being so great! Thank you DB for recapping it! ^_^

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115 Lilian

September 25, 2012 at 12:02 PM

I usually find it very cliche when watching show about first loves. And totally unbelievable that they will still have feelings for someone they loved when so young. But this show surpasses all my preconceived expectations and surprised me. My fav part is definitely the friendship, even more above the love scenes.

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116 Bonz

September 28, 2012 at 2:30 AM

awesome drama., powerful screenplay, great directing, amazing story the characters are all perfectly delivered im gonna miss this show, one of the best dramas ever made this is definitely now on my top 5...how i wish there can be more episodes and im dying to watch the second installment if it will push through but nevertheless i was more than satisfied on how it turned out im so glad i gave this drama a chance it never fails instead it exceeded my expectations :)

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117 dv

September 29, 2012 at 11:18 PM

Suffering from the aftermath... please do a sequel LOL

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118 Jagi

September 30, 2012 at 2:39 AM

Love the first ten episodes. After the time jump, the show somehow lost its magic for me.

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119 marie*

October 5, 2012 at 4:08 PM

I finally got around to finish watching the last two episodes of the series today. I am absolutely impressed by the drama: it was natural, real, deep, creative, and fun. I loved the subtle references to 1n2d (writers/crew, content, style), and of course the cast all did well. Most notably, Seo In-guk and Eun-ji were surprisingly quite convincing in their characters, despite starting off as singers. Quite possibly my favourite series so far!

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120 Rika

October 13, 2012 at 8:44 PM

Reply 1997 or Answer Me 1997 already become my love for kdrama.
I love the story line, friendship and family are the very important things in life. no matter how you gone far, there are always people waiting & love you.
shi won's parent shows us how to love & protect their kids.
I love how shiwon keeps her heart only for yoon jae, and so with yoon jae. I love how their love even husband and wife are not living same area because of yoon jae's work. but they still keep their love for each other, rare thing nowadays.
after all: I wish for 2nd season

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121 cloey

October 15, 2012 at 2:43 PM

It took me three days to watch Answer Me 1997 and after every episode I read your recaps. It helped me to understand the drama better beos at some parts I didn't get it right at that moment ;-) I enjoyed this drama very much - it had it all and leaves me happy & contended ^^

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122 Abbie

October 17, 2012 at 10:10 AM

So great. Words cannot describe how I feel about this drama. It's just so amazing. I don't think it could have ended any other way. And Yoon-jae's voice-over really added to the ending. He's great.

I will definitely keep my eye on the actors who played Yoon-jae and Shi-won. They are going to be great actors. I hope for only the best for them.

This drama will remain one of my favorites for a long time.

Thanks for the recap, Girlfriday!

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123 noriko

October 20, 2012 at 11:49 AM

i need to know who is the singer of the song in the bgm for ep 16, the song that IU and Seulong covered back then in 2011 (or 2010) i think the title is irrokhe (or somehow like that) can someone tell me where to download it? thanks :D

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124 happybi

November 5, 2012 at 11:08 AM

Thank you for all your recaps! It added the extra things that I missed while watching this drama and went back to rewatch!

This is by far the best drama this year that I have watched! I really love it to pieces! It's so nostalgic as I went through most of what they did! Dial-up modem, irc chat room, tamagochi, etc etc! Just bring back many memories for sure.

Absolutely love this drama!

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125 jouls

November 21, 2012 at 11:25 AM

Where I can watch this ? I can't find ;___; help me please

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126 aning

January 7, 2013 at 12:17 AM

this series really touching my heart. awesome story, casting, bring so much laughter and bring back my 90's memories! never get bored watching over and over again.. definitely a must watch series!! :D

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127 earthna

January 7, 2013 at 10:14 PM

Ahhh. I should've really watched this when it aired. I felt like I would have enjoyed it more reading recaps and comments as I watch. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this drama more than I thought I would (after months of trying to avoid it). I agree with what you said that every character is a full person. They weren't there just to have someone fill a spot or have a role in just a moment. They have their own stories and to me, they felt real. As if I was there from when it all started. Maybe because I can relate, heck everyone goes through this, growing up.

The songs matched the scenes perfectly too. Made me raise my hand and swing with the songs. HAHA. It was a strong drama that will stay with me and won't be easily forgotten.

Thanks for the recaps~!

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128 Boba

January 8, 2013 at 5:53 AM

I think its the best drama ever omg great skips coming and going back and forth between past pastpast present and future omg i love the leads how thy react to every thing im almost in tears of happiness thanks
I love the romance and mysteries (yet revealed like loooong time ago) hahah
Special thanks to you Dramabeans

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129 jen

January 29, 2013 at 3:17 PM

There was one loose end. How did Shi-won answer when Yun-je asked her to wish that he wouldn't go out with Yoo-jung?

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130 Lilian

February 5, 2013 at 8:51 AM

Definitely the best drama of 2012 for me. If the 1994 sequel does end up coming true, I hope it stays true to the spirit of making us care for the characters which seem so real.

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131 Ennayra

March 7, 2013 at 7:44 PM

Love this show! Thanks for the recaps!

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132 Kimi

April 26, 2013 at 4:52 AM

Of course, everyone knows who's in that car.

*ahem*Dongwoo*ahem*

What? I didn't say anything. *innocent face*

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133 BB

May 29, 2013 at 11:29 PM

Thank you sooooooo much for the recaps! your recaps is so detailed. I'm so impressed! I didn't read your another recaps yet.. But I'm gonna read all of your recaps!

I watched this show recently. and I'm very surprised that many foreigners know about and have watched this show! In fact, I'm Korean(sorry about my unnatural English). so... I thought Korean drama is known to only Koreans or maybe another Asian countries. so It's very....amazing and make me feel so good.
I wonder how you guys get know about Korean drama, and where you get this show....

I'll expect your another recaps! thanks.

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134 Albatool

June 8, 2013 at 5:47 AM

:_( I'm crying at the moment........ Its such a beautiful drama SO worth watching its like a finished it in 2 days !! I never did such a thing -_- ....... anyways i feel really happy it really touched me especially when the characters narrate ( I'm never gonna forget this .. <3 )

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135 Stuart

August 27, 2013 at 6:59 AM

I loved this show and your recaps, thank you! I came to it after suffering through the entirety of the horror that was Summer Scent just to see more of Son Ye Jin, and this was a trip from the awful to the sublime. It's a tribute to how very few and tiny were the missteps in this series that a COMPLETE outsider, culturally and demographically, can love it to bits like I do.

I agreed with your summary of episode 15, finding it ever so slightly saggy and lacking in direction, but I actually loved the finale. As someone who's sat through far too many seasons of How I Met Your Mother, by the end I found the brazenness of this series overuse of the Macguffin entertaining, I thought it came across as a deliberate"don't you just HATE IT when writers drag these gimmicks out?"

I also loved that there was leisurely and tonally consistent filling in of everyone's stories. The series shone for being full of real emotion without villains or endless angst, and a long goodbye was just reward. I will very definitely be watching this one again and again!

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136 Mary

September 11, 2013 at 2:17 AM

Loves the drama!!!!!
THought it was a bit dragged at the end.....
and thanks to 1N2D i was able to realise most of the cameos and people they mentioned like all those baseball players...
Kim Jong min and Suguen in ji wons drma.....wonderfull....
it was a total suprise to hear that typical trademark dialogue of Suguen(Anheseyeoooooooooooooooo)

LoL

Loved the drama!!!!!!

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137 wits

September 11, 2013 at 6:16 PM

I never got around to watching this drama despite the buzz surrounding it because, to be honest, I didn't like the looks of the main cast (yeah, I'm shallow that way). Recently, I did not have a single drama to watch - nada! (never happened to me before), so I finally picked up AM1997.

Boy oh boy! I'm ever so glad I did. Watched it in 3 days. Today, I called in sick at work and finished it! I've been listening to all the OSTs and frantically read and watched all about Seo in Gook! Now I'm going to watch Master's Sun (phew, that will be an ordeal!) just for SIG. LOL! My comeuppance indeed!

LOVED this show! Seriously! Very well written and directed. The flashbacks, flash forwards and come arounds might indeed give you a whiplash, but it kept the show moving and kept you engaged. I was never bored. All the characters are fleshed out, the anecdotes are funny, or heart-wrenching, but always, always heartfelt.

I must also say that I have never before seen or known any of the leads. I was very impressed with all of the actors, but especially Seo In Gook and Jung Eun Ji. They completely sold their characters and their relationship. I am definitely going to watch out for these two.

Lastly, I doff my hat to you, GF, for your awesome writing and very entertaining recaps. You make every k-drama journey that much richer as an experience. I also bow down in gratitude to both you and JB for this blog. Kamsahamnida!

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138 kimora

March 25, 2014 at 2:42 PM

Really nice recap!

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139 shichi

April 16, 2014 at 10:39 AM

Wowwww! Daebak!!! Iepuda!!! I super like this drama.. I love how the story and the characters unfold and grow.. I think that the most wonderful thing in this life is to marry your bestfriend just like Shi-Won and Yong-jae. but wait can we consider them as bestfriends when they bicker always, will they say that bestfriends are best enemies maybe in this aspect and with the aspect that no one knows Shi-won/Yong-jae better than each other.. I am going to watch this drama.. i read it first to make sure that it is worth watching and yes indeed.. i don't regret spending time reading the recap.. i am going to watch the drama.. excited for all the laughter that i am going to have.. :-)

Thanks much Dramabeans..!

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140 Jessica

May 21, 2014 at 4:56 PM

I CANT BELIEVE ITS OVER :'(
I was recommended this drama by my friend, and in the beginning, I was wary as how it would go because it was the first Korean drama i"d ever seen. I have no regrets, as this was such a well-written and beautiful story :')
I think a really special part of this drama is that a lot of people can relate to it, which is probably why I was so sad after I had finished the episodes (in an unhealthy amount of time!) I wish there were more episodes, I loved seeing the characters interacting with each other, the relationships between all of them were perfect and so believable. I never thought I would feel so strongly about a drama, but wow, I'm amazed because I loved every single moment of this show. I'm definitely rewatching this (after finals, of course LOL)
this drama will always be in my heart no matter what <3

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141 saphire123

November 30, 2014 at 5:55 AM

*cries* I'm going to miss you, Answer Me 1997! :( Bye......

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142 Radhika

January 24, 2015 at 5:00 PM

meh

Is it only me who did not like this drama?
wasted 16 hours of my life.

Basically 2 full days of my weekend.

And I'm really pissed how the showed a scene from porn and how this drama was so sexual talking about porn, parents sex scenes and other crap.

I dont find that normal and I really did not like that.

Anyways, I am regretting why I saw this drama.
Instead maybe I should have started watching Emperor Ki or something. Waste of my hours and my weekend and my thoughts. I am sad.

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143 Jyc

March 21, 2015 at 12:34 AM

Read this recap just now tho I've seen this in 2013 and has been the ultimate favorite show to date. Didn't realize until the last part of the recap that the reason why Yoon-jae broke his arm was because of that. I probably repeated this show about five to six times and I only thought he randomly broke his arm but lol, I realized that was because of that.

Anyway, I loved 1997. I still love it. And I hope that I can go back to a time when I am seeing it for the first time just so I could feel the giddiness and excitement once again. Nevertheless, it doesn't matter how many times I repeat it. Every episode kills me every single time :)

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144 soum89

May 14, 2015 at 2:12 AM

Thank you for your recaps and wonderful insights on this drama, girlfriday! This show is beautiful, bittersweet, nostalgic... and I'm going to miss the characters!

Sign-off soundtrack: 'Confession' by Deli Spice :'-) <3 *heartbreakingly beautiful*

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145 Dreamer

June 11, 2015 at 3:56 PM

yup!! i will definitely say.... it is one of the best drama i have ever watched.. :)

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146 Dreamer

June 11, 2015 at 4:02 PM

Bang Sung-jae (Lee Si-eon) was the best .... seo in guk and jung eun ji was also up on the mark... i will say all of them were debak... excellent.

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147 saehui

July 7, 2015 at 7:49 PM

Raunchy, irreverent, brutally honest, an ode to how much it sucked to be a teenager... and how powerful moments like falling in love for the first time were, completely drowned in profuse amounts of in the moment emotion and glamor. To anyone who didn't connect with this... I suppose we must have had very different childhoods? For me, this was the epitome of my childhood to my teen years, back and front, from end to start: the hormonal bickering, the fights, the absolute betrayal of your parents destroying something you love in a fit of anger, the effortless olive branches afterward; affirmation of familial love, the vague sense that things are being held together with scotch tape and elmers glue and way more loyalty than love at times, but hey, it's holding together. The stupid hair and fashion. K-Pop being just a part of life. Umma making food in one of those ridiculous tubs. Farting in your friends' face just because you're mad at them. Being honest about porn - like, seriously honest. Percussive affection (I don't think I've ever encountered a work of fiction that features kicking your friends over as a form of affection at the same rate it happened in my own life until now). Being a raging fan. NC-17 gay porn real person fanfiction. (That one hit way too close to home...)

I have never watched a show that more accurately summed up my entire childhood and youth more than 1997. It was embarrassing, heartwrenching, hard to watch at times due to secondhand embarrassment (and firsthand embarrassment - every time Yoonjae and Shiwon threw a tantrum, I felt it on a deep and personal level), but also hilarious, crude, brash, loud, completely and totally unpretentious, EXTREMELY Korean, and the complete and total opposite of all of the KDramas my Umma wanted me to watch. This is already shaping up to be the KDrama I measure all KDramas against. I actually never got into KDramas, despite being, you know, Korean, but if I'd known more like this one were out there I would have probably would have been more enthusiastic about it.

Barring a few personal qualms (yoon jae please do not break into your girl's apt, unacceptable), this show has been a very positive experience for me. I will probably rewatch it many, many times, just to scour the story for details and revisit these awful, horrible, disgusting, earnest, kind, strong kids again. There is a dogged, fierce sincerity in 1997 that I never get to see in media, nearly ever, and it's balled up tightly in every screamed argument and every way too TMI conversation. And I want to revisit every last one.

(shout out to the acting newbies in this - i had NO idea that some of these actors were first timers. shiwon especially? that's incredible.)

[insert 50000 word essay on joonhee here, redacted because i do not have time to actually write it, but my dear child, my good dear child, thank you for being there.]

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148 Faith23

August 19, 2015 at 10:36 PM

i just found out that Eun Ji won was former member of Sechs Kies. LOL! reply 1994 here I come!! i need to watch reply 1994 before reply 1988 come. i hope hyeri will do better, I'm going to watch AM1988 because of Park Bogummy :D