Title: 이태원 클라쓰 / Itaewon Class
Genre: Romance, Revenge
Episodes: 16
Broadcast network: jTBC
Broadcast period: 2020-Jan-31 to 2020-March-21
For the first time, I will be reviewing TV shows, just to give you an idea if you want to watch it.
Itaewon Class tells the story of Park Saeroyi (Park Seo-Joon) which is an ex-convict after punching a bully. It’s the classic slice-of-life story that goes on from rags to riches but in a harder way. After his father’s death from his highschool years, he then opens his bar restaurant DanBam (Sweet Night) in Itaewon. Itaewon is a popular area for residents of Seoul, tourists, military personnel and ex-pats. In the Philippine setting, you can compare this to BGC, with a mixture of upscale and military vibe.
The storyline is well written, every single character explained their story well. The cinematography and the musical scoring is good and it highlights the main and supporting casts of the story. Everyone got character development, from the very least of the character to the main character. The casts having their own time to shine, which makes it different from the other stories that I have watched.
Every character seems to be as important as the main ones, though this goes to show that the producers want to go in a lengthy way of telling the story, one disadvantage it gives is the story is dragging but in a good way. It mostly focuses on how you can become a better person in a harsh world, the reality. The bad way, however, is that they give too much information like if the whole cast has a group chat, including the villains that’s a lot of time wasted.
What I like the most about Itaewon is that it gives the reality of what is happening “really” in Korean society, with all the family problems especially the chaebol, from jae "wealth or property" + beol "faction or clan" a technically rich kid from a big company.
How they leverage their relationships between businesses. Racism is also an issue as you can see in the cast, there is a black guy that even though he does speak Korean but because he's black he refused entry from a certain bar. Another instance is with the transgender character, this leads to cancellation or elimination of the person in a show for example.
This happens a lot in Korea, just one wrong move from the norm be it intentional or unintentional will be bound to be not accepted in the society and the work industry as well. This leads me to another problem which is an ex-convict character. Of course, it goes to show that anywhere you go, if you have a criminal record you will not be accepted anywhere. His education is certainly lacking as well, this is because Koreans are inclined in studying (that's why there's a lot of Koreans here in the Philippines just to study more). You can see from the cues that the main character has been bullied a few times because of his education.
The ending certainly disappoints me, it looks like it came from the usual Pinoy Drama which there are hostages and a lot of predictable scenes, and they kind of missed out the point of the character development throughout the story. I'm certainly disappointed by Park Saeroyi with the scenes that I'm not expecting, it lacks the appeal of the story. His character appears to be very fictional, he certainly has a problem with discerning even a thank you and a sorry. Every main character, actually, as the leading woman Yi Seo doesn’t even changed a bit.
Overall, I certainly don't feel watching this again as this one is pretty dragging. The plus points is that you can see a certain reality in terms of how Koreans really be as a businessman and how they deal with racism. I think it is still an enjoyable ride to watch. You can take my review as a grain of salt as I have lot of Korean series ever since that's why I'm giving my opinion for this one.
Let's grade this movie as a 1.75 - it clearly is a remarkable show but it lacks a certain appeal.
I'm currently watching Sky Castle as this one is closely related in Itaewon Class. I highly suggest that you watch it after this one.
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