Reply 1988 (2015)

Reply 1988 is the third installment in the Reply series (Reply 1997 aired in 2012 and Reply 1994 came out in 2013).  The three series are linked thematically, if not narratively (though the cast of Reply 1997 make a cameo appearance in Reply 1994, and the character “Trash” from Reply 1994 briefly pops up in Reply 1988) – they are nostalgic looks at their respective eras. The other thing that links the three series are actors Lee Il-hwa and Sung Dong-il, who play the parents of the lead female in each installment (in another of the series funniest bits the Sung Dong-il from Reply1997 meets the Sung Dong-il from Reply 1994, and it is revealed they are cousins). Reply 1988 centers around the ups and downs of five families in Seoul, who live on the same block and have grown up together. It is an ensemble piece – the closest we get to a main character is Deok-sun and that is because she is the narrator of the series (also, she is portrayed by Lee Hye-ri, who was a member of girl group, Girl’s Day, and was voted the “Nation’s Little Sister” in 2014. To briefly go off subject, the music video for the Girl’s Day song, “Oh My God” is extremely amusing, now back to the review).  

Reply 1988 is interesting for two contradictory reasons – on one hand, it features characters and themes that transcend nationality. It is easy to relate to the plight of the main characters, because chances are you have experienced something similar.  The five principal characters (Deok-sun, Taek, Sun-woo, Jung-hwan, and Dong-ryong) will often meet up in Taek’s room and watch VHS copies of American movies (Top Gun, La Bamba, and Dirty Dancing, to name a few). This is something that any child of the 1980s will recognize. Deok-sun’s family lives on a very tight budget (her father, Dong-il) is still paying off a debt) and when they get new shoes and clothes, it is of the generic variety – when Deok-sun gets a pair of Tiger shoes, she is elated. Meanwhile, Dong-ryong makes it a point to show off his pair of Air Jordans. This was an actual phenomenon in the 1980s – you could often determine the social status of a classmate’s family based off the shoes they wore. If it was a top brand like Nike, they were probably from a well-off background. If it was a more generic brand (like Tiger) it usually indicated a lower-middle class background. My personal story of the 1980s was that my parents would usually buy generic soda (Springtime, to be exact) because it was significantly cheaper than the major brands. We also had to settle for cheaper pairs of shoes.

Yet, simultaneously, there are references that South Korean viewers will immediately pick up, while dumb Americans like me will find confusing (there is a scene where the fathers make a bet on whether the baseball team, the Pacific Dolphins, will make the play offs). In another scene, the character Jung-bong encounters South Korea’s disgraced ex-president, Chun Doo-hwan, in a monastery.  Throughout the course of the series, various characters will comment on how beautiful the young actress Lee Mi-yeon is. Deok-sun’s female friends, Mi-ok and Ja-hyun, insists that she looks like Lee Mi-yeon; a claim that gets shot down by her male friends. In one of the shows many in-jokes, adult Deok-sun is played by none other than Lee Mi-yeon. 

I would normally do a brief summary of every character, but there are so many characters in Reply 1988 (who are each given their own arc) that this review would turn into a full-fledged novel.  Instead, I would like to focus on the themes that are present throughout the series and how they relate to the characters.  There are five that I am going to focus on: Missed Opportunities, Second Chances, Education, Aging, and Family.

Missed Opportunities

This theme applies most to the character of Jung-hwan, who is in love with Deok-sun. In the first few episodes of the season, Deok-sun has a crush on Sun-woo and is anticipating the moment when he confesses her love to her. Jung-hwan is also convinced of this and silently sulks over his missed opportunity. However, it turns out that Sun-woo is not in love with Deok-sun but rather her older sister, Bo-ra. This reveal, naturally, crushes Deok-sun but it gives Jung-hwan a glimmer of hope. Yet, he never takes advantage of this opportunity, even after Deok-sun begins to show interest in him. He gives her all sorts of mixed signals – Deok-sun asks Jung-hwan if she should go on a blind date, he tells her not to go. Deok-sun, rightfully, interprets his objection as an interest in her. She constantly throws all sorts of signals his way, but he usually responds with a sarcastic remark, or in a lukewarm manner. To further complicate matters, Taek also likes Deok-sun and even admits as much to his friends. While Jung-hwan acts very cold towards Deok-sun, Taek genuinely enjoys being around her. However, Jung-hwan still has a window of opportunity to confess his feelings to Deok-sun, after Taek chooses his friendship with Jung-hwan over pursuing a romance with Deok-sun. This is the perfect time for Jung-hwan to act and HE BLOWS IT. He does nothing! 

Flash forward to 1994 – Jung-hwan is in the air force and is home for the weekend. The gang still get together on the weekend and, much to Jung-hwan’s disappointment, he learns that Deok-sun has a boyfriend. She is supposed to see a concert with him, but he ends up cancelling their date. She has an extra ticket she needs to give away, but can’t find any takers, so ends up going to the concert on her own. Jung-hwan learns, though the grapevine, that Deok-sun’s boyfriend is a two timer – he already has a girlfriend and was using Deok–sun to make her jealous. He finally comes to his senses and realizes this a golden opportunity to confess his truly feelings for her – he abruptly leaves a showing of Forrest Gump, jumps in his jeep, and drives to the concert venue (where Deok-sun is standing outside of, waiting for the show to start). However, it seems destiny is working against him – he keeps hitting the red lights and when he finally arrives at the venue, he finds that Taek has beaten him to the punch. This officially closes the window on Jung-hwan’s potential romance with Deok-sun. At first, he is quick to blame fate for his bad luck, but then he realizes that it was his hesitancy that cost him a chance at love. It is one of the series’ more heart-breaking moments – all Jung-hwan can do is look back in regret at all his missed opportunities.

Second Chances

This happens to multiple characters in Reply 1988 – it seems that Fate has slammed door on their romantic prospects only for them to be given a second chance. Three couples are given a second chance at love: Deok-sun/Taek, Sun-woo/Bo-ra, and Jung-bong/Mi-ok. 

As stated above, Taek initially passed on his opportunity to be with Deok-sun, because he valued his friendship with Jung-hwan over love. However, after five years have passed, he is amazed that Jung-hwan has never confessed his feelings to Deok-sun. This time around, Taek is not going to be as considerate towards Jung-hwan feelings and, when the opportunity presents itself, he acts on his feelings and confesses everything to Deok-sun. Jung-hwan, to his credit, takes it like trooper and even supports Deok-sun and Taek’s romance. He is still bummed out, but he also wants his friends to be happy.  This was one of the more controversial plot points in Reply 1988 – there were many viewers who were upset that Deok-sun ended up with Taek instead of Jung-hwan. Throughout the series, it is presented as a mystery as to who Deok-sun ends up marrying – the series often cuts to an older Deok-sun in 2015 and her unnamed husband. However, there are hints scattered throughout the series that Deok-sun will end up marrying Taek.  The most obvious is early on when Deok-sun jokingly suggests Taek and her get married.

There is also a noticeable difference between how Deok-sun treats Taek and the rest of her male friends. With the other guys, she is very much the tomboy and uses crude language and engages in rough housing. When she is with Taek her more feminine nature emerges. Teak is a professional Baduk player and is somewhat of celebrity in South Korea – he competes in international tournaments and has even won a few championships. He is a brilliant competitor but is very child-like in every other aspect of his life – he is a pushover, who will happily lend money to players, no questions asked. He is also very quiet and a huge introvert – the only people he is comfortable around are his group of friends and he barely speaks even when he is with them.

In episode nine, Taek’s father (Choi Moo-sung) asks Deok-sun if she can accompany Taek to a tournament in China and look after him. She, naturally, jumps at the opportunity of traveling to another country. Whenever Taek has a big match, he usually doesn’t sleep or eat until after it is over.  At first, it seems like Deok-sun only came along to bum around China, but in a flashback, it is revealed that she made sure Taek got sleep and was fed – she ordered takeout and put it outside Taek’s hotel room. She also brought blankets and a comforter with her from South Korea to ensure that Taek’s would get a comfortable night’s sleep. When she learns that the room Taek is staying in is cold, she complains to the front desk and is able to get him a different room – she also manages to befriend the hotel staff, despite the language barrier.  When she later learns that Taek is taking sleeping pills, she gives him a good scolding. It is also telling that Deok-sun is always smiling when she is with Teak, while she is in a constant state of confusion around Jung-hwan. The difference between is Taek, despite his shy personality, opens himself up to Deok-sun, while Jung-hwan continues to foolishly push her away (often unintentionally).  Plus, there is also a fact that Taek and Deok-sun, even before they became item, shared a passionate kiss. Deok-sun wakes up in the middle of the night and finds Deok-sun lying next to him. Taek leans forward and gives Deok-sun a kiss. Taek assumes, given his state mind at the time and Deok-sun’s willingness, that the whole thing was a dream. Deok-sun seems to confirm this when, after Taek asks her what time she left his house, she says she left him shortly after he fell asleep. They both secretly breathe a sigh of relief – Taek believes this kiss never happened while Deok-sun is happy that they can resume their friendship without it turning awkward.

The relationship between Taek and Deok-sun is foreshadowed by the budding romance between Taek’s father (Choi Moo-sung) and Kim Sun-yoon (Sun-woo and Jin-joo’s mother). Like Deok-sun and Taek, Sun-yoon and Moo-sung are childhood friends. They grew up in the same neighborhood and it was Sun-yoon who persuaded Moo-sung to move to Seoul after his wife passed away. As the show progresses, Sun-yoon and Moo-sung become increasingly dependent on one another. After Moo-sung suffers a brain hemorrhage, it is Sun-yoon who finds him unconscious in his watch store and calls the paramedics. She spends the next few weeks nursing him back to health – she makes sure he is well fed and gets enough sleep (sound familiar). When Sun-yoon is in danger of losing her house (she has to pay the bank 10,000 dollars or her house will get auctioned), it is Moo-sung who lends her the money to pay the debt off. When Sun-yoon gets a part-time job cleaning a bathhouse, Moo-sung agrees to look after her daughter, Jin-joo. As a result, Moo-sung and Jin-joo become nearly inseparable. Sun-woo is initially apprehensive about his mother’s relationship with Moo-sung – he still has memories of his late father and is resentful that his mother is replacing his dad with another man. Sun-woo eventually warms up to Moo-sung, because he makes Sun-yoon happy. Moo-sung finally works up the courage to ask Sun-yoon to marry him – it would be beneficial for both to live under the same roof instead of going back and forth to each other’s houses.

This also allows me to transition to the Sun-woo/Bo-ra relationship. At the start of the series, Sun-woo is a junior in high school while Bo-ra is a freshman in college. When he confesses his feelings to her, she naturally brushes it off as a high school crush. However, Sun-woo is persistent and when Bo-ra realizes that his feelings for are much deeper than a crush, she returns his feelings. The two of them begin to date in secret – in one of the show’s interesting subplots, Sun-woo and Bo-ra have the same surname and, during this era in South Korean history, it was frowned down upon for people with the same surname to get romantically involved. There were laws that dissuaded people with the same surname from getting married – they could go through with ceremony, but they weren’t allowed to register their marriage. When Bo-ra decides to take the Bar Exam, she realizes that it will be hard to focus on both her studies and her relationship with Sun-woo, so she suggests they break up. Sun-woo doesn’t take the news well and the two of them lose touch with one another. Five years later, Sun-woo is attending medical college and he agrees to take a classmate’s place on a blind date. It turns out that the blind date is none other than Bo-ra. It seems that Fate has brought them together and Bo-ra asks if they can start over again. Sun-woo says agrees, but on three conditions:

1.     The first condition is that he is going stop using honorifics when he is with her. He’s not going to call her “noona” if they date. 

2.     He doesn’t want to be cast aside by her. He’s not asking to always come first, but she needs to be honest with him when shit hits the fan, instead of pushing him away (like she did in 1989).

3.     His feelings for her are serious, and he is already thinking about the next step in their relationship (marriage). He tells that if she is uncomfortable with this last condition, then there is no point in getting back together. She needs to think about this last condition for a bit, but she eventually agrees to it.

In the final episode, Sun-woo and Bo-ra tie the knot. The laws that prohibited people with the same surname from getting married have been repealed and their parents, despite their initial hesitations, give the young couple their blessing to get married. I will touch on Sun-woo and Bo-ra’s wedding later on, as there is much more that needs to be said about this scene.

The most unexpected romance in the entire series is that of Jung-bong and Mi-ok. Jung-bong is Jung-hwan’s older brother, who has the mindset of a child. He has failed the college entrance exam seven times, and it seems his life will be an aimless one. It’s by mere happenstance that he meets Mi-ok, who happens to be Deok-sun’s best friend, and it is love at first sight. They initially communicate via letters – Jung-bong will give a letter to Deok-sun and she relays to Mi-ok. They eventually come up with a system to communicate via the telephone – if the phone rings twice, that means it is Jong-bong and Mi-ok should call him back. It is rumored that Mi-ok’s father is an intimidating man and she insists they keep their relationship a secret. However, Jung-bong’s romance with Mi-ok ends abruptly when she is sent to the States to study.  Five years later, the two of them reconnect in a chatroom and resume their relationship. The real reason Mi-ok wanted to keep their relationship hidden from her father was not because he was intimidating, but rather because her teenage self was embarrassed by his profession – he owns a fabric store. Mi-ok and Jong-bong are walking down a street, and she sees her father standing outside of his shop. At first, she avoids eye contact and walks past her father.  However, she stops, turns around, and introduces Jung-bong to her father, and the two of them hit it off. Jung-bong compliments her father on starting his own business and even compares him to Bill Gates.  Jung-bong and Mi-ok eventually get married and start a family.  It is really a credit to the writer, Lee Woo-jung, that even supporting characters like Jung-bong and Mi-ok are given a satisfying character arc.

Education

Education plays a huge role in Reply 1988 – there is a huge pressure that is placed on the teenaged protagonists to attend college. This is very similar to the United States in the 1980s, where the Boomers were pushing college on their children – this is also the reason why there is a hug shortage in skilled trade jobs (“You don’t want to be a plumber, you need to go to college.”) The Boomers are truly the worst – but back to the review. The character of Jung-bong has failed the college entrance exam seven times, and his parents worry that he is destined to live an aimless existence. He later finds his calling as a Chef.  

Deok-sun is a below average student (she is ranked 989 in a class of 1400) and often falls asleep while attempting to study. It is revealed that Deok-sun and her friends were born in 1971 – a year that brought about a baby boom in South Korea and, as result, Deok-sun is part of one the most competitive classes in the country’s history. Deok-sun eventually gets a job as an airline attendant. Bo-ra is the opposite of her younger sister, she is a top-notch student who eventually takes, and passes, the Bar Exam. She also ends up breaking up with Sun-woo, so she can focus on her studies. Their younger brother, No-eul (who has the face of a forty-year-old) is simple minded and doesn’t fare any better than Deok-sun.

Dong-ryong’s father, Jae-myung, is the dean of the school and is a strict disciplinarian – as tough as he is on the other students, he is tougher on his own son. The series largely skips over their college experience – it time jumps from 1989 to 1994.  We learn that Dong-ryong ended up working at his older brother’s restaurant and then eventually managed his own restaurant.  Jung-hwan ends up joining the air force. 

While Deok-sun is a subpar student, she is well liked by her home room teacher. One of Deok-sun’s classmates, Songi, suffers from epilepsy. Songi’s mother informs the teacher about her daughter’s condition and asks if there is a student who can keep an eye on Songi. The teacher recommends Deok-sun, and Songi’s mother meets with Deok-sun and gives her instructions on what to do in case her daughter has an attack. When Songi has a seizure in the classroom, Deok-sun remembers these instructions and saves Songi’s life. After the episode has passed, Songi is hesitant to go back to the classroom, because she is worried her classmates will stare at her and ridicule her. However, when Songi returns to the classroom, Deok-sun asks if she would like to have lunch with her friends. The girls put Songi at ease by cracking a few jokes and treat her like they normally would. 

Aging

This is a harsh reality that almost all of the characters have to face, but the parents are affected the most. The most obvious example is when Ra Mi-ran, the mother of Jung-hwan and Jung-bong, is hit by menopause. She goes through various mood swings and often the slightest thing can set her off – she tears into her husband because of how he sets the table. The men in her life are at a loss on how to make her feel better – they begin to wish there was another female in the household. In the previous year, it was Lee Il-hwa (Deok-sun and Bo-ra’s mother) who was hit with menopause and Deok-sun was there to guide her mother through it. Jung-hwan and friends are able to cheer up Mi-ran by staging a second wedding for his parents. 

Deok-sun’s father, Dong-il, works at a bank, in the fraud detection department, but is forced to retire early because of the hit the banks due to economic reasons (and the advent of ATM machines). He is compensated with a generous severance package – he gets close to $200,000 in severance pay. However, he has worked at the bank for nearly thirty years and now, at the age of fifty, he has to figure out what to do with himself.

Sun-yoon ends up injuring her wrist at her part time job at the bath house and works through the pain because she can't afford the medical bill. While she is visiting Moo-sung at the hospital, he not only lends her money to pay off the debt her house, but also additional cash to get her wrist fixed. 

Family

The most obvious, and important, theme in Reply 1988 is family. Deok-sun’s parents, Dong-il and Il-hwa, are constantly arguing with one another and, in one instance, Il-hwa gets so angry that she throws a rock at Dong-il, which hits him in the left eye and leaves a bruise. The main reason for their argument is finances – Dong-il lent money to his best friend a few years ago, but his friend never paid him back, and he has spent the last few years paying the debt off (a good chuck of his weekly paychecks goes to the bank).  As a result, they must live a frugal existence – they can rarely afford to buy their children new clothes and often have to borrow money from the neighbors to cover their existence. They also live in the basement of Kim Sung-kyun’s (Jung-hwan and Jung-bong’s father) house. Despite Dong-il’s often disagreeable demeanor, he is generous to a fault – he often gives money to vendors who are struggling. He will often come home with useless items and this, understandably, enrages Il-hwa.  However, despite their constant bickering, the two of them still love one another and stick it out and eventually are rewarded for their loyalty – Dong-il’s friend pays back the loan and the family is finally on financially stable ground.  Song Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa play their roles to perfection – this was the third time that have played the bickering parents of the female character in the Reply series. They were also cast as man and wife in The Accidental Detective series – officially making them the John Wayne and Maureen O’ Hara of South Korea. 

Oddly enough, the heart of show is really the relationship between Dong-il and his older daughter, Bo-ra. It certainly provides the series most tear-jerking moment. Two of them are constantly at odds with one another – during Bo-ra’s freshman year, she takes part in protests, and this infuriates Dong-il. However, his objections are not ideological (he actually helps out a male protestor evade the police), but rather financial – he is worried that Bo-ra’s political posturing might harm her chances at employment. When she gets arrested, this further creates a divide between father and daughter.  However, despite their often-rocky relationship, Dong-ill is still very supportive of Bo-ra. When they have gotten out of debt, he asks her if she wants to take the Bar Exam, and he will support her regardless of her decision. In the 1980s, in South Korea, anyone could take the Bar Exam. Those rules changed in 2009 and only graduates of law school were allowed to take the exam.  

Dong-il and Bo-ra have the exact same personality – they are temperamental, have a strong work ethic, and have a hard time expressing their true feelings for one another. At Bo-ra’s wedding to Sun-woo, she buys her father dress shoes for the ceremony. He praises his daughter for buying the perfect pair of shoes, but in reality, they are too big. Deok-sun ends up stuffing napkins into the shoes, so they won’t slip off Dong-il as he is walking his daughter down the aisle. After Bo-ra and Sun-woo say their vows to one another, they turn to face their parents, and it is then that Bo-ra notices the napkins in her father’s dress shoes. She breaks down in tears – it was more important to him for his daughter’s wedding go without a hitch than to inconvenience her with a minor problem (a solvable problem, at that). His daughter’s happiness is more important than his comfort. This small act perfectly represents Dong-il’s love for his children – he has consistently sacrificed his so own comfort so his children could have a better future.  Dong-il and Bo-ra both end up writing a letter to each other where they both express their mutual love for one another, and they both get choked up by the gesture.

There is also an interesting scene in episode eight, where Sung No-eul (the younger brother of Bo-ra and Deok-sun) attempts to break up with his intimidating girlfriend, Soo-kyung, but it doesn’t go too well when Soo-kyung’s friends gang up on him. Deok-sun stumbles upon this scene, notices that her younger brother is crying, and gets into a physical altercation with Soo-kyung. They end up being hauled into the police station. Il-hwa comes to the police station to claim Deok-sun and No-eul. When Soo-kyung’s guardian arrives, a young woman with her hair dyed red, they immediately assume the worst.  Il-hwa begins to scold Soo-kyung and her guardian. However, it turns out that Soo-kyung’s guardian is her older sister, who has been forced to raise her younger sister after their parents were killed in a car accident. The reason her hair is dyed red is because she is attending a cosmetology school. She legitimately feels bad for her younger sister’s behavior – the death of their parents completely changed Soo-kyung’s personality. Dong-il arrives on the scene, along with a lawyer, and starts berating Soo-kyung and her older sister, until Il-hwa explains the situation. He feels like a completely monkey’s ass and apologizes.  Il-hwa then invites Soo-kyung and her sister over to the house for dinner. Deok-sun asks what is about No-eul that sparked Soo-kyung’s interest. She explains that, after her parents’ death, No-eul was the first person she encountered who pushed back on her – he scolded her for smoking. He scolded her not out of anger, but out of genuine concern, and she appreciated that. Dong-il then scolds Soo-kyung to get her act together and that he will check up on her to make sure she isn’t causing trouble. She is visibly touched by this gesture and resumes eating her dinner. This is the first time in a long time she has been given fatherly advice. Though, it is disappointing this is the last time we see this character. 

Jung-hwan’s family managed to escape poverty not due to hard work, but because they won the lottery (Jung-bong bought a scrap book’s worth of tickets and managed to pick the winning number). Despite their posh lifestyle, their father, Kim Sung-kyun, is still very frugal with their money and will only buy cheap products. He also will never hire a repairman to fix any other their electric appliances and will attempt to do so by himself, and it always ends in disaster. He is a chipper fellow, who constantly spews all sorts of dad jokes. The only person who finds his dad’s jokes amusing is Deok-sun. He also hordes a lot of junk – he has a closet filled with objects he has collected over the years. Sung-kyun is a goofball – but he genuinely loves his family and often knows when it’s time to defer to his wife, Ra Mi-ran. There is also a touching scene where Jung-hwan teaches Ra Mi-ran how to read her name in English. Sung-kyn and Mi-ran are going to Japan for a short vacation and have gotten passport. She sends Jung-hwan to pick up the tickets. However, in order to validate the tickets to trip, she needs to read the English version name of her on the passport. Jung-hwan asks her multiple times to read it back to him, but she keeps making an excuse and hangs up. Finally, she confides to Jung-hwan that she doesn't know how speak or read English. He helps her out, by writing her name in Korean characters under the English version of her name.  While Jung-bong has a child-like mentality, he shows to be adept at doing all the household tasks; when Mi-ran visits her mother for days, it is Jong-bong who ends up running the household. 

Dong-ryong is a latch key child – both of his parents work fulltime and he either is forced to eat out, or at his friend’s home. It has been years since his mother has made him a home cooked meal – on his birthday, the only thing he wants is his mother’s seaweed soup. Unfortunately, his mother is overwhelmed with work (she is the manager at an insurance agency) and leaves him money to order something. When he runs away from home, for a day, neither of his parents are aware he ran was gone – his father scolds him for staying out late, but that’s about it.  When Dong-ryong gets in a motorcycle accident and is hauled into the police station, he is worried about the scolding he will get from his mother (he fears her wrath more than his father’s) but it never happens – she asks him if he is okay and takes the afternoon off to look after him and even makes him seaweed soup. His parents are not bad people, they just are so focused on being providers that they often overlook their other parental duties. While Dong-ryong’s father, Jae-myung, is a disciplinarian, he is not without sympathy – his wife retires from the insurance agency, so she can focus on being a grandmother, but it proves to be a bit overwhelming for her and she goes to her sister’s house for a few weeks to get rest, and Jae-myung is okay with this. He calls his sister-in-law to check up on his wife and insists that she comes back when she is ready. While he is talking on the phone with his sister-in-law, the camera pans down to reveal that he is holding his grandchild.  It turns out that Jae-myung enjoys being a grandfather and wants to spend as much time with his grandchildren as humanly possible. Eventually, his wife comes back and gets a part-time job working at a grocery store – she is just not a homebody and needs to get out.

Sun-woo has a close relationship with his mother, Sun-yoon, and his younger sister, Jin-joo. He is a dutiful son and helps out whenever he can. When Sun-yoon gets a part time job to help make ends meet, she keeps a secret from Sun-woo, because she is worried that it will make him angry. However, Sun-woo finds out any ways and, after thinking about it for a few minutes, tells his mother he knows she is working part time, and he is okay with it. Sun-woo just hates the thought of his mother suffering, especially on his behalf, and his initial objections are more out of concern rather than anger. When Moo-sung enters his family’ life, Sun-woo initially doesn’t like it, but eventually warms up to his future stepdad. Moo-sung and Jin-joo become inseparable – whenever he is at work at his watch shop, Jin-joo asks for him. Moo-sung often regrets that he couldn’t raise Taek in a more normal fashion – his son has played Baduk for most of his life and doesn’t attend school, as a result he is socially inept. However, he raised his son to the best of his abilities and, by moving to Seoul, surrounded his son with a stable group of friends.

The main underlying theme of Reply 1988 is that the characters are flawed but decent people. They make mistakes, constantly fight with one another, but also show tremendous warmth and generosity towards one another. My review only really scratches the surface of the series and doesn’t do it justice. In fact, there is so much going on in the series that I will probably have to rewatch it in the future to fully appreciate it – I didn’t even bring up the subplot surrounding the 1988 Summer Olympics, that were held in Seoul, and the impact it has on the families. If you have time, I highly recommend you check it out (and the other installments in the series, Reply 1997 and Reply 1994. Though, be sure to watch them in this order: Reply 1997, Reply 1994, and Reply 1988).

Cast: Lee Hye-ri (Sung Deok-sun/ Sung Soo-yeon), Park Bo-gum (Choi Taek), Ryu Jun-yeol (Kim Jung-hwan), Go Kyung-pyo (Sung Sun-woo), Ryu Hye-young (Sung Bo-ra, Deok-sun’s older sister), Lee Dong-hwi (Ryu Dong-ryong), Sung Dong-il (Sung Dong-il, Deok-seon’s father), Lee Il-hwa (Lee Il-hwa, Deok-sun’s mother), Choi Sung-won (Sung No-eul, Doek-sun’s younger brother),  Kim Sung-kyun (Kim Sung-kyun, Jung-hwan’s father), Ra Mi-ran (Ra Mi-ran, Jung-hwan’s mother), Ahn Jae-hong (Kim Jung-bong, Jung-hwan’s older brother), Kim Sun-young (Kim Sun-young, Sun-woo’s mother), Kim Seol (Jin-joo, Sun-woo’s younger sister), Shin Bi (Jin-joo, age 9), Choi Moo-sung (Choi Moo-sung, Taek’s father), Yoo Jae-myung (Ryu Jae-myung, Dong-ryong’s father), Yoo Dam-yeon (Department Head Jo, Dong-ryong’s mother), Lee Min-ji (Jang Mi-ok), Lee Se-young (Wang Ja-hyun), Lee Mi-yeon (adult Sung Deok-sun), Kim Joo-hyuk (adult Choi Taek), Jeon Mi-seon (adult Bo-ra), Woo Hyun (adult No-eul), Lee Soo-kyung (Lee Soo-kyung, No-eul’s girlfriend), Kim Joong-Ki (Kim Joong-Ki/ Michol), Go Chang-seok (Mi-ok’s father). Eunsoo Kwon (Songi – class president at Deok-sun’s school).

Director: Shin Won-ho
Writer: Lee Woo-jung
20 episodes, 75 – 110 minutes.