School 2013 (2012)

Like its teenage characters, School 2013 is awkward, earnest, and testing its limits. Although it’s told from the perspective of Jang Na Ra and Daniel Choi’s rather hapless teachers, the relationships and struggles of the students form the heart of the show, and it does a particularly good job exploring the lives of young men on the margins and the ways that society and traditional schooling fail them. To its credit, it avoids the feel-good fallacy that a savior teacher is all it takes to overcome these issues, suggesting that while supportive adults can certainly help, larger structural changes are needed to keep at-risk kids from slipping through the cracks. It was also nice to see a show ditch the standard heteronormative love square and pair up its two main male students and two main female students instead. While romance isn't the central focus, the recognition that queer kids face their own range of issues (and can find awesome partners) was appreciated. The plotting can be clunky at times and it’s not an especially realistic look at the art of teaching, but the show’s obvious love for its characters as they fumble towards adulthood and its refusal to endorse magical solutions to their problems elevate it above most high school shows. Its lessons may be messy, but they ring all the more true because of it.

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BROMANCE
Just one word to describe this drama.
A huge, shining, sparkling, lovely BROMANCE.
Just like Warrior Baek DongSoo , also know as “A drama that’s basically yaoi but it just fools you with a story of friendship that smells of YAOI), this drama is full of romantic scenes between the two main characters.
I’m not complain on this point but let’s talk about this drama.
The plot can be summarize like this.
A school where bullying is written on students uniforms, right next their name tag.
Different stories, different characters all mixed together like a milkshake to create the perfect and pretty common School drama plot.
BUT, even though it might sounds like a boring school drama, School 2013 is not the case.
Let’s talk about the “”””villain.”””””
You might hate him at first, but after some episodes you just want to pinch his cheeks and bring him home like a lost puppy.
School nowadays is cruel, it ignores student’s problems , thinking that its only job is to bring them safely to their graduation day.
His character’s story was the most touching one. The screenwriter might had think that NamSoon and Heung Soo stories were the best ones , but in my opinion, they just make up too quickly.
But it’s a drama, so everything is allowed.
Supporting characters and Teachers were well portrayed.
BUT, in my opinion, the main star was Jung Ho.
His character was real, with a background story that everyone can actually find even in real life.
If you like bromance, you should watch this.
If you like an open ending, you should watch this.
If you are a person that can cry easily, YOU SHOULDN’T WATCH THIS.

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So, I've just finished School 2013 last week as part of my Drama Challenge 2015. I have no idea why I’ve waited 2 years to watch it. I enjoyed it sooo much! I regret not watching it while it aired, because that was the time when I really started to get to know dramaland and I remember noticing School 2013 back then but I didn’t bother to watch it.

I especially like the characters and their personal stories, even including their flaws and sometimes annoying behavior. It’s important for me to have interesting characters in such a drama, because you usually don’t have an attention-grabbing story for school dramas. I love that School 2013 doesn’t focus on romance so much, but rather the teacher-student-relationships and the student’s friendship is important. Of course, I have to admit that the bromance is one of the strengths of this drama but to see some womance as well is very enjoyable. You have female characters that don’t compete for their love interest and no one dimensional, evil second female leads that are sadly so common in dramaland.

School 2013 has it flaws as well, e.g. in the beginning, I was a bit confused because they switched between scenes so rapidly and then I didn’t know exactly if it was still the same day or not. But what bothers me the most is teacher Jung’s way to sometimes speak so overprotectively to her students. It just seems as if she’s talking to small babies and not high school students. If I was in that situation I would feel as if she’s making fun of me with her baby voice or doesn’t take me serious.

Despite that, it is still a very good drama! If you’re tired of romance dramas and if you want to watch something with a “normal” and not so action-packed story, you should watch School 2013. Especially if you’re into bromance ;)

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they just don't make shows like this anymore

personally, i think this is one of the best high school dramas. kept it realistic and raw. showed fleeting emotions among teenagers. liked the fact that the bullies weren't there just for the protagonist's revenge arc or whatever and actually had their own development. loved the bond between classmates, that is an important part of school life (people on the internet seem to lack it). the pace of the story was just perfect. excellent decision of not having any romance, that's what made it unique. the bromance covered up for it anyway. the protagonist isn't flawless and it's accepted. the teachers were very well suited. it really gave the found family feel, we all love that. a really beautifully written story. i would definitely rewatch it. the characters got me lowkey attached.

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This is the best of school series (my opinion) and also one of my favourite dramas... :D
It's not about romance, but friendship between students and even teachers. The drama explains how school is a challenge, "bringing up many of the problems with the present school system as the students fight to survive against the injustices of school politics, stress or depression and exams"
I love how the teacher's character is very different from one another. The female teacher may be annoying but I wish my teachers could be more comprehensive with the studens, because they have no ideia what's actually happening in our lives and that affects school's life.
Anyway the drama is very realistic and reflects life a lot... I love the bromance so much <3

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This was one great drama....!

It really tells a story from two different perspectives. The point of view of a young student and a point of view of a mature, more experienced grown-up. As society tells us, being older somehow indicates that you're also smarter and that you're right. But this drama shows it from a different perspective.

It got me wondering if students think it's wrong and the teacher thinks it's right, does it really mean that it has to be right? After I finished the drama I also became more conscious of the bullying that happened right before my eyes in my own school.

The actors all did a great job and they made the drama much more pleasant to watch, thanks to their acting skills. Many of them are also well known and I'm sure you would recognize at least the main cast.

If you're a fan of school dramas it doesn't guarantee that you will like this drama. Because school dramas mostly involve romance while this one doesn't. It's more about friendship. If you like dramas with a message behind them, you will most likely enjoy School 2013.

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Beautiful Highschool story

While looking for some kdramas to watch i came across this hidden gem. School 2013 is rarely in a top 10 list and i wonder why.
The story was beautiful not once did i see a filler in this drama. I do admit that in every other episode they wanted to kick someone out the school but i enjoyed those moments. Every character had a story, had a meaning, gave sense.
The casting itself is gold. Espically Lee jong suk and kim woo bin, they have talent. If anyone other actor was casted for there roles maybe u would not love it so much. The bromance was not overly done rarely ever seen until the end but if you are like me you know damn well that they both cared for each other even when they fought each other.
If you are having thoughts of watching dont let me stop, go right on but if you feel like you cant bcs there is no romance DO NOT WATCH IT. I loved the fact it focused on friendship and nothing more.
Definitely gonna rewatch over and over for many many many more years👍❤👍

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School 2013 focused on the school drama and not on a romantic story, which is a refreshing idea and gave more space for the true drama to unfold without an unnecessary love story to interrupt it. The story was very interesting, as it was dealing with issues like bulling and youth problems, as well as teaching methods and bad school politics. The performances were really good and that helped a lot, as well as the way the issues were presented. In the end, however, it felt like this drama needed an extra episode or two to conclude the stories, as the final one was kind of rushed and left a lot of things with not an actual ending. So, 8 out of 10.

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