I was so eager to watch Reply 1997 after finishing with Reply 1988. 1988 left me with a bit of heartache, and a bucket full of tears, so why don’t I try watching the ‘fluffy’ prequel that has so many good reviews? Sung Dong Il and Lee Il Hwa was the biggest reason why I decided to watch this drama, and I was satisfied with their acting. But yes, this drama is so much lighter than 1988.

I would classify this as the cons, but I don’t really care that much about the love line watching this. I didn’t get that chemistry from the MLs and the FL. And I don’t really feel the chemistry in the friendship as well. I believe friendship is one of the main focus of the Reply series, and I know many K-dramas showed the perfectly unrealistic best friends, but deep down I loved them. Reply 1997 showed me a not-so-great kind of friendship. They showed me that even best friends don’t know their friends’ family members, and that best friends are really selfish sometimes. I know this is the realistic version of friendship, but the point of watching a K-drama sometimes is to see that perfect life the characters are living. As for the love line, they tried so hard to make us confused about the love triangle kinda thing. I’m a little uncomfortable with the age gap between the SML and the FL, and it seemed forced too. As I said before, I loved Sung Dong Il and Lee Il Hwa, but I don’t like how suggestive almost every scene with them became, and some other scenes of the ML and the FL too.

The acting was okay. I don’t really like Hoya and Ji Won’s acting at first, but as the drama goes on, they improved! I’m sorry I had a lot to say of this drama, but I really really don’t like Shi Won’s character. Compared to Sung Bora, or even Deok Sun, she’s definitely still the most annoying for me. She’s impolite, loud, selfish, and annoying, her character develops more later in the end, but still, I don’t like her character that much. There isn’t any character I really like from this series, but I guess it’s just that I’m picky hehe. What really differs this drama from 1988 is that they don’t focus on all of the characters in depth, and unlike 1988, they focused more on the love part instead of the friendship part.

For the music…… I really really loved All For You, the version sang by Eun Ji and In Guk! I was waiting for so long for the OST to come on, but it only came later in the last few episodes. I managed to sing along with some of the oldies K-Pop songs here too and I really loved it: Lovable by Kim Jong Kook, Hug by TVXQ, Couple by SECHSKIES (Oh gosh I love this song!!!), Good Person by Toy.

Finally, what I love about this drama…… is that every feelings are resolved, even the hidden feelings are resolved, and everyone was shown together again at the end! I loved that kind of happy ending! Everyone lived each of their own happily ever after! Overall, it was a nice watch, an 8/10! ⭐️