Hazel Erica B.

Semilla

ABFS 201

Political and Economic Geography & International Organizations

Mr. Jumel G. Estrañero

Reply 1988: Back in Time of Momentous Youth Adventures (Reflection)

I. Executive Summary

This series revolves around a small neighborhood named Ssangmundong, District of

Dobong located at the Northern part of Seoul Korea. It centers on the group of five (5) childhood
friends namely Sung Deok Sun, Choi Taek, Kim Jung Hwan, Sung Sun-woo and Ryu Dong-
ryong, together with their families as they unleash their fun, romantic, action and sad
experiences of their lives throughout their past youthful period. On the first part of this series, it
introduces the five lead characters, how they are as a student and as a child to their parents.
Aside from the love of family, this neighborhood also practices the love for others and the
essence of sharing and being thoughtful to others. It also included in the first part on how the
middle child, Deok Sun felt quite unimportant to her family. She felt disappointed and hurt on
how the way her parents treated her. A feeling of lack of love makes her felt a little grief on
them, and to much surprise, suddenly she burst out and indirectly yell her hidden sentiments
which made her parents realized how their considered to be an “equal” treatment on their
children is not how it looks on the perspective of their middle child. In the end, the middle child
realizes that no matter what happens, through good times and bad, family will always be there
for you and will never leave you ever. In the next episode, Choi Taek’s winning in a baduk
competition together with his birthday are both being celebrated.

Meanwhile, Deok Sun was currently at school when she received the news about her
grandma passing away, upon their arrival on the funeral, she noticed that adults are not quite
sad about what happened to her grandma specifically her father which is the son of her
grandma. But as her uncle from US, arrived her father together with her aunts shed in tears
which made her conclude that adults also are vulnerable, they can feel pain and loneliness, they
just hid it and needed to act strong due to their age and also to the people around them. Choi
Taek on the other hand, is seen as a mature type of child despite of his youth when in fact he is
still a boy who also needs love and also misses his mother every day. It was also revealed that
during their childhood moments, Taek was the last one to move in their neighborhood, being the
quiet one on their group and innocent but those qualities didn’t affect the five children to be his
friends.

On the succeeding episodes, more stories unravel as well as the family backgrounds of
the lead characters and the struggles they come to face and overcome over time. Some of
these families are experiencing lack of wealthy life, lack of a family member and there’s a family
who experience a warm and better life but often times still feels something lack or missing which
made them feel sad or emptiness. Aside from these struggles of their financial status, the series
also unravels real life situations of married couples who often feel dull in their relationships.
Another one is the time where the lead actors experienced the feeling of being in love, the
presence of being accepted and rejected. There goes a scenario where Deok Sun likes Sun-
woo and she assumes that he likes her too but turns out Sun-woo likes her older sister named
Bo Ra. Another is where two of them namely Jung Hwan and Taek like the same girl which is
Deok Sun. As years goes by, these teens are gradually focusing on the paths they about to
pursue for their future careers. There’s this time where Deok Sun is having a hard time in her
studies but still continues to strive hard in order for her to continue to college. And in just a span
of time, they have been able to finish up college and some of them got their professional
careers. While Choi Taek remains to be the famous player of Baduk, finally he and Deok Sun
have been able to consider dating each other. Meanwhile, Sun-woo and Bo Ra got married. As
for Deok Sun and Taek they also eventually got married.

II. Analysis
1. Fave Character and why

Frankly, I love all of the characters in this series, but on top of them, Sung Deok
Sun’s character is what I love the most. I can see myself in her, though I’m not a middle
child, but her personality is what I consider our similarity. In their group, she is fun and a
cheerful person that makes her group jolly, despite of her being the only female in the group,
that doesn’t affect her character and still she impacted and made the series enjoyable to
watch. Furthermore, I love her determination to be able to done with success the things she
is bound or assign to do. Though, she had some quite difficulties when it comes to her
studies, still, she has been able to finish college and got a profession and that’s serves as
her proof to all the people who misjudge her abilities. Moreover, she also proves that
through time, teens can be able to mature and be successful on their own set of capabilities.

2. Most Impactful episode and scene and why

Episode 7 particularly the scene where Choi Taek gave his birthday gift for his father.
Since him and his father are the only ones left, it is quite awkward to express their feelings
towards each other especially since his mom passed away already. I consider this scene as
one of the emotional part of the series. Though it’s quite funny that Taek gave pink colored
gloves to his father whom we all considered as feminine color, but still, we can see how he
manage put an effort into giving his father a gift for his birthday just to show his love for him.

3. Criticize the production

As for the production of this series, we can see that they really manage the theme to
be like in the 80s era to match its title. I also love how the transition they make into going
from the past to present perspective to make us understand that the lead actors are
reminiscing the moments they considered as the most memorable part of their lives. They
also manage to provide some of the notable songs, movies, artists and objects of the 80s
season. The characters’ outfit style shows the vibe and the fashion trends during the 80s.
This series is very realistic and made the viewers convinced that this happened during the
year of 1980s.

4. How about the substance of entire series

For the substance of the series, the scenes of every episodes are synchronized and
in order. They have chosen their characters very well and really made sure that they may
able to execute their roles properly but in a natural manner. And the scenes are also
relevant to real life situations that has been experienced or currently experiencing by all
individuals in this society. They also presented some of the notable events happened in
Korea during the 80s. This series is not just a typical romantic/comedy Kdrama, this also
shows some sensible values that viewers can be able to learn and can make remarkable
impact on them.

5. Relation to PEG. How?

This series can be related to Political and Economic Geography based on some of its
scenes like the protest happened in Jongro. It is seen that some of the students are against
of the current ruling party of their government which made it obvious of the ongoing conflict
in their area. Moreover, the social classes and financial status of their neighborhood can
also be considered to be relevant to this subject.

6. Relation to IO. How?

This series can also be related to International Organizations by the presence of the
1988 Seoul Olympic Games where Deok Sun participated as the picket girl of the country
Uganda. Moreover, the Soviet Union was also mentioned in the series as one of the
participants in the said Olympic event. Soviet Union or other known as Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics was also known to be one of the charter members of the United Nations.
The series shows the friendly relations of countries through the presence of this Olympic
Games in which they have participated and supported.

7. Message/life lessons you've got

“In this cold, harsh world, the thing that allows one to recognize the warmth
from another person is not a wise saying, or a refined, witty remark. Rather, it’s one
warm remark filled with one’s raw, unrefined feelings.” This particular quote in this
series made a remarkable impact on my heart, this quote literally shows that one word or
phrase coming from someone very close to our heart like simply asking of “are you ok?” and
other words showing concern to your well-being gives us the feeling of being emotional
since its shows a way of love given by the person whom have said it to us. It’s like an
another word for those three remarkable words “I love you”. It may be just a simple word to
the one who said that, but still it means a lot to the one who being said at. This series made
 me learned about treasuring those remarkable moments of my youth and valuing your family
and friends. It shows the value of unconditional love for one another and never forgetting
those moments of being a youth because youth can never last forever, all of us are bound to
experience the adulthood and as time pass by, we are ending in the period of the old age.

III. Conclusion

Upon the ending of this series it made me realized a lot of things, and that is being in
the period of high school considers to be the most enjoyable years of being a youth. Those
moments we have experience during those years, whether it is a clever one or not is just a
once in a lifetime moment that we can be able to cherish as we aged in the coming years.
We can never be youth forever, we are not stuck to being just a student and a child of our
parents, in the succeeding years, we will also be parents like them, aging and raising
children of our own, so we must enjoy our youth while it last, but as we are enjoying our
youth, we must never forget to value our family and obey our parents at all times. Yes, there
are often times where our parents don’t allow us to do or go to certain events like going on a
party, shopping, etc. but that doesn’t mean they don’t want us to enjoy our youth. They just
want to protect us and prevent us to do something unethical, and these certain values that
they are teaching to us are for our own good and can be helpful for us in the future where
we get to live on our own and pursuing our career paths.