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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Reply 1988" Episode 7

The main theme of this episode is about how to express love. The first half generally details the worst ways of doing this. We find out, for example, that with more contextual information Seon-woo's attempt at a romantic confession was actually kind of a stupid thing to do. Although really, given that he was acting on advice from Deok-seon what other outcome could we have been expecting? No wonder Bo-ra's face betrayed zero trace of emotion last cliffhanger.

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That's just the obvious example, though. Other cases are a lot more subtle- like the whole game being played where the main characters can not-so-secretly talk about who they like in what context. Or Jinju, who's the adorable baby sister of everyone in the neighborhood. It should come as no surprise that Jinju's childhood illusions were ruined last year by the older sibling who treats their younger siblings the worst.

But this is all just light humor. By the second half we've moved on to much sweeter emotional touches- like the entire scene with the snowman. I love scenes like this, by the way, because they touch on subtle aspects of Seoul that are also true in the present day- like how Seoul is an incredibly unreliable location for snowfall even though it's located in the northern part of South Korea. Or how much like children today, Jinju does not generally speak in intuitive literalisms.

The love confession we get to see through the modern miracle of video tapes, though, is the most touching- precisely because we can see through the elaborate nature of the get-up that video footage isn't something that's all that easy to acquire in 1988. It's that extra element of effort that really makes a difference come Christmastime. And that's what really makes this episode of "Reply 1988" shine just in simple holiday terms. As firmly rooted as all the action is the cultural customs and norms of 1988, the story as a whole feels very universal.

Of course, it also helps that the soundtrack is really good- while also being so obviously totally eighties that this isn't something we can forget for even a moment, even while obviously totally eighties ballads are playing during emotional scenes. Yet "Reply 1988" also recognizes how a lot of the music from this era was mostly forgettable via the competition scene. I have to admit I definitely was not expecting that song in particular to inspire dancing from the cast, especially since it's one of the few I've actually heard before. So have you, by the way.

Review by William Schwartz

"Reply 1988" is directed by Sin Won-ho, written by Lee Woo-jeong-I and features Sung Dong-il, Lee Il-hwa, Ra Mi-ran, Kim Sung-kyun, Ryu Hye-young, Lee Hyeri, Go Kyung-pyo and Ryu Jun-yeol.

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