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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Who Are You - School 2015" Episode 12

The mystery regarding what happened at Eun-byeon's school a year ago is mostly cleared up. Rather anticlimactically, I might add. After all that build-up I was expecting some sort of elaborate conspiracy. In all fairness, the situation itself was so low-stated it's easy to see why psychological terror was the only real direction for the situation to go. The tragedy wasn't the result of a bullying so much as it was the failure to properly make a check-up.

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The other weak points of the episode are mainly how the story focuses on adults. There's nothing wrong with the older characters or the actors who portray them. It's just that "Who Are You - School 2015" has at its best been a drama about the importance of self-discovery, and the way the story uses the high school backdrop as a device to explore the meaning of a teenager deciding who they want to be in life. Here the more mysterious elements come off as mostly standard.

The extent to which conflict exists at all this episode is mainly so that the characters can work on avoiding it. Eun-bi and her mother appear to have solidified their plans to make a clean start at a new school where they don't have to fumble around the awkward issues relating to Eun-bi pretending to be someone who she's not. In that regard this episode of "Who Are You - School 2015" comes off more like a final conclusion than it does a story that's actually building up to anything.

And then there's the cliffhanger. To some extent this is good news, because next episode we'll finally get at the heart of the drama's main remaining mystery- what exactly happened to Eun-byeol on the field trip. I don't see how that question could possibly be dodged here. At least a basic explanation is going to be necessary- and that's not even getting into figuring out how this is going to change Eun-bi's situation.

Even so a few episodes ago this revelation would have been a major gamechanger, if only because the love triangle had much greater urgency. I rather miss the Tae-kwang of the first portion of "Who Are You - School 2015". That guy who kept butting into every situation and starting fights. He does get some character development here, but it just feels kind of lackluster. Perhaps this is just a matter of the novelty of the drama's concept wearing off somewhat- even so, there's plenty of time left for "Who Are You - School 2015" to manage a powerful recovery.

Review by William Schwartz

"Who Are You - School 2015" is directed by Baek Sang-hoon and Kim Seong-yoon, written by Kim Hyeon-jeong-II and Kim Min-jeong-II, and features Kim So-hyun, Nam Joo-hyuk, Yook Sung-jae, Lee Pil-mo, Lee David, Kim Hee-jung-I and more.

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