Itaewon Class 이태원 클라쓰
(Ep. 1-16)
Pupule rating: 3.4 (out of 4)
Netflix
The greatest gift I’ve experienced by subscribing to Netflix since early April is the surplus of Asian — particularly Korean — content. Waiting for the occasional and always outstanding Korean film to appear at Consolidated Pearlridge Theater was my reality over the years. A long, stifling wait at times.
Itaewon Class — when I mistype Itaewon, “It’s Ewok” appears as autocorrect — is completely unlike what I expected based on the poster (of the pub owner and employees walking through Itaewon), especially in the first two episodes. Before you dive in, know that this isn’t the typical series we’re used to in the U.S. Each episode runs roughly 70-75 minutes long, a mini-movie in itself.
There’s a reason for that, which I’ll get to later. All the things I really appreciate about this plot and the drama and sometimes poignant, sometimes cutesy romantic twists are always at center stage. It’s a bit much, but this series never fails to take a swing. A big, loping, Dave Kingman-esque cut. Sometimes it connects and leaves the park. Toward the end of the series, sometimes it gets old.
So why the 3.4? Isn’t that a B+? Frankly, this is one Korean drama that really takes risks, and because there is such a long time frame — 16 episodes jumping from high school to two years ahead, then seven years ahead. By the end of the line, 14 years have passed. And much of the time, this show works. Mostly, it is Sammy Sosa at his chemically-induced peak. Can you embrace that?
The show just finished its run in South Korea on March 21, and was aired on Netflix. Very fresh. Awesome.
No heavy spoilers here. Only this: not everyone will gravitate to this story. It is essentially about tragedy, small business-versus-big bizness in the food and restaurant industry, and relationships. As the lead character says, it’s about people and trust.
There are a number of unbelievable plot developments along the way and that’s fodder for many debates and arguments. I’ll leave those alone. Either you buy in and become absorbed or you don’t.
Park Saeroyi (Park Seojoon) is a high school kid who stands up to a rotten bully picking on another student, and Park’s life goes entirely downhill as a result. There is nth-degree shock and heartbreak, but Saeroyi is also emotionally walled off when he isn’t enraged. It’s been a very long time since a character so robotic, yet winsome, has been the main cog of a series. He’s not the typical hero, but do we relate to him? Absolutely.
After a few episodes, I finally realized who his parallel-universe twin is: Mr. Spock of the original Star Trek. Saeroyi is stoic to an extreme, often takes long pauses to respond in conversations, and though his ethics and morals are initially pure, once he hits a boiling point, the Spock stoicism melts away and he can be quite Hulkster. It is almost cathartic, but Saeroyi doesn’t evolve until he builds close relationships with his employees in his small pub. One of them is Jo Yiseo (Kim Da-mi), who comes along in Ep. 5 and provides an elemental jolt to the future of DanBam pub and Park Saeroyi — and the series.
Other pluses:
> No dubbing (lip syncing). Dubbing worked for a great series, Kingdom, but wasn’t always necessary here. Those of us used to reading subtitles appreciate it.
> Social issues. The show dabbled, then dug deep on issues like racism and sexism, and I like how it was written. One note: the actor who plays a transgender cook, Ma Hyeon-yi (played by Lee Joo-Young), later has surgery to become a woman. But the actor is actually a female in real life. That was strange, but the actress is very good, and her performance lessens the distraction of misinformation. Or maybe I’m wrong and the actor really is male and is referred to as female out of respect? Anyway...
An underlying reason why I like Korean films and TV shows is the unrelenting willingness to explore real-world themes of racism, sexism, class warfare. Even in a medieval setting, there is no shortage of stories that really hit home. Can't really say that about other East Asian fare, not in this quantity. No country is perfect, but Korea certainly has more tolerance than Japan and China, and it shows in cinema, both the big and small screens.
An underlying reason why I like Korean films and TV shows is the unrelenting willingness to explore real-world themes of racism, sexism, class warfare. Even in a medieval setting, there is no shortage of stories that really hit home. Can't really say that about other East Asian fare, not in this quantity. No country is perfect, but Korea certainly has more tolerance than Japan and China, and it shows in cinema, both the big and small screens.
> Cinematography. Seoul is a massive place, but the shots in this series are wondrous at times. Itaewon can have a picturesque small-town feel through this lens.
My biggest pet peeve with IC is the inordinate amount of flashbacks. The fresh flashbacks to moments involving his dad or employees, scenes we hadn’t seen, those are fine. But this series uses so many flashbacks from scenes in previous episodes that it gets really old by the final four or five shows. This is why each episode is 75 minutes instead of 60.
But, if you do have a little extra time to kill during this coronavirus lockdown, enjoy this series. The writers check a lot of boxes along the way. A long one-shot movie based on the original animated series would not have sufficed. The character development is crucial. So is the tyranny of the bad guys. The acting chops of the main villain, Chairman Jang Dae-Hee (Yoo Jae-myung) is impeccably devilish at times. His effect is as much about simmering pauses and ultimate connivery as it is about his words. Overly diabloical, maybe, but entertaining as hell. And apparently, he never golfs. Is that possible for any CEO?
Itaewon is a key cast member, too. It is a neighborhood that is a convergence of different cultures and people, and the contrast with Korean society makes it the perfect backdrop.
This was a long binge for one season. I don’t see a sequel. The arc is complete.
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