What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

TV

Reply 1994 (2013)

While not the final instalment of the Reply series, it is the final one for me, and in a way it’s probably best this way, since I don’t imagine I would have had the urge to watch Reply 1988 if I’d seen this first.

While the cast is excellent and the structure of the story holds promise, the execution often left me with a sense of frustration. The writer seems intent on prolonging the mystery and creating diversions rather than telling a story that serves the characters well. Even knowing how things would pan out before the show started, I was often annoyed at how the writer toyed with the romance mystery. I’m generally a very easy-going viewer, allowing the story to unfold and trusting that the writer is going to do justice to the narrative because they genuinely want to tell the best version of the story they can. But here, it felt a lot like they were just jerking me around. I can see why the writer might have taken this direction with the storytelling style. I mentioned in my review of Reply 1997 how the mystery didn’t really hold my attention because it never really seemed like a question how things would eventually turn out. But it seems like the writer went in the complete opposite direction here, and it just served to alienate me a little bit. 

That being said, there are still a lot of things to enjoy about the show. The boarding house is filled with a mishmash of characters, each with their own unique background. Seeing them interact with one another feels natural, whether it’s Haitai (Sohn Ho-joon) and Samcheonpo (Kim Sung-kyun) fighting over bedtime, Chilbong (Yoo Yeon-seok) finding family and becoming a fixture at the boarding house, Yoon-jin’s (Min Do-hee) rivalry-turned-romance with Samcheonpo, or Binguerre’s (Baro) hero worship of Sseureki (Jung Woo) as he tries to find his identity. In many ways the show is a love letter to the diversity to be found in the small peninsula, but at the same time, that sense of being an outsider is what connects all these characters together.

This writer’s strength lies in developing family relationships, and I find the family unit in this show to be cohesive, even if it isn’t as well developed as the others in the series. Go Ara’s Na-jung is a bright carefree character, and we see how her interaction with her parents (played brilliantly by Lee Il-hwa and Sung Dong-il) has a normality to it that you find in everyday life. They face their ups and downs together, and they rely on one another to get through the tough times as much as they celebrate they joy together.

In the end, I’m glad I watched the show, but I didn’t get the same joy out of it as I did from either the previous or the following instalments of the series. However, this show’s set-backs allowed the writer to deliver an even stronger follow-up, and for that I’m glad that it exists.

Movies

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

There seems to be a 90s theme to this weeks reviews, and this film manages to capture that unique time of the early days of the internet. You’ve Got Mail is a slice of the 90s, and although it is primarily remembered as a rom-com, it’s also equal parts about family, and justice and nostalgia. 

Both Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks deliver stellar performances. Hanks in particular seems to be playing two different characters, the rude and unapproachable corporate in person, which contrast with the kind and helpful online persona he’s cultivated. But over the course of the film we get to resolve these two personas into one, just as Kathleen has to. Kathleen Kelly on the other hand is shown to undergo the most change, and we get to enjoy watching her become more straightforward through the guidance of those around her. She also lets go of her prejudices against Joe Fox, realising that she can’t judge a book by its cover.

The quirky cast of characters helps to round out the universe, showing the great contrast between the commercial Fox Books and the independent The Shop Around the Corner and setting the stage for the majority of the conflict in the film. This conflict is what helps to drive our characters apart, but it is also eventually what helps bring them together, since they are constantly thrust into each other’s company. 

There’s a reason that this film has made it into the ranks of the classics. It has heart and true human emotion driving the characters. You understand where they are coming from and why they react the way they do. It’s fun being on the journey with them as they figure out the ups and downs of life, and you can’t help but root for them.