at eighteen || A Kdrama Review

At Eighteen

Director: Sim Na-Yeon

Writer: Yoon Kyung-Ah

Network: JTBC

Episodes: 16

Released Date: July 22 – September 10, 2019

Language: Korean

You can catch this on: Netflix

Cast: Ong Seong-Wu, Kim Hyang-Gi, Shin Seung-Ho, Kang Ki-Young, MoonBin, Lee Seung-Min, Shim Yi-Young, Kim Sun-Young

18-year-old Choi Joon-Woo (Ong Seong-Wu) has gotten used to being lonely. He is not good at expressing his emotions, but he has a cute side. He transfers to a new school where he meets Yoo Soo-Bin (Kim Hyang-Gi). She is a top student, but her life is controlled by her mother. Yoo Soo-Bin dreams of becoming independent. After meeting Choi Joon-Woo, she experiences small changes in her life. Meanwhile, Ma Whi-Young (Shin Seung-Ho) is a student who seems perfect and gentle, but he suffers from a complex. He acts like a strong person, but he is really a timid 18-year-old boy. After Choi Joon-Woo transfers to his school, his life begins to change.

Source: AsianWiki

At Eighteen simply got me out from my longgggg kdrama slump!!! It was so good and it reminds me why I love kdrama so much and why high school based kdrama is always going to be my favourite. At Eighteen basically tells a story of a group of teenagers at their eighteen, experiencing their first love, getting heartbroken, finding out who they are, basically a coming of age drama. It also deals with the stress these teens need to face with their examinations and finals, Asian parents’ expectation on them to get the best result and get into only the best university. I know it might sound like any other high school kdrama but this one will be high in my kdrama list because of few reasons.

1. Themes and Issues

Like I’ve mentioned, this drama is a coming of age drama, of teenagers trying to find their own identity and someone to listen to them and their story. But what makes this one stood out is kids from broken family or abusive parent. Both the lead protagonists’ and the antagonist’s parents are not on good term. We have Jun-u’s father who left his mother before Jun-u gets to know him and then has his own family. Soo Bin’s parents who are not living together and the mother who avoids divorce just to keep Soo Bin in one piece. Lastly, the most problematic, Hwi Yeong’s abusive father who constantly beat his mother and him, despite the family looking great and powerful on the outside, in the house it was like a living hell. It was quite a journey to watch these 3 families and how comforting Jun-u’s mother is as a single mother, she did so well in protecting her son, whereas Soo Bin’s mother was being too obsessive about Soo Bin’s academic and wanting the best for her and for Soo Bin not to repeat her mistake. How Hwi Yeong’s parents turned him into a monster and how it affects him mentally and emotionally.

Corruption and misconduct of power was also highlighted in this drama which I think is quite common and always seen in many other kdramas. Status is valued highly while the poor and powerless will remain helpless until the truth was revealed. Politics in school was pretty serious too and to see how bullies, cheaters and even those who attempt on murdering got away from their punishment is ridiculous.

2. Characters

I love all of the characters in this drama to be honest, but few stood out the most to me. Let’s talk about my favourite character, Jun-u played by my favourite actor/singer, Ong Seung Wu.

I love how strong, independent and delicate he is in the drama. He kept so much to himself just like his mother in this drama. Every time he or his mother cried, I’d feel extremely sad for them and I felt the pain they were going through. That’s how good his acting was! Also, he’s super good looking like how can you not love this boy?!

My second favourite character would be the antagonist or the bad guy, Ma Hwi Yeong, played by Shin Seung-Ho.

Hwi Yeong is such a complex character and by far the scariest kid I’ve ever seen. The way he controlled the teachers, the school kids and everything academically was scary. He was THAT powerful and had such great influence in making final decisions for almost everything. But of course he turned out to be the devil he was because of his messed up family. His abusive father was the root to his malicious behaviour. He always needed to live up to his father’s expectation which was hard. For me, he is the character that go through the biggest change and it doesn’t look too forceful. His acting and the time given for his character to change was perfect.

Lastly, the teacher, Mr Oh Han Kyeol played by Kang Ki-Young.

In a high school kdrama, we always need a new high spirited homeroom teacher and I think Kang Ki-Young is perfect for this role. Everytime Mr Oh does something for the kids, standing up for them and correcting their mistakes or just sucking up whatever disrespectful words or actions thrown to him, he makes me feel amazed. How? I wonder how one could become like that? I know I can’t. Everytime he feels touched when he thinks of how the kids thank him or don’t want him to leave, he gains my respect. Teachers like this in kdramas inspire me a lot.

3. Romance

I’m surprised I’m not cringe at all by the romance in this drama. It reminded me when I was a teenager, having crushes and going through first love and heartbreak. I was basically tearing up at some of the dating scenes, Idk why thooo. I adore how sweet and innocent the characters are in this movie. Being in love at eighteen is truly the purest. Even though the highlight was mostly on the main leads’ love story, but it was fun to see other characters’ love stories too and how they are all different from one another. Writing this part of the review literally making smile and teary. AHHHH

4. Ending

I think the drama ended pretty well. What should happen will happen some day. We can’t avoid it for the rest for our life. But again, 18 is a very young age and so much more waiting for 18 year olds to explore. It’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to take some time off, it’s okay to breathe for a moment. “We still have a long way to go”, that is what I’d tell my 18 year old self.

But I must say the male and female leads were overreacting a tiny bit, because honestly it’s not like they are separated into different countries, they can still keep in touch and travel to one another’s place by bus for god sake but again at eighteen, everything felt a little too overwhelmed, I guess.