Itaewon Class - A Subtle yet intense plot (series review)

If there is one thing I admire where revenge dramas are concerned, it is the characters dedicating their whole life to getting back at the one person who wronged them. While I have not and hope to never experience extremely wicked people, I don't think dedicating my life to getting back at one person is my cup of tea.

But in korean dramas, we see the protagonists taking their revenge to the extremes and even dedicating their whole lives in the process.

I watched the Korean drama Itaewon class and I'll be sharing my opinions about it here in this review

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Itaewon class is a 16 episode korean drama starring Park Seo Jun (Park Saeroyi), Kim Da Mi(Jo yi-seo), An bo hyun (Jang Geun-won)

It follows the story of a boy named Park Saeroyi. He is transferred to a school run by the company where his father works, Jangga Co. On his first day at school, he sees Jang Geun won, the son of his father's boss bullying another student. The teachers know about it but turn a blind eye to the bullying. Apparently, Jang Geun-won is the law in the school. He intervenes and gets into a fight with Jang Geun-won and beats him up.

When the parents of both boys are called, the Chairman orders Saeroyi to kneel and apologize to him and his son. Saeroyi refuses, resulting in his expulsion from school and his father's sack. After the whole saga in the school, few days later, Saeroyi's father is killed by Jang Geun-won. This angers Saeroyi and he decides to make Jangga Co pay for everything they did to him and his father.

In this drama, Saeroyi dedicated about 15years of his precious life to getting back at Jangga Co. But he established himself alongside. His goal was one I really liked. He wanted to own the best food pub in the country. Seeing that Jangga was currently the best, he had plans to overthrow the corporation and make himself a successful businessman at the same time. A win win situation. Did he achieve his goal of overthrowing Jangga Co and becoming the best pub owner? Watch this drama to find out.

This drama emphasizes the necessity of trust and teamwork in an organization. Many of the people who worked for Saeroyi were willing to be on his side because he always had their backs. Whenever they were wronged, he would go out of his way to make them feel better. In this drama, Saeroyi believed that power comes from people because their trust gives him strength. And this notion worked for him. He and his workers had a very beautiful relationship. They trusted each other very well and would vouch for each other in everything.

In this drama, my favourite character was Jo Yi-Seo, the manager of the pub. She was a sociopath and she complimented Saeroyi so well because not only was he socially inept like she was, he wasn't so smart in running the pub. Yi-Seo was smart, and very talented. While she was the least rational, I liked the way she handled things. Where Saeroyi was ice, she was fire. Although both their decisions always ended up with deadly consequences.

There was a character that kept getting on my nerves while watching this movie. She was Saeroyi's first love and his first friend (Oh Soo Ah). She claimed she wasn't taking sides with any of the teams. Saeroyi or Jangga. But why was she inching towards Jangga more? She would go to Saeroyi's pub under the pretext of friendship, take part in whatever conversation they were having about the pub. Then later, she'll divulge everything to Jangga Co where she worked. She was completely selfish. She wanted Saeroyi for herself but did nothing to make him want her. Instead, she kept telling Saeroyi to become rich because she likes rich guys.

This is one revenge drama that was subtle yet intense. One where the ending leaves you with a certain satisfaction that watching it was completely worth your time. I loved the casting. The soundtrack was as perfect as a song created by a human can be. This was a very satisfying drama.

I'll rate this drama a 7/10. If you're into revenge kdramas but don't want something too intense, do check out this one.

Thanks for reading.