Itaewon Class (2020)
A review of Itaewon Class / 이태원 클라쓰 (2020)
This drama had been hype for so long by the time I was watching, I went into it with major expectations because everyone was raving about it.
My expectations were because Park Seo-joon was in it; any time I watch a drama with Park Seo-joon in it it tends to be a solid drama in which the narrative and characters are decent or very solid.
And so, when spring was melting into summer, I pressed play on Itaewon Class and was blown away. Let’s dive straight into this review, shall we?
Content
We start the drama off following the youth memories of Park Sae-ro-yi, played by Park Seo-joon. His father is killed when he is a teenager by a CEO’s son, who was driving and hit him. Infuriated by this, Sae-ro-yi brutally attacks the son, who is also is his classmate, and thus ends up in jail for three years.
Once he’s out, he chooses to open up his own restaurant and bar in Itaewon that initially doesn’t do well. Cue newcomer Kim Da-mi as Jo Yi-seo. A brilliant girl who happens to be social media famous, she becomes the manager of the restaurant and propels it to new levels. But this is only the beginning of Sae-ro-yi’s plans to destroy the company whose son killed his father.
One of the greatest parts about Itaewon Class is about how it uplifts and champions marginalized people who tend to be on the fringes of society. While this largely Sae-ro-yi’s story, he is operating out of Itaewon, the foreigner district in Seoul.
There’s also a lot of gay clubs in that area, which makes is a bit more progressive than Korean society as a whole from a Western perspective. Sae-ro-yi’s staff consists of his former prison cellmate and gangster who wants to change his life, a transgender woman, and a Guinean-Korean who is unable to speak any English, despite everyone assuming he’s a Black American.
The best part, however, about the drama are the relationships between the characters themselves.
We see Sae-ro-yi’s and Yi-seo’s relationship develop the most, as we get romantic undertones with them (although the age gap is kind of strange and I didn’t think I approved of it really when I first watched it), and Yi-seo, who is stoic and doesn’t really open up to anyone, eventually manages to become good friends with all of the staff at DamBam, the restaurant in which this story is set.
My only qualm about the drama is that once it shifts gears and starts to focus on Sae-ro-yi’s revenge plan, it begins to really slow down.
I found it harder to pay attention here because I was lulled into the security that was held at DamBam, but then we’re a full-on food company expanding all over Korea and I would’ve just preferred to omit the revenge portion of the drama. I really liked everyone’s stories without the “we need to take down the CEO of a major food company” side of the story.
The cinematography in this drama is absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite things about certain dramas tends to be the way they are filmed, because they manage to capture this absolutely beautiful cinematic quality. And this was present in Itaewon Class; I would watch it again just for the aesthetics. Absolutely spot-on.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a good drama, good for character study and their motivations in why they do what they do. It also does a good job in breaking barriers of whose story should be told—e.g. including these marginalized characters and making them human for an audience that isn’t used to them in dramas.
I found that to be bold and an awesome depiction, and hope to see that more in upcoming K-dramas. The acting also was very solid, it couldn’t have been done without good acting. All in all, like I said, it’s a good drama and I recommend it.
