If
you are Korean and have not heard of ‘Reply’ series, you must be a spy. Most
Korean must have been heard of the trendy drama like a hot potato. Following
the previous dramas Reply 1997 and Reply 1994, new drama just came out that
depicts and describe the scene of 1988 Seoul, Korea. People who watch the drama
sink into nostalgia ocean and reminiscence their old days, or memory the warm
humane family in the old days. However, even though it is a story about 1988
Seoul, Korea which is very traditional, not only Koreans like the drama but
also foreigners feel attractive to it. In this article, I will analyze the
success factor of Reply 1988.
1. Direction
Through Miracle of Han river, Korea has been
industrialized and developed rapidly for 30 years so that the image of the city
made a gigantic change. Thus, the people in the drama had to indeed care about
direction of the drama. Especially since the background of Reply 1988 was very
past time, items used in the drama was out of production or rare to find.
Moreover, the law or regulation in that time was totally different so that they
had to write the script carefully considering of them. Therefore, directors
analyzed and put the items which was used in that time such as clothes, food,
and posters. In that sense, people who watch Reply 1988 can be immersed
themselves in more efficiently. For example, even one bottle of soju was
completely different from now and it was not possible to get it. So they had to
make a special order and created all the details like a label of soju bottle.
Shin Won Ho – the director of Reply 1988 said that he wanted to emphasize the
reality through using all the delicate details and many people consider it as
one of the successful factor of Reply 1988.
2.
Music
80’s
music in Korea was very unique and different from now. If you turn on
television or go to music website, all you can see is some pretty idol’s song.
However, since the using rate of radio was so common, the 80’s music was very
important. Many singers came out and they became the iconic singers of that
time. Even though most songs were folk songs which sounds boring and not
trendy, when you listen to it, you will find out that it is very catchy. Using
this catchy and nostalgic sounds, the music director of the drama collaborated
the songs in the 80’s with singers nowadays. They did not damage the feeling of
songs but just changed the voice of the singer which made us more friendly to
those music. Moreover, not only giving a live to songs, they re-saved the
advertisement sounds. This is a very effective strategy of the drama to make
the people fall into past time with only sounds. It is fusion, but it does not
disturb the feeling of the past time. In my subject opinion, I think this is
the most successful factor of this drama.
3.
Characters
Characters
in Reply 1988 also can be the great factor of success. They present all the
different ages from kids, teenager, university students, parents, and even
grandparents. Thus, people can understand the drama despite the situations feeling
sympathy to them. Furthermore, the characters use their own dialect, because
they were not born in Seoul. This was common in the 80’s when there was not so
many people in Seoul like now. Some people may not understand fully what they
are saying, but the intimacy is directly felt by the longing dialects. In
addition, the way how they live together with neighborhood makes the drama
humane which is the biggest feature in the story. Not using boring usual love
story that we can see in any other dramas, but they focused on different
stories such as parental love. Some people might think that it is too boring to
watch, but director also presents special person such as Choi Tak – World champion
go player – and that makes the time more vivid and unique.
Most
students nowadays were born after the 80’s, but everybody can understand the
drama well. And I believe it is not just coincidence. It is fully prepared and
directed by the people who made the drama and the strategy they used worked
really well. Learning from those features, Reply 1988 is indeed great drama to
much.
So, Why don’t we give a look to the scene of 1988?
