Edited by irie^nad at 11-10-2016 05:25 PM
Overall Rating: (8.375/10)
1. Story (9/10)
‘Age of Youth’ (AOY) revolves around five young girls of different backgrounds and personalities (Han Ye Ri as Yoon Jin Myung, Park Eun Bin as Song Ji Won, Ryu Hwa Young as Kang Yi Na, Park Hye Soo as Yoo Eun Jae and Han Seung Yeon as Jung Ye Eun) who lived together as roommates in a house called ‘Belle Epoque’. On the surface, the drama seems like a typical K-drama with running-old youth concepts- love,school, work, personal conflicts. Much to our surprise, the writer twisted around these old concepts and turned them into a beautiful youth drama with relatable characters and engaging life dilemmas.
Each episode focused on different aspect of life which is very dear to one’s life. In each episode, the drama taught us that there were different colors of life- with each passing day, you will come to love or hate yourself,you will learn to appreciate or depreciate your friends, you will start to question your self-values and stumble upon hard life decision-making moments which may change your future forever. All these internal dilemmas and peer issues were carefully woven with various other drama elements- fun, sad, pity,anger, desire and frustration. On top of that, the writer created a ‘mysterious ghost character’ hiding in their house’s shoe closet to represent each of the character’s internal conflict and hope for their life which injected a suspense element into the story.
After watching the drama, it is hard not to get inspired from at least one of the characters. One might take up the courage to speak for herself just like Yoo Eun Jae; or spontaneously leave behind her past burden and travel around like Senior Yoon Jin Myung; or decide to value herself and her friends more than her boyfriend just like Jung Ye Eun; or pick up a different life path which is obviously harder than before just like Kang Yi Na; or think that there is nothing wrong with her current life and lives like there’s no tomorrow just like Song Ji Won. No matter which character had inspiredyou, you know for sure that the drama has somehow affected your life in one way or another.
2. Acting (8.5/10)
Nomination for Best Supporting Actress: Han Ye Ri
AOY is undoubtedly a character-driven drama which is not afraid to portray flawed characters. All five main characters are equally significant and their roles are well-balanced. I appreciate that most of them are imperfect, layered characters and not conventional, 2-dimensional types. While watching this drama, I came to love a character at one point but later hate her (decision) in the next episode. Depending on your personality, each character will have different effect on you and that is what I love the most about this drama. Despite the bad decisions they made and the action they took, unknowingly you’ll root for their happiness and their gratifying ending.
Each character was molded differently- a senior student whois juggling with work, study and family; a bright student reporter who loves to mix between truth and lie; a ‘student’ who thinks that easy money is the answer to all life questions; a loyal girlfriend whose boyfriend is her everything and a Psychology-major freshman who tends to make rash decision not knowing how it will affect her life and others. If I were to pick one character that appeals the most to me,it would be Yoon Jin Myung played by Han Ye Ri. Han effortlessly made this character her own. She seems aloof and was surrounded by mysterious vibe most of time which turned out to be her shield to protect herself from surrendering to the harsh reality of life. Deep inside, she’s just a normal young girl who’s had enough of endless pressure for money to pay for her school and her mother’s debt. What really works for me in this drama is that all characters were played out by fresh faces. Since I don’t have any preconception of their past works,it was easier for me to genuinely enjoy their performance (even though I do have my personal favorite ranking).
3. Technical (Screenplay, directing,cinematography) (8/10)
Overall, the drama has decent directing and smooth editing. The color of the drama is not too overly bright. At times,the color was quite gloomy, particularly during Yoon’s scenes. Although the cinematography was appropriate in relaying the mood in each scene (heart-fluttering sweet scenes between Yoo Eun Jae and her senior who secretly had a crush on her,funky party scenes which turned out to be their own imagination, etc), but none was exceptionally memorable.
4. Music scores (3.5/5)
The music scores matched the tone of the drama. Most of them were fresh and some of them were heavily instrumental. However, none of them really caught my attention.
5. Probability of re-watching (4.5/5)
Worth a second watch! Especially when you feel down and desperately need something to perk you spirit up.
@dauswq kacang lebih please. first review iolss ni
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Post time 29-9-2016 08:47 PM
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