[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Reply 1994" Episode 5

This episode has a lot of focus on Yoon-jin. Do-hee puts a fairly convincing spin as the girl who has no nice side, no friends, and for the most part is perfectly fine with having all her social interactions be basically hostile ones. Who here has met a person like that in real life, particularly during university? Do you think that person had a secret fuzzy personality underneath? No, of course not. Why would you?

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Her character as a whole really emphasizes a lot of how this episode works, as get back to more general comedy. The opening scene is an extremely large meal. One that features lots of squabbling beteween the several houseguests over the quantity, quality and nature of the food. Fishes are thrown, feelings are hurt. And the horrible consequences of this meal reverberate throughout the episode, putting nearly every character in a painful, awkward position.

And their pain is funny. See, that's one of the downfalls of feeling young and invincible- it makes a person disregard the possibility of long-term consequences. Like those kids at the hospital. All right, I'll admit it- the whole thing involving the Game Boy is kind of a dumb joke. But I'm so used to seeing these hospital scenes done under the cover of super serious melancholy and dread that all those newfangled beep-dee-boop gizmo just crack me up, even when the context gets to be really dark.

After the flatfooted attempt and emotional resonance in the last couple of episodes I didn't really want to go to a hospital of all places. "Reply 1994" does the dissonant concept justice, though, by using it to create an interesting extension of Rubbish's character. I haven't really been sure what to make of Jung Woo's performance yet, since so far his problems have seemed too minor to really identify with. But the face-to-face encounter with doctors, patients and kids here clearly establishes his own peculiar brand of emotional intelligence, and provides a convincing argument for him to get together with Na-jeong.

Well, it would if Na-jeong ever actually witnessed him doing any of that stuff anyway. What I especially like about giving Yoon-jin a more prominent role here is that her story obviously correlates to Na-Jeong's in terms of young woman naivete. But while Yoon-jin's adorations are obviously crazy, Na-jeong has just a thin enough slip of plausibility that she doesn't appreciate what a childish thing her current romantic affectations are. It's a neat contrast and I hope Yoon-jin plays a bigger part in the storylines to come.

Review by William Schwartz

"Reply 1994" is directed by Sin Won-ho and written by Lee Woo-jeong-I and features Go Ara, Sung Dong-il, Lee Il-hwa and Jung Woo.