[DRAMA]What to Expect When Your Expecting the Upcoming tvN Drama "Reply 1988"?

Fans of the popular cable drama series, Answer Me also known as The Reply Series were very happy with the anouncement that was made last January. A third installment will be set to open later this year with the drama timeframe that is set during the 1988 era of South Korea.

Reply 1997, the first installment of the series revolves around six friends who lives in Busan that gathered together in a class reunion and came up with their memorable moments when they were still in highschool. It centers around idol fan culture, highschool love and achieving dreams. The drama had established the acting careers of Jung Eunji and Seo Inguk. Meanwhile, the second installment Reply 1994 centers around the lives of college students living in a dorm. It tackles events that happened in the 1994 era which includes the happenings in Korean Basketball League and the popularity of Kpop boyband Seo Taiji and the boys. The drama made a great impact to the careers of Go Ara, Jung Woo, Yoo Yeon-seok and other stars that participated in it.

Last May 18, the six frontrunners of Reply 1988 was confirmed. Idol Hyeri will be playing the female lead character with Go Kyung-pyo and Park Bo-gum that will likely play as rivals. New faces were also confirmed to star in the drama namely Ryu Joon-yeol, Ryu Hye-young, and Ahn Jae-hong.

Shin Won Ho PD told the media that this time the drama will revolve around stories of families that live in the same small neighborhood.. So we can expect to not guess who the husband may be.. Yes, Please?..

With the nostalgic feeling that the series wanted the viewers to feel we all can expect that the drama will tackle the important things that happened during the year of 1988. I am kinda curious of what were the things that happened in 1988 South Korea so I will play as a fortuneteller this time and I will try to point out the happenings that may be included in the upcoming drama.. Here are my forecast:

5. 1988 films- example: Chilsu and Mansu (칠수와 만수)

The past year before 1988 was a crucial year in Korea's film industry. The government had a big say on what will the audience were able to see in the theaters. They would censor every film that would be seen by the public. With a country that was gradually moving into a democratic cone, the film Chilsu and Mansu was a great step depicting the Korean youth dreams and hopes that comes with freedom. Although not a box office, the film had cemented talents like director Park Kwang-su, actors  Ahn Sung-ki, Park Joong-hoon and Bae Jong-ok. 

 

Chilsu and Mansu Poster

The film was a major turn over for the freedom of expression of Korean films. So I think that with the major characters in Reply 1988 set to play characters in their youths, we can obviously see them blossoming as a generation with growing freedom and more aspirations.

4. Elections and New President

I think South Korea having a new president that year will also be tackled in the drama. The year 1988 was the first term for President Roh Tae-woo whose major contribution for the country was the hosting of the 1988 Summer Olympics and his true words about the democratic reforms for South Korea. He was said to be the first cleanly elected president in the history of the country. But then, a lot of events had happened after his term and I shall not cover on that.. because I can't relate already..better just read their country's history if you wanna know more...

3. Video Games, Anime, 80s fashion

Remember those scenes in Reply 1997 where floppy disk, cassettes, walkmans, VHS, pagers, beepers, tamagochi, and huge desktops were just so important to the characters? Also that scene when Seo Inguk was so proud that he was wearing a Guess shirt only that his friend blurted out that it was obviously an imitation because Guess should be with a question mark and not with an exclamation mark.. haha, hilarious!  

Also, those nostalgia in Reply 1994, example were that game of Haitai in his super obsolete computer, the big phones, ridiculous hairstyles and fashion. Well obviously we will get another nostalgic effect from the year 1988 with what tvN is planning.

My guess is that video games will have a part for this upcoming drama. The game Super Mario 2 was introduced in the year 1988. I'm not sure though because you must be kinda rich to be able to possess those things in the 80s but maybe with the timeline.. I don't know... Also I read about the Ghostbuster toys being so popular in that year that it was sold out. The animated film My Neighbor Totoro, Akira and The Grave of Fireflies were also major success those days so maybe we could expect for those to be included in the list of cameos.

In terms of fashion, I predict there will be a lot of suspenders coming with colorful tops and pants, and also denim fashion. I mean not that it’s very different from the styles that we use today, right? We can expect for brands like Nike, Billabong and Calvin Klein to have an appearance. On the other hand, the style will always come with the hair, so expect a lot of Princess Diana hairstyling and long and wide curly with bangs hairdo for women. While on men, expect the kind of hairstyle that Johnny Depp had in 21 Jump Street movie... Haha

2. Cho Youngpil's Music

In Reply 1997, we had the music of then popular boygroups, H.O.T, Sech Kies and also then popular girlgroups, S.E.S, Baby V.O.X and Fin.K.L. while in Reply 1994 we had Seo Taiji and the Boys who gave us the blast from the past feeling while watching both dramas. Well in the year 1988, it was Cho Youngpil who had the most successful act. The Reply series had always been good in interacting and reproducing the songs from that specific year that the viewers can appreciate it and later be a fan of the singer so we can expect ourselves to be smitten by Cho Youngpil's music. 

I also can smell someone from the main character of Reply 1988 to be a hardcore fan of Cho Youngpil so we will see a lot of the life happening in Cho Youngpil's career in the year of 1988. Here are his most popular song Mona Lisa and Seoul Seoul Seoul that he released that year.

Mona Lisa by Cho Youngpil

Seoul Seoul Seoul by Cho Youngpil

1. 1988 Summer Olympics

The biggest event that had happened during the year 1988 and probably was also one of the biggest milestones for South Korea was the 1988 Summer Olympics. It was one of the most important happenings in the country. The government's prime motive was to let the whole world know that South Korea is a changing country with capabilities and potential and the biggest move was to let the most popular and greatest sports event that most people know to be held in their country.

The events theme song is entitled "Hand and Hand" which was sung by the group Koreana. It was immediately a top chart hit so we can probably hear it in the drama. Also, notable was the official mascot named "Hodori" which was said to be a Siberian tiger that depicted the warmness and friendliness of Korean people.

Hand in Hand 1988 Summer Olympics Theme Song 

By Koreana

Hodori, 1988 Summer Olympics Official Mascot

On the downside, a lot of unfortunate happenings had also happened with the year's Olympic celebration. One example was the boycotting of some countries including the country's neighbor who was still officially at war that time North Korea and its allies, Albania, Cuba, Madagascar, and Seychelles. The opening ceremony was also the talk of the world because of the alleged burning of live doves that supposed to be a symbol of world peace.

Anyways all of those events would probably take charge within the dramas plot because it was such a big and popular event that had happened during the year of 1988.

So far, the two installments had become a success... There was a famous saying that "It takes two to tango".. So what will happen to the third dancer then? Truthfully, I had enjoyed watching 1997 more than 1994 because the husband thing was just so overused in the second installment. Honestly, I think this time I expected too much with the 1988 castings and so I got so disappointed. But still I don't want to judge until the actual drama airs. Maybe, I'll just wait for the reviews until I watch it myself.. Ha! 

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