By: Katerina Badoova
Itaewon Class (2020-Present) is a new Korean drama that has recently been added on Netflix and is ready for you to binge!
The sixteen-episode-show is a roller coaster of emotions and the acting will leave you speechless. The main characters deliver a great performance through dramatic and at times very emotional scenes, which show the real struggles of people in their 20’s.
Not only is the acting amazing, but the protagonists' outfits are inspiring for all the fashion lovers. And for any epicurean, this show has all the delicious food you will want to try!
The story begins with teenage Park Sae-Ro-Yi (Park Seo-Joon), who just moved to a new town with his father and manages to get tangled up in a bullying incident that will follow him for the rest of his life.
Years later Park Sae-Ro-Yi, who is now an ex-con, is back and out for revenge. He is ready to destroy the two men who ruined his life and their company, Jangga Group, along with them. But first he needs a plan.
His name means ‘fresh start/clean slate’, and that could not be more appropriate! He is ready to start afresh and finally take revenge by pursuing the “Korean dream”. With the help of his friends, Ro-Yi opens a small restaurant, DanBam, in Itaewon and that’s when his plan to overthrow and eventually take over the enemy Jangga Group begins!
The show also includes characters like Ro-Yi’s high school crush, Oh Soo-Ah (Kwon Nara), a young multi talented and intelligent Jo-Yi-Seo (Kim Da-Mi) who causes havoc in Sae-Ro-Yi’s life, Jang Geun-Soo (Kim Dong-Hee), the illegitimate son of Ro-Yi’s sworn enemy and Tony Kim (Chris Lyon) a Guinean-Korean part-timer at DanBam.
The small district of Seoul known as Itaewon, where the series is set, is very unconventional as opposed to other cities in Korea (at least in the show that is). In 1953, after the Korean war ended, a US army base was established in Yongsan and that’s when the commercial district sprang up and catered to the area's new residents. Now, it's called Itaewon and it's “an area that continues to thrive as an exotic ‘foreign’ section in the middle of Seoul.”
In the show Itaewon is portrayed as a place where everyone can be themselves whether they are a transsexual, a homosexual, have tattoos or a bizarre sense of fashion. It is no surprise that Sae-Ro-Yi decides to choose to open his business there!
As those who are familiar with Korean dramas know, some topics are off-limits to discuss or even mention on Korean broadcasts. But Itaewon Class defies that and it explores homosexuality, gender inequality, racism, display of tattoos and many other banned subjects on Korean TV!
It is usually quite risky to discuss all these subject at once in Korean dramas. Despite that, the TV series did really well and managed to get one of the highest ratings for a Korean drama this year!
As an example, the character Ma Hyun-Yi is a transsexual and is in the process of undergoing surgery to become a woman. She is a chef at DanBam and enters a cooking show to promote the restaurant.
While competing, her identity as a transsexual is revealed. What was mostly surprising was that the show writers made this character particularly strong. Instead of hiding away, like it seemed at first, Hyun-Yi confidently proclaims to everyone that she’s a proud transsexual woman and isn’t afraid to show it!
Another interesting subject that is explored in the show is racism and how a person of colour is treated in Korea. The character Tony Kim is a Guinean-Korean, who coincidently meets Sae-Ro-Yi and the rest of the crew, and ends up working with them. However, there are many instances where the character faces racism – when Tony and the crew decide to go clubbing, but the bouncer refuses to let Tony in because he is a person of colour or when the DanBam crew expect him to speak English just because he doesn’t look Korean. Tony’s journey in the show is particularly interesting because in most K-dramas you don’t get to see a person of colour, especially not as one of the main characters. So it was quite a surprise to watch that in Itaewon Class.
The series is great in showing different kinds of people in this small city, especially those that aren’t afraid to be themselves. It is quite rare to see gay people and people of colour in K-dramas, just like it is rare to see characters that have tattoos – especially female characters. However, Itaewon Class definitely doesn't hold back in exposing all of that!
Itaewon Class is a remarkable show with an extremely gripping yet heart-breaking plot, that will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend this K-drama to anyone looking for a show to binge-watch that won’t bore them and will leave them wanting more after each episode!
Comments