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Moment at Eighteen korean drama review
Completed
Moment at Eighteen
0 people found this review helpful
by enapeters
Apr 21, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

An underrated gem of a show!

I watched this a couple of years ago, and I loved it. Then recently Netflix started advertising it to me, so I re-looked it up on MyDramaList and was surprised to see that it has a relatively low overall rating (8.0/10 stars currently). I wondered if it was really as good as I remembered, so I decided to re-watch it. I'm happy to say that I loved it just as much this second time, but I can see why it might not be everyone's cup of tea. For one, I think "drama" might be too strong of a word for this little show, which is much more of a slow burn slice of life. There is definitely some drama, particularly in the first few episodes, but after that it mellows to typical teen daily "drama" (romance, friendship, school stress, parent pressure, etc.). In my opinion, this show explores teen drama particularly well, never condescending but instead presenting the teens' emotions as real and valid. Your heart breaks for these poor kids as they fumble to figure out what it means to grow up when they can't follow the examples of the grown-ups in their lives. I'm also probably biased toward these types of dramas since I teach high school. I can identify with Teacher Oh so strongly!

One thing I did want to clarify was what happened with Jun Woo's friend Jung Hoo because I was confused about that the first time I watched the show. It could be that it got lost in translation or that the explanation happens so fast that I just missed it, but I thought that Hwi Young and Gi Tae had paid the bullies to beat up Jung Hoo, and they had beaten him so badly that he died. Actually what happened was that he quit school and moved away to avoid being bullied, and on his way to his new job, he was in a car accident. So Hwi Young and Gi Tae were still involved in the chain of events that led to Jung Hoo's death, but not as directly as I'd originally thought, which explains why Jun Woo didn't seem as bothered by it after the original surprise as I thought he should be or why Hwi Young was never directly punished for it in the end.

Finally, I was so impressed with Ong Seong Wu's acting in this drama, and I loved the soundtrack so much. In my opinion, this is an underappreciated show that should get more love!
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