today marks five years since the first episode of reply 1988 was released!! i’m pretty sure i’ve talked abt this show every single day i’ve commented on DB, no regrets, it is my absolute favorite show. (also ps, my username here is sung shachi, but you guys can call me shachi, the sung part is the last name of all the reply leads!! 😉 )

to be honest, i only finished the show in jan of this year, but i did finish it in a week while school was going on and it IS 32 hours of television, so i feel like that is quite commendable, and with the amount of times i’ve replayed episodes and clips, i think i’ve seen it about two times (plus my rewatch starts today!) there’s so much the show means to me, and here’s why it matters so much: (in this essay i will…)

(spoilers below)

the winter months of junior year were probably the hardest for me, not only were they stressful, but they were also super clique-y, so basically, i was having a rough time. i remember that i found the first two eps of the show slightly boring bc i wasn’t used to such long episode times, but the sobangcha dance at ep 3 intrigued me, so i continued to watch it, and loved it. there are a BUNCH of sad scenes in the show or moments that pull at your heart, but i remember not being able to stop crying at the end of the show. it really felt like i’d grown up with the ssangmundong neighborhood, and i couldn’t bear to let go of my friends. i had to rewatch clips the next day to make myself feel better.

i think part of the magic of the show is also the fact that the cast all still loves each other— they hung out in june, oppa and LDH have been hanging out recently, hyeri is still friends with all the guys and still dating oppa (HEEHEE), just everyone is close w everyone and i love it so much! also i think part of my broken heart for junghwan was healed bc oppa and hyeri are dating (and i have rewatched all their scenes together to look for signs of them liking each other adsfgh).

the show is also so relatable and down to earth, i didn’t know any of the actors (or even that hyeri was in girl’s day) before i started watching, and i remember liking the fact that hyeri wasn’t your typical super beautiful kdrama lead— she is beautiful! but i loved how her role involved her to make funny faces and just act wild, it was prob the first drama i’d seen to really let loose. i think the plotlines are also very realistic, for example, bora and appa’s relationship, ra miran and junghwan, and deoksun in general— she is my favorite female lead because of the heart she had, and i really cried with her when she realized she didn’t know what she wanted to do or that she wasn’t smart enough, because by watching the show i knew that she was an amazing person who deserved more.

and of course, junghwan. *takes deep breath*
a lot of people dislike r88 because of the way the husband hunt ended. as arguably one of junghwan’s biggest fans (or maybe even THE biggest fan, but it’s fine), i just wanted to say that there are multiple moments in the show that i can’t watch without crying, but i think ep 18 is the most difficult (besides ep 20). i started crying from the beginning when he just missed her while driving, cried more when he was too late, sobbed when he cried in his car, couldn’t stop crying when he drove deoksun while listening to lee moon sae’s “as love passes by”, and from there on out i practically dissolved in my own tears. i had to pause during the flashback at the end because i was crying so hard that i couldn’t see the screen anymore T_T

and yet, i’ve come to terms with the fact that he isn’t the husband. if i was the lead, i would have chosen him. but deoksun never saw that side of JH that we did. whenever taek had a chance, he took it, but junghwan hesitated to be a good friend, which honestly, makes me love him more. i also think that part of me is ok with this bc oppa and hyeri are dating LMAO but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the romance is still my favorite— junghwan’s silence and constant hesitation (and the fact that he never actually said he liked her until 18 but WE KNEW THE WHOLE TIME) is so relatable to my life, but i’m sure to other people as well. it reminds me of people i was too shy to say i felt some way about until i couldn’t anymore, and unreciprocated love due to that is a practically universal theme.

and now when i watch ep 1, (and when i will watch it later tn), i realize how much the show has taught me about the year 1988 in korea and just korea in the 80s— which is FASCINATING, i could probably write another book on that. it may sound corny to say, but my obsession with this show has changed my life. i know it has every time i do something embarrassing and i can practically hear the goat noises in my head. i know it has when the song “empty heart” by lee seung hwan (or any song from the show— i still listen to the playlist today) brings tears to my eyes as it brings up memories from the show, but also reminds me of things from the past. and i know that it has when i see a picture of the actors, or just the words “sajang” (as in aigoo, kim sajang!) , “noeul” or “bora”, and immediately smile— to paraphrase deoksunnie, it reminds me of a show so warm, that i miss so much.

to reply 1988 (응답하라 1988), thank you so much for everything, for making me so happy. 사랑합니다