Episode 15 of Record of Youth Plays the Tired Tropes of Understanding Love and Truth Comes Out Vindication

I finally get what’s fundamentally missing from the central OTP romance in Record of Youth. Aside from the lack of onscreen chemistry between leads Park Bo Gum and Park So Dam, each are better with other characters in the drama actually, it’s that their youthful romance is devoid of any heady passion. They look like they’ve never even had a deep kiss much less healthy adult activities between 28 year olds dating for over a year. No wonder Jung Ah can so precisely and logically break up with Hye Joon, because there is no “love” involved that is of the illogical emotional. Episode 15 cleared everything up around the manufactured scandal that was unrealistically dragging down top stay Hye Joon’s career but it felt so blase because I never bought that he was in any real danger. I would feel much more that Jung Ah loves Hye Joon madly and passionately but still made herself breakup with him for the best for both their young lives, but alas it was like her breaking up with her hairdresser in awkwardness. I’m looking forward to the final episode because anything should be more entertaining than the epic snoozefest that was the penultimate episode.


Comments

Episode 15 of Record of Youth Plays the Tired Tropes of Understanding Love and Truth Comes Out Vindication — 13 Comments

  1. Im done with it officially. Tired is the right word to describe it. I have been doing 10 minute watches on each ep since the half way mark and last night I couldn’t even master 3min. Saw the scene with grandpa and dad at the agency negotiating with lady and could not find another bit on my FF cursor to stop to watch. That’s how supremely bored I am with it. Even though giving up at almost the is my least favourite thing to do when I start a drama. I decided not to put myself through it anymore. I dun care for ANY characters in the show nor did it register any fun memories of it for me. Dud!

  2. this is a slice of life drama through and through. i quite enjoyed it for all the mundane things happening, the family dynamics and interactions and also friendship between the 3 boys. the weakest link is the romance but i also didnt see it as the focus of the drama. overall i think it is an ok drama and i’m glad we got to see ha hee ra and shin aera in a drama again.

    • No, I beg to disagree. This is not a slice of life drama. Compared to Reply or Playlist series and even the recent My Unfamiliar Family, this is not a slice of life drama which is slow but still engaging because it relates or connects to you. ROY is a PARK BOGUM show. There was a miscasting of most of the cast. I agree with some comments saying that Bogum has more chemistry with actors who cameod more than the regular cast. Anyway, it won’t affect Bogum’s popularity. I just feel bad for PSD, she maybe great in choosing her movie, but not in small screens. Well, atleast, she is now printed to some Kdrama fans who adored PBG.

      • i didn’t watch this drama.. but reading the comments, I’ve a feeling that park so dam in this drama is like kim so hyun in ruler. the common thing is both drama did them dirty.

  3. It has nothing to do with the actors though. The plot of the drama is just meh. There is nothing much to expect from the drama. Although lead actors or actors can make a boring drama interesting, if they give better interpretations of their characters, which I don’t see from the leads.

    The annoying brother’s performance is not bad. I wonder if he’s a theatre actor.

  4. ROY’s problems come down to writing. The audience sees Hye Soo and Jung Ah hang out and go on a few dates but it’s not enough to convince us these two are madly in love. One reason for this is they spend very little time together. The couple doesn’t really feel connected to each other so there’s nothing to root for here. Thropes demand the OTP reunite but nothing about this pair says they would stay together in the long run. In reality, these two would lick their wounds and move on with their lives without giving much thought about the other unless they passed each other at work functions.

  5. PSD is a mediocre actress. No charm at all. all her drama are non watchable. Poor Park Bo GUM. why did have to partner with PSD…

    • I kind of agree and disagree with you. In my opinion, PSD is a very good actress, but she needs to stick to movies. She picks extremely interesting female characters in her movie projects, and that’s because movies are more free than dramas regarding the type of stories they can tell. She has a huge range (she can be terrifying, badass, naive, etc.) … In contrast, there’re very few actually fleshed out and interesting female characters in dramas, and I don’t know why PSD always picks the WORST of them. Her character is so pointless in this story and she lacks romantic chemistry with PBG. *sigh*

  6. Sometime i wonder why some of PBG drama didnt feel like drama at all, it more like PBG show. It might be popular, but the FL often not shine at all, like… the writernim just write the story for PBG character. Well, maybe he just writernim favorite. 🙂

  7. The whole romance didn’t really work coz there was no actual chemistry, the story of the second lead was not even that interesting, the ‘villain’ was so one dimensional, the families too were too makjang for me. I watched the last 2 episodes in just 30 minutes, I kept skipping forward coz it got too boring.

    Aside from PSD’s haircut, the time skip felt like it didn’t even happen.

  8. I tried to watch EP16 but kept skipping some parts. I had no connection to the story and the characters, sadly. I really think series is an ode of sorts, or a love letter for PBG to mark the end of his twenties and the start of his military enlistment, and to look forward to his comeback and his thirties. By the accounts of his seniors and his colleagues in the industry, he really is a great, talented guy, so I’m happy for him that he has this kind of a ‘moment’ drama (I just didn’t like it personally lol).

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