Discussion: Is Answer Me 1994 Still Worth Watching After the Husband is Revealed?

View Comments

• TBH I have been an oppa-najung shipper right from the start; i guess it's just me, but I really don't get the Yoo Yeon Seok appeal, even though I did understand why many fans adored him (plus I totally felt bad for his character given his awesome one-sided love where he just gave and gave and gave and never expected much in return). Trash may have been more enigmatic from the start, what with the writer's decision not to reveal Trash's real feelings until pretty late in the game but for some reason I think I saw enough in Trash's actions to make it obvious that he did return Najung's crush.
  I think overall AM1994 is worth a watch; it's not particularly good or fresh the way AM1997 was, but there are some really poignant moments in the show that really make it worth watching, plus I really quite enjoyed the character arcs for every single one of the side characters (Haitai and Binggeure were totally satisfying and adorable characters to follow). In the end I think there are only two biggest flaws in AM1994: it's almost inevitable that it's going to be compared with AM1997, and honestly 1994 does fall flat a little, in that it's not as tightly written or as fun to watch. The second is one that I think everyone who watched the show hates: the friggin husband mystery. I honestly feel that if the writers had told us straight out who was going to be the husband, then made the story more of how all three legs of the love triangle had grown from their experiences, the shippers would probably be much more satisfied, regardless of who ended up as Najung's husband. Instead the writers chose to drag out the mystery, have the pendulum swing from one guy to another until most of us got so tired of the conflict we didn't really give a damn who it was anymore as long as Najung was happy.
  One more plus about AM1994 (to end on a good note): Go Ara, who has been lacklustre in everything else I have seen her in, is a joy to watch in this show. She really embodies the character of Najung; even when she isn't the focal point of the scene, she's still inhibited by the character, to the point that she really makes the viewers see her as Najung; I think that is the mark of a good actress. I don't know what magic potions SM finally fed to their actresses, but it seems they're finally getting their act together!

• I admittedly did not watch the drama (I followed it by recap), mostly because I had no time for it. That said, watching R94 now will be a more meaningful experience because you don't have to deal with the netizen chaos or the husband anxiety, which lasted too many episodes. The whole series is about family and friends in an era past. With the husband mystery, everyone forgot about what made the series do heartwarming in the first place, the boys and NJ living together as a huge hostel family and interacting with the things that made the 90s so great. The only downside is that the episodes are RIDUCULOUSLY long, but since you're more of an expert in these things than I am, you may enjoy it way more than I would.

  So yeah, that's my two cents. I'm just glad the shipping war nonsense is done.

  • I should just quit typing on my phone. The above makes no sense. (-_-)

• Yes, it's still worth watching. The story itself worths more than just the shipping war.
  But be careful for any unsatisfying explanation made throughout the last episode. Seriously, the writers could have given the viewers better reasons for certain incidents.
  For people like me, whose ship's sunken, it would take a few days to accept such ending. I need to re-adjust my perspective, be neutral when i re-watch the whole episodes (>.<')...

  • i think it is one of the better korean dramas out there so do check it out if you have the time.

    the scenes about friendships and family were nice, i wish there were more of those.

    the characters here are more defined or fleshed out in terms of characteristics or mannerisms.

    i loved chil bong from the start and i can't really explain why. i just did. i read his character and actions differently from some people probably because of my bias.

    anyway, i think a lot of people were able to identify with him because he did a lot of the voice overs. he's also a straightforward character but yoo yeon seok portrayed him really well. i mean, you can see and feel his intentions and emotions just through his eyes, and then those were followed through with his actions.

    i hope you don't mind spoilers. he did the epic and romantic scenes by concept such as the first snow, confession, traveling for 12 hours (6 hours one way) to be with na jung for 3 hours, etc. the scenes were also made epic and romantic through directing and cinematography. i mean, his actions were simple and it's always just him and na jung but the scenes were made magical -- it perfectly captures fictional realism of romance.

    all the actors here are great, they more than delivered their part and have made their characters memorable. i think it's great that this drama is paving the way for these talented actors to be more popular and to have more projects.

• I am probably one of the few who watched 1994 before 1997. I enjoyed 1994 much more than 1997. I loved every character in 1994. I don't care who the husband is because I would be happy with either one. I think this show is a must watch. I am definitely going to rematch it myself.

• I HATED the ending. I am actually bawling right now and don't know how to calm myself down. I never shipped one guy over another, but in the final stretch of the drama I started to despise the male lead. He is just so incredibly selfish ... I just can't like or support him anymore. And Chilbong's storyline was completely tragic. It is hardly new for a second lead to develop a one-sided crush, but his love for Na Jung was so heartbreaking and selfless. He tried to get over her for years and could not. Is was just painful to watch.

  • Not trying to start a ship war but I'm at a loss on Trash Oppa being called selfish...

    • Tell me a solid reason he broke up with her. I was not shipping anyone, I loved Oppa before that.

    • I thought the reason that they broke up was because Oppa wasn't selfish enough! He never wanted to burden her with his troubles, not even telling her about his mom, to the point that Na-jung didn't feel like they were true partners, that maybe she was only someone for him to take care of. That's why it was so significant that he asked her to come over because he was sick. For the first time since they became a couple, Oppa was showing weakness around her and letting her take care of him.

    • I know. I'm at a loss too. I can't even read comments anymore without wondering if we've been watching the same drama.

    • Quaggy is right. They broke up, because Oppa treated her too good. He never let her feel his problems, he tried to protect her from everything. Only after he allowed himself to show her his weak side, they became a real couple. One of the few series, that shows, that RL relationships are that complicated.
      AM 1994 never was about Chilbong, it was always about Trash and NJ. They even wear couple clothes on the first poster!
      The show is flawed, it is too long, they pulled some tricks just to confuse the audience, but it got a great ensemble, some very, very good acting and a consistent story.
      It doesn't matter, whether you know who the husband is or not, because it should be clear from early on who is the end game.
      Just watch it for the great acting, the funny interaction and the adorable boarding house family.

      Not to be missed.

  • To be honest, Chilbong actually was a bit selfish in the way he kept pestering Na-Jeong about waiting for her. It's just not necessary to do that when someone is obviously in a happy relationship, especially when she gave him more than enough chances to see that.
    He treated her like a prize to be won in many cases and was never really interested in getting to understand her side of the story. Granted, Trash also did some bigoted and out of character things in the past few episodes, but he never expected to get anything in return.

    I think it was a problem Chilbong had with *himself*, not Na-Jeong. He treated love like baseball and assumed that his hard-work, patience, and dedication would pay off, but that's just not how it works. The real tragedy is that the writers never got to explore that, we never got to see much depth there (when there was plenty to explore).

  • They broke up without breaking up...time and distance and lack of contact on both their parts...her narration makes that clear

    • i think it's not the distance but the fact that he didn't actually *include* her in his lives that caused the rift. the distance just highlighted it.

      my main problem with the show stem from the focus on the mystery in that it sacrificed juicy character growth and the overall pacing. i think that the najong-oppa thread makes sense (although najong-chilbong reversal could also make for great character development for all three leads) but it wasn't developed thoroughly. sure, when he asked her to come over while sick was a first step towards inclusion and a beautifully poignant moment but it is treated like the cure-all moment for their relationship(a bit deus ex machina imo): he took a step to change and they get happily-ever-after. If the writers planned to go down that path from the start, I wished they had put more time to actually flush out the progression.

      but for the heart-warming friendship, it's still worth a watch.

    • Episode 20 she did say that they broke up because they cant be honest and say when they're having a hard time. Then they show the footage when oppas mom passed away and he didnt tell it to najeong about it and when she did find out and called him up he just kept on insisting he's okay and not to be burdened about it. On the voice over she said since they started being like siblings oppa cant stop being an oppa.

  • I don't get it. How is trash selfish? It's comments like these that i have to take with a grain of salt. I like chilbong so i'm not going to accuse him of such qualities without so much as a well-backed up argument. I wouldn't call chilbong nor trash selfish because if you compare them to most other male leads in k-dramas, both are golden, no? It's just chilbong is the perfect guy doing the perfect things for a girl he has a one-sided love for, and alot of people fell for that quality. Trash, as always, was one to silently care for others without drawing much attention. That understated, flawed trash like character is why I loved him.

    Like Quaggy said, if anything, trash and na jung broke up because he wasn't selfish enough. He didn't lean on her when he should have. In all those flashbacks you see where trash was going through a rough time, he carried those burdens by himself, he didn't wan't to put it upon na jung too because he loved her. That reason in itself is so real, we didn't get no noble idiocy or change of heart -- they still loved each other, they just ended up drifting in that time he was going through a rough patch. That's why na jung bursted into tears after getting the text from him that said he was sick and wanted to see her. Because he finally felt like he could rely on her, and that's all she wanted. She didn't want no "sorrys" -- she wanted precisely that.

    That's what i love about this show -- it has so much heart, it's genuine, it's real. The hubby mystery shot itself in the foot, and is what kept it from being so great imo. But one would be silly to deny all the great moments this show had to offer us. It ruined my enjoyment of the show just reading the comments filled with so much bashing, but I will give credit to this show where it's due.
    I really do think if you watched this show without settling upon a ship, you would enjoy the ending. It wrapped things up neatly -- it made me nostalgic for all the moments shared between our characters. Obviously Team Chilbong would be devastated by the ending, but i have a few Team Chilbong friends that already accepted their fate and started to prepare and thus, disliked the show that much less. False hope can really kill a show for someone...

  • Lol at calling Trash selfish. I guess we were watching 2 different shows. If you actually watched the show, Trash was the selfless one and Chilbong was the selfish one. Chilbong never did anything Na Jeong wanted but he did everything according to his feelings. It was never about her and always about him. Trash was so selfless that it became detrimental to him and Na Jeong relationship.

  • I all depends what you think is "selfish" and "selfless" behavior. What Trash kept on doing here is same as noble idiocy, basically, and I have never myself considered it to be selfless. Quite the contrary, deciding for other what is best for them and then acting according, IS selfish. Keeping yourself closed "to protect" the other person is selfish because you are, essentially doing it to your own good: you don't want to see the other person suffer because it would cause pain to YOU to see her/him suffer. Being a martyr is not being selfless.

    In my eyes Trash became less selfish when he started to give something of him to NJ instead of hiding behind the mask. But, as I say, this is a matter of interpretation of these words.

• Overall I really enjoyed the series. It wasn't about who she married at the end, it was how they got to the end. The characters development was beautifully crafted. I think many people got discouraged in the middle due to the fact the the love stories keeps getting swing back in forth. I will forever be a Chil Bong fan. He was bold and brave. His unrequited love for na jung was his greatest flaw though. Many says that his character was only about baseball and na jung but that's him. What more do you expect a baseball player to do? On the other hand, oppa was the perfect husband for na jung. He was synced to her feelings. Just like Chil bong, he has flaws. Timing was never his thing but he still made it to the end. Yoon jin and her hubby was the best thing that happened. I totally didn't see them getting together since I was a Haitai and yoon jin shipper or maybe that all my ship sank. :( at the end of the day, don't shelf a drama just because your ship isn't gonna make it to the end. There's so much more to the story than finding love and Reply 1994 totally makes it worth the ride!!

• Yes, it is totally worth watching even if you already know who the husband is... or maybe especially if you know who the husband is. Then you don't run the risk of falling for Second Lead Syndrome. Without the husband mystery, you get to watch a sweet slice-of-life comedy about the life and becoming an adult in 1990s. While In A Good Way more about campus life, Answer Me 1994 is about the world outside of academics. It's about small moments in life and life's funny beats (or goat sounds bleats, if you prefer). I think you will enjoy it.

  If you are for the Na-jung/Oppa pairing from the start, then the whole storyline (even the angst towards the end) feels natural and completely understandable. Just two people who fit together perfectly, navigating through what it takes to become a stable, happy unit. And it's so nice to finally have a story where the big-brother-protector-type gets the girl in the end. Heck, the girl in question never has eyes for anyone else!

  To be honest, I think the husband mystery was more of a way to add a little tension to an otherwise straightforward romance than anything else. Na-jung's feelings never wavered. Ever. And once, Oppa decided he was all in, his never did either. Watching them together has been a joy and I'll probably rewatch the series at some point in the future. Maybe even more than once!

  • Bingo - her feelings never wavered. So why the ending came as a surprise to anyone is beyond me.

    • I think it might be because so many Chilbongie shippers were actually just plain Chilbongie fans and whatever he wanted, they wanted for him, regardless of anything else. They were watching the show through the filter of their favorite character as the lead role. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but you miss a lot about what makes this show so wonderful (not just the romance, but the entire show in general) if only one character is your sole focus.

    • Quaggy you are in sync with my thoughts. I don't think CB shippers were all that surprised about the endgame, unless they were in denial and skipped all trash-najung moments and were deadset on CB. They're just upset because of where the show took this beloved character. They wanted the best for him, but the writer ended up doing a disservice to him in the final stretch, mostly because the writer kept the "it's not over until its over", stringing their hopes along, and then threw another possible love interest in the very last episode instead of doing that beforehand. So much more CB fans would have been more satisfied had this writer revealed EARLY on who the husband is and instead set CB up with a nice gal while developing their relationship.
      That's the only reason i can see CB fans getting angry at the writer. Anyone else who is gobsmacked at who the endgame has been living in their own bubble throughout the show.

  • I feel exactly the same, they never wavered in their feelings toward each other. Chilbong having feelings for her were his own but she only saw him as a friend. I didn't feel there was a love triangle at all despite the PD trying to make it so.

  • We'll said, well said!!

• Storywise, I think AM1997 had a better flow and better integration of the scenes to keep the mystery of the husband interesting, but not exhausting. The same can't be said for AM 1994, where the guessing game compromised the story-telling itself by cutting scenes short to preserve the mystery so that viewers aren't able to tell the motivations behind the characters as well.

  However, with possibly the exception of Chilbong and Najung, the characterization in 1994 was insanely well written. Each character had their own arc and you see their growth and learn to love them as who they are. In the case of Chilbong and Najung, their actions sometimes conflict their previous actions or they lack development throughout the series, just so the guessing game can go on. The 1.5 hour episodes also make the series seem much more draggy than AM1997.

  However, all in all, it was an excellent series and the actors and actresses were all winning in their roles. The parents were especially wonderful and I did enjoy AM1994 more than its predecessor, but I don't know if I would rewatch this like I did with AM1997.

• It's worth watching but some things are DRAGGED outbsome episodes feel long for no reason

  I was Team Trash Oppa but since the only person she had feelings for the entire time was Oppa I couldn't understand the other ship.

  Also...personally a lot of things Chilbong did and said in regards to Na Jung kind of creeped me out. It's like Twilight syndrome. If CB wasn't a very handsome man would people have found his actions acceptable?

  • In regards to your last question - nope. No wonder casting directors pick hot guys, since it seems like a pretty face can paper over seriously questionable behavior.

  • You could say that for most Kdrama male leads too, it's messed up that there isn't a real alternative to that stock type character with its aggressive and possessive man-child behaviour. It's tiring.

  • Honestly, I couldn't enjoy Chilbongie for that reason. I've been in Na-jung's shoes and it's not fun. Having someone in love with you for years totally believing that some day you will love them back, despite all evidence to the contrary, is not romantic. It's not necessarily creepy, but it's so tiring having someone's romantic expectations pushed on you. It's an extra burden you have to bear, because of course, you don't want to hurt your friend. And in the end, you even wind up resenting him a little, because why are HIS feelings more important than yours? Chilbongie, at least, decided to value the friendships he was offered over the hopes he had previously cherished. But much of his heartbreak was his own doing.

  • The show definitely was draggy in some parts and i never understood Chilbongs character because I thought is character was annoying. He was extremely clingy and needy. If he was a girl character so many people would be bashing on her instead of calling him sweet. None of his actions were sweet because it was never ever for Na Jeong sake or happiness.

• I shipped Chilbing and Na Jung from beginning to end. I don't like the "siblings" love between them! Even though they aren't related the fact they always treated that way then magically Na Jung fell for him turned me off...

  Perferred 1997 better as 1994 focused way too much on the lovelines.. And Na Jungs fangirling antics were barely part of the storyline it was in the beginning but not anymore... Don't give the whole "age" issue look at Yoon Jin same age and was basically a die hard fan from the end. Though the drama is about the basketball craze it shifted towards baseball more.

  Not to mention the storyline of Baros sexuality as he wasn't sure if he liked boys or girls and I felt no chemistry when he got pairs with Jin Yi.

  I liked Hai Tai, Yoon Jin and Samcheonpo though they were hilarious... But that's it.. 1997 forever!