RESPECT. Review: ‘Age of Youth’ Drama

Poster revealed for ‘Age of Youth’ drama that first aired on July 22, 2016.

Saturday was the twelfth and last episode of the Korean drama, Age of Youth, or in Korean, ‘청춘시대.’

Age of Youth follows the lives of five girls who all reside under the same roof at a house called the Belle Epoque which means “beautiful era” in French. The name of their house may be a reference to the title of this drama as well as the ages of these girls who are all currently in their twenties. Each episode explores the various livelihoods, events and daily life experiences of each girl. Although they all live inhabit the same house, they all have very different personal, financial, and romantic situations.

The characters are well-made – each of the girls are easily differentiated. The oldest member of the house is Yoon Jin-myung, but usually referred to as “Yoon sunbae” by the girls, as she is the eldest. She is reserved, intelligent, hard-working, diligent in her studies, works many part-time jobs, and may have seemed standoffish in the beginning, but is concerned about her younger roommates. She is also stubborn and has endured many hardships but never complained. She is selfless and doesn’t take proper care of herself.

Then there is Jung Ye-eun, whose nickname is “Madame Jung.” She is the feminine girly-girl who may seem superficial at first, as she only seems to pay attention to her outer appearance. However, she is caring about her friends, very affectionate towards her boyfriend and is actually naive about romantic relationships.

There is Song Ji-won who is cheerful, talkative, friendly, a mood-maker and an extrovert who likes to act cute. She has a strong sense of justice, outwardly protective of her friends and outspoken. However, she does have insecurities about herself because she’s never dated anyone.

The youngest is Yoo Eun-jae, who is probably the polar opposite of Ji-won, as she is an introvert who is quiet and shy. She is also innocent and may appear bright on the outside, but is actually holding a lot of secrets which has been bothering her for a long time.

Last but not least, there is Kang Yi-na, who is the only girl who is not a college student. She is beautiful (and uses it to her advantage). She loves shopping and living a luxurious life. She has no real job and is funded by older, wealthy men who give her money and gifts in exchange for her company. She is strong, and may seem dependent on men, but she is using them to live in leisure and lead an extravagant lifestyle. She is not afraid to speak up, is honest,and is protective of her friends in a subtle way.

Out of all these girls, there is definitely a character you can relate to. Another great aspect of the drama is how real it is. It discusses the reality of dreams, friendships, school life, romantic relationships and so on. It tackles issues as well, from breakups to job-hunting to struggling with an abusive boss at work, to dealing with debts and the lack of financial security.

Age of Youth is realistic and is not your typical romance drama. I tend to watch many dramas that have romance as one of their big themes and many of those dramas are unrealistic and very cliche. A recurring plot line for those far-fetched dramas is how a poor and naive but kind girl falls in love with a rich cad, who is often a womanizer. The scenes in those dramas are so improbable and and redundant that it makes the drama actually comical and somewhat watchable. However, those dramas are just amusing and something to watch when you’re bored.

But this drama, is worth-watching and worth your time. This drama forces you to ride on a roller coaster of emotions, there will be times when you smile at their silliness, laugh with these girls, cry with them, sob for them, get frustrated with them, want to protect them and so on. You grow with these girls in the six weeks and care about them even though they’re not real people. But that’s the thing – these girls are so normal and familiar, that they could be a real person somewhere out in the world. It almost feels like you have become their roommate and have joined their circle of friendship. This ordinariness of the girls, the plot line, the stories of each character is what makes this drama extraordinary.

One very interesting concept of this drama as well, is at the end of each episode they interview the actor and actress, but in the role of the characters they are playing. The director asks the characters questions to try to understand them and inquires for explanations for their actions in that respective episode.

The cinematography is great too. Most television shows have the same opening theme with each episode. However, for this drama, there is a video montage of different clips that relate to the title and overall theme of that particular episode.

Out of all the dramas I have watched, this is definitely the best. I will definitely watch all twelve episodes all over again. If you want a real drama that depicts real situations and if you want something you can relate to, this drama is a must-watch.

Age of Youth aired on Fridays and Saturdays for six weeks at 10:30 KST on the South Korean cable channel JTBC. Each episode is about seventy minutes and if you’re interested in watching this drama, you can watch all the episodes here with English subtitles.