Moment at Eighteen (2019)

You will not regret watching it..!!

Initially, I postponed watching this drama because I thought it will be nothing more than fluff and school problems. It's true that it has school problems but what I like about this drama is, it's very real. It's realistic to the point that you can relate to the story. Also, the character development was great. There will be times where you will cry buckets. It might not be full of fluff but it will make you remember the time when you were 18. It's not an exaggeration. I just finished watching and writing this review with a heavy feeling that this drama has finished. The ending might not be perfect but it's very satisfactory and suits the taste of this drama very well.<3

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Watched for Moonbin, stayed for the plot

I gave this drama a chance because I wanted to see Moonbin. Though I was saddened he barely appeared in the first few eps—(he has more screen presence in the later part of the drama), I continued watching as I was fairly surprised on how great the plot and the acting was.
I expected this drama to be very low budget and with a cringey storyline because of the title. But there’s more to that than what meets the eye.
Although I’d have to say it was a good drama overall, I was left with unanswered questions.
What ended up happening to Hwi Young’s parents? They totally left us out of the loop. We finally get to know where his big brother is, and what he’s doing after the investigation, but where are his parents? How did they react to the whole situation?
What happened to Jun Woo’s parents and how did they end up separating? When did Oh Je realize he was gay? And last but certainly not least, will Soo Bin’s mom ever let the two date? I think if the drama went more in depth, it’d have been totally better. I wouldn’t go as far as the ending was rushed, but they could have taken the time to clear up somethings that were never mentioned in the beginning—like how they did with Hwi Young’s brother.
Soo Bin’s acting really surprised me. For being young as she is, her acting is solid. This is my first time seeing basically the whole cast but they didn’t disappoint. I was really touched by some of the lines and emotions that the characters went through, especially moments with Soo Bin and her mother.
I personally wouldn’t rewatch the whole series again, but I’d rewatch the parts where Moonbin was in.

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Every day teen life and trying to figure out life with parents, teachers, and classmates. This is one of the BEST portrayals of teenage-dom in a kdrama I have seen yet. It portrays all the emotions and things teens go through throughout high school... bullying, parents being strict over grades, friendships, break ups, finding love and finding yourself and your dream.

I really loved the side characters in this drama and they really help bring everything together. I started watching this before the passing of Moon Bin, so it took me a minute to start to get back into watching, but watching his character that he plays, Oh Je, was really refreshing. He plays such a good character and I loved Oh Je's entire story arc. Him and Mr. Oh definitely stole the show in my eyes and I loved watching every scene that had them both in it. Moon Bin's smile can light up a room and I'm so glad that's permanently in this show forever.

Mr. Oh, played by Kang Ki Young, killed it! The character itself is everything and anything you would ever want in a dream teacher. That adult that you can go to with anything and everything and they will help with no judgement or questions asked. He really believed in the kids and their dreams and it was such an important aspect of the show for me. When I was in high school, there were no teachers like him, and just seeing the portrayal of what a good one should be like, was super emotional. His story tugs at your heart strings and had me rooting for him the whole time. I had watched Kang Ki-Young in Attorney Woo and loved him in that too, so I was glad to see more of his bubbly personality in another show.

While the ending almost had me give this a lower rating because I'm not one for sad, they switched up on me and gave me a realistic one and because of that I gave this a 9.5. While it's not an original plot whatsoever, it was such an interesting one and I loved watching all of the actors play their characters. It felt like I was going to school with them again and getting stressed out myself. Just a really good slice of life about high school.

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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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I am not a huge fan of high school dramas and so I kept putting off this drama. But one night when I was not enjoying the crime drama that I was watching I decided to give this a try. And I DO NOT Regret my decision at all. This drama has a very slow, delicate, soft, melancholic vibe to it but it also has its cute, funny moments as well. So it is not boring at all.

It was a beautiful story to watch unfold with a very realistic ending as well. The drama leaves you with a few tears and a soft smile at last. This was the main male lead's first main role drama and I must say he did a brilliant job of staying quiet yet acting..played the introvert to perfection !! I read some reviews here that said they were not happy with the story and there were some plot holes they could not let go off. But for me nothing was wrong with this drama. In fact they touched upon interesting issues in the drama from bullying, study pressure, school transfers, interfering parents, friendships, dating, career path, loneliness, homosexuality and the confusion that comes with it ! I enjoyed all the characters from the teens to their overbearing parents and the adults who save the day ! I must also commend Kang Ki for his role as the bumbling yet caring homeroom teacher. He deserved the excellence award he received for this role at 2019 Korea Drama Awards.

Oh and I quite enjoyed the OSTs of this drama. Moments by Christopher and 'Our Story' by One Seong (main lead) were hauntingly beautiful.

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emotional and really intriguing at first. but the storyline dragged in the middle and everything was all rushed in the end. i hated how so many storylines were introduced and never got a proper conclusion. so many things were just left open-ended, but i guess that's life. it became a youth romance drama quickly with so many characters that they obviously wanted the audience to care for, but i never did. i don't mind the romance but everything had to take a backseat because of it, when there should've been a balance since a lot of stuff was going on with joon woo's character. i was honestly hoping for something more, especially since it was so good in the beginning and some of the scenes actually made me cry. anyways, it's not bad. the performances were good, and i loved the cinematography. i couldn't remember any ost's so they didn't really stand out (that's not a good thing), but to be fair i really don't know what type of vibe they were looking for as a whole so maybe that factored into the ambiguous music. safe to say i don't plan on rewatching, but i would still recommend this if someone's looking for something to over a weekend.

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If you are searching for a school drama this is the best one , don't look at other reviews if you love teen dramas then this this a best choice .the story was awesome

When i first saw the reviews of this drama,they were very very low ,no one gave review above 9.0 , so i thought its waste of watching this drama but once when i started to watch this drama i felt very good .if you are bored with action and thrillers genres this is the best drama of coming age. it is not at all boring . OST , STORY, ACTING everything are excellent ,this is one of the best school drama

the cast is quite great. their acting was amazing , All the supporting actors justified their roles

drama was realistic , personally i felt this drama is too short ,they could've extended few episodes and add the story of choi jun woo development.

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glad to say that i watch this drama when its still on going.. this drama are totally different with others school drama i ever watch so far.. the story, plot, ending are different but it's so cliche with fanfic story except of the family conflict.. both main roles and support roles are really good.. majority of the cast are new in acting industry.. the title of the drama is really matching with the storyline.. the every scene are really can be relate with our real life.. but as drama fan, I'm actually feel dissapointed with the mid of the story.. its make me so boring.. it's really stressful to see the story like a rollercoaster.. but it's really worth to watch.. don't only enjoy the drama. there are a lot of message for people especially a new adult and parents.. ask your family to watch it together.. at some reason, i will rewatch it again

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Slow Paced Teen Rom-Com

LIKES:
Colour palate, cinematography, lighting all good.
Music for the most part was appropriate and added to the scene, especially since the ML Jun-u didn't talk much, even when he should. The music filled in those parts, what he didn't say.
Acting was great for all the teenagers and their teachers, the parents were okay for the adult actor/actresses. The cast was well chosen.

DISLIKES:
Writing:
How anti-climatic and badly written the whole show was. There's one part near the beginning that they had Jun-u get over WAY TOO FAST, that it was laughable and ridiculous. They should've concluded the supporting characters that they built up throughout the show too. Also character growth seemed limited to just Jun-u and it was minimal at best. Since they stretched it out to 16 episodes they could've shown us everyone two or five years in the future, to conclude everything properly.
Bulling, cheating, early motherhood, peer and parental pressure, were just some of the topics covered, but none of them were well developed or handled.
Directing:
Often Jun-u and other character reactions were way too slow. They are in high school and kiss like they are in middle school, not like they are eighteen as the title suggested.
Production:
Zooming in way too close, I hate seeing up people's noses and how the makeup hides their acne or whatever. Also hate when faces are cut out of the screen.
Pacing issues, made the drama drag on in some ways and the ending became rushed.
FX:
The scars for Jun-u and Hwi-yeong, disappeared too fast or they forgot to do the makeup for it. Jun-u's black eye never changed from the pink makeup to a darker tone. If they didn't want the black eye anymore, they could've written that Su-bin used concealer to cover it, to help hide his fighting. And for Su-bin her lipstick often was not even, having half the upper lip missing the lipstick. That's just sloppy.

OVERALL:
Sloppy writing and pacing issues, really gave this drama a low score, only due to the great acting by the students, is why it got 4.5/10. For a drama made in 2019 it should've been better, especially since this theme is from a saturated genre in S. Korea. I would recommend it to anyone just starting out in the student rom-com category of dramas. I won't rewatch and there are no parts that I would want to see again or that truly resonated with me.

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"We're only 18." - 16 Episodes of Love, Peace, and Consolation

I will be honest and say that I first started this drama mainly for Moonbin (I love ASTRO), because I was very excited to see him acting in a drama and I had also heard his character was not straight which piqued my interest even more. However, I can say that right from the beginning, the main plot of the drama, along with the full cast of characters made me stay and wholly fall in love with this show.

First, regarding the story, I found it was very close to perfect, touching on some very important topics related to the age of 18 and the struggles of high-schoolers approaching entry into university. I loved how parental pressure and its impact on teens' mental health was deeply explored through both Soo-bin's and the second male lead, Hwi-young's character. Moreover, a very beautiful and consoling aspect of the story related to the topic of academic pressure was the idea that it's okay to not know exactly where you're going at 18 or to not have the most amazing grades. The message was that youth is a time of exploration and of finding oneself, so while every little failure might seem like the end of the world to an 18-year-old, it may just become a trivial aspect of their life when looking back later on, so people should just focus on loving themselves and enjoying their lives. No one's life is 'ruined' if something doesn't go as planned, as Joon-woo himself said in a very poignant scene. Furthermore, this drama's messaging greatly emphasized acceptance, which was very touching for me. This can be seen as related to the blooming love between Soo-bin and Joon-woo and *minor spoiler* her mother's judgmental attitude towards him, seeing him through the lenses of his reputation and his lack of means, things that gave her a completely distorted view of him, making her completely disregard his inherently kind and mature nature *end of minor spoiler*. I could go on and on about why this story touched me and kept me entertained throughout the 16 episodes (wish there were more!), but I will stop here so this doesn't get too long.

Next, the characters/acting/cast: 10/10, I found both the characterization and the choice of actors to be simply perfect. Something that really stood out to me was how the characters look exactly like real-life teenagers instead of the, more commonly seen in dramas, picture-perfect 'teenagers' that look like adults. By this, I am in no way saying the actors are not good looking, they very much are, but what I mean is that their appearance was made to match the real-life look of Korean teenagers, through their hairstyles, their simple and normal-looking clothes/uniforms, and the absence of (obvious) makeup.
One character in particular that I would like to talk about (for the sake of conciseness, I will not touch too much on the rest of the characters) is Oh-je (Moonbin's character). *Oh-je spoilers ahead* I was so impressed with Oh-je's characterization, going from at first seeming just like the cliché handsome guy that all the girls probably have a crush on, to coming into his own through his caring and beautiful friendship with Joon-woo and mostly, his failed relationship with Soo-bin's friend, Da-heen. Throughout their relationship, one can observe how Oh-je seems very uncomfortable around Da-heen, mainly when she emphasizes the romantic aspect of their relationship. However, as time goes on, he starts caring for her very much, but only as a friend, which ends up leading him to break up with her. Still, he cares for her so much that when he sees how depressed she becomes after their breakup, he suddenly comes out to her and reveals his crush on Hwi-young and his confusion regarding his sexuality. Moreover, I really love how, after rumours start spreading about his crush on Hwi-young and after seeing Hwi-young's cold and insulting reaction to them, Oh-je seems to not have a crush on him anymore, showing his level of self-respect and self-love by not wasting his feelings on someone who doesn't even seem to care for him or respect him. Later on, he seems to just focus on his friendship with Joon-woo and Da-heen while being at peace with himself. This type of representation of different sexualities and of the fluidity of sexuality (Oh-je never overtly states that he is gay, he is confused about his romatic attraction) is very healthy and welcomed, as it strays from the common depiction of non-straight people being the victims of society by showing Oh-je be at peace with himself even when rumours about his were circulating at school. *Oh-je spoilers end* What can I say, I LOVED Oh-je's character and Moonbin's depiction of him!

As for the music, it fits perfectly with all the moods of the drama, having an array of sentimental, sad, comforting, and happy songs. I will definitely be listening to the OST of this drama for a while!

Finally, for the rewatch value, it is 10/10, as even now I feel like I could go back and watch it again. I already miss these beautiful characters!

Overall, this drama is a 9.5/10 for me, very close to perfect, so I 100% recommend it! Go watch it if you haven't already!

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The initial plot was really good

So, the plot was really good. I mean, the plot about bullying, lies, manipulation and so on was really captivating... But in this drama as well as many others, the screenwriters add too much romance. They also focused on the girl's life too much in the middle of the drama. I think the drama could be really better without all of the useless scenes of romance ; but if you're really found of romance, I guess this drama is a really good one for you. But they also rushed the end and it was not as good as expected.

But I really liked this drama for the development of the main character, the development of his relationships and of his self-confidence and self-esteem. He was so cute and the actor was breathtaking. The Homeroom teacher was too nice and it should be awesome having a teacher like him. I really liked his role.
I put a 9 for acting/cast cuz I find the main girl was too much, I didn't really was found of her acting. But I find that the acting was really good overall and the actors were really into their character, it was really captivating to watch - just didn't like this girl...

The OST were pretty good and accurate with each moments.

I put the rewatch value at 5 cuz I guess if I have to rewatch it for some reasons, I will like the same points (but also dislikes the too-much romance huhu).

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The ending got me, I wasn't prepared even though I saw the episode title. But I think it ended well so after the two heartbreaking dramas I watched I'm satisfied :)

The characters were great, I like the class and the teacher - they remind me of my school ♥
My hopes for season 2 are low because even though I want more, I don't think there will be more.

Still, I enjoyed this drama a lot. One of the main reasons is that I watched it with my parents and they liked it (like my dad said that if I want to watch something he will watch it with me so I was a little worried at first because he never watched any Asian drama, only a few Pinku-eiga movies I watched and I saw the romance and love triangle tags so I thought it might not be for him, but it went well and my mom joined too so I think it was a win-win situation), so I guess their journey to dramaland is beginning and I will be more than happy to guide them hehe ^^

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