Thoughts

Pinay Personal Pick: Top 5 Korean Dramas That Depict Our Student Life Crisis


As a millennial Filipino, I have witnessed the changes around me, particularly the influences when I was still a student. From books to e-books; from Library to Google; from outdoor plays to online games; from US to South Korea – yes, we know how big the western influence is to us until we thumbed up the Hallyu effect. This unexpected massive Korean wave was brought to us by their two major players - Music and Drama series. But there’s one more responsible why we became the regular Samgyeopsal eater; a K-beauty hoarder; a Melona ice cream craver, and a Korean grocery shopper – clue: we can spend all day watching all the episodes and still wanting to watch for another more!

With Kdrama series, we are offered with a passel of different genre commonly RomCom, Heavy Drama, Action, Thriller, Supernatural and a lot more! Almost all of these Kdramas portray the ordinary stages of life where challenges, growth, love, and surprise in each character connect us to what is true to life. Not just being a series, but it makes us think and feel how these scenes tell us our real situations and give us the inspiration on how to get through it. And this was what I felt when I first watched a Kdrama series. It was a ride of hope, crisis, emotions, and motivation. So much of the feeling that I am sharing a particular outline of my personal pick of Kdrama series that have something to say about our journey as a student because I believe that we only hate our student life once and we wish a thousand times to go back to studying after we had our first bill payment.

So here’s my Top 5 Personal Pick (in no particular order):

*Cheese in the Trap (The Cons of Being Independent)

Photo from Asianwiki
This Webtoon-based romance drama starring Kim Go-Eun (as Hong Seol) and Park Hae-Jin (as Yoo Jung), is the definition of hate-and-love relationship. Whilst their love bloomed eventually after some realization and cryptic events (go watch it so you’ll know), this drama gave accent to the life of Hong Seol being an independent and hard-working student. She lives afar off her parents and she has part-time jobs to support her studies and pay her bills. We can see here how independence sometimes put pressure on us because people tend to think that we can always get through everything on our own, that we don’t need anyone to share our burden with, and that they can always count on us whenever they want to. Most of the time people think that we are always okay on our own, and we can always deal with our troubles, and it's okay if they can't take part in our comfort. The good thing is, she has reliable friends she counts on during dark times. Fortunately, she even has her own prince who is always there for her except that he is seemed so secretive about some things. Also, another good thing about this drama is that you can get some inspiration about how her room was organized and idealized to leave an impression on you that “this is the kind of room I want to spend studying in even from hours to day despite the challenges around me” - a small, a little bit messy but still cozy room is right there.

*Love Story in Harvard (Choosing Priorities And Setting Aside What’s Needed Later)

Photo from Asianwiki
Released in 2004, Love Story in Harvard is one of the most classic but still timely Romance drama even after many decades! A love triangle joined by Kim Hyun-Woo (Kim Rae-Won), Jung Min-Hong (Lee Jung-Jin) and Lee Soo-in (Kim Tae-Hee), who in the future will be Lawyers and a Doctor. Hyun-Woo and Min-Hong rivalry abounded outside the four corners of their classroom (and their law books) as they both fell in love with Soo-In who was a medical student. Living the tougher life, Soo-in couldn’t afford to be completely committed with anyone yet despite the evident efforts of the two men running the race to her heart. She was set to succeed on her goals and she didn’t see a love relationship as a need to get through it. Being a Harvard medical student, Soo-In finds her way difficult to pay for her studies and living expenses all at the same time, so she toils on multiple jobs to survive, leaving herself with so little time for anything or anyone else. Unlike the two men, they both have the luxury and the time to enjoy their lives despite the pressure of their studies. Soo-In's situation gives her limited time and opportunity, so she pushes herself to work harder and double her effort to get her way out. This is the reason why she decided to leave Hyun-Woo hanging in pain and heartbreak. Yep, she fell in love with Hyun-Woo but she couldn’t afford to let go of her dreams after so many hard works. As you can see, not everyone is capable to love and to work out his goals at the same time – sometimes there must be only one choice, and it’s something that is more needful at the present.

*The Heirs (Dealing With Bullies While Surviving The Peer Pressure)

Photo from Asianwiki

An 18-year old student, Cha Eun-Sang (Park Shin-Hye) struggles with life as she affords to see her household help mother toiling so hard just to provide for their needs despite her disability (mute). Turn of events made it even much harder for her when she discovered the fabricated truth her sister has been keeping since she went to US. She thought it was a dream come true when she finally stepped her foot in the western land but some things flipped it to something nightmare. When she went back to Korea, she was shocked to find out their rented house empty. Now her only choice to survive is to live at her mom’s employer house too. Much of their surprise, Eun-Sang was offered with a scholarship by (Lee Min-Ho) Kim Tan’s father at their exclusive school. After accepting the scholarship, Eun-Sang was even put to a more difficult situation where she had to deal with a different class of wealthy people. She was labeled as “new money” by Kim Tan to leave the impression that she is also on the same level as them. However, this only invited a chance to speculate her real identity and (Kim Woo-Bin) Choi Young-Do was all ready to unmask her. Being the new talk of their school, Eun-Sang realized how cruel some wealthy people could be. She saw how bullies at their school ruined someone else’s life with no guilt, and how could she be in the same situation any sooner. But Eun-Sang is no weak, she didn’t want to complicate her life so she didn’t attune to the norm of these wealthy people. She was not ashamed of her life’s truth, only that it was kept in secret because Kim Tan thought it was the best game plan for her survival.

*Goblin (What It’s Like to Have An Uncertain Future?)
Photo from Asianwiki

More than the love story, one of the remarkable scenes in Goblin is (Kim Go-Eun) Ji Eun-Tak’s roller-coaster future and uncertainty. Living with her Aunt and her family, Eun-Tak never felt cared for and loved by her relatives. Her temporary survival at her aunt’s house was her mom’s insurance that was still unbeknownst to them its whereabouts. As lonely as she gets each day, Eun-Tak resolutely seeks answers to her questions about her future: college, job, and a boyfriend (yay hahaha). She knows that she is the Goblin’s bride but she didn’t expect their meet-up on her birthday. Fast forward, after all the fate that is bestowed on Eun-Tak and the Goblin, these two must prepare for a different path to future – the Goblin has to die and Eun-tak has to live her dreams and goals until it’s all fulfilled. It is a sure sad thing that the Goblin has to die, but it is also surprising how Eun-Tak will be able to pursue her studies (she wanted to be a producer). As the Goblin prepared himself for his death, he was also preparing Eun-Tak’s future, specifically her studies. When Eun-tak found out that she could finally pursue college, she did all her best to prepare for it – she reviewed all her subjects seriously, she looked for her possible school, and she took up college entrance exams. Despite being almost an orphan, Eun-Tak still has the Goblin, the Grim Reaper and Deok-hwa (Goblin’s Nephew) to cheer her up and to celebrate her special moments with them. Taking Eun-Tak’s life to reality, it is really difficult to dream for college when you have nothing but your dream. We believe that one of our first possible stepping stones to achieve our dreams is to finish our studies. But for some with no money and moral support from their family, it is an impossible thing yet to even start with. But let’s take it a lesson as well from Eun-Tak’s perseverance and persistence to realize her dreams - we may all have different versions of uncertain future but we can always be certain with what do we want to become and to have sooner and that’s something worth looking forward to.

*Go Back Couple (Rediscovery of Relationship and Future)


Photo from Asianwiki
A good start in marriage doesn’t always mean a good end for the couple. This is also where love alone (apart of any of its component) is not enough to work out a relationship becomes relevant. Choi Ban-Do (Son Ho-Jun) and Ma Jin-Joo (Jang Na-Ra) who started as college sweethearts before they got married ended up in the court for a divorce. And then one night, they suddenly went back to the time as college students, where they first met and fell in love with each other. Having been able to time-travel back unexpectedly, Jin-Joo and Ban-Do thought that this is finally the chance to change their fate as a correction to their present state. They were both involved here with their past almost lovers and they even tried to work out a relationship with these people to see if it’s supposed to happen. Only then they realized that Jung Nam-Gil (Chang Ki-Young) and Min Seo-Yeong (Go Bo-Gyeol) were just part of their relationship’s realization and the things they were not able to see as a couple were unmasked. Their college journey and the people they are with during this time are all links to help them redefine their current relationship status and rediscover their true future - knowing each other, understanding each other, and staying in love with each other despite the odds along their way. Their efforts to pursue the opposite state of their relationship didn't stop the events and the people in their relationship to point them back to each other. This might be a story of going back in time, but we all know that college is really a chunk of our life where we create the best possibilities - career, love life, connections, and achievements. It is also the fastest replay of our life to look back at our regrets, despair, celebrations, happiness, lessons and even failures. One thing I really learned in this drama is that it is only possible for us to look back in our past so let's not skip everything to a conclusion yet even we are at our emotion's peak but let's give our best to analyze our situations to serve ourselves the best solutions.

All of these are all my personal takeaways of the mentioned dramas, so this might be different from yours but I hope you are open to mine! :) For more K-drama suggestions and reviews, please keep tuned to my blog! 

Thanks for reading heaps! ♥♥♥ 

Missmoragrey

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