[Drama 2015] Answer Me 1988 응답하라 1988

[Phuong Tam Nguyen]

Btw, here is HR's latest V App, but I can't understand anything :)) Guys, any kind soul keen of translating it? (the vid is quite long actually)

Off Topic

[mininoona]

i found this really funny parody of Repy 1988 on youtube, has anyone post it before?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLdKqp2FGK

[sheza]

7 hours ago, packmule3 said:

May I add a couple of notes to the dramabeans’ recap of Episode 14?  I know many of the posters here in soompi rely on that site to form their opinions. Caveat: This is a long post so feel free to skip.

First commentary:

According to dramabeans, TK said this:  “I just like her. I like being with her.” And then he gets all serious as he adds, “I think I might die without her.” 
According to dramafever, this was what TK said: [Addressing the empty space with a smile] I just like her. I just like her when I’m with her. [Pause. He turned to face SW. For a second, he looked confused as if a sudden discovery bewildered him, then he became serious, making eye contact with SW.] When she smiles…I almost feel like I could die.

There’s a difference between dramafever’s and dramabeans’ translations but it works either way for me. 

With dramafever’s subs, the viewers sensed a visceral emotion from him -- not a cold intellectual analysis by some genius. There’s a jarring disconnect in the imagery produced by the words.  Normally, a smile doesn’t trigger thoughts of death, but of life, happiness, and heaven (as in “I feel like I died and went to heaven when I saw him smile.”) Therefore, to say that 999th DS could slay him with a simple smile was most poetic… and painful… considering how often she smiled in his presence. lol. 

As for the dramabeans’ translation, I understand from some posters that TK’s words left an ugly impression that he was a needy young man.  But if I was a TS-DK shipper, I wouldn’t be so sensitive nor be insulted by that kind of observation.  You see, most people missed the connection here.  As dramatic as TK’s declaration sounded, it paralleled the words spoken by DS’ father in the previous episode.  In Episode 13, DS’s father broke down in fear that his wife would die of cancer. He wailed, “I can’t live without her! I can’t.”  Remember that? And do you notice how both these dramatic confessions of the father and TK elicited the same reactions from the best buddies? Both their male audience laughed off their histrionics as one big joke. 

I think the similarity was deliberate. In making TK and the father say the same over-the-top lines about the “great love of their lives”, a connection was established between these two “Supermen”.  [“Superman Returns” was the Episode 13’s title. I have to explain that too another time.] You see, these men have something in common other than Duk-Seung. Both men put on a brave face and try to save the world. In TK’s case, it was the baduk world, and specifically, the Japanese tournament where he won that nondescript trophy. More importantly, they both avowed that their kryptonite was their women.  

Their willingness to declare their true feelings no matter how comical and hysterical they sound is a sign of their bravery. Lesser men would have kept their true feelings to themselves. 

Second commentary: 

The whole DongRyong and DS conversation in Episode 14 may be viewed from a perspective different from that explored in dramabeans. I’ll type the subtitles from dramafever and intersperse my own remarks as I go along. BTW, I’m neither a DS/TK nor DS/JH fangirl. I don’t watch these shows for love-lines. But I do ship scripts, as some old-timer Soompi posters here know. The scriptwriter’s approach to this drama is intriguing but, unfortunately, some points may have been overlooked in the rush to establish and defend coupledoms,  

DS: [sighing]
DR: What’s up with you? Are you shooting a movie? [DR immediately picked up on the mood: DS was acting like a long-suffering drama queen from a makjang.]
DS: Ancestor, there’s something I’m curious about. [The translator most likely meant “O wise and ancient sage!” because DS recognized DR as the group counselor.]
DR: Tell me. [lol. He was already playing up his role as Father Confessor. He’s been effectively eliminated as Future Husband.]
DS: Why doesn’t anyone like me? [DR gave her the side-eye and muttered something in contempt. Of course, he knew of ONE person who liked her but he couldn’t outright tell her. Instead, he did the next best thing: he trolled her.]
DR: Oh! It’s Taek…. Nope, never mind. [Nice move! He covertly disclosed who liked DS by pretending to play a game of “I spy Taek.” He grinned at how clever he was.]
DS: [Notice how DS looked up expectantly?] I’m serious. [Meaning she was having a serious conversation here, so stop it for a second with the childish games.]
DR: I know, I’m serious, too. 
DS: [Looks downcast again.] Why isn’t there anyone? Hmm? I guess I’m a woman who has no right to be loved. [Watch at slight movement of DR’s shoulders. He was restraining himself from laughing at her pity-party.]
DR: Duk Seon.
DS: Yeah? 
DR: Do you like boiled sweet potatoes or baked sweet potatoes?
DS: Boiled sweet potatoes.
DR: Do you like Lee Man Sae or Park Nam Jung?
DS: Park Nam Jung.
DR: Do you like me or Taek?
DS: [without hesitation] Taekie. [Grinning]
DR: How annoying. [It probably pricked his ego that she didn’t equivocate.] You hate me?
DS: No, but I still like Taek more [Smiles again.]
DR: If that’s the case, do you like Jung Hwang or Sung Woo?
DS: Don’t ask questions like that. [Observe DR smile again.]

Let’s pause here and discuss this a bit. 

Why did DR smile here at her response?  Why didn’t he call her out for evading the question? Why didn’t he insist on her giving an honest answer? I think it’s because he was SATISFIED with her response. Her non-answer was, in itself, an answer he wanted, and he smiled because he received confirmation that DS liked TK. TK was ranked one. 

You see, DR forced her to choose one.  Boiled or baked sweet potato? This entertainer or that one? Him or Taek? Without hesitation, she gave her responses. Moreover, when he clarified whether she chose Taek because she disliked him, she readily answered that she liked Taek MORE… which revealed to DR that she was unabashed in her preference for TK.  But if she had so candidly chosen TK over him, why couldn’t she do the same when the choice was either SW or JH?

Really now! If I were DS, my only logical answer was SW. Look: if I truly liked JH, there was no way I’d reveal my crush to that blabbermouth DR. The safe answer was SW to deflect my real feelings. On the other hand, if I felt nothing for JH, then my answer should also have been SW, because SW is a much “likeable” person than JH whom everybody regards as “prickly”.  Remember what the ghost-father of SW asked him earlier in this episode? The ghost-father asked whether JH was still prickly. So even back then, his reputation was known.

See that?

To me, DS halted DR with “Don’t ask questions like that” in order to avoid having divided loyalties/friendships and belaboring the point any further. Besides, as far as she was concerned, those two men “rejected” her -- SW liked her sister, and JH gave the pink shirt to his Hyung – so what was the point of picking one? The way she was feeling at that time, it would have been akin to choosing the lesser “evil." lol. 

To DongRyong, however, the fact TK was DK’s unequivocal choice was all that he needed to know. Although she couldn’t be more explicit in her reasons for liking him, it was sufficient for DR that she had set TK apart from the rest of the gang. It’s in THIS context that he doled out his next advice --

DR: Duk-Seong, how do you feel? Instead of other people liking you, who is it that you like? [She was already grossly mistaken in thinking that NOBODY liked her because there was still Taekie. Instead of worrying needlessly about who liked her, her time would be better spent getting to know the person she does like.]
DR: You’re so clear about the way you like to eat sweet potatoes. [And also about liking Taek, let’s not forget.] But you don’t know what type of person you like? [Meaning, how was it possible that she had no understanding and no awareness of her preferences? Here, DR forgot that the boys had each other to discuss the criteria they found attractive in girls -- for example, aggressive girls like Bora. lol – but DS was excluded from this kind of conversation.]
DR: Duk-Seong…I mean, Soo-Yeon. You can like someone, instead of someone liking you, right? [He was telling her that it was alright to be proactive. She could go ahead and like someone, without worrying or waiting for someone to like her or even to reciprocate her feelings.]

…which brings me to explain a flaw in the DS-JH interaction. 

It seems like many viewers miss seeing this because they consider the swoon-y interactions between the couple as ample evidence of DS’ feelings for JH.  On the contrary, I don’t think that DS had fallen in love with JH – as of Episode 14. DR astutely observed that DS was more worried about being liked than about liking someone.  After getting her heart broken by SW, it was natural for her to be wary of falling for somebody without first getting assurance that her affection will be reciprocated. Since Episode 10, she had been TESTING JH to determine if he liked her.  She’d been making him jump through the hoops, similar to that very first test that she did in Episode 10 when she asked him whether he minded her going on a blind date. 

Do you recognize the pattern here?

1. asking him if he minded her going out on a blind date. According to her friends, if he tried to stop her, that meant he really liked her. (ep 10)
2. bugging him to go to the Lee Man-Se concert, even in her sleep (ep 11).  I think, in her mind, if she was able to convince him to go with her, then that was another sign that he liked her. This would explain why there was curiously NO scene showing her excitement or her preparations for the concert after all the fuss she made to get him to change his mind; that scene would have been moot.  
3. dressing up prettily and “accidentally” joining him on the bus. She wanted him to notice her new and improved image. (ep 12)
4. glancing to see if he was jealous when her middle school friend talked with her after the concert (ep 13)
5. pretending to have an injured ankle to see what he’d do [in kdrama, she would have been given a piggy-back, instead she got a hand and nagging.] (ep 13)
6. using her aegyo to make him agree to a rewatch of Top Gun (ep 14)
7. making him wear a PINK shirt [I’m sorry, ladies, but this was clearly a set-up. Remember, the shirt was chosen by Mi-Ok. It wasn’t a “personal” gift because she DIDN’T pick it out herself. Nor was this a “couple” gift to match the pink gloves she received for Christmas. This shirt was a test. She wanted to see if he liked her enough to wear the shirt to his birthday party. That was why she told her friends, “I guess I was wrong again this time.” When she mistakenly thought that JH gave the shirt to the Hyung, she determined that JH didn’t like her because he failed the test.] (ep 14)

lol. Our young DS had an agenda or an ulterior motive. She wanted to make sure that JH liked her BEFORE she would fall for him. This was understandable precaution after the SW fiasco. She wanted assurances that she was liked.  Had she really loved JH to begin with, all these tests and petty games would have been unnecessary. She would have simply followed her heart and spontaneously showed her affections. 

That’s why I find DR’s counsel to focus on getting to know who she likes quite interesting. DR hadn’t a clue about the on-going dynamics between JH and DS so he couldn’t possible foresee the repercussion of his advice on DS/TK/JH's relationships. The upcoming episodes should sail or moor the respective couple ships temporarily until the next twist in the drama.    

[DR sighing]
DR: Kids nowadays only know about the here and the now. They don’t know about life. But you know don’t know about any of these [Meaning, she has neither an understanding of what’s right under her nose nor a grasp of the big picture.] so what is it that you do know. What’s up with you? I swear…[Stop to see TK]. Hurry, get up!
DS: Are we going somewhere?
DR: Pizza’s here [Speaking of the devil…]
DS: [Smiles]

DR: How many pizzas did you order?
TK: Five.
DR: You’re definitely rich.
TK: I figured you wouldn’t be able to eat with us since you got out late. So I bought each one of you a pizza to eat home. [This is interesting. TK was now mindful of other people’s schedules and he was planning things.]
DR: Taek, let’s get married. [Troll! This was an inside joke between the guys because the girl Taek liked was right beside them, and they knew that she wouldn’t get it. What DR was hinting at was TK was a husband material because of his earning potential.]
TK: No, thank you.
DS: Go home, he needs to sleep. [Acting wife-y here]
DR: Okay, see you later. I’m going to eat this by myself.
DS: I’m going to go home, too.
TK: [grabbing hold of her sleeve] Go later. 

That’s it for now. Feel free to agree or disagree, ladies. Or to ignore.

Will post later to list some reasons why people generally think JH is the husband. I believe I saw somebody query this in an earlier post. Somebody named @minibunny, I think. 

Shoutout to @shooastrid. Thanks for the baduk explanation. Will post some comments about that too. 
 

 

Wow your insight is so deep and hidden in the drama that I think that if it were true as you said, you must be in the production team.  Cause as a regular viewer I don't think I can read in between the lines to such depth as you did!  *laughs*

[NRGchick]

Watched Ep 14..

Two parts where my tears flowed. 

1. When the class president's mother spoke to DS after the class. When she asked if she could hug DS. (Side note: Ajumma from Achiara the Village - I see you!)

2. When SW realises why he dislikes Taek's father and the final conversation he has with his father....

 

Thanks to Ryu Yeol Star for the translations!

BTS EP 7

[wasted_youth]

Does anyone know why Choi Seong-won (uri Sung No-eul) was at Noel's performance? Was he a special guest? (because they have the same names, 노을? haha)

I guess Choi Seong-won and Noel sang that 1988 ost at this concert. 

[Guest tanjam]

10 hours ago, ic3chubb3 said:

According to latest news (http://entertain.naver.com/ranking/read?oid=241&aid=0002511623), it's finally announced that cast of 'Answer 1994' is confirmed to be making cameo appearances on the show! Filming is not done yet, and there's no confirmation if all of the main A1994 cast will be appearing.. I'm keeping fingers crossed that we can get all cast on board like the previous A1997 cameo..

Can't wait for Samcheonpo to meet Junghwan's dad.. LOL.. 

Wow tnx for the information yeeeeesssss  

[Guest tanjam]

8 hours ago, NRGchick said:

 

Hohoho...isn't this too much like Mirae's choice? That drama just about killed me. 

If the writer-nim makes the same creation of the finale like in that stupid drama I'll make troubles

[aurora1205]

7 hours ago, sheza said:

 

Wow your insight is so deep and hidden in the drama that I think that if it were true as you said, you must be in the production team.  Cause as a regular viewer I don't think I can read in between the lines to such depth as you did!  *laughs*

 

Take it easy. 

[sheza]

1 hour ago, onlysb1 said:

 

Take it easy. 

No really I mean it in the best possible way.  I have not seen the show that way but the insights is quite deep and detailed and POSSIBLE.  I would suspect the writer is in the production team if it does comes to past because it is reading into a lot of the emotions of feelings of the story without actually showing it.  And since we have quite a few episodes to go, who knows?   I came into this show not having any ship in particular so I am open to whatever the show has for us.  

[papulichan]

Just one more day and my sixth sense asserts that we are gonna get a mind numbing cliffhanger. and then follows more than a week long painful wait for fresh episodes. I know I shouldn't be cribbing but,it is getting a little irksome , where difference in the opinions are immediately pounced on. This thing was bound to happen , given the  famed "shipping wars" of the Reply series.So, I'm a bit apprehensive in lurking onto the main (this) thread except for the 'live recaps' which some kind and sweet souls take efforts to write the ongoing episode.( I'm very grateful to those chingus.) That said, what I realized( after getting my heart bounced up and down with every Reply Series), finally like some sort of a 'Reply epiphany' is that the whole husband thing is a smokescreen that gets the audience all riled up and increase the ratings. After watching all the Reply seasons, I was a fool for not looking at the actual plot and that is "WHAT THE GIRL REALLY WANTS". It was Eunji (97) who had to make the ULTIMATE choice and so did Na Jung(94)...although NJ was nearly obsessed with Trash and no amount of kisses from Chilbong (he kissed her twice.. once when she was not drunk..hehehe) changed her love for Oppa. Thus, with Reply'88.... the husband game is just a puzzle to kill time...when the underlined theme is "ABOUT A MIDDLE-CHILD WHO IS ENCUMBERED WITH INSECURITIES ABOUT HER LOOKS AND HER MEDIOCRE ACADEMIC LIFE AND HAS ALWAYS SEEK  LOVE IN SOMEWAY OR ANOTHER , FINALLY FINDS THE "LOVE OF HER LIFE". It is all about uri DS! She, who believes that she is not smart and pretty and is unworthy to receive love, finally realizes that SHE WAS LOVED all this while by her friends, family & neighbours and NOW it is important for her to choose what SHE WANTS. For, DS never had the LIBERTY to MAKE HER OWN CHOICES. And, now when she will finally make the choice of who she truly loves, DS will FINALLY BELIEVE IN HERSELF, for the first time in her life. Coz' it is when one believes in oneself, the world believes in you. It is all about DS's journey. So, my focus is only on DS and also, the remaining episodes will probably  do the same. The plot will put DS on the center stage. The boys can do whatever they want. DS will get the upper hand. Yay!!

PS:- I'm all for JH....but if DS chooses Taek.... then JH ileewaaaa.... I'll accept you with open arms....you can be mine...PWAHAHAHAHHAAA

[mellinadear]

The lady who acted as the epileptic student is pretty. Anyone know who she is?

[honeywell]

Awesome we got confirmation of a reply 1994 cameo.  I want to see SCP meeting Mr Kim or Too Jin/Haiti meeting Mr.  Kim and of course Trash meeting everyone! 

[carolinedl]

59 minutes ago, papulichan said:

 

PS:- I'm all for JH....but if DS chooses Taek.... then JH ileewaaaa.... I'll accept you with open arms....you can be mine...PWAHAHAHAHHAAA

Loved your post, it is true that DS is the heroine of this series. I am excited to see her grow up actually, to see what she'll do and who she'll become

Are you open to sharing him?! Ha ha ha!!!

[figenfk]

@papulichan and @carolinedl Dadoo!!

 

[papulichan]

4 minutes ago, carolinedl said:

Loved your post, it is true that DS is the heroine of this series. I am excited to see her grow up actually, to see what she'll do and who she'll become

Are you open to sharing him?! Ha ha ha!!!

 

OF COURSE!!!! who wouldn't want themselves a JH to swoon over.....hahahha.... I wouldn't even mind uri Taeki either..... hehehe...

And, yeah....I'm really liking how DS character is steadily evolving into a kind,mature and loving young lady....especially after Taek's China trip, and more so the epilepsy incident at school...DS is the least prejudiced gal on the block..

[Guest nchoerunnisa]

Wooohoooo... way to go girl @papulichan... you said everything I want to say... *virtualhighfive

Actually I'm quite relax watching Reply 1988... because my ultimate ship is DS... uri sunshine...

Though I'd love it if my JH who becomes the husband, I wouldn't mind if she choose TK. Both guys are not without any flaw but I'm sure they are nice, kind, and can make our DS happy with their own way (DS-ah... you're so lucky..  ).

I just want her to realize her self worth, find the love of her life, be adored, be loved, and be happy.

I don't find it necessary to compare JH & TK personality because no matter who end up as the husband, he'd grow up into this hot, manly & handsome Ahjussi:



Though the ahjussi looks so done with her and they bicker so much... I can tell they love each other... I couldn't ask more for DS

I was about to ask @papulichanand @carolinedlto share JH just in case he end up being alone... but then I realize that he's actually a 44 years old ahjussi... uummm... the age gap is a bit way too much for me... so I'll just ask you both to take care of uri JH ahjussi... *bow

[uglypearl]

I posted before about the song in Episode 4 where Taek's dad waiting for Taek.

It's "Everyday With You" by DeulGukHwa (Wild Chrysanthenum/Chamomile)

 

 

 

It's also the song played in SeonWoo and BoRa's  first couple kiss in Episode 11.

The first part is the original version and the second (starting 0:58) is remake female version which is sung by SoJin of Girl's Day

 

The female version will be the OST Part 8

 

[halojins]

Hi everyone! Been a fan of Answer Me series. 1994 is my favorite but 1988 is slowly replacing 1994 in my heart.  i just have a question, I don't uderstand Korean so I'd like to know how to get/buy their official sweater? The white one. I really want to have that ㅠ_ㅠ Thanks in advance! 

[wasted_youth]

The first part of Kim family Olleh telco CF is out  

Unrelated to the drama

Can't stop laughing haha.

[lyonesse]

yay for the new OST! i really cant wait?

so the banner is blue and yellow. is this also a part of the colour hint?