Yoyooo~ Hope everyone’s been keeping well the past couple of weeks! 😊 We’re about a week away from lifting restrictions here in Singapore – the restrictions aren’t actually as stringent as they were last year but they still feel suffocaty nonetheless hurhur.
This week, I’m taking a look at the three Reply OTPs. Major spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the dramas yet but yknow what, the Reply series is SO RICH AND FULL OF JOY AND EVERYTHING GOOD IN THE WORLD that even if you have spoilers, you should go watch it anyway.
The Reply Series
I recently rewatched the 3 Reply dramas – Reply 1997, Reply 1994 and Reply 1988 - and thought it would be fun to chichat about the different OTPs. I’ll be talking about the main OTPs (every drama had secondary OTPs which were great toooo).
Before getting into that, I do have to say that Reply 1997, was groundbreakingly different from any kdrama I’d ever watched before that. tvN was just starting to push out more and more dramas – they’d just completed the Flower Boy series (Flower Boy Ramen Shop, Flower Boy Band, Flower Boy Next Door) and they were setting themselves apart as a cable channel that was able to cater to the romcommy desires of audiences, just as well, or even better than, the mainstream channels could.
Reply 1997 aired in 2012 and was set not only set in Busan, instead of Seoul, but featuring characters who spoke entirely in the Gyeongsangdo dialect, instead of the Seoul dialect. There are 5-6 dialects used throughout South Korea - I never realised this until I started watching Reply 1997. This is why representation is important! Reply 1994 and 1998 centred around characters who spoke different dialects too but placed them in Seoul, thereby giving the writers opportunities to explore what the migration experience was like. (One thing I could identify with was how some of these characters ended up codeswitching between dialects to communicate with their families and Seoul classmates/colleagues differently.)
Besides that, the nostalgia was a real dopamine hit. I mean, Reply 1997’s opening sequence kicks off with the dial-up Internet sounds?! That, combined with a raw focus on the teenage experience of life (insert sparkle emoji here) was enough to keep viewers coming back week after week. The success of Reply 1997 translated into two more seasons by the same writers which featured different stories with the same heart.
Reply 1994 aired in the tail end of 2013. It had everything Reply 1997 had and more. I mean that quite literally too – while mainstream channels (I’m talking KBS, MBC and SBS) are still limited to 50-minute episodes, tvN capitalised on 1997’s success and extended the previously 30-50minute episodes to 70-90-minute episodes. Some hated it – I LOVED IT.
Reply 1988 aired in 2016 and was markedly different from 1997/1994 because the writers centered the narrative around 3-4 neighbouring families. Instead of only focusing on the teenagers’ relationships with each other or with their respective parents, there were insights into the parents’ relationships with each other – as friends, as neighbours and as partners. All of Reply 1988 embodied that kampung spirit the Singapore loves. I think I cried the most when this one ended – the further back in time these narratives went, the harder the losses felt each time the series returned to present-day. Sure, 1997 and 1994 were featured old-skool phones, pagers, computers, the Internet but the 1988 stories featured a whole…way of life…a way of life that doesn’t exist anymore. I rewatch 1988 the least because it’s the hardest to watch. Overall, though, it was the most meaningful.
If you’ve not watched any yet, I’d highly recommend watching it in order – 1997, 1994 and 1988. They all work well as standalone dramas but if you want the full Reply experience, watch it in orderrrrrrrrr.
OTP Revelations in the Reply Universe
Ok! Onto the OTP stuffs. Now, with an ensemble cast, it can be tricky to figure out (especially for 1994 and 1988) the different OTPs. The Reply writers milked this to their advantage. Every Reply series did pulled a Who’s-The-Husband guessing game gimmick where we would never know who the female lead ended up with UNTIL THE LAST EPISODE. I mean, by the last 2-3 episodes, we’d know but the full revelations would only be made in the last episode. This was facilitated by how each season started from the perspectives of their older selves. Reply 1997 led with the characters’ class reunion in 2012. Reply 1994 kicked off with the friends gathering at Na Jung’s (female lead) apartment in 2013. Reply 1988 differed slightly in that the producers cast different actors to play the older adult versions of the characters. The 1988 present-day scenes were these interview segments, in 2016, with the female lead, Deok Seon, and her husband.
As each storyline progressed, the writers eliminated other male characters from the running which usually left us with a main love triangle – which meant fans would be split into two separate camps. This was annoying for many viewers…but I always ended up rooting for the correct husband so…I never really endured any of the heartbreak others did when their potential Husbands turned out to be glorified second leads.
I hadn’t realised they were going to continue this guessing game in Reply 1994 but when epsiode 2 ended like this:
I WAS READY. I WAS READY TO PLAY THIS GAME AGAIN.
To prepare for this, I conducted a poll on Twitter to see if there was a clear fan favourite Reply OTP. The results were unexpected! 6 people voted (thank you for voting!) And the votes were evenly split with two votes each for the 1997, 1994 and 1988 OTPs. If you don’t follow me on Twitter, do hit ‘Reply’ (hurhurhur) to tell me which your favourite OTP is! And please feel free to elaborate on why - I’d really love to know :)
Reply 1997 - Shi Won x Yoon Jae
Female Lead: Sung Shi Won (Jung Eunji)
Male Lead: Yoon Yoon Jae (Seo In Guk)
Second Male Lead: Yoon Tae Woong (Song Jong Ho)
I liked this OTP the least – but I liked this male lead the most. Of the three male leads, his predicament was the only one that felt like an actual predicament. Liking the same girl as your big brother who raised you after your parents passed on must have been complicated on multiple levels and the way Yoon Jae ended up dealing with that was actually just to remove himself from the equation entirely and stay in Seoul – which I thought was a pretty mature way to deal with a situation that he felt was out of his hands.
In writing this, I am struggling to articulate why I don’t really like Shi Won (I love Jung Eunji, btw). In 2012, I enjoyed watching the portrayal of her relationship with her dad and I will always appreciate her friendship with Joon Hee. I also understand how it was kinda sorta realistic that she hadn’t realised that she had developed romantic feelings for Yoon Jae until he removed himself from their lives. But when I rewatched it, she came across as bratty and frustrating. I do believe that she cared for Yoon Jae as much as he did for her – I just found it really annoying how their relationship dynamic was defined by him being scared of her most of the time. This was further exacerbated by how there was a time-jump from them graduating high school to them having established careers post-university and we weren’t shown how much she felt for Yoon Jae. When they eventually got together, it felt like all she had to do was snap her fingers and she got her boy back so…I didn’t end up empathising with her as much.
Overall, I’d say that it was pretty obvious from the start that Yoon Jae was going to get the girl. I don’t think anyone actively rooted for Tae Woong, right? Right?? Tae Woong was all sorts of wrong for Shi Won – firstly, he dated her late sister and only started liking her because Shi Won resembled her sister. Also, HE WAS THEIR SCHOOLTEACHER FOR A BIT THERE. Bruh, take a step back and go home, tysm. The only other possibility was if Shi Won and Yoon Jae remained friends till the end but they’d been teasing that she’d gotten married and pregnant so…Yoon Jae was the only answer. Then, the writers upped their game.
Reply 1994 - Sung Na Jung x Trash Oppa
Female Lead: Sung Na Jung (Go Ara)
Male Lead: Trash Oppa aka Kim Jae Joon (Jung Woo)
Second Male Lead: Chilbongie aka Kim Seon Joon (Yoon Yeon Seok)
Ah, this was the one, y’all. THE ONE WITH THE FANWARS.
The writers went out of their way to throw in twists about potential romantic leads. In the first couple of episodes, everyone assumed Trash Oppa was Na Jung’s actual older brother – she referred to him as Oppa; he referred to her parents as his parents so everyone thought they were real siblings until it turned out that, while he did think of her parents as his own, he only referred to them as such because they were all from Masan and had moved to Seoul together. And despite his Trash Oppa ways (not taking showers, wiping his face with a bathroom slipper, etc), he turned out to be some genius medical student too and was suddenly in the running to be the Husband. W H A T.
Can I also just say that the Trash x Na Jung dynamic is very different from the Tae Woong x Shi Won dynamic? Trash and Na Jung grew up together, just like the 1997 and 1988 OTPs. I think some fans were also perturbed by how the show ‘tricked’ us into believing that they were actual siblings but they’re not actually siblings, though. It’s not even fauxcest, like in My Girl. (Okay, I know I can’t just throw out a term like fauxcest and not explain what this means. There was a slew of dramas in the early 2000s about people falling in love with people whom they knew were pretending to be their siblings/cousins or people whom they later realised were their siblings/cousins. I should do an OTP Watch Dictionary entry on this, at some point.) Trash Oppa was actually Na Jung’s brother’s best friend and the trio hung out together but her brother passed away, as a child, due to a neurological condition, and Trash continued to hang out with Na Jung and was there for her every step of the way. (It’s also important to bear in mind that the term ‘oppa’ has multiple meanings that differ according to the context.)
Na Jung is, hands-down, my favourite Reply female lead. She was definitely the most mature. She was *so there* for her parents and her friends, in a way that Shi Won never was. Deok Seon, from 1988, was similar in that regard, but Na Jung was just…different. Perhaps I related to her the most because she was the most transparently portrayed female lead and there was just more to empathise with. Reply 1994 stands apart from the other two because Na Jung’s affection for Trash was cemented in the 2nd episode. In 1997 and 1988, the female leads’ feelings were a question mark for a considerable period of time. Like Yoon Jae, I knew where Na Jung stood at every point. It made it easier for me to root for her.
This OTP is my favourite! I love them SO MUCH. Trash and Na Jung were endgame from the start. There is no way that anyone else could have broken the bond these two shared. It didn’t mean that their romantic relationship was easy to establish. But it meant that they shared so much history that, really, there was no point in even rooting for any other male lead. (Can I also add that Chilbond never truly understood Na Jung the way Trash did simply because she was always her truest self with Trash.)
One thing that I didn’t like when I first watched it was that long bout of Trash’s Noble Idoicy, which I’ve written about before, but now that I’ve rewatched it, I understand why that period of separation was necessary for these two. Just like it was difficult for Shi Won and Yoon Jae to shift their relationship from platonic to romantic, Trash and Na Jung struggled to unlearn years of sustained behavioural and communication patterns that were healthy enough for family friends but not for romantic pairings. If not for that time apart, they wouldn’t have had the chance to reflect on what being a partner meant and how, in order to truly be there for each other, they had to share their struggles too. Na Jung hit me in the feels with this quote here:
This is why I love this pairing. Even today, I constantly remind myself of this lesson. I was single when I first watched this but when I met my partner, I was very heartened to hear him echo this idea as well. And I just try to bear in mind as much as possible that while we shouldn’t let our troubles define our entire lives and be the centre of whatever it is that we talk about, we should also keep in mind how the whole point of having a partner is so that we can lean on each other and share our troubles instead of hiding them. And yknow, this doesn’t even solely apply to romantic relationships. It applies to ALL SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS. There is nothing more precious than being there for each other.
I do wanna add a couple of caveats about Trash. I really enjoyed his humour and, really, Jung Woo’s portrayal of him was so nuanced. Trash’s relationship with Na Jung’s family was so precious well. But he’s not my favourite male lead because of two very specific things:
1. Na Jung had to clean up SO MUCH OF HIS ACTUAL TRASH. That said, I didn’t feel like the power dynamic in their relationship was unequal (like with Shi Won x Yoon Jae) but, dude, clean your shit up before your girlfriend comes over lah please.
2. There was a very odd scene where the Reply 1997 cast members cameoed and Trash physically hit Shi Won when she angered him on the bus. It was very out of character and I get that it was supposed to be funny. But it wasn’t. It was quite frustrating to see a character who previously displayed so much sensitivity to the woman around him just last out at a random high schooler on the bus like that. Not cool.
For me, it was clear that Na Jung x Trash was endgame. Mainly because it wouldn’t have made narrative sense for her to suddenly develop feelings for Chilbong with as much as intensity. The full insight we had into Na Jung sealed the deal for me. Trash was it.
The writers UPPED THEIR GAME AGAIN.
Reply 1988
Female Lead: Sung Deok Seon (Hyeri)
Male Lead: Choi Taek (Park Bo Gum)
Second Lead: Kim Jung Hwan (Ryu Joon Yeol)
This OTP was the toughest to guess because Deok Seon had a crush on two other male leads before landing on the OTP. Jung Hwan turning out to be the second lead was quite sad, ngl. His character was most similar to Yoon Jae aka the teenager pining in the background while pretending to not be in love with his best friend. But then……………….he took ALL OF FOREVER to make his feelings known. Jung Hwan’s arc was particularly distressing because Deok Seon did reciprocate his feelings and tried to spend more time together but Jung Hwan put a barrier up quite quickly and Deok Seon probably got tired of trying to break that barrier down. One could argue that both Jung Hwan and Taek put barriers up since neither of them acted on their feelings, especially after finding out the other had an interest in Deok Seon.
But Taek never pushed her away the way Jung Hwan did. So, even though, there was a time-jump to their post-university lives, it was much easier for Taek to start picking up the pieces with Deok Seon. It was only when I rewatched the series that I realised, though, how many little steps Taek had already taken toward Deok Seon to make her feel comfortable enough to be herself, even when she developed feelings for him. He didn’t even really sweep her off her feet – he just created opportunities to spend time with her. TAEK OWNED HIS FEELINGS and this is why, no matter how much WE knew what Jung Hwan was going through, he was simply never going to get the girl. To be fair, Jung Hwan had a barrier up against everyone - being vulnerable did not come easy for him. In many ways, I relate to Jung Hwan - he’s probably my favourite seccond lead in the Reply series - and I would probably have been like him when I was his age. (Luckily, in real life, Ryu Joon Yeol didn’t pull a Jung Hwan - he’s dating Hyeri in real life!)
As much as I empathised with Jung Hwan, it was easy to root for Taekie because we were also privy to how sensitive he was of Deok Seon’s emotional needs and didn’t shy away from just openly being there for her. Taek worked with Deok Seon to cultivate a friendship based on sharing vulnerabilities in a safe and secure space. Eventually, it was much easier for Deok Seon to open to him, rather than to someone who was so difficult to approach in the first place. While this OTP doesn’t excite me as much as Na Jung x Trash, it was very sweet to watch two friends take small steps towards each other and find solace in each other’s company in a till-death-do-us-part kinda way :)
Even though it wasn’t as clear that Taek was the Husband but I was pretty sure about it even before the revelation of his interest in Deok Seon.
The Trick To Figuring Out The Reply OTPs
The answer was always in the flashbacks. Every Reply series had a flashback which explained how the friendships started from when they were kids.
Shi Won and Yoon Jae had a flashback.
So did Na Jung and Trash.
Deok Seon’s flashback did feature the rest of the gang BUT the narrative of the flashback centred around Taek’s move into the neighbourhood and how the rest stepped up to care for their new friend who had recently lost his mother. Taek’s central role in the flashback suggested that he was the Husband. And he was! :) But knowing this trick is pointless because I doubt they’ll bring this show back again. And that’s just as well, I could rewatch these dramas forever :)
If You Know, You Know…
When Reply 1997 aired, I had just graduated from university. Just before Reply 1994 aired, I had lost a loved one to cancer and had moved out of a neighbourhood I’d lived in for 22 years. As Reply 1988 aired, I met the love of my life. It’s only now that I realise how much these shows about teenagers and young adults accompanied me as I stepped into adulthood, unprepared for just how much my life was about to change. Looking back, my 20s were fiery too, filled with the kind of passion I sometimes wonder if I still have. I laughed and loved and lost. I don’t know how the decade flew by so quickly but it did. I miss all the memories – the ones I made, the ones I didn’t, even the ones I’ve forgotten. And as I head into the next chapter of my life, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for everything that happened in the 2010s…
Can you hear me? If you can, then reply – my dear 2010s.
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