'Itaewon Class' Could Have Been Something Really Special If It Hadn't Lost Steam; Still Fun, Though

Itaewon Class centers on an ex-convict named Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon), who vows revenge against Jang Dae-hee (Yoo Jae-myung), the proud, powerful, and ruthless CEO of Jangga, the largest food conglomerate in South Korea; and his spoiled, cruel, cowardly son Jang Geun-won (Ahn Bo-hyun).  The 16-episode series takes place in a span of around 15 years, wherein Sae-ro-yi plays the long game – starting from the bottom, and gradually working his way toward obtaining the resources and power that he would need – in order to realize his life goal.

Sae-ro-yi’s first clash with the Jangs is when he punched Geun-won for bullying a classmate, and as retaliation, Chairman Jang causes his expulsion from school and his father losing his job.  But what sparks his lifelong vendetta is when, shortly after, his father is hit and killed by a car being recklessly driven by Geun-wo, and then Chairman Jang uses his influence to cover the crime up.  Enraged, Sae-ro-yi proceeds to beat up Geun-wo, resulting to him getting imprisoned for a few years.

While in prison, Sae-ro-yi sets his long-term goal: to create his own business empire, which will bring about the downfall of Jangga and the exposure of the Jangs’ crimes.  Seven years after getting released from prison, he somehow manages to open his very own bar-restaurant in Itaewon, which he names “DanBam.”  He hopes to grow DanBam into a company that will someday rival and then surpass Jangga.

Along the way, Sae-ro-yi gains allies and subordinates who aid him attain his objectives.  Top of these is Jo Yi-seo (Kim Da-mi), a foodie/social media influencer who becomes DanBam’s manager.  A versatile and formidable genius, she has been accepted in all the top universities she has applied for.  However, after graduating from high school, she decides to forgo a degree but instead chooses to risk it all on seeing Sae-ro-yi’s future success.  With her talents and intelligence at his disposal, Sae-ro-yi begins seeing rapid progress with his plans.

The premise of Itaewon Class really appealed to me, that I decided to watch it.  With such an underdog, rags-to-riches setup, I expected it to be a gratifying revenge story arc in the same way that The Rising of theShield Hero is.  And for the most of the series, I felt that Itaewon Class was indeed being so.  But as the narrative went further down the line and closer to its end, I realized bit by bit that it wasn’t quite satisfying me in the way that I hoped it would.

The writing during the first half of the series is arguably strong.  During this stretch, the storytelling felt effectively gripping, clever, and subversive.  Although there were parts that I was already becoming bothered with, I was reassured by the idea that future reveals would take care of the problematic parts, since, at that point, some initially perceived “holes” were actually getting plugged by cool reveals and amazing plot twists.  It was doing so well so far that you couldn’t help but become optimistic that all would be tied up neatly in the end.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, not all “holes” were going to be plugged.  I especially had a hard time buying a couple of Sae-ro-yi’s huge gains since they came out of lucky coincidences or vague developments behind the scenes (especially during time skips).  There are a couple of details that I wish were a bit more spelled out, so that the jump from point A to point B would feel more earned and believable.  I would have been totally fine with montages taking care of this.

The writing noticeably dips during the home stretch of episodes.  The story at this point starts to feel padded and conventional, and a handful of character decisions no longer make sense.  It’s as if the writer wasn’t able to figure out how to stick the landing, panicked, and just decided to throw hackneyed plot beats at it and stretched them out, and thus, the tail end of the plot turned out being choppy, unremarkable, and derivative for the most part.  Still, I don’t think the story is ruined by this overall.  But this can be fairly attributed to the momentum provided by the strong writing of the preceding episodes.  The ending still turned out being okay, although it just has many disappointing parts.

Another notable thing that disappointed me initially was that Sae-ro-yi didn’t turn out being the kind of protagonist that I thought a show with such a premise would have.  I thought he was going to be the cerebral or cunning type, someone who had intricately mapped out his game plan every step of the way and who would be several steps ahead during his mental chess match with his enemy.  Nope.  He isn’t like that at all.  He doesn’t directly bring about his objectives.  His objectives are only realized because he conveniently encounters people who have the resources or competence to realize them.  So, basically, he merely sets an ambitious objective, but it’s others who actually attain it for him.  It’s like he’s only part is to just say, “I want this thing to happen at this time”, and then a character drops in who will figure out or provide what’s needed in order to turn it into a reality.

It kinda sucks that Sae-ro-ryi didn’t really mastermind his rise; he’s just merely lucky that the right people were readily on hand to take care of the details for him.  But then I came to realize that these people only did this for him because he had won them over.  He earned their loyalty, trust, admiration, and respect, and thus, they were happy to work for his goals.  In this sense, it can still be ultimately traced back to him why his plans are getting realized, as it is his style, determination, and character that endear these people to become his associates, benefactors, and collaborators.

Indeed, Sae-ro-ryi may not be strikingly smart, but he makes up for it by being the ultimate nice guy.  And it’s through his arc in which the show presents tons of worthwhile and inspirational lessons.  Not that Sae-ro-ryi always makes the right decisions.  But in his mistakes, one can learn what not to do.

Unfortunately, also included with the show’s set of morals is the misguided push for the transgender agenda (although the show still had a female actor playing a trans woman [i.e. a man who believes he’s a woman] character; I guess Korean audiences aren’t still ready for that).

Moreover, it’s also worth pointing out that Sae-ro-ryi’s idealistic philosophy in running his business won’t realistically apply in the real world.  Now, I do personally think his philosophy is admirable and preferable, but only if making much money isn’t your primary priority as a businessman.  In real life, it’s a rare thing for a businessman to unwaveringly solely employ an idealistic approach and still have ridiculously quick and dramatic materialistic gains for himself as Sae-ro-ryi did.  One can’t usually have it both ways.  One  can’t expect gaining much money when gaining much money wasn’t his focus.

Nevertheless, Sae-ro-ryi’s idealistic view in running a business helps a lot in stimulating his chemistry with his love interest, Jo Yi-seo, who is more worldly and practical.  The tension from their differing perspectives allow DanBam to have that much needed balance in business strategy.  But more importantly, it also adds another compelling layer to their romantic arc (yep, there’s romance in this show; it’s a K-drama after all) – which is one-sided for most of the series, but which I really dig in how it plays out and how it eventually becomes mutual in the end.  Whatever failings this show has, the romance isn’t one of them, in my opinion.

Lastly, this needs to be mentioned before this review ends: its OST, “Start Over” (also known as just “Start”) by Gaho, is straight up fire!  It elicits much visceral reaction, that a scene automatically becomes epic when it plays in the background.  It gives me goosebumps every time it plays.  This is now one of the contenders for my all-time favorite K-drama OST.

In the end, Itaewon Class could have been something really special if the quality of writing had been more consistent – if the last third of episodes had been as good as the rest of it.  Still, it’s thankfully not another Hyde, Jekyll, Me experience for me.  Despite my disappointments, I found Itaewon Class to be fun in general.