Throwback (Musical) Thursday: Itaewon Class

So I’m trying something new again this week. My boss may have said something about how we like to stick to musical offerings on Monday and Thursday so if I wanted to do a drama thing how about something on Wednesday. Turns out Wednesday is much closer to Monday than Thursday and to get around that I’m going to try combining music with dramas. Surely the world’s best boss can’t help but love my creativity and willingness to take initiative.

Like choosing new groups to obsess over, I can be pretty random in selecting what dramas to watch. Often it’s based on a favorite actor or it got above a 9 rating on Viki or I liked the thumbnail pic (this I also usually how I pick a bottle of wine). Choosing Itaewon Class was a combination of a Soompi article where the cast looked like they were loving life in a promotional picture and my love for Park Seo Joon. In the process of briefly skimming something about the show, I discovered that it was also staring Kim Dong Hee and I knew I had to watch. If you don’t know Kim Dong Hee go check out A-Teen from Playlist Global and you’ll be a fan too.

I should say right from the beginning that I thought this was a great show. The cast was amazing, the production was top-notch and it didn’t have the usual formulaic k-drama troupes we are so used too. I also loved that the show featured a range of characters that we rarely ever see in k-dramas, including a trans woman and a black man and they each had their own story arch that was respectfully done. And while they were fascinating characters, with complex histories and well-acted, I never really found myself liking any of the characters. I don’t think they were written to be liked but to tell a story that didn’t pull any punches and was meant to be hard and challenging to watch. Often in k-dramas, the villain puts the hero or heroine in a tight spot and yet they manage, always at the last minute, to find a way out…and then this repeats multiple times over the course of the show. This show was a David and Goliath fight…that was tied after nine innings and went into overtime. When I was a couple of episodes from the end Stephanie asked me if I thought Junior McFeeley could watch and this about sums it up:

And yet I would still say it’s so so so so worth a watch…but maybe not if you are under 18!

This leads us to the music for today. The OST features a wonderful song by Gaho that quickly made it onto my favorites list and is constant rotation. SaraG has written a lot about Gaho as she loves his voice. I know she has told me over the years how awesome he is and I never paid attention as I often do. Yes, SaraG, you are right as always, and maybe, someday, I will learn to pay attention the first time you say it. I’d planned to feature the song from the OST even though it’s only a couple months old but then found Stay Here from a couple of years ago. From the first few notes, I knew this was the right song for today’s post. It’s breathtaking the way he spans multiple octaves and heartbreakingly beautiful, in some ways a better fit for the emotions of the drama.