K-Drama & Thai Drama Review: High School Edition

Show Name: Sassy Go Go/Cheer Up!
K-Drama
Episodes: 12
Genre: Youth, Comedy, Mental-Health, [Young-Adult]
Director: Lee Eun-Jin
Cast: Jung Eun-Ji, Lee Won-Geun, Chae Soo-Bin, Cha Hak-Yeon, Ji Soo, Kim Ji-Suk, Lee Mi-Do, etc.
My Rating:

 

Blurb:

Set in a highly competitive school that emphasizes achievement and scores above all else, the drama will lay bare the absurdities and hypocrisies of the education system while also featuring the growth stories of the students who struggle to move forward, one step at a time.

This show surpassed my expectations. I didn’t think I was going to love it this much but the plot, the characters everything won my heart in the end.

Kang Yeon Doo (Jung Eun Ji) is the leader of her dance team but they are not academically active. Then there’s Kim Yeol (Lee Won Geun), the leader of the study club and they are among the top students of the school. When they are forced to work as a team, they begin to understand that there’s no much more than just competing each other.

This show dealt with a lot of serious and realistic issues that students face in high school and even after that. It also showed that extreme pressure from parents to succeed in academics can result in serious consequences. Suicides often show up in the newspaper about students not being able to cope up, so they chose this way. These issues were handled perfectly and realistically in this show. 

Seo Ha Joon (Ji Soo) suffered from depression which often resulted in trying to kill himself but cutting his wrists. I didn’t like Ji Soo’s character in Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon but here I fell in love with them. PTSD was also portrayed pretty well in this show. Seriously I have seen one of my classmates suffer from a nervous breakdown and the doctor said she was not going to recover again and I was in standard 4 back then, i.e. I was only 10 years old. Can you imagine the pressure she might have received from her parents that resulted in such a disastrous situation? Anyway, I loved the bromance between Seo Ha Joon and Kim Yeol, I don’t think Seo Ha Joon would have survived this long if it wouldn’t have been for his best friend.

Anyway, the Dance group and the Study group often clashed with each other but when incidents force them to work together as a team for the cheerleading completing, hell goes down. I also hated Teacher Yang Tae Beom‘s (Kim Ji Suk) character in Personal Taste but here he was my absolute favourite. He was the best teacher eveeeer!! And he deserved all the love when he was unfairly suspended from school and all the students united to bring him back brought tears to my eyes. It was such a heartwarming moment. Their Cheerleader coach was an absolute blast as well. She finally broke the norms of the school and it was because of her they were actually able to work as a team. There were some pretty hilarious moments.

The romance was not the main factor in the show and I absolutely didn’t mind (Surprising… I know!). But I cherished the small moments that Kang Yeon Doo and Kim Yeol shared. The love triangle was pretty evident and I was praying it wouldn’t happen and it did and that tore me apart because I loved both the leads. 😦

But it was handled pretty maturely, which was refreshing and I loved it. You can understand the level if I say I enjoyed a love triangle. Kwon Soo-A (Chae Soo-Bin) was a grey character. As much as I loathed her, I couldn’t completely hate her because I could sympathize with her. Nevertheless, the ending wrapped up nicely and I was satisfied with it.

Overall, Sassy Go Go/ Cheer Up! was a great show. I binged watched it in a day and it was a pretty fast watch. I loved how the plot was executed and the I enjoyed character growth of all of them.

Recommend it?

Yes!!

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Show Name: Ugly Duckling: Don’t
Thai Drama
Episodes: 7
Genre: Youth, Comedy, Romance, [Young-Adult]
Cast: Thawornwong Jirakit, Techarukpong Chatchawit, Jiravechsoontornkul Lapalal
My Rating: 

Blurb:

Dumped by her boyfriend, Maewnam holes up in her house out of shame, until her dad gives her an ultimatum to go back to school. But she’s so embarrassed, she walks around with her head in a box to give herself personal space to grieve. Then two bad boys enter her life and turn her “box” world inside out.

This was the first foreign show I watched. Like ever! This was a pretty short watch but enjoyable. Also, I realized the names of the actors are sooo big and I for the love of God, can’t pronounce it. xD Also, this is a series which has 4 parts but I only watched this one.

Maewnam (Jiravechsoontornkul Lapalal) wears a box on her head because she is embarrassed to be seen after an incident as a child when her crush called her ugly. She never recovered from it but when she is forced to enrol in school, she meets two boys who change the course of her life.

When Maewnam enrols in a new school she befriends Minton (Techarukpong Chatchawit) who is absolutely hell-bent on becoming her friend. But it’s Zero (Thawornwong Jirakit) who is the hero (I had to use this phrase XD) who actually forces her to face her fears and conquer it. I loved the chemistry between Zero and Maewnam and I loved how their relationship slowly developed. The love triangle kind of didn’t matter much because it was evident from the very first who she was going to end up with. Also, I hadn’t expected that little plot twist which changed the whole game.

Overall, Ugly Duckling: Don’t was an enjoyable and short watch. The plot and the characters managed to hold my attention until the very end and I was satisfied how this show ended.

Recommend it?

Yes.

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So guys, what do you think about these 2 shows? Have you seen them? Or do you want to?

• 4 stars
• 4 stars out of 5
• 5 out of 5 stars
• 5 stars
• Cheer Up!
• foreign shows
• K-drama
• k-drama reviews
• Korean drama
• sassy go go
• thai drama
• Ugly Duckling: Don't