record of youth

 this is the last drama that park bo gum would done before he went into military service. i never watched his drama before this, so i have no idea what to expect about this drama. but seeing that park so dam also played this drama, makes me want to try watching this drama. it's supposed to be an easy going drama, not complicated at all, which might sound boring, but let's see how it goes.

title: record of youth

cast: park bo gum, park so dam, byeon woo seok, shin dong mi

genre: life series (?), a bit romantic

this is a story about youngster fighting their way toward their dreams. sa hye jun (park bo gum) is a young model turned actor that comes from a working class family. his family doesn't support his decision to pursue acting career, except for his mother and his grandfather. his father kept comparing him to his older brother who went to university and got office jobs like his father had wanted, because his father thought office job is a stable job, which means stable income as well. hye jun was doing well in his modelling career, but there's a dark side that he kept secret from everyone. apparently, one of the designer had crushed on him, but hye jun turned him down politely. he also juggled many part time jobs to meet his need, so he was facing his rock bottom when he met ahn jeung ha.

jeung ha (park so dam) is an intern in a beauty salon. she is dreaming to become a makeup artist. her dream came a bit early thanks to won hae hyo (byeon woo seok), hye jun's childhood bestfriend/competitor as both of them were model turned actors at the same time. hae hyo has a rich family background, which help him a little bit. hae hyo forced the beauty salon to agree letting jeung ha to be his main makeup artist even though jeung ha has not been promoted yet. that request put jeung ha in feud with her senior in the beauty salon, which has been picking on jeung ha since forever. she is also a fan of hye jun, but at first she didn't admit it. and fate plays its part and make two of the falling in love to each other and then being in relationship. this leaves hae hyo a bit broken hearted since he also liked jeung ha secretly, but he decided to keep it to himself until the end.

hye jun then got help from lee min jae (shin dong mi) and she became his manager. she managed to get a supporting role for hye jun that surprisingly got him popular and that rocketed his career. thing also worked out for hye jun's grandfather, who got into modelling school thanks to hye jun and later got so many advertising jobs and got a lot of money from it. his grandfather also managed to make hye jun's father as his manager and gave him some money. that changed hye jun's father point of view about modelling or acting world.

but hye jun's popularity came with a price. he had to face so many false rumors from his previous agent together with a reporter that didn't know that the information was wrong. the scandal with the designer also got brought up since he committed suicide. hye jun even though he faced big risk in losing his advertising jobs because of the scandal, kept refusing to reveal the designer's last message to him in order to honor the designer. his relationship with jeung ha also took a hit, since hye jun's ex has been wanting to get back with him. hye jun's ex also became one of the legal team that managed hye jun's case, since hye jun's agent/manager is suing the reporter for public defamation. later they decided to break up.

hae hyo also took a hit. at first his career seems promising, partly because his mother gets her hands on several deals, including paying for his instagram's followers without hae hyo's knowing anything about it. later hae hyo career seems stagnant while hye jun's rocketing. and his mother got annoyed and asked to be in his life once again. later hae hyo found out that he would be nothing if his mother didn't do anything in his life, and that crushed him because he thought he had the skill like hye jun to make it work. while jeung ha, decided to leave the beauty salon, reconciled with her senior, and accepted her father's help with the beauty salon, but got in feud with her mother since her mother thought she was in relationship in hye jun because of money. she asked for money after finding out that jeung ha was in relationship with hye jun. and that gave her a bit reality check.

hae hyo decided to join military service just a bit earlier than hye jun. hye jun also decided to join the army, even though his career was on peak. while jeung ha kept working hard as a makeup artist. later at the end, we could see that hye jun reconciled with his father who has changed his mind, and his whole family got into a better term. but hae hyo's family just kept the same. though his sister got reality check about her relationship, but there's nothing changed if we're talking about his mother and father. while jeung ha was pictured to be successful at the end, and though they met again at the end, both hye jun and jeung ha finally came in term about their relationship. i guess it's true what hye jun said that all relationship makes them grow.

what i like:

- famous cameos! it's hilarious that the series that makes hye jun got his popularity is similar to "dr.romantic" and even seo hyun jin became cameo. other famous names that pops up here are kim hye joon, park seo joon, lee sung kyung and lee hye ri.

- easy going story that talks mostly about family and relationship. it gets real that even though in entertainment business, things don't always go easy especially if you're still starting up.

- there's a lot of parenting problems and relationship problem and those problems solver in this drama, so you can learn a thing or two.

what i don't like:

- a bit boring and flat. but that's life. that's real life. the scandals that becomes the center problem in this drama is cliche. hye jun's former agent defied the reporter to make false articles about him is nothing new. so there's nothing spectacular about this drama.

- several supporting actors are not that good, including hae hyo. i don't like his acting in this drama, but this is my first time watching him, so i might be bias. 

- a bit open ending. though both of them got in term about their relationship, people would still curious. now that jeung ha is on the same level as hye jun, would that make them back in relationship? would hae hyo makes a move? 

rating: 7/10

binge worthy: not really

recommended for: park bo gum and park so dam's fans, those who likes watching popular cameos pop in, easy going story which might get a bit boring, something to fill your times while waiting for another promising drama to finish.