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Reply 1988

2015–2016 South Korean television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reply 1988
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Reply 1988 (Korean: 응답하라 1988) is a South Korean television series and the third installment of the Reply anthology series. Set in the 1980s when South Korea underwent major political and economic changes, it revolves around five friends and their families living in the same neighborhood in Seoul. It aired every Friday and Saturday from November 6, 2015 to January 16, 2016 on tvN spanning 20 episodes.

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The series received widespread critical and audience acclaim with its finale episode recording an 18.8% nationwide audience share, making it the highest rated drama in Korean cable television history at the time of airing. It became a cultural phenomenon initiating the newtro boom in South Korea and is often called a “National Drama". Regarded as a television masterpiece by the BBC, it is credited with ushering in South Korea's cable era, increasing realist and nostalgic Korean media, and popularizing Korean drama internationally.

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Premise

In 1988, five childhood friends who all reside in Seoul's Ssangmun-dong district with their families rely on one another to get through their difficult adolescence and forge a future together.[1][2]

Cast and characters

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Leads Hyeri (Deok-sun) and Park Bo-gum (Taek) in costume as their characters at a fan-signing event for the series, February 2016

Sung family

  • Sung Dong-il as Sung Dong-il
    • A fraud and security specialist at a bank, Dong-il fell into debt after lending money to a friend who never paid it back. He struggles to provide for his family as he wants to while paying off the debt, but does his best to give everything he can to his children. He and his wife, Il-hwa, argue a lot but love each other very deeply.
  • Lee Il-hwa as Lee Il-hwa
    • Il-hwa is a kind woman who spends much of her time with the other moms and caring for her family. She worries about her children and husband and shows much of her care by cooking massive quantities of food to share with her family and the neighbourhood.
  • Ryu Hye-young as Sung Bo-ra
    • Bo-ra is a tough-as-nails college student who wants to become a lawyer. She attended the Teacher's College of Seoul National University under the Department of Mathematics Education to save tuition fee although her test scores qualify her for the Department of Law. She participated in the June Democratic Struggle against the military regime under Chun Doo-hwan. While outwardly stoic, she has a warm heart and shows compassion to those who need it most. Where her younger sister Deok-sun struggles academically but excels in interpersonal relationships, Bo-ra is a stellar student who stumbles in social and emotional situations.
  • Lee Hye-ri as Sung Deok-sun / Sung Soo-yeon[3][4]
    • The middle child of her family, she is infamously ranked 999th in school and is the only girl in their group of five neighbourhood friends. Though not academically gifted, Deok-sun has a bright and compassionate personality. She cares deeply for her friends and classmates but feels lost without a "dream" to pursue. Deok-sun moves through the stages of her youth alongside her male friends, and the mystery of which of them she eventually marries is a continual point of tension for viewers throughout the series. She later becomes a flight attendant.
  • Choi Sung-won as Sung No-eul
    • Dong-il's only son and assistant in his schemes, No-eul is a kindhearted young teen with a poetic, dreamer's mind. He is also a good singer.

Kim family

  • Kim Sung-kyun as Kim Sung-kyun
    • Sung-kyun is a kind and humorous man who runs an electronics store and formally worked at a Chinese restaurant as a delivery man. He loves to joke and play with the neighborhood kids, and generally keeps an air of joviality among the adults. Although he often seems childish and unhelpful to her, he adores his wife, Mi-ran, and hopes for good futures for his sons.
  • Ra Mi-ran as Ra Mi-ran
    • A strong lady with a tough past, Mi-ran is the indisputable empress of the Kim household. Worried and annoyed about his eldest son Jung-bong's constant academic failures punctuated by obsessions. Mi-ran can sometimes come off as short-tempered but this temper is really an expression of her anxiety and love for her children and family.
  • Ahn Jae-hong as Kim Jung-bong
    • A student who failed his college entrance exam six times, Jung-bong would rather collect posters and stamps, solve Rubik's cubes and play arcade games rather than studying and thinking about his future. He has an often child-like personality and is easily distracted. Nevertheless, Jung-bong is kind, thoughtful, compassionate, and easy to like. He happily cares for the neighbourhood kids including Jin-joo, Sun-woo's little sister. He is a surprisingly poetic and romantic. He later successfully attended the Department of Law of Sungkyungwan University.
  • Ryu Jun-yeol as Kim Jung-hwan
    • Stoic and sarcastic but with a secretly sweet heart, Jung-hwan is called Jung-pal by his friends. Jung-hwan is smart and athletic, often taking on extra responsibility to fulfill the dreams of his older brother Jung-bong, who has a chronic heart condition. While Jung-hwan doesn't often share his emotions with others, he feels things deeply and uses his sarcasm and attitude as a shield. He develops feelings for Deok-sun early but is reluctant to admit his crush, even as the right timing slips away. He joined the Korea Air Force Academy and became a pilot for the Korean Air Force.

Kim-Sung family

  • Kim Sun-young as Kim Sun-young
    • A kind young widow, Sun-young dotes on her children as much as possible to try to make up for their father's absence. She struggles with her mother-in-law and does her best to keep the family afloat. With a sunny personality and an upbeat disposition, she is always looking for the best side of any situation and can make even the most bear-like person laugh.
  • Go Kyung-pyo as Sung Sun-woo
    • A class president, caring brother, and dependable son to his widowed mother, Sun-woo is an ideal young man. He is devoted to his friends and dotes on his younger sister, Jin-joo. Sun-woo is thought to be the most "normal" among the five neighborhood friends. She harbours a secret crush on Deok-sun's older sister that lingers into adulthood. He later entered theMedical College of Yonsei University.
  • Kim Seol as Jin-joo
    • A precocious toddler doted on by everyone in the neighbourhood, Jin-joo adores sausages, bananas and red bean buns. She loves her older brother but is a bit more reserved with others.

Choi family

  • Choi Moo-sung as Choi Moo-sung
    • A widower, he is the owner of a watch and jewellry store called Bonghwangdang, at the entrance to the alley. Moo-sung moved to Ssangmundong after the death of his wife. He was adopted into the neighborhood family as he raised Taek by himself. Quiet and reserved, Moo-sung's unassuming exterior conceals hidden depths of emotion and compassion for his son, his friends, and the neighbourhood as a whole.
  • Park Bo-gum as Choi Taek[5]
    • An internationally renowned genius baduk player, Taek is the quietest of his neighborhood friends. Taek dominates on the baduk board but struggles with simple everyday tasks. His baduk success has brought money and fame but has left him distant from his age group so he relies on his friends for companionship, grounding, and connection to other teens. Taek is generous to a fault and hesitant to make a fuss, but that hesitancy disappears in competition. However, when he realises that the person he cares for has another admirer, he has to weigh romance against friendship.

Ryu family

  • Yoo Jae-myung as Ryu Jae-myung
    • A dean at the local boys high school and biology teacher, he previously took Mathematics Education at the Teacher's College of Pusan National University in Busan, Gyeognam but transferred to the Biological Education Department. He becomes a tutor due to earn extra cash. Jae-myung once harboured dreams of becoming a dancer when he visited a dancing club at USFK's Busan Naval Base. Now focused on shaping the men of the future, he does his best to keep his son in check while still enjoying life.
  • Lee Dong-hwi as Ryu Dong-ryong
    • The neighbourhood clown, Dong-ryong loves to sing, dance, and play jokes on his friends. Like Deok-sun, Dong-ryong is not a natural academic, but his thoughtful insight and surprising wisdom serve him and his friends well. As the son of two working parents surrounded by tight-knit families, Dong-ryong sometimes feels neglected by his parents and makes up for their absence by acting out. He is known for his disgusting nature whilst with the group, much to the anger of the others. His nosy nature also means that he ends up knowing many of the neighbourhood's secrets before anyone else.

Extended

Special appearances

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Episodes

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Production

Pre-production

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Actors Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa play the parents of the female lead character in each installment of the Reply anthology series

Reply 1988 marked the third collaboration between director Shin Won-ho and screenwriter Lee Woo-jung. Unlike the previous Reply series, 1988 focuses more on filial bond than romance between characters with director Shin saying that most of the story was about family, but the mystery on the lead's husband, like the previous series, is still present.[7][8][9]

Casting

In May 2015, Hyeri, Park Bo-gum and Go Kyung-pyo confirmed their appearances[10] together with Ryu Jun-yeol, Ryu Hye-young and Ahn Jae-hong.[11] Kim Sung-kyun, who co-starred in Reply 1994 also joined the cast together with Reply anthology series regulars Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa.[12]

Filming

On August 10, 2015, photos from the first script reading were revealed; principal photography commenced days later.[13]

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Original soundtrack

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Like its predecessors, the soundtrack for Reply 1988 also consists of remakes of old songs.

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Reception

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Critical response and impact

Reply 1988 received widespread critical and audience acclaim with its finale episode recording an 18.8% nationwide audience share making it the highest rated drama in Korean cable television history at the time of airing.[14][15] It catapulted its cast to popularity inside and outside South Korea and its cable channel TvN shot to influence among broadcast networks.[16] For the BBC, the series is a "television masterpiece" that has "ushered in South Korea's cable era" and "laid the groundwork for a swell of more realist and nostalgic Korean dramas" which subsequently gained international success.[17] Per The Korea Times, "Reply 1988 wasn’t just popular — it was a cultural phenomenon, widely hailed as a 'National Drama'".[16] The 1980s nostalgia brought by the series was widespread initiating the newtro boom in the country.[18][19] The New Yorker attributed its "record-breaking success" to the series' "quirky humor, nostalgic lilt, and borderless perspective".[20]

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Baduk experienced heightened popularity inside and outside South Korea due to the character Choi Taek, played by Park Bo-gum, who is a professional baduk player

According to The Korean Herald, the series whetted the demand for retro goods and family values: "No less remarkable is the emotional bond the series managed to create between generations that are gradually drifting apart."[21] Per TvN, advertisements and VOD sales alone raked in some 22.1 billion.[21] Its soundtrack also dominated local music charts.[21] A beer brand, which was stopped being produced in 1993, hit the shelves again after featuring in the series as were record players; 80s staples like long overcoats, flared pants, turtleneck knitwear also became the new trend in fashion.[21] Baduk, which the character Choi Taek plays in the series, underwent a resurgence in popularity.[22][23] The character is loosely based on real-life baduk player Lee Chang-ho and portrayed by Park Bo-gum.[24] In Turkey, baduk experienced heightened popularity especially among female players: "According to the Turkish Go Players Association, the show led to an increase in hallyu fans who are interested in the game".[25] The series streamed via IQIYI in China and was extremely well-received leading to Tencent Video purchasing the rights for a remake.[26] However, due to the hallyu ban in China, an unofficial remake titled Our Youth was produced and broadcast instead.[27]

The big data analytics firm Good Data Corporation reported that Reply 1988 ranked first in overall topicality making it the "Most Buzzworthy Program" (TV; Drama and Entertainment) for its entire run,[28] and achieved the highest all-time percentage among programs with its finale recording a 48.2% share.[29][30] Also reported by Good Data, Park Bo-gum recorded the highest all-time percentage as "Most Buzzworthy Performer" (TV; Drama and Entertainment) in television by the final episode, followed by Hyeri and Ryu Jun-yeol respectively.[31][30]

Viewership

In this table, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

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  • This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
  • The series set a record by receiving over 200 million cumulative views within a month of its official online premiere in China.[74]

Accolades

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10th anniversary

To commemorate the series' 10th anniversary, 15 cast members including Lee Hye-ri, Park Bo-gum, Go Kung-pyo, and Lee Dong-hwi as well as Reply series director Shin Won-ho and writer Lee Woo-jung participated in a reunion variety show in Gangwon Province in October 2025.[80][81] It was directed by Na Yeong-seok and Shin Gun-joon, and will be broadcast on TvN starting December 19, 2025 for a total of three episodes.[82][83][84]

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See also

References

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