If you're looking for a slice-of-life drama centered around your stressful yet unforgettable college years, this is a drama for you.
One of the biggest upsets I have with Korean dramas in general is the weak female characters. Often times, they're portrayed as a damsel in distress (see Park Shin Hye's Eun Sang in Heirs) or "Candy" girls (see Han Hyo Joo's Go Eun Sung in Shining Inheritance), which can be frustrating when you're wanting a strong female lead with development and with more spunk instead of being dragged around all the time. Age of Youth, being a slice-of-life and romantic drama, manages to avoid that by showcasing the different personalities of five different women who each have their own story to tell.
While romance and lovelines certainly do play a part in the drama, it's really the relationships between the girls that really give this drama that special touch. It's about letting down your walls and allowing your friends, roommates, and significant others to care for you and tell you that it's okay when you're feeling like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Through this drama, you'll discover (or maybe rediscover) just how precious friends can be, sometimes even more so than family.
Park Eunbin is perhaps quite easily the most breakout star of this drama. She certainly has this wonderful presence on the screen that grabs your attention and is one of the most memorable characters as well. Han Yeri is also one of the more memorable characters as well. She has this great control of subtle facial expressions and is able to convey many emotions through her gaze, which is quite impressive. Ryu Hwayoung also deserves an honorable mention, as she's been playing side characters for a while and has continued to show steady improvement and growth in her acting. Her character was perhaps my favorite; strong on the outside and very straightforward in her words but she knows when to soften up and really take care of people.
While I do love this drama, if there's one thing I would say I'm dissatisfied with, it would be the ghost storyline. I feel like we've only barely scratched the surface of the stories behind the girls, and some were barely touched upon (such as the backstory of Yoon Jinmyung's brother and Jiwon's tendency to overexaggerate or overdo things at times). It would be great if we had more episodes to really flesh out the stories and get to know them better. At the same time, I can understand why we only get glimpses of their backstories as well; it's not the past that matters, but who they are now and how they choose to move forward from here on out. As people, we shouldn't live in the past, but rather keep the memories in our hearts and move forward. That's the greatest service we can do for the people we care for and the people who are not here with us today to join in our happiness and sorrows.
I would definitely rewatch this drama again. It's a pretty light-hearted drama, so if you're looking for something to sort of pass the time with, I definitely recommend this.
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