Youth of May

This drama is "the masterpiece" of this year. I happened to stumble upon this drama through an Instagram page that revealed a major spoiler. So, yes I had known the ending but still decided to give it a go and boy, I'm not disappointed at all. Despite of me knowing what exactly was gonna happen, I was moved to tears during plenty of scenes. It has the right amount of episodes and everything was conveyed clearly with no loose ends. The cast did a brilliant job. Kudos to the writers for this excellent script. This is a must watch for all the k-drama lovers out there!

The Plot and the Screenplay are well put-together.

The show is about one hell of a star-crossed love between a medical student and a nurse weaved around a dark-time in south Korean city Gwangju.

Brace yourself for some heartache by the ending.

The low-rating reviews are from let-down expectation of a cute lovey-dovy romantic story with a happy ending.

This definitely goes into my re-watch list later in future.

THE LAST EPISODE DESTROYED ME. AN HOUR STRAIGHT OF CRYING 😭. Such brilliant acting and visuals, great characters that even got backstory which is unique to kdramas lol. Lt was predictable at moments but the ending made me forget how to breathe (in a sad way).

I love Korean dramas and have seen a ton of them, but this was the first one that I've seen that portrayed the historical event known as the "Gwangju Uprising." I adored the love story, but was equally enthralled and horrified at the historical events that occurred in May of 1980.

This show was very well done, from a stunning soundtrack, to great cinematography, well done costuming (depicting the late 70s/early 80s), and wonderful casting. The chemistry between the two leads was great, and the side characters were all fully developed, with outstanding performances all around. Lee Do-Hyun was clearly the standout star in this, and it's easy to see why he is such an up and coming new actor, as talent is just oozing out of him.

I thought the story was well done and well paced, 12 episodes was a perfect number. My only wish is that they had more fully explained the events that lead up to the Gwangju Uprising, as I was a bit confused as to why the events happened in the first place.

Overall this was very well done and well worth a watch!

As someone with Korean heritage, it was very interesting to see the period in which my parents' generation grew up in, particularly as this "between" period after the Korean war, but before the economic boom and nostalgia of the 90s isn't something I've seen reperesented on screen before. The production did a great job.

However, the script and storyline fall short. It starts strong, in the present, with the mystery surrounding a news story which we can assume alludes to what happens to one of the main characters.. and creates a sense of huge melodrama.. but as the drama gets to the late stages (starting around ep 9-10) the story becomes rushed with plotpoints being brushed aside immediately after they happen in preparation for the next development, making character and story progression seem unearned and abrupt. By the last couple of episodes major plotpoints are rushed through so quickly and inconsequentially that it just started to lose what sense of believability it had earned during the early stages.

Really my main gripe is the pacing which mainly results from the 12ep 1 hour run time (the shortest I've seen from a kdrama that isn't considered a mini-series), and they should really have chosen either to present this as a 2 hour movie or a properly fleshed out 24 hour drama. The first 8 eps feel like they belong as the opening act of a 24 ep arc, and then within 3 eps the story comes to an abrupt end (the 12th being the present day epilogue).

If you're curious about Korean history and want a short series to watch then this isn't an awful watch, I've still given it a 7 because the beginning was pretty good, but it does flatter to deceive on what it can deliver and the climax falls on its face for me.