Reply 1997

Reply 1997 (Korean: 응답하라 1997; RR: Eungdaphara 1997) is a 2012 South Korean television series and the first installment of the Reply anthology series. It centers on the lives of six friends in Busan as the timeline moves back and forth between their past selves as 18-year-old high schoolers in 1997 and their present selves as 33-year-olds at their high school reunion dinner in 2012 where one couple will announce that they're getting married. It portrays the extreme fan culture that emerged in the 1990s when first generation idol groups such as H.O.T. and Sechs Kies took center stage and K-pop was just beginning to blossom.
The series was one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history, and has garnered praise from audiences and critics for being well-researched and full of humor and heart.
Set in 1997, the series follows female high school student Sung Shi-won (Jung Eun-ji), who idolizes boyband H.O.T, and the lives of her five high school friends. As a teen, Shi-won was obsessed with a boy band. Now 33 years old, Shi-won and her friends are reliving their memories at their high school reunion.
The series originally aired live on cable channel tvN with 16 episodes (fourteen 30-minute episodes aired back-to-back over a period of 7 weeks, with the last 2 episodes aired separately and lasting 1 hour each due to the amount of material the staff didn't want to edit out). However, due to its popularity, the 15th and 16th episodes were also aired simultaneously on Mnet, OCN, O'live, Ongamenet and OnStyle. This drama served as the acting debut of Jung Eun-ji.
The '90s-set drama didn't have an original soundtrack of its own since a huge aspect of the show's mood is set with era-specific music, one of its defining characteristics. Instead, lead actors Jung Eun-ji and Seo In-guk recorded a 2-part mini OST entitled Love Story to thank fans and viewers of the show. Seo was the first season winner of the music audition program Superstar K, and Eun-ji is the main vocalist of K-pop girl group A Pink. Their duet in Part 1 was a remake of 1990s idol group Cool's "All For You." Their duet in Part 2 is a remake of "Just the Way We Love", from the soundtrack of 1999 film Love Wind Love Song.
The two singles topped the Gaon Single Chart and Billboard's K-Pop Hot 100, and "All For You" became one of the best-selling singles of that year with 2,499,273 downloads. Jung and Seo also gave a live performance on Mnet's M! Countdown on 6 September 2012, and on 19 September, the song "All For You" ranked first on another music program, Music Triangle.
Due to popular demand, CJ E&M eventually released a "Director's Edition" soundtrack that feature Jung and Seo's 2 covers, as well as '90s songs played throughout the series. It also included a mini photobook and a behind-the-scenes DVD. Before its official release, the album sold out its 12,500 units via pre-order, surpassing the average soundtrack sales figure of 5,000.
The TV serial mostly consisted of idol singers with scant acting experience, and apart from the meta casting of Sechs Kies member Eun Ji-won (who previously worked with director Shin Won-ho and the writing staff on the variety show 1 Night & 2 Days), it premiered with little hype. But through strong word of mouth, it soon gained recognition as a high-quality production with a distinct sense of identity, becoming a buzz-worthy "syndrome" show (the Korean slang term for a hit show with an ardent fanbase).
With Korean cable shows generally considered successful if they hit 1%, Reply 1997 took cable ratings by storm, and received an immense amount of attention and critical praise. The show has been credited for its laser-sharp attention to detail, re-creating the late '90s with an accuracy that had fans singing its praises. Endless pop culture references are packed into every minute of the show, with little pop culture easter eggs hidden in scenes, callbacks to the trends of the day, and cameos that are in-jokes.
It was also a digital success, receiving more than a million hits after it was made available for downloading and streaming on internet and mobile site Tving. This was attributed to the fact that Reply 1997 had aired on a cable network (pay television channel), such that several viewers were unable to watch it live.
With the majority of Korean dramas shot in the capital city of Seoul, another of the show's charms is its Busan setting, which is treated in a matter-of-fact way as a locale. The realism is aided by the fact that much of the principal cast actually hails from the region, who speak with the authentic Gyeongsang dialect. The dialogue also uses time-specific, location-specific slang.
But '90s nostalgia and meticulous attention to detail is only part of the show's appeal. Fans were also intrigued by the clues that the 2012 scenes dropped at regular intervals about who ends up together, as well as the episodes' subtle twists. And its smart, witty way of addressing the growing pains of its adolescent cast makes it just as relevant in the present as it was back in the late-'90s setting of its primary plot. Audiences have lauded the show's intimacy and realism, with a sincerity that connects with people — even those outside that particular generation.
Seo In-guk, Eun Ji-won, Lee Si-eon and Shin So-yul hosted the 15 September 2012 episode of sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live Korea, which included skits that parody scenes in their series. On 20 September 2012, a special was aired on tvN's enews featuring behind-the-scenes videos and a few bloopers from the set.
A novelization was published in January 2013. Director Shin Won-ho re-edited all 16 episodes for a special director's cut DVD, released in February 2013. It also included 358 minutes of exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, a blooper reel, as well as commentary from the director and actors.
The show was said to have sparked the "retro" trend in South Korea and the media and cultural commentators have noted an increased interest in the pop culture of the 1990s after the show aired. Notably, the show garnered more interest in "first generation" K-pop idol groups whose heyday took place during the 1990s prior to the Korean Wave, hence not being as well known to international audiences as their much younger counterparts. Not long after the show concluded, Eun and H.O.T members Moon Hee-joon and Tony An joined two other members of fellow first-generation groups in filming their own variety show Handsome Boys of the 20th Century, which Moon called the "reality-variety show version of Reply 1997". In 2014, the highly successful comebacks of Seo Taiji, g.o.d and Fly to the Sky further added to the retro wave. The variety show Infinite Challenge began airing the "Saturday, Saturday is for Singers" (ToToGa) segment which specifically features artists and groups popular during the 1990s and has directly led to the reunions of first-generation groups Jinusean, S.E.S, Sechs Kies and H.O.T after over a decade of inactivity or disbandment.
Another series from the same writer and director, Reply 1994 was produced in 2013. Set in a college campus, it follows the pop culture events of that year, including the emergence of seminal K-pop group Seo Taiji and Boys and the basketball craze of the era. It also starred Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa, but as different characters. Younger cast members Jung Eun-ji, Seo In-guk, Hoya, Lee Si-eon, Shin So-yul, Eun Ji-won, and Lee Jooyeon reprised their Reply 1997 roles in cameo appearances.
A second spin-off, Reply 1988, aired in 2015. Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa again joined the cast.
An American remake, Answer Me 1999 was reportedly in development in 2014 at Fox, written by Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer (Step Up 3D), with the pilot episode directed by Jon M. Chu.