A webtoon that leaves a strong impression and immersion with a new subject and excellent completeness.

 

'Youth', 'Challenge', 'Drama', 'Alcohol'. These are words that increase our heartbeats. And the word 'Revenge' is added here. Seems like the frosting on the cake. A webtoon that can be described with five words. A webtoon that contains a story of us who live with our own values. <Itaewon Class> it is.

<Itaewon Class> is about a story that happens in 'Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul' just like its title. In other words, it is a story made by people come together with various appearances and having various values just like the regional feature of ‘Itaewon.’ 

The story of <Itaewon Class> starts with the main character Park Sae-ro-yi’s transfer to another school in a local town following his father. His father has worked in Korean conglomerate of food and beverage service called ‘Jang-ga.’ Just like the most students in puberty, he didn’t like the new local town. In the school in which he transferred, a classmate was harshly bullied and ostracized, but none of other students cared about it. The bully who ostracize the victim was ‘Jang Geun-won’ who is the first son of president of Jang-ga, the company that Park Sae-ro-yi’s father worked. Park Sae-ro-yi couldn’t hold himself when watching injustice of the class and punched ‘Jang Geun-won.’ Ultimately his father got fired because of that and Park Sae-ro-yi was expelled from the school at the first day of his transfer. The day when he got expelled from school, Park Sae-ro-yi had a drink with his father, and a famous line which can be considered as the essence of this webtoon appeared at this scene.

 “How’s the taste of drink?” “It’s sweet.” “Wahaha…! It means that you had a impressive day.”

His father who had always taught him lessons passed away killed by a motorcycle driven by Jang Geun-won. Starting from this point, ill-fated relationship between Park Sae-ro-yi and Jang-ga has begun.

Out of anger, Park Sae-ro-yi beated Jang Geun-won and got put into the jail for assault. As always, the law took side of the rich. Jang Geun-won who killed a person was not guilty but Park Sae-ro-yi who punched his foe who killed his father was in prison. The president of Jang-ga visiting Park Sae-ro-yi asked him to kneel down saying he would make the favorable arrangement, but Park Sae-ro-yi refused his suggestion and showed him a strong aspiration to beat Jang-ga down in the future.

After 7 years later, the story begins with Park Sae-ro-yi starting a store named ‘Ggul-bam’ in Itaewon. Although he started the business with an aspiration of destroying Jang-ga, everything such as monthly rent for Itaewon store and the prejudice that follows him due to jail time becomes an obstacle that disturbs Park Sae-ro-yi’s easy success. It is too hard for Park Sae-ro-yi to take revenge on his father’s foe in the world in which everything is easy with money. Even though he wants to revenge, but there’ nothing he can do without money. But still Park Sae-ro-yi lives honestly and earnestly without adopting an expedient even in such situation. Did people start to trust in Park’s such honesty? Since then, there appears people one and another who begin to help him.

The first person is ‘Jo Yi-soo.’ She is a social media celebrity who has 760k followers. As a character who is beautiful, smart and has various talents, she cares about the sensuous part of the interior of ‘Ggul-bam’ and its marketing method and shifts the atmosphere of the store and employee’s feelings. The next one is ‘Oh Soo-Ah.’ She’s the first love of Park Sa-ro-yi and works for Jang-ga. But after watching Park Sae-ro-yi’s belief, she regrets her life and her belief is shaken. Later she helps to destroy Jang-ga. There are more characters besides that, but I guess this is enough for the explanation.

With people around him, Park Sae-ro-yi gets the ability to make revenge with ‘Ggul-bam.’ Since then Jang-ga also begins to check him. By threatening subsidiary of Jang-ga, Park Sae-ro-yi finally wins Jang-ga destroying the wall of the real world. The story ends with the president of Jang-ga kneels down in front of Park Sae-ro-yi.

<Itaewon Class> increases the reader’s immersion to the max with its fast development and twist in each episode. The webtoon’s development which describes Park Sae-ro-yi’s success on winning conglomerate ‘Jang-ga’ can be already a fantasy in the real world, and I guess that was why I supported him more. However, the author of the webtoon proved the fact that Park Sae-ro-yi is a person who can beat Jnag-ga with various episodes. Each of these probabilities is considered as author’s delicate direction. 

Also, its multi-dimensional characters and famous line that touch the viewer’s heart played a role to make <Itaewon Class> popular. There are many refreshing lines which feel like a real advice for life even though it was said by webtoon characters.

How many of people are there who live like Park Sae-ro-yi in <Itaewon Class>, not succumbed by any environment. I can not even sure if I live like that. I used to compare myself with Park Sae-ro-yi while reading this webtoon. It didn’t feel good all the time.

I recommend <Itaewon Class> to the youth who live forgetting the heartbeats and passion. And drama based on <Itaewon Class> is decided to produce. I look forward to the drama as much as webtoon.

Lastly, I want to ask you who read this article right now.

 

How the taste of the drink today? Is it sweet? Or bitter? If it tastes sweet, it means your day was impressive.