Self
Sung Dong-il
Self
Overview
The special follows the cast on a two-day, one-night trip to celebrate the show's anniversary.
Cast
Reviews
✦ AI-generated review
The Alleyway that Time Forgot
Nostalgia is a dangerous currency in modern media; spend it too freely, and it cheapens the memory. Yet, "Reply 1988" has always been a show built on the bedrock of a specific, aching longing—not just for the 1980s, but for a communal innocence that feels extinct in the 21st century. The release of *Reply 1988 10th Anniversary*, a reality special directed by variety mogul Na Yeong-seok, attempts to bottle that lightning one last time. It is not a sequel, nor is it a scripted drama. Instead, it is a meta-textual experiment: a two-day retreat (MT) where the actors who breathed life into Ssangmun-dong attempt to bridge the decade-long gap between their fictional alter egos and their present selves.
Director Na Yeong-seok, known for his "observational reality" style in shows like *Youth Over Flowers*, applies a distinct lens here. He doesn't just film a reunion; he gamifies the memory. The visual language shifts from the warm, sepia-toned cinematography of the original drama to the sharp, digital clarity of a reality show, yet the editing actively fights this modernization. By interspersing grainy "film camera" photos taken by the cast during the trip—snapshots of Hyeri (Deok-sun) laughing with Park Bo-gum (Taek)—Na creates a disorienting but pleasant friction. We are watching wealthy, successful celebrities in 2025, but the show constantly superimposes the ghosts of 1988 over them.
The heart of the special lies in its resistance to the "product" nature of typical reunions. This isn't a stiff talk show on a soundstage. It is messy, loud, and delightfully unscripted. The "Hongshi Expedition" scene, where veterans Sung Dong-il and Ra Mi-ran conspire to steal food, is a standout moment of emotional truth. It transcends the reality format because their chemistry hasn't aged; for a fleeting moment, they aren't actors on a payroll, but the bickering, lovable parents we remember. However, the special also carries a palpable weight of melancholy. The absence of Ryu Jun-yeol (Jung-hwan) from the main group trip—relegated to a separate segment due to scheduling (and perhaps the subtext of real-life personal histories)—serves as a somber reminder that the "Gang of Five" is a fantasy that cannot fully exist outside the script.
Ultimately, *Reply 1988 10th Anniversary* is a confrontation with time. When the child actor Jinju appears, now fully grown, the shock on the faces of the cast mirrors our own. It breaks the illusion that Ssangmun-dong is frozen in amber. The special succeeds not because it perfectly recreates the past, but because it admits we can’t go back. It is a tender, bittersweet curtain call that allows us to visit the alleyway one last time, only to realize we no longer live there.
Nostalgia is a dangerous currency in modern media; spend it too freely, and it cheapens the memory. Yet, "Reply 1988" has always been a show built on the bedrock of a specific, aching longing—not just for the 1980s, but for a communal innocence that feels extinct in the 21st century. The release of *Reply 1988 10th Anniversary*, a reality special directed by variety mogul Na Yeong-seok, attempts to bottle that lightning one last time. It is not a sequel, nor is it a scripted drama. Instead, it is a meta-textual experiment: a two-day retreat (MT) where the actors who breathed life into Ssangmun-dong attempt to bridge the decade-long gap between their fictional alter egos and their present selves.
Director Na Yeong-seok, known for his "observational reality" style in shows like *Youth Over Flowers*, applies a distinct lens here. He doesn't just film a reunion; he gamifies the memory. The visual language shifts from the warm, sepia-toned cinematography of the original drama to the sharp, digital clarity of a reality show, yet the editing actively fights this modernization. By interspersing grainy "film camera" photos taken by the cast during the trip—snapshots of Hyeri (Deok-sun) laughing with Park Bo-gum (Taek)—Na creates a disorienting but pleasant friction. We are watching wealthy, successful celebrities in 2025, but the show constantly superimposes the ghosts of 1988 over them.
The heart of the special lies in its resistance to the "product" nature of typical reunions. This isn't a stiff talk show on a soundstage. It is messy, loud, and delightfully unscripted. The "Hongshi Expedition" scene, where veterans Sung Dong-il and Ra Mi-ran conspire to steal food, is a standout moment of emotional truth. It transcends the reality format because their chemistry hasn't aged; for a fleeting moment, they aren't actors on a payroll, but the bickering, lovable parents we remember. However, the special also carries a palpable weight of melancholy. The absence of Ryu Jun-yeol (Jung-hwan) from the main group trip—relegated to a separate segment due to scheduling (and perhaps the subtext of real-life personal histories)—serves as a somber reminder that the "Gang of Five" is a fantasy that cannot fully exist outside the script.
Ultimately, *Reply 1988 10th Anniversary* is a confrontation with time. When the child actor Jinju appears, now fully grown, the shock on the faces of the cast mirrors our own. It breaks the illusion that Ssangmun-dong is frozen in amber. The special succeeds not because it perfectly recreates the past, but because it admits we can’t go back. It is a tender, bittersweet curtain call that allows us to visit the alleyway one last time, only to realize we no longer live there.