#Still 17

[ryoun]

south korean dramas that gave me feels ↪ Still 17 [2018]

[jeonjeha]

SHIN HYE SUN as WOO SEO RI Thirty but Seventeen 서른이지만 열일곱입니다  (2018) | S01E01

[mostlyfate]

THIRTY BUT SEVENTEEN 서른이지만 열일곱입니다 (2018)

[lunipalette]

Book cover study of Still 17 (2018)

twitter instagram prints

[alihi]

You need to share your burdens, to lighten them - Hae Soo ( Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo)

Friday (February 10th) romance is a bonus book 🔖

a set inspired by your favourite quote or lyric [optional: from your favourite kdrama or original soundtrack]

[starlit-pathways]

now, if i had a penny for every time shin hye sun starred as the female lead in a romcom drama in which:

there is a number in at least one of english translation of the title(s)

the male lead has vehicular ptsd relating to an incident in their shared past

there is a psychological age gap

she has a talent for music

she has had to wheel the very drunk male lead back home

i'd have two pennies, which isn't a lot – but even then, i'm still building up the parallels between the two in my head. i just know there'll be more to come.

[namjhyun]

Lee Do Hyun for Louis Vuitton in Esquire Korea April 2023

[factorygirlsstuff]

I been watching Shin Hae Sun’s dramas lately. Just finished Thirty but Seventeen and I loved it so much. I cried during the whole last half of the last episode and I don’t even know why lol.

My favorite is how they pretended like she was going to leave, like happens in so many dramas, and then they decided not to do the last episode break up/time skip thing.

Everything was so cute, the ending was perfect. I can’t believe that movie Senior Year was based on this lol. Also I didn’t recognize Ahn Hyo seop AT ALL till I looked him up.

Super cute, totally recommend.

[bonniehooper]

Top Picks of 2023

My Top 20 New Favorite Actors - #5: Ahn Hyo-seop

Introduction to Him: Business Proposal

[sifueraestamivoz]

Fermented kimchi, Cordyceps, and barley tea. Some things get better the longer you preserve them. But the conflict between two people, shouldn't be kept for a long time.

~Jennifer, Still 17/EP 23.

[consumeronionbulletin]

Still 17 / Thirty but Seventeen (2018)

Overall, I liked this melodrama / romcom though I had some quibbles.

The premise is basically: "what would it be like if you went through a coma and skipped all of your late teens and twenties and woke up 30." I've seen this in a few movies (Big, 13 Going on 30, etc.).

Those movies used unexplained magic to cause the inciting incident. But the people who made this show decided to use a horrific accident where their best friend gets killed, their family abandons them, and the main character starts the first episode confused and homeless.

This is a pretty good example of the differences between Hollywood and K-drama-land...

What Worked

There were strong performances here, but Shin Hye-sun really carried this show. The premise could easily have turned maudlin or overly cute but Shin Hye-sun kept things grounded when they needed to be, while still making you empathize with the character.

The other characters were also pretty interesting (especially Jennifer!), and the writer and actors put alot of care into making them seem real when they could easily have been boring or flat. Even the antagonists (the jealous former rival, the handsy son-of-a-client, etc.) were mostly interesting, or at least fun to hate.

What Didn't Work

They shot this by splitting the (usually) hour long episodes into 35 mins, for commercial break reasons. This caused some issues with pacing / plotting. They also liked to tease the audience by dropping clues about connections that would move the plot forward, only to have the characters suddenly turn away from the "clue" and bury it for 4-5 episodes (or more). It makes sense for them to do that, in that it keeps the audience hooked and was much more common before binging / streaming became popular, but it still annoyed the crap out of me.

I also disliked the inability for the "adults" to have a serious conversation in the first half of the drama. Again, this was mostly for plot reasons, and had some justification with the past trauma aspect of the show, but it was frustrating. Another thing I disliked was the attempted love triangle thing between Yoo Chan and Seo-ri. They did a good job of handling the arc overall, but it just didn't land for me.

The Performances

Shin Hye-sun as ("still 17") Woo Seo-ri. I loved this performance. The overall arc for the character, which is basically "poor little orphan makes good" isn't groundbreaking, but Hye-sun managed to keep the character fresh and fun to watch. And that made the moments of sadness hit even harder.

Yang Se-jong as ("poor trauma boy") Gong Woo-jin. Another good performance. I liked the chemistry he had with Hye-sun's character, but what made this work was the way Yang Se-jong managed to portray the slow change from weird mountain man shunned by society, to hardworking family man, while still keeping the core goodness of the character intact.

Ahn Hyo-seop as ("the good nephew") Yoo Chan. This guy was fun to watch, and made a great foil (comedic and emotional) for the two leads. I especially liked the way they showed his differences in language (from living overseas part-time) and his upbeat attitude overall. The show would have been much more depressing without the lighter moments that he brought to it.

Ye Ji-won as ("the housekeeper") Jennifer. This character was straight out of a Wes Anderson film, and I loved the decision to play her that way. I liked Ye Ji-won in her role as the quirky mom in Introverted Boss but this was much more fun and memorable. I don't know that kdramas really need more housekeepers with martial arts skills and an encyclopedic memory of weird facts, but I for one would enjoy more characters like that.

Jung Yoo-jin as ("noona boss") Kang Hee-soo. I liked her in Romance is a Bonus Book and it's nice to see her in a more laid-back role. Enjoyed her interactions with Seo-ri and Woo-jin.

Lee Ah-hyun as ("absent mother") Gong Hyun-jung. Not in very many episodes, but I really enjoyed the scenes she was in. Just a cool character.

Ahn Seung-gyun as ("quirky coworker") Jin Hyun. He was fun to watch, but I never understood what his deal was, other than just being young and quirky.

The Rowing Crew. These guys were fun to watch, but kind of interchangeable.

Yoon Sun-woo as ("the doctor") Kim Hyung-tae. The actor did okay with what he was given, but it was basically another fake love triangle which I didn't like, followed by some minor character stuff which was only kind of interesting.

Wang Ji-won as ("the rival") Kim Tae-rin. I have mixed feelings about the character. I liked the sort of flashback / arrested development thing, but I feel like the resolution to this was maybe too fast. But the actor did a good job and I felt some real feels at times.

The Bad Client. I hated this guy, which shows that he did a good job. A little bit of a stereotype, but (like with loansharks and fascists), I never get tired of seeing this type of guy get what's coming to him.

So-ri's Family. Not really memorable, but they did a good job for the most part.

TL; DR:

It's billed as a romcom, but it's at least equal parts melodrama. Frustrating and endearing at times, but it's worth watching just to see Shin Hye-sun and Yang Se-jong at work.

[ryoun]

kdramas that i watched (so far) that i thought had good OSTs (i could listen to on repeat) :

Legend of the Blue Sea

Familiar Wife

Angel’s Last Mission: Love

Twinkling Watermelon

More Than Friends

Still 17

Moon in the Day

[jeonjeha]

The family member you told me about came but they fell asleep, so I moved them upstairs. Thirty but Seventeen 서른이지만 열일곱입니다  (2018) | Episode 1

[tintakaca]

And I don't know since when, but my heart started to beat louder when I thought of you. Like a crescendo.

(Woo SeoRi)

[cy-blade]

Enjoyed “Thirty But Seventeen” so much. Found family trope was muah! *chef’s kiss*

I just wish there was a gifset of all the times Woo-Jin was tugging on Seo-Ri’s sleeve and my heartstrings 

[wingedtimetraveltraveler]

Deuk, Jo, Ga, Yeon.

A beautiful first meeting with a stranger.

This is our first meeting.

I’ve quoted a Chinese saying to express my hopes of us getting along well from now on.