Like its predecessor, Reply 1997, the series follows a nonlinear story telling where it shifts between the past in 1994 and the present in 2013, making the viewers guess who will become Na-jung's husband among the male characters.[10]
The series follows the historically and culturally significant events that happened in the country in 1994 and the years that followed, including the emergence of seminal K-pop group Seo Taiji and Boys, the Sampoong Department Store collapse[11] and the birth of the Korean Basketball League.[12] The names of the boys are revealed later, to avoid spoilers. They're mostly just referred to by their nicknames listed below.
Originally from Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, she is majoring in Computer Engineering, has an easygoing personality and is a big fan of basketball player Lee Sang-min.
Jung Woo as "Sseureki" (meaning "Garbage" or "Trash")
A medical student.[9] He was the best friend of Na-jung's late older brother, and grew up with the Sung siblings. (Hometown: Masan, South Gyeongsang Province)
Jung Yu-mi as girl who bumps into Chilbong (ep. 21)
Production
Director Shin Won-ho and writer Lee Woo-jung had originally planned for their previous TV series to be set in 1994, which was the year they entered college (Shin studied Chemical Engineering at Seoul National University). But they decided to change the year to 1997 after casting Sechs Kies member Eun Ji-won, since H.O.T. and Sechs Kies fandom was at its peak that year, which made an interesting juxtaposition to the failing Korean economy during the IMF crisis.[28]
Shin and Lee felt there was enough material for another series, and in a bid to replicate Reply 1997's success, cable channel tvN announced a "sequel" or "second season" in April 2013.[29][30] Shin said, "The stories about people moving to Seoul are full of unpredictable incidents."[31]
Despite the same writer and director, and the casting of Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa, Reply 1994 is not a prequel of Reply 1997; it uses the same concept of coming-of-age drama combined with 1990s nostalgia, but with a completely new plot and characters.[32]
Soundtracks for the drama consist of re-arranged popular Korean songs from the nineties. All re-arranged songs are well received by Korean general public and topped various Korean music charts.
In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
