Labels

POPCORNX Review of "DUTY AFTER SCHOOL (Part 1)" #Kdrama



WHAT IS "DUTY AFTER SCHOOL"?

SYNOPSIS: It's been a year since the world fell into danger by the unidentified spheres covering up the sky. The senior students of Sungjin High School are issued with a mobilization order to join a military drill after school. The government uses students' desperation for college acceptance to attract them to join the drill by offering extra credits for admission. With only 50 days left before the CSAT, the students have no choice but to sign up for the training, carrying guns instead of books at school. Will the senior students of Sungjin High School be able to overcome the crisis and survive their last year of high school as soldiers?



"방과 후 전쟁활동" is based on webcomic ""Banggwa Hoo Jeonjaenghwaldong" by Ha Il-Kwon (published from November 17, 2012 to December 21, 2013 via Naver). The live-action series consists of 10 episodes, split into 2 parts, with "Part 1" featuring 6 episodes (which this review is based off on), while "Part 2" airs this coming weekend.

For this particular review, there are not as much SPOILERS as much as the videos themselves show, whereas I talk about my own life much more than the show itself.



I do not think I was an exceptional "soldier" while I was serving my National Service, and as a Reservist afters. Sure I can field strip my M16 and P226, but I was never a "great shot". "Average" was my tenure, while wearing the camouflage uniform of the Singapore Armed Forces.

As a student, I was as mid as active as I could have been. Hardly an exceptional student, although I did score Best in my Class during the 3rd and final year of Design School.

I entered the military aged 20, and begun my first full-time salaried-job when I turned 23, having served out my conscripted NS for a full 2 and a half-years, back in the late-90s.

Any memories of my teenaged youth as a student, is as faded as my well worn frayed tee, while my time serving my NS has at best, been kept in the back of my mind, as I navigate through "life", now in my middle age glory of side-parted hairstyle.

Watching DUTY AFTER SCHOOL brought all the supressed memories come bubbling back into the surface of consciousness.



When I started watching the series, I could not identify with the students, having been extremely mid, I could not fathom the life they could have led in class, nor outside of it.

When they started training, I admittedly had very brief flashes of my basic training, building up stamina and endurance, and at the same time grappling with "WTF was happening to my life?", as I trudged thru the mud and ran up and over obsticale course, wondering "WTF did I have to do this shit?"

It all dawned on me slower than some, when after 3 months of intense being what-I-felt-being treated like a "dog", that I could see the change in my stamina, ability and agility, and the willingness to listen to others shout at me ... ok, maybe not the last one, but ...



Watching DUTY AFTER SCHOOL essentially felt like I had gone through my basic training, to be able to function as an active "soldier", able to bear arms and protect people around me, including myself. She might exclaim "Traumatised", and I cannot forgo that assumption. Do not be mistaken tho, I am not the "selfless hero", but I feel I certainly do know how to protect the people around me, and myself.



Everybody grows in different speeds. Some adapt exceedingly quick and well, while others' morals compass are shaped by fear and a good heart. Thankfully DFS is able to portray that. Not everybody turns into a hero. Not everyone stops whining. Not everyone gets clued in. There will be those who break. There will be those who fall behind. There will be those that cling unto a need for friends.



Would I sacrifice myself for my fellow classmates? The "now-Me" would say NO, while I have not idea what the Then-Me would say, so that aspect of the series eludes me, and I can honestly not connect with.

But in the first place, does the series go that deep? At certain points the script and situations delves in the the questions unasked, and I admit I am thankful it is not a "common" practise of hitting over our heads with.



The class bully is the norm, for both sexes. They exist in class and are treated as part of the norm.

There is the overtly-studious one, The enthusiastic one. The meek one. The over-weight one, The overtly gorgeous one (there are two actually), the superbly blur clueless one ... the tropes are all there, with a spectrum of personalities that frankly do not immediately, or anytime in the future, appeal to you in a positive manner, but perhaps that is the allure of the show.

I had actually spent a decent time online trying to search for "Duty After School" on the nNextflix pages, fire I eventually released this was NOIT a Netflix show! And perhaps a similar "student-versus-monsters" notion first came in the form of the excellent "All Of Us Are Dead", that would inevitably be compared against.



This series is pretty gory too though. "Duty After School" is rated "M18", and features human decapitations, exposed guts and chopped off limbs and bloodied stubs. This show might appeal to folks to hanker for such visuals amidst the confines of "Kdrama", and they are not restricted to "night-time shadows" too!



The one negative about "Duty After School Part 1", for me personally, was the "whining". Six episodes later, and they are still whining and screaming, but at the very least starting to behave like a cohesive-unit. And from seeing the trailer and clip for "Part 2", where we see a flash-forward, they have somewhat achieved what I had hoped to see by the end of Ep 6, so understandably I should consider watching and judging this show, when I have watched all ten episodes, innit?



Be that as it may, for the purposes of THIS review of "PART 1", the question would be: Is this a "Must Watch"?

My answer: Not really, no. But if you hanker some entertainment ala "All Of Us Are Dead", this'll hit the spot.



Throighout the watch, I've not once felt dread or fear for the students, until the very last episode of "Part One", where I'd realized my emotional investment into watching five episodes before this, had worn me down, and the cries and whining wre not as irritating as they had been 5 episodes prior. That as a piece of entertainment, it had been a decent watch to have spent time on.

Where to watch this:
Streaming service tving.onelink.me (Unwatchable in Singapore).
Online streaming via VIU.com (Singapore).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts