Reply 1988 (Season 1)

Reply 1988 (응답하라 1988, 2015) is a South Korean comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Shin Won-ho sets the story in a small alley neighbourhood in Seoul during the year the city hosted the Summer Olympics. Five families share the same narrow lane, and their five teenage kids share almost everything else.

Lee Hye-ri plays Deok-sun, caught between two very different boys next door — a rivalry that becomes the slow-burn mystery threading through the whole series. Ryu Jun-yeol and Park Bo-gum bring quiet depth to characters still figuring out what they want. The parents are just as vivid: the friendship between the fathers (played by Sung Dong-il and Kim Sung-kyun) carries as many laughs as the teenage storylines.

The third entry in the Reply anthology became the most-watched of the three, averaging above 18% nationally. The show works because it is not really about the eighties — it is about the specific warmth of living so close to people that you know the sound of their footsteps. Stream all episodes of Reply 1988 online on iFILM.