"Age of Youth" drama season one: Episode three recap

 Air Dates: July 22nd to August 27, 2016 on JTBC, Friday and Saturday nights at 10:30 pm

Rating- 0.911%, ratings are low due to JTBC being a cable network
Video at the top features Yi-Na with her 'boyfriends', will have a new one for every post

Also goes by the title of 'Hello My Twenties'

Main Cast:

This first episode we only met the five major female characters along with a few others briefly so will be adding on to this once new people enter the scene.

 The five roommates

Park Hye-Su as Yoo Eun-Jae.... twenty year old freshman at college majoring in psychology, a rather timid gal who was picked on by her new roommates in the beginning

Han Seung-Yeon as Jung Ye-Eun.... the 'starlet' of the apartment house who always has to have her way, she's a 22 year old junior majoring in nutrition and constantly lies to make herself more impressive to others

Park Eun-Bin as Song Ji-Won.... also 22 years old and is a dance major, we didn't meet her until the final eight minutes so will hold off a bit on her bio

Ryu Hwa-Young as Kang Yi-Na.... the third roommate who is 22 years old, her major is art and is known as the apartment's 'exhibitionist' and may be considered a 'hooker'

Han Ye-Ri as Yoon Jin-Myung.... at 28 the oldest of the rooommates, she's that old because she's been working part time to help support her family and pay her tuition.

 The rest of the cast, we did see a bit of these three so once someone gets introduced will be adding to the list as mentioned

Shin Hyun-Soo as Yoon Jong-Yeol.... college student and Eun-Jae's soon to be boyfriend?

Ji Ii-Joo as Go Do-Young.... Ye-Eun's boyfriend

Moon Sok as the owner of Belle Epoque apartment building
Yoon Park as Park Jae-Wan.... works at Yoon's restaurant and may have a crush on her
Choi Duk-Moon as Oh.... mysterious man Yi-Na met who may be her stalker

 Bit of a jump in the rating, still can't believe how low episode's two was. Trying to space these recaps out as I'm writing this and the next one up at least two days before they're published, have realized it's hard for viewers to read more than two recaps in a row. But having this pair close to the first two should make it easier to go back to see what took place in those episodes. Am keeping with my new strategy of watching an episode and then writing these up which for some odd reason has made doing recaps so much quicker, hope this style of talking about the characters separately is working out for you.

 But do like to start off talking about what the five roommates did as a group, very little so this will be a short segment to begin off with. At the conclusion of the previous recap Yi-Na's major secret had been exposed which was that she had been seeing many men, not just to date but as a 'madam of the night'. That shocked the housemates to no end save for the oldest gal Jin-Myung. Will talk more about Yi-Na in her segment and she easily had the most screen time this episode. Almost forgot to add in that the girls had been considering throwing Yi-Na out of the apartment due to her lifestyle, they may have been saved at the end as she said her departure was imminent.
 It appears every character will have a turn in the spotlight in these opening episodes which is fine by me but wish they would delve more into the girl's past. Not a review of everything yet but up until now it's been a much more serious and depressing drama than you would imagine. The series started out a bit funny and lighthearted but has turned quite dark which in a way is a positive as it's made things that much more interesting. Haven't viewed past this show yet but have a feeling the darkness will continue for a while.

 It's going to take a while to talk about Yi-Na's happenings in this episode, so much happened with her may need two segments to relate what took place. At the top are Yi-Na's three 'lovers', at the left is an older deliveryman who isn't rich nor good looking. He's not the kind of man Yi-Na would date but there was something which she couldn't explain that attracted her to him. In the middle is a businessman about thirty who Yi-Na sees the most, every episode the pair have spent at least one afternoon at a love hotel. On the right is middle aged dentist who is loaded but is married with children so obviously Yi-Na doesn't have too many morals. To date none of their names have been revealed along with the man in the bottom screenshot. Oooop, did some checking around and those three lovers don't have character names in any cast listing but the man in the bottom's was.
 His name is Oh, he's about a forty year man who Yi-Na happened to meet one night at the elite bar she picks up 'dates' at, even though she has three boyfriends she still sees other men for cash. This new man appears to be about forty, at first he looked like someone who was having trouble at home with his family but we learned at the end that's not the case. He too was a man Yi-Na had no interest in dating but somehow the pair can communicate quite easily as she spilled her guts to this new man.
 Oh appeared in about five scenes and always seemed to have some wise advice for Yi-Na's problems, more on him at the end of her second segment. One other major detail we learned in this episode was that Yi-Na is not a college student, her housemates all thought she was. That's another reason why the gals want to evict her and the only reason Yi-Na had been saying she was a student as it was better for business. Yi-Na is definitely one attractive and sultry woman but also one that's difficult to feel sorry for, her life is going well now but have a feeling it could come crashing down.

 Yi-Na did have one flashback dream where we learned a bit about her recent background. Seems she's had this lifestyle for over two years, two years in the past is when the flashback took place. One night she had been harassed by one of her dates, it took place right outside of the convenience store Jin-Myung worked at and she ended up saving Yi-Na from getting beaten. Much to Jin-Myung's surprise two days later she met Yi-Na at her apartment where the landlady was showing her the last empty room at Jin-Myung's place. Yi-Na had stated then that she was a college student, it was presumed to be the truth and shortly after she moved in.
 You'd think that may have made the two of them somewhat close friends which was far from the truth. Twice in this episode Yi-Na brought two her 'boyfriends' to Jin-Myung's French restaurant, she was rubbing it in her housemate's face what a glamorous life Yi-Na was leading which really didn't impress Jin-Myung all that much. In fact the opposite was true as it's Yi-Na who was actually jealous, Yi-Na secretly respected how Jin-Myung had a purpose in life plus how hard she had to work, though she's poor now ten years in the future she'd probably have a much better life than Yi-Na.
 But the life Yi-Na was living was just too much for the other three housemates to accept and towards the end the trio were about to ask her to move out. Seems Jin-Myung didn't care if Yi-Na had stayed as she knew about her background which she didn't reveal to the others. Right towards the end the
Yi-Na's housemates were going to ask her to move out but she said don't bother, she would as she already had a new place to live. Which was true as her dentist 'lover' was letting Yi-Na move in to a secret apartment he rented which was quite luxurious, her move took place in the next episode. One final note on Yi-Na which has to deal with the bottom screenshot above. That map on the wall was from Oh's apartment, it had many photos of her and such details as where she went, etc. It only lasted for a few seconds but it appears Oh is secretly Yi-Na's stalker(!), so was their accidental meeting at her bar all prearranged by him?

 Lot more screen time for Jin-Myung in this episode and the next one, did view the next show after writing the above segment. You can feel for Jin-Myung more than the other four housemates as she works three(!) jobs to support herself, pay her tuition and give the family some money. One job is as a waitress at a French restaurant, another is working overnight at a convenience store plus she tutors on the side. Kind of surprised Jin-Myung hasn't keeled over from exhaustion as she must work fifty or more hours in a week, attends school and has some family obligations.
 Those family matters will be brought up in the next recap, her nonstop schedule has left Jin-Myung looking a bit ragged at time but have a feeling she's actually not a bad looking woman. Someone else thinks so who is the man in the bottom screenshot. His name is Park who is one of the head chefs at the restaurant, Jin-Myung hasn't been noticing it but he's starting to fall head over heels for her. Park did bring up how he felt about Jin-Myung slightly in this show which left her dumbfounded, unsure if she's ever had a boyfriend up until now though she is 28 years old. As mentioned, did view the next episode already which was a habit I had gotten out of but there will be plenty more of Jin-Myung in that show as she's the 'featured housemate'.

 Will be keeping all of the these recaps at five pasts or segments which means need to fit the activities of the other three housemates into two of them. Shouldn't be too hard as the above two gals had about 80% of the screen time. Will start off with Ji-Won and hoping she'll be the main girl in the fifth episode. It was through her investigating that the housemates found out that Yi-Na wasn't and never was a student at their still unnamed college.
 In the middle screenshot is Ji-Won with the youngest girl Eun-Jae who had made Ji-Won kind of her hero in this show. Eun-Jae had one incident at the hairdresser's where the stylist made her up to be a buffoon, Ji-Won immediately stormed into the place and had them revert it to Eun-Jae's old style. She also did a few other 'saving actions' for Eun-Jae at a store and cafe which impressed the younger girl to no end, least someone thinks fondly of Ji-Won.
 That's because no man still does though a first happened in this episode... Ji-Won had a solo date! Up until now Ji-Won had only gone on group dates but there was a man at her school who thought very highly of her and asked Ji-Won out. To Ji-Won the date went fine but of course what does she know? The date wasn't a bomb but Ji-Won monopolized the conversation plus as usual had a bit too much to drink. That young man sent her a text message shortly after she arrived home, he had fun but for now on just wanted to be friends which left Ji-Won a tad depressed but sadly she's used to rejection.

 My fave character up until now has been Eun-Jae though that may be changing to Ji-Won. But once again we didn't see enough of Eun-Jae in an episode nor do we in the next show. Besides thinking of Ji-Won as her 'hero' Eun-Jae has gotten much closer to Ye-Eun but most of her scenes are with her or the other housemates. Eun-Jae is still having trouble with an older classmate who does like her immensely but to Eun-Jae he's someone who just likes to make fun of her. Think she may have that all wrong as the man Yoon does like her but he's been doing things the wrong way plus have a feeling Eun-Jae is someone who has also never had a boyfriend so she's naive on romance.
 Also with a small role this show was Ye-Eun and guess it does make sense for each girls to have an episode dedicated to them so we get to know them a bit better. Ye-Eun's life isn't go as well as she'd like but being so image conscious she can never show her true feelings around anyone. Her relationship with her boyfriend Go isn't going anywhere as he's mainly using Ye-Eun to sleep with him, she wondered then is she any better than Yi-Na? Bit more screen time for Ye-Eun in the next episode and a major development takes place with her (ex?) boyfriend.

 Wrote this up on Tuesday which was a bit in advance but as mentioned in the preliminary post wanted to space these recaps out. But all twelve posts for the series will be done this month which will make it much easier to go back and view previous recaps. So far am enjoying this drama which isn't what I expected, it's really become a somewhat dark show which may become even darker. Recap for the fourth episode is right below this one.