Chocobana

I knew that the ending was divisive and prepared myself for not feeling satisfied with it but it was worse than I thought. The only thing that worked out was the theme that was shoehorned in at the end. Everything else was rendered pointless and meaningless. Like, if that was your message then you could have achieved it in less than half the number of episodes. A lot of the political/financial conflicts felt extremely forced in the last 4-5 episodes so it wasn't even that 1-15 were great and 16 was trash. A lot of characters acted in stupid ways to suit the plot and I was honestly rolling my eyes at every reveal or "twist". What a waste of the actors' wonderful performances.

Very accurate. I knew it would be a hit just after watching the trailer. A great outcome of the show's popularity would be some people getting curious about other Korean shows and discovering just how good some of these shows are. While kdramas lean heavy on the romance, there are a lot of great thriller/action kdramas too.

I know this is two months late, but that's exactly what I meant. The writer *made* it pointless by pretending all that development didn't happen. Ju-da was finally making her own decisions and she clearly liked Do-hwa so why did she choose the other guy? It felt so pointless.

This was a waste of time. It started really great (I'd say the first 6 or 7 eps were the best) but the lack of actual plot progression and that lukewarm ending ruined it. The characters were, ironically, repeatedly having the same conflicts and arguments for a few episodes there. I also thought the Ju-da/Do-hwa subplot completely pointless. Anyway, what a bizarrely popular show. I don't get it. I was rolling my eyes so hard the last episodes.

I heard something about there being a limited number of historical dramas that can air in a year. There are so many restrictions on Chinese historicals/time-travel stories, unfortunately.

The first half was definitely more enjoyable (the 100 days for the most part) and DO's acting was so subtle and just perfect for his role, but the direction the plot went and the political maneuvers soured the show for me. The villain was completely OP, to the point where I got frustrated (initially) and indifferent (later) every time the plans of the "good guys" were foiled yet again. The characters rarely made logical or politically sound decisions, despite the many times they were burned for doing the same thing.

Then the last episode... To put it mildly, it gave me a whiplash. A proper resolution was stolen from us, and the ending of the conflict was a mess. Then everyone's suddenly happy with some nonsense last bit of plot left hanging for some comedic(?) angst (if you watched it, you'd know what I mean). In that sense, the romance ended up being unsatisfying and deflated.

I can't wait. Does anybody have a good idea of what the sequel is going to be about?

I think I watched this show 3 times. I love historical anything and if it was up to me, most of the shows produced would be historical. xD There just aren't enough. So I went looking for this 2005 show just because not many J-historicals are set at the Heian era and it's one era I find intresting. The quality of the videos I barely managed to find were terrible, the way things were handled at the end disappointed me. I gave it 6.5 stars, deleted my downloaded files, and forgot about it for a while.

Then out of nowhere some time later, I just felt like rewatching the show and I especially couldn't wait to watch the ending. When I rewatched it, I just enjoyed it so much better. I came in expecting the campy editing, the shoddy quality, and just tuned them out. Knowing the ending, I was more invested in the ironic way the characters were portrayed and how that eventually tied in with the ending. I don't know, I just loved it a whole lot more. This happens to me often. I'd watch a show and think it terrible (bad first impression), but I'd find myself thinking about the little things in it and end up loving it after a rewatch. This was the case with this show and Dong Yi, which is one of my fave shows now. :)

So yeah, recommended!

Yeah, I watched them as soon as they were posted (because I keep refreshing the episodes multiple times a day). Thank you. I'm now waiting for episode 20. :)

I don't have a FB so I'd like to thank the subbing group here. Thank you so much for your hard work!!! There aren't enough C-dramas subbed as is so thank you.

Do you have any idea how soon they could be releasing the sub for episode 18? Is it going to be in bulk or one after the other? I've been refreshing episode 18 for the past couple of days.

I've been a fan of him since 2007-2008 when he was at the height of his career (IMO). He was good for an idol even then but he's improved so much since and matured as an actor. He might have been overrated to an extent 10 years ago, but not now.

That was a really good review, by the way. I'm still watching the show but your review makes sense.

"Not very engaging on an emotional level" - I noticed this when I watched "Golden Empire" by the same writer (which I dropped, because of the direction of the plot and some ending spoilers). The writer engages your mind really well (like, intellectually), and there's so much symbolism going and metaphors flying in the air and Christian quotes/stories as morals, but not so much heart. The writer tries to make his/her characters sympathetic, with a strong family element (SJ's parents, DJ's mother) but there is still this emotional distance from the cold, bleary, gray-colored world of theirs. They feel more like extended metaphors and archetypes than real characters.

Uhm, yeah. I've just been thinking about this a lot. :P

I haven't checked recently but that's very possible for a non-licensed series. I dropped the show anyway.

This is related to the famous 47-ronin story. From what I understood, they're counting her as the 48th one.

Aw, sorry. I only saw the 'complete' part, and even bookmarked it for later. T_T It will hopefully be subbed soon. *fingers crossed*

It's fully subbed on D-Addicts.

Anyone knows where to watch this with subs?

Haha. Guess so. I'm downloading the episodes now anyway. xD I just feel like I need to be prepared. Haha.

Is it a sad or happy ending? I want to watch it but I don't know how I'll feel. >_<
ETA: Please mark your answer as a spoiler just in case. :P