There's enough that's flawed about this project without reaching for historical revisionism as a rationale for avoiding this. Nobody... certainly not in Episode 5 was shown in favourable light. Not a single person. There was a complete disregard for the lives of civilians in their supposed place of safety. No attempt was made to evacuate them before turning the whole place into an outright war zone. The ANSP are either just incompetent or completely reckless -- I tend to go with "a bit of both". It's bad enough that Soo-ho even considered using the dorm as a rendezvous point potentially endangering the women and the North Koreans came in gun happy blasting away but the ANSP are just as bad even when their own citizenry are on the line. Gang-mu might be an exception but he's also out of control on some level as well. The only reason why he's persistent is because he's out for blood -- revenge for a fallen comrade. There's no sense of justice in what he's doing. And his ex is only there because she wants to know why he dumped her unceremoniously. What a ridiculous reason for joining the ANSP. There is no one righteous in this crowd. Not a single person.
As far as I'm concerned, this is an anti-but nutty Cold War story. Like everyone else has said, it's a Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers tale through and through. Unfortunately. those of you who think there's historical revisionism going on give this show far too much credit. I don't think the writing is even nuanced enough to make that leap. It's at best an outright parody of the Cold War madness between the north and the south poking fun at the higher ups. There's definitely a goofy undertone to all of this while offering some pretensions to melodrama.
This isn't a serious show and to take it seriously is to entirely miss the plot.
I also agreed with Hong Deok-ro's assessment of the situation -- counting on the king's goodwill and favour to…
I don't think her backstory is necessary in this instance. Honesty and clarity would be sufficient. There's been a lack of it because of the inconsistency in messaging. I can't entirely blame Yi San for being persistent because he's getting mixed signals and perceiving a mismatch between word and deed. Her claims to independence and radical individualism comes across as being hollow when she's largely dependent on the graces of others to get out of one crisis after another. Any kind of freedom she enjoys. is a result of the king's abiding affection for her. She's just lucky that the King (and the Queen Dowager) likes her enough to put up with all her inconstancy.
In my experience in dramas i know for sure Youngro won't stay the same for the whole show it's only the 4th ep…
Let's hope you're right. It's not always guaranteed. A decade of drama watching has made me slightly jaded. I'm sure whatever goes on in Episode 5 will be some kind of wake-up call.
I respect your opinion ...but personally I can understand youngro's innocence keeping in mind the era she is supposed…
I respect yours too. :) It's my subjective perspective of the show and I have no doubt that the show uses her naivete conveniently to its advantage in the writing. I'm afraid though that Romeo and Juliet aren't the best examples for me as young lovers. Too much silliness there for my liking.
I can't say that I'm entirely sold on the main romance at this point. Again, I have an issue with Young-ro falling so hard and fast for a stranger. Sure he looks like Jung Hae-in but still she gave her heart rather too quickly to a man she only met once, and barely knew him. While he may like her too he's a man on a mission. No doubt he was a naughty boy for encouraging her in her schoolgirl crush. My biggest problem with Young-ro is that she's so young... she's in over her head. I don't think she should be the lead female character in a story like this but I suppose the showrunners feel like that they have to appeal to a particular demographic.
The dormitory being at the centre of everything... is a tad hard to swallow. Why did he make it the rendezvous point? From the writer's point of view, I don't have any doubt that it's a way of the leads intersecting paths when in reality, he would never think of darkening the door of that building again. It feels unprofessional. The connection between the women's dorm and international espionage is such an odd combination.
By now it's clear that it was the women's assumption that he was a pro-democracy activist accused wrongly of being a spy. He never once claimed he was but it's true he never denied it either. It seems to me that this show is really a kind of end of Cold War type of story where the foot soldiers are just being conveniently deployed by their political masters to do their dirty laundry whether it's to rig elections, set people up or get rid of troublesome people. Now we know that there's a slush fund waiting to be tapped.
They're obviously trying to get Professor Han to defect to the north for his expertise in whatever area through his son. The CIA was mentioned and my curiosity was immediately piqued. So is he a CIA operative? If so, what has he been doing?
It's a messy, raucous show but there's undeniably an element of fun to it. There are so many moving parts to this and I'm concerned that the juggling act isn't going to hold up to the end.
And yeah, I'm still not a fan of the director's camera work.
The accusations are already proven to be false, though.1) 4 episodes in, it is clear that Suho is not, and has…
I was thinking the same thing. This seems more like a cold war espionage story rather than anything about the SK pro-democracy movement. Of course it's nowhere in the league of Le Carre et al by any stretch of the imagination but I don't see the claims to historical revisionism. It does pretty much what most K dramas of this kind do -- highlight the corruption of the political class as well as the law enforcement agencies.
It's fascinating to see Park Sung-woong in this as he was also in Life on Mars which was also in large part set in the 80s. He played a cop that crossed the line numerous times.
4 
As far as I'm concerned, this is an anti-but nutty Cold War story. Like everyone else has said, it's a Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers tale through and through. Unfortunately. those of you who think there's historical revisionism going on give this show far too much credit. I don't think the writing is even nuanced enough to make that leap. It's at best an outright parody of the Cold War madness between the north and the south poking fun at the higher ups. There's definitely a goofy undertone to all of this while offering some pretensions to melodrama.
This isn't a serious show and to take it seriously is to entirely miss the plot.
She's just lucky that the King (and the Queen Dowager) likes her enough to put up with all her inconstancy.
I'm afraid though that Romeo and Juliet aren't the best examples for me as young lovers. Too much silliness there for my liking.
She wants her cake and eat it too. That's pretty much what Hong Deok-ro said to her. The only time I agreed with him.
The dormitory being at the centre of everything... is a tad hard to swallow. Why did he make it the rendezvous point? From the writer's point of view, I don't have any doubt that it's a way of the leads intersecting paths when in reality, he would never think of darkening the door of that building again. It feels unprofessional. The connection between the women's dorm and international espionage is such an odd combination.
By now it's clear that it was the women's assumption that he was a pro-democracy activist accused wrongly of being a spy. He never once claimed he was but it's true he never denied it either. It seems to me that this show is really a kind of end of Cold War type of story where the foot soldiers are just being conveniently deployed by their political masters to do their dirty laundry whether it's to rig elections, set people up or get rid of troublesome people. Now we know that there's a slush fund waiting to be tapped.
They're obviously trying to get Professor Han to defect to the north for his expertise in whatever area through his son. The CIA was mentioned and my curiosity was immediately piqued. So is he a CIA operative? If so, what has he been doing?
It's a messy, raucous show but there's undeniably an element of fun to it. There are so many moving parts to this and I'm concerned that the juggling act isn't going to hold up to the end.
And yeah, I'm still not a fan of the director's camera work.
It's fascinating to see Park Sung-woong in this as he was also in Life on Mars which was also in large part set in the 80s. He played a cop that crossed the line numerous times.