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Kdrama’s Greatest Masterpiece!
To be honest I have never been a fan of kdrama until a few months ago when cdrama releases paced out a little and left me with nothing interesting to watch. And even then there wasnt many that earned more than 8.5rating from me, most that had were modern dramas and almost none of the period dramas. Until Six Flying Dragons. I started this one with huge scepticism due to its lengthy episodes and the fact that it was about conspiracy and politicking which is my least favorite genre even for cdrama. Turned out this title even smoked the best court politics cdrama I’ve watched even!
Basically this is a story of how Joseon came into existence, of the struggles before during and after its creation, toppling the previous dynasty of Goryeo. Key figures of this show that existed in real history are Lee Songgye; the first king of Joseon, Jeong Dojeon; the designer of Joseon, and Lee Bangwon, the third king of Joseon and the catalyst that sparked the chain reaction of Joseon’s making. This was their story from being allies to enemies. Most of historical events are brought alive in the series, despite many of romanticing and fiction addition to make the story exciting and remarkable.
It’s really heartbreaking that back then, the dream that the common people could only dare to keep in their mind and not speak out in case of jinxing it is returning to their hometown to farm their own land. This was Boonee’s dream, it sounded so simple and trivial in today’s standards, but it was a huge and almost unreachable dream for them back then. The fight that Boonee and the people was in looked too distant and impossible for the common ideals of that era. It was the injustices and the noble’s powerful grasps that made Goryeo rotting from the core that sparked the Joseon ideals in Jeong Dojeon’s head.
This gotta be the best power struggle drama I’ve ever watched, it actually surpassed Nirvana in Fire by miles smoking it into dust. The plot twists and conspiracies were so unpredictable and intriguing, with an enemy now can be an ally in future. I could hate one character now and actually be impressed of it in the future, and i could love one of the protagonist character now and despise it as antagonist in later plot. It’s truly mindblowing but that is always what politics is all about, there is almost no forever ally or enemy. Which is why I don’t really like power struggle of court politics drama. Too conniving and dark for my liking. But this one just keep edging me on when I thought I would lose interest, especially when I read up the history and figured how Lee Bangwon became the king.
Known throughout history as the tyrant king of Joseon, I was actually curious to see how they would make Lee Bangwon all about. And when I thought I would drop this once ML turned ruthless, they actually managed to keep my interest and actually root for ML even when he turned more ruthless and resolute, merciless even, as his struggles were very acceptable and made sense in my mind.
The character Jeong Dojeon that I root for in the first two quarter of the show became somebody I’m excited about to get snuffed out halfway through. ML was fighting for his place in this world that his father and the teacher he revered determined to have without him because he was too talented, too intelligent and too determined, which made him a threat to their cause. What’s even funnier, the very reason why both important people of ML’s life remained standing and living with all the power in their hands were all thanks to his extreme resolve to save their lives in the first place, that ironically became the exact reason why they discarded him in the end. The struggle between powerful men is indeed unfathomable, completely out of the common people’s imagination. ML was not a common man who lives on day to day basis, he is a revolutionary with exact dreams and life mission so how could he resign to fate so far from his dreams? For some people, their dreams are the only things that kept them alive, taking those dreams away is a death sentence.
It is truly a pity ML and his teacher could not find a common ground, Jeong Dojeon was just to vigorous to exact change instead of making gradual reform, while ML would not surrender his dreams only to become utterly powerless and at other’s mercy. Why does Jeong hold ML in contempt accusing the ML wanting to own the world when he was no different? I honestly don’t think Jeong Dojeon was any different than ML, just as he claimed ML wants to own this world, Jeong also literally want the world in his hands, after all he held all the power in the new world after making Lee Songgye the puppet king. And the fact that the new world theyre fighting for is exactly the same, which is to create a better world for the people, made it even ironic and laughable. It’s just two powerful people fighting for power to control, nothing more. And fact remains that Jeong did his allies dirty first by trying to use the power of the king to strip away all the king’s power. I could understand how betrayed ML felt when he realized Jeong had been using his father and himself to reach the goal where Jeong would discard them afterwards, so i understood his retaliation. This series really took court politics to the next level. I generally hate this theme but i can’t help myself from fawning over this drama. 50episodes flew by as i kept pressing next episode for more.
The main characters in Six Flying dragon went through a lengthy transformation and growth. The most notable got to be Moo Hyul from innocent and slow-witted to powerful swordsman of the time although not with conflicting inner battles as he saw how the Young Master he adored became merciless in reaching his goal. I had to say every single character in this show is written to perfection, it’s really hard to find flaws in them. And the character that caught my eyes and left a deep impression the most got to be Gil Taemi despite him being part of the villain team, his eccentric personality and appearance just made me want to watch more of him.
The songs, OMG i just cannot get them out of my head. It’s really hard for me to get smitten with kdrama themesongs, theyre rarely catchy or memorable except for a small few, but this show proved to be exceptional even in that category. The opening themesong and the Muyiya choir basically live rent free in my head throughout the watch.
Just a tiny trivia, you see how they introduce the dragons at the end of the first 5 episodes, it was really unique but i was left confused when they never introduced the 6th even after so many episodes afterwards. Did I miss the intro somehow? But i know i’ve never used the FF button so how did i miss it? Or did they forget? Well turned out the 6th Dragon was only introduced at Episode 49, and damn it was epic.
There are many deaths in this show, but one that made me bawl had been the one closest to ML. Although the character looked too average as supporting role, its death really made me cry my eyes out as the emotional breakdown of ML really came through.
The action is also exceptional, the swordfights leave you on the edge at every bout. They dont use much wire-works too which made them look very realistic. Despite being a court power struggle drama and that both ML and Jeong Dojeon don’t really fight physically because they’re literally just typical scholars, it has generous amount of action to satisfy action lover like me. There are so many swordsman characters here namely Gil Taemi, Gil Seonmi, Lee Bangji, Moo Hyul, Cheok Sagwang to name a few.
The cinematography, colour gradient, the costumes really didnt look too oldschool. This is a really hands-down a masterpiece. Kudos to the screenwriter, cast and production team.
Basically this is a story of how Joseon came into existence, of the struggles before during and after its creation, toppling the previous dynasty of Goryeo. Key figures of this show that existed in real history are Lee Songgye; the first king of Joseon, Jeong Dojeon; the designer of Joseon, and Lee Bangwon, the third king of Joseon and the catalyst that sparked the chain reaction of Joseon’s making. This was their story from being allies to enemies. Most of historical events are brought alive in the series, despite many of romanticing and fiction addition to make the story exciting and remarkable.
It’s really heartbreaking that back then, the dream that the common people could only dare to keep in their mind and not speak out in case of jinxing it is returning to their hometown to farm their own land. This was Boonee’s dream, it sounded so simple and trivial in today’s standards, but it was a huge and almost unreachable dream for them back then. The fight that Boonee and the people was in looked too distant and impossible for the common ideals of that era. It was the injustices and the noble’s powerful grasps that made Goryeo rotting from the core that sparked the Joseon ideals in Jeong Dojeon’s head.
This gotta be the best power struggle drama I’ve ever watched, it actually surpassed Nirvana in Fire by miles smoking it into dust. The plot twists and conspiracies were so unpredictable and intriguing, with an enemy now can be an ally in future. I could hate one character now and actually be impressed of it in the future, and i could love one of the protagonist character now and despise it as antagonist in later plot. It’s truly mindblowing but that is always what politics is all about, there is almost no forever ally or enemy. Which is why I don’t really like power struggle of court politics drama. Too conniving and dark for my liking. But this one just keep edging me on when I thought I would lose interest, especially when I read up the history and figured how Lee Bangwon became the king.
Known throughout history as the tyrant king of Joseon, I was actually curious to see how they would make Lee Bangwon all about. And when I thought I would drop this once ML turned ruthless, they actually managed to keep my interest and actually root for ML even when he turned more ruthless and resolute, merciless even, as his struggles were very acceptable and made sense in my mind.
The character Jeong Dojeon that I root for in the first two quarter of the show became somebody I’m excited about to get snuffed out halfway through. ML was fighting for his place in this world that his father and the teacher he revered determined to have without him because he was too talented, too intelligent and too determined, which made him a threat to their cause. What’s even funnier, the very reason why both important people of ML’s life remained standing and living with all the power in their hands were all thanks to his extreme resolve to save their lives in the first place, that ironically became the exact reason why they discarded him in the end. The struggle between powerful men is indeed unfathomable, completely out of the common people’s imagination. ML was not a common man who lives on day to day basis, he is a revolutionary with exact dreams and life mission so how could he resign to fate so far from his dreams? For some people, their dreams are the only things that kept them alive, taking those dreams away is a death sentence.
It is truly a pity ML and his teacher could not find a common ground, Jeong Dojeon was just to vigorous to exact change instead of making gradual reform, while ML would not surrender his dreams only to become utterly powerless and at other’s mercy. Why does Jeong hold ML in contempt accusing the ML wanting to own the world when he was no different? I honestly don’t think Jeong Dojeon was any different than ML, just as he claimed ML wants to own this world, Jeong also literally want the world in his hands, after all he held all the power in the new world after making Lee Songgye the puppet king. And the fact that the new world theyre fighting for is exactly the same, which is to create a better world for the people, made it even ironic and laughable. It’s just two powerful people fighting for power to control, nothing more. And fact remains that Jeong did his allies dirty first by trying to use the power of the king to strip away all the king’s power. I could understand how betrayed ML felt when he realized Jeong had been using his father and himself to reach the goal where Jeong would discard them afterwards, so i understood his retaliation. This series really took court politics to the next level. I generally hate this theme but i can’t help myself from fawning over this drama. 50episodes flew by as i kept pressing next episode for more.
The main characters in Six Flying dragon went through a lengthy transformation and growth. The most notable got to be Moo Hyul from innocent and slow-witted to powerful swordsman of the time although not with conflicting inner battles as he saw how the Young Master he adored became merciless in reaching his goal. I had to say every single character in this show is written to perfection, it’s really hard to find flaws in them. And the character that caught my eyes and left a deep impression the most got to be Gil Taemi despite him being part of the villain team, his eccentric personality and appearance just made me want to watch more of him.
The songs, OMG i just cannot get them out of my head. It’s really hard for me to get smitten with kdrama themesongs, theyre rarely catchy or memorable except for a small few, but this show proved to be exceptional even in that category. The opening themesong and the Muyiya choir basically live rent free in my head throughout the watch.
Just a tiny trivia, you see how they introduce the dragons at the end of the first 5 episodes, it was really unique but i was left confused when they never introduced the 6th even after so many episodes afterwards. Did I miss the intro somehow? But i know i’ve never used the FF button so how did i miss it? Or did they forget? Well turned out the 6th Dragon was only introduced at Episode 49, and damn it was epic.
There are many deaths in this show, but one that made me bawl had been the one closest to ML. Although the character looked too average as supporting role, its death really made me cry my eyes out as the emotional breakdown of ML really came through.
The action is also exceptional, the swordfights leave you on the edge at every bout. They dont use much wire-works too which made them look very realistic. Despite being a court power struggle drama and that both ML and Jeong Dojeon don’t really fight physically because they’re literally just typical scholars, it has generous amount of action to satisfy action lover like me. There are so many swordsman characters here namely Gil Taemi, Gil Seonmi, Lee Bangji, Moo Hyul, Cheok Sagwang to name a few.
The cinematography, colour gradient, the costumes really didnt look too oldschool. This is a really hands-down a masterpiece. Kudos to the screenwriter, cast and production team.
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