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Set during the chaotic reign of the tyrant Joseon King Yeonsangun, it tells the story of Hong Gil Dong, a Mighty Child whose strength became his father’s motivation to become a free man, raised motherless by his thug kingpin father, but found himself thrown into the path of revolution after his father’s downfall and later became the keyrole in dethroning the Joseon monarch along with his father’s brother-in-arms.

Coming from Six Flying Dragons, i actually look forward to see more of Yoon Kyunsang who played the warrior Moo Hyul in SFD. Now i get to see him as a main lead, which stoked me even more.

This show depicts the struggle of the vast difference between classes in Joseon era that eventually sparked an uprising of the people against the King’s and his nobleman’s tyranny. The story is fine in the first quarter with Ah Mogee’s arc, ML’s father. How he tricked his way out of servitude, took his revenge and built his empire of korean mafia gang while raising 3 kids. It was exciting and Ah Mogee himself was written to be very intelligent and cunning. I mean i came here to see Gil Dong and yet got so engrossed in his father’s character instead. Then came the downfall, which was meant to be Gil Dong’s rise from the ashes.

Now as much as I look forward to see ML in action, this second quarter of the arc was actually quite boring after they managed to counter Prince Choongwon. This arc of ML’s taking the rein off his dad’s hands doing their thug business that he never approved of when he was younger was really mundane and this is the part where i was not so eager on pressing the next episode button. I understood that they wanted to show how his life changed from being the drifting underworld thug to folk hero, it’s just the way it’s written is really too draggy and exhausting to watch. Honestly during this part, Ga Ryung is the character that i look forward to watching. I liked her character very much, she was so patient and extremely accomodating despite Gil Dong being oblivious about her feelings throughout the years. Yes years! Gosh that slow-witted giant. Anyway, the screenwriting is rather draggy during the middle part, probably because they wanted to fill up those duration to cover the whole tenure of Yeonsangun’s reign since the timeline of this story started from just before the dethroned queen’s death to Yeonsangun’s downfall. I commend the historical accuracy despite the story’s focus on fictional characters.

The pace only picks up again after Ep18 where Gil Dong and his gang finally does what the plot summary said he did, stealing from the rich to help the poor, becoming the robin hood folk hero that people adored. I love how fast pace the last 10 episodes were. One thing I almost know for sure, when it comes to revenge Kdrama rarely disappoints, unlike cdrama. I am thoroughly satisfied with the ending of the key villains here, the kind of satisfaction that was lost in the messy plot of cdrama Road to Splendour which i just finished right before this one. Although plot-wise, I question Gil Hyeon’s priorities when he spread the death of Gil Dong and yet spent no effort to find Ga Ryung to explain. I mean, as a brother-in-law arent you supposed to at least get worried if Ga Ryung would opt for suicide? They didnt even show him looking for her, like for real? No one cared for Ga Ryung at all in those months after Gil Dong’s escape, it’s so sad for her.

The action part is rather disappointing for me though, cuz I expected something close to Six Flying Dragon’s Moo Hyul or even Lee Bangji kind of action. They weren’t, in fact they are far far far far from that. Despite Gil Dong being boasted to be a superhuman mighty child that comes very rarely in every century, the action scenes were really poorly done and looked cartoonish. Gil Dong, even for a thug, never bothered to learn proper martial art and when he fights it’s really just brute force and chaotic streetfight, and the worse part is he almost always pass out after every powerburst. So it kinda got boring. And to make it even more of a trope, they just had to throw another rare mighty child into the villain mix so as to balance the strength 😆🤣🙄 it’s lame. Reminds me a lot of Uncanny Counter where they just had to throw in some uncanny demons that possess the same rare unpredictable power as the ML just to spice things up and create a challenge for the heroes team. All those talk about how rare and how special out of this world these characters were supposed to be gets dialed down when they throw in another villain character of the same exact rarity into the mix. My point is, these writers shouldnt label the ML characters as superhero, one of a kind kind of character if you plan to balance him out with another villain character with the same or almost same capability. Just make him a hero without those labeling, it really dampens the specialty of the ML that you boast of when you create a villain of the exact copy, really.

I also think that it’s really reckless of Hong Gil Dong and his gang that they never really keep tabs of their enemies. They never monitor what Prince Chung Won is up to when he made a comeback, they never keep track of Cham Bong’s wife even though she has been their bane each time a plot against them thickens, and they also never monitor Teacher Song even when they knew he is closely related to the King and ringleader of Sugwidon movement. So many of their stumbleblocks wouldve materialized quite differently and outmaneouvred more cleverly had they been a wee bit perceptive of what their enemies are up to.

However I totally love the songs. Reminds me of Jewel in the Palace and Six Flying Dragons. Saeguk isnt my go-to genre for kdrama, despite cdrama’s period and wuxia being my favourite, so when i saw good saeguk shows they kinda stick on my mind a lot. And 8 rating from me for saeguk genre is already high compared to what I rated of other saeguk titles.