This is when the genre lost its direction and was going through a transitional period trying to figure out how to be modern. This drama went through a similar downhill pace as Gye Baek (2011) which both were airing at the same time in July 2011. They also both shared similar problems except this one was edger, cringer and worse.
I liked it initially until they did the 14 years timeskip introducing the kids at episode 3, even less so after another timeskip when they grew up, and even further much less around exactly midway through. The rest was just painful to get through. Don't even get me started on whatever that last episode was.
Coming to this drama after finishing Im Kkeok Jung (1996) is such a disappointing shitty experience in comparison. This drama was fundamentally flawed in every imaginable aspect. The cast members are usually competent in other projects but the directors did such a poor sloppy job in handling the cast. The drama had 3 directors and still managed to fuck up! They must have been busy fighting each other over working on the drama.
We almost never see a historical drama led by the commoners. This drama came out in 1996 but it has such a fresh and interesting take on the entire genre to this very day! However, it's not perfect, its biggest problem is that it was bloated with too many side stories carried by less interesting characters which delayed getting to the good parts. The drama didn't fully focus on Im Kkeok Jung until the 2nd half. The set design was decent for 1996. The set was reasonably lit at night while taking into consideration they used to use candles instead of high beam studio lights back then!
The drama had a weak and uninteresting start but it managed to pick itself back up after some time. Some patients' stories didn't blend well with what was going on and it passed off as an interruption. It shares a lot of similarities with Jewel in the Palace (2003) but with a less attractive cast. Not only that but it also shares the same problems Jewel in the Palace (2003) had had. You may refer to my comment there. The drama is a remake of the original back in 1999. There was no specific fundamental issues with the base story to prompt a remake. There were too many identical copy-pasted scenes and jokes, they don't take any creative freedom with the core story/scenes to make the remake worthwhile. Although the remake is longer but this came at the expense of its pace since the extended content was poorly utilized and made it a worse experience overall. A lot of over exaggeration/dramatization and a lot less human. I hoped the remake would have a better written ending but no, it was identical frame by frame to the original. I prefer the original over the remake for its roughness, rawness and concise cut, it makes for a better watch.
The drama had a weak and uninteresting start but it managed to pick itself back up after some time. Some patients' stories didn't blend well with what was going on and it passed off as an interruption. It shares a lot of similarities with Jewel in the Palace (2003) but with a less attractive cast. Not only that but it also shares the same problems Jewel in the Palace (2003) had had. You may refer to my comment there. In comparison, I would nudge this one slightly higher since it had a more raw feeling to it. The drama also had a modern remake back in 2013. There was no specific fundamental issues with the base story to prompt a remake. There were too many identical copy-pasted scenes and jokes, they don't take any creative freedom with the core story/scenes to make the remake worthwhile. Although the remake is longer but this came at the expense of its pace since the extended content was poorly utilized and made it a worse experience overall. A lot of over exaggeration/dramatization and a lot less human. I hoped the remake would have a better written ending but no, it was identical frame by frame to the original. I prefer this version over the remake for its roughness, rawness and concise cut, it makes for a better watch.
It's impressive how they managed to turn it into 21 episodes with what they had going on. This wasn't worth more than a quick short web drama of 4 to 6 episodes 30 mins. Temper your expectations and expect a quality in accordance to that. This wasn't the last time Seo Woo played an airheaded character.
Just another historical drama confirming, yet again, how much I don't like seeing 'Choi Soo Jong' in a historical setting. You would be dreaming if you thought the drama will utilize the 200-episodes runtime wisely. Expect a lot of useless scenes/chapters/arcs/stories/characters. I really wish they didn't waste too much time with the childhood period, the first +20 episodes were too much for an introduction. A quick introduction of max 2-3 episodes would have been way more than enough to establish what needed to be established.
When zooming out, the drama is split into 3 major parts. The first 1/3 consisted of the back story and the personal relationships. The second 1/3 consisted of forming the religion then turning it into a cult and watching madness ensues. The last 1/3 is was just generic wars and battles. The last 1/3 had a major tone shift and turned the drama into something different. It was a bit too disconnected to associate it with the first 2/3 after what had been already established. It should have been its own thing and the drama should have ended after the second 1/3. I feel for those who had to watch it serializing for 2 years, the shifts were too unpleasant as if they were jumping different shows.
Reading the synopsis and taking a look at the cast, the drama seemed promising but, unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case.It obvious the drama was gonna flop just from the first episode. The edgy action sequences were too painful to endure. Every single character was too insufferable to follow. Almost any other Ha Ji Won drama was a better watch, including What Happened in Bali (2004) despite how trashy that one was.
What's up with the ending of episode 2 and onward? They straight up gave us random spoiler scenes and cuts from different points of future episodes. This was just a cheap tactic trying to hold the viewers hostage early on. Maybe because episode 1 wasn't well perceived? Kicked off to a bad start already. Song Il Gook and Chae Shi Ra were okay. Choi Soo Jong isn't appealing in historical dramas as always. Park Soo Ae was meh, she's better off in regular melos. The story and directing were equally problematic mainly regarding two insufferable themes that is love and rivalry, of which both were subjected to pathetic writing. If that wasn't enough, you got too many repeated montages of flashbacks to keep you annoyed. At the end, we got a "let's just wrap it up and end it" type of ending. Some characters were completely robbed off of a reasonable ending. It wasn't even a matter of historical accuracy, that's irrelevant. Emperor of the sea but they were 99.9% of the times on land.
Yeah, but anyway, before watching just look at the cover, the date of the drama. I mean, you know where you enter.…
Will have to disagree there. You can't give a piece of media a green pass just because it had an ugly poster and was made in the dark ages. On the contrary, some of my favorite shows were older than most of MDL's user-base age and the cover/poster was made by elementary students in computer class using Microsoft Paint.
The drama had one of the worst introductions out there. You can never expect anyone to be interested after watching the first 4 episodes. As if they were purposefully made to push viewers away. Anyway, the drama had some brilliant and creative moments at times but all of that was overshadowed by the dominant hot garbage moments. You may expect something worse than Oblivion NPC's level of dialogue and directing. All of the three male leads sucked and disappointed. There was a big massive slump between episodes 35-45 that was rough to get through. Villains and ending were meh.
Didn't like the introduction of them while kids everything about it felt disingenuous. Pacing issues were too obvious to ignore. The plot moves extremely slow +10 episodes for every single event with little to no side plots to keep you occupied. The problems didn't end there, the drama suffered from the extreme low tension in its writing. Most of the events that were suppose to create tension were caused by health problems. Speaking of which, they pulled the health problems card way too many times on too many characters. Regardless of the historical accuracy but that was poor storytelling for how it was implemented. Which leads me to my next point, regular boring side characters would usually get a 12 course meal for their affairs while super important characters would be cut off short and not get the same treatment. The important characters were robbed off of their climax too. Anyway, the drama had technical issues, the same scene can have different color grading between different angles. The drama had some nice moments with the leads but that's were most of its appeal ends.
The drama was infested with cheap drama/melodrama tactics to keep it alive for too goddamn very long 134 episodes because otherwise it can't reach that milestone. Which turned it into a mind melting irritating watch. These details were highly unlikely to be historically accurate. Looking back at it I don't recall a lot of big events/moments happened during these 134 episodes, it feels empty for what it tried to achieve. The bothersome experience doesn't stop here but extends to its production also as if that wasn't enough. About +80% of the entire filmed footage were extreme face close ups. You're most certainly guaranteed to feel nauseous being subject to that for too long. My guess is that it was done purposefully to hide the background and cut on the budget. Cheaper to film and easier/faster to edit. The more I watch Choi Soo Jong the more I realize he isn't suitable for historical dramas.
Historical dramas had been failing me for a long time for one reason or another. Watching this one made me realize what's missing from any semi-/modern historical drama. For the past 20-ish years, historical dramas had been playing it gradually too safe and too clean. This drama isn't perfect or even great but it gave me a fresh and new perspective on the genre. Those who were beaten up or being tortured actually looks like it. Its scuffness is what sold it for me. The set design isn't squeaky clean and polished. The set is reasonably lit at night while taking into consideration they used to use candles instead of high beam studio lights back then! This might be the first historical drama I've seen that didn't feel like a cosplay show. You may find something similar in movies but ever so rarely in K-TV series.
6 
When zooming out, the drama is split into 3 major parts. The first 1/3 consisted of the back story and the personal relationships. The second 1/3 consisted of forming the religion then turning it into a cult and watching madness ensues. The last 1/3 is was just generic wars and battles. The last 1/3 had a major tone shift and turned the drama into something different. It was a bit too disconnected to associate it with the first 2/3 after what had been already established. It should have been its own thing and the drama should have ended after the second 1/3. I feel for those who had to watch it serializing for 2 years, the shifts were too unpleasant as if they were jumping different shows.