There really isn’t anything to fault with this show. The biggest problem starts with me, as someone who doesn’t really like this genre all that much. However, that is not to say I didn’t mind it. It is a very well put together drama, and it is frustrating for me that I can’t like it more.

I struggle to watch Korean period pieces, especially when there is very little comic relief. I get that this show is very much focused on the serious storyline, and yes there may have been a few comical moments throughout, but would it have hurt to include a few more? I guess the writers used Kang-chi and Yeo-wool’s romantic moments to offset the serious tone of the story at hand.

Each episode was very ‘go go go.’ The story moved along quite quickly and I was beginning to think, ‘how is this going to be stretched out for 24 episodes!?’

There was a lot of time spent on the Gisaeng that if some of that was taken out then maybe I wouldn’t have had to spend a whole 24 hours watching it XD.

Surprisingly, I found myself quite gripped after watching the first two episodes and I actually really liked Wol-ryung and Seo-hwa (Kang-chi’s parents). I made the mistake of watching the third episode straight after and the vibe was just different. Obviously because the show moved 20 years forward, and then we were introduced to Kang-chi’s character who I didn’t warm to in the beginning. Throughout the show I did come around to him and enjoyed seeing him get through the difficulties he was faced with. His chemistry with Yeo-wool also played a positive part in his character development. It was amusing how Kang-chi’s character didn’t notice that Yeo-wool was in fact a girl for some time XD. If the directors wanted this to be convincing then maybe they should have chosen an actress who was less pretty (not saying that men aren’t/cannot be pretty).

Yeo-wool is a very cool female lead who stood by Kang-chi through everything and pretty much risked her life to protect him. It was beautiful how Kang-chi protected her just as much.

In the second last episode when Yeo-wool was underneath that spiky bolder I was shook and thought, ‘there is no way she is getting out of this one,’ and then Kang-chi swooped in and saved her! But THENNNN in the last few seconds Yeo-wool was SHOT!? I believe this is the first drama I’ve seen where the main character dies, but thankfully she was going to be reborn. When they met in her next life I teared up - I got so emotional. My heart goes out to them. I feel so much for Kang-chi who had to wait all of those years to see her again. His final line just got to me - ‘my time that stopped, has started flowing again.’ 😭🥺 Honestly I think that was the perfect ending.

It seemed very ‘star-crossed lovers’ until this point, which in a way made the show all the more poetic.

The time skip did throw me for a sec XD. I was like, ‘roads? Tall buildings? Cars?’

At times I kept thinking, ‘what is the point of this show again?’ I kept forgetting that Kang-chi’s mission was to find the Gu Family Book and become human and live a mortal life. It was only when characters mentioned it that I was reminded that this was the main point of the story XD. Otherwise, I felt like I was simply going along for the ride. With the amount of stuff that happened in this show, it felt like a fantasy/historical slice of life.

I CANNOT forget to mention the OST for this show! Oh my god! It was brilliant - probably one of my favourite things about it. So many of the songs were beautiful.

The acting was great - I don’t have any bones to pick there.

If I wanted to be critical I could talk about the bad special effects, but really I didn’t mind them all too much. The purple orbs up in the mountains were actually quite pretty; which leads me to mention the scene where Kang-chi and Yeo-wool are under the peach blossom (was it peach?) and the crescent moon - it was just gorgeous.

Another good point is the costumes! The wardrobe department did a fantastic job! I was very impressed with all of the Han-bok that the women wore and all of the Gisaeng’s hair pieces and accessories. I thought they were all really pretty. To be honest it was quite boring watching all of the other characters who wore the same thing day in, day out. I guess it was just their uniform? But what about Kang-chi? Needless to say, I much prefer a show that has lots of colour in it. I don’t know what I would have done if I had grown up in a time where colour television didn’t exist XD.

Overall, Gu Family Book is very good and I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes historical fantasy.

-E