Reviews

Now this was an interesting one!! OCN you see! Of course not OCN's best drama but a totally enjoyable one. It's quick and strangely addicting.. Too bad it had only 8 episodes. It's an episodic drama where separate crimes are investigated by a 'special' team. The dramas are connected in a well-written way.

The drama present different types of crimes and the motives behind them, showing a humane and sympathetic sides when dealing with the criminals and not judging them blindly. Each episode would give away nuggets of wisdom and political advice. The most interesting part is that the crimes tackled are present day crimes handled in the Joseon era with the old ways and tools.
The topics presented in the mini drama varied. We see traumas, revenge, passion crimes, pedophiles, homosexuality, affairs, people's indifference, psychopaths, usury, theft, private loans, tax evasion, hostages, grudges, nobles tyranny, classes, gisaengs, compassion, obsession, divide and rule, poison, law vs. justice, bullying, parents covering up for their children's crimes, how evil can a person be, education purpose, violence, jealousy, drugs and many others.

It is hilarious to see them use English borrowed words as if they belonged to the era.

Acting is great by everyone. The cinematic effects and music fit perfectly. OCN after all.

Leia Mais

If not for the fact that Park Yong Ha is the second lead, this drama might have been an easy light journey. A typical love story with all the cliche themes; bad male lead (turns out to be good hiding his scars behind a mask. You know!), adorable and caring but disregarded second male lead, bitch second female, chronic illness, family objections (money envelops and all), misunderstanding, etc.. The drama is an old one and after all the numbers of dramas I watched, it had nothing to add to me. But the acting was great. There were many funny moments and other touching ones. Of course I got annoyed to death at all the bitching.

The difficult part is that I watched it for Park Yong Ha and broke my heart over him. Whenever he was on screen I'd start crying. So I enjoyed the drama when he wasn't on screen because I was busy sobbing when he was on. It's a hard journey for PYH's fan.

If you're still a new to dramas you may watch this and enjoy it, or if you're a fan of old dramas -which I doubt anybody is-. You can watch it while doing something else as well, that'd solve the problem.

Leia Mais

This drama is a hard-watch. It's great at some aspects and terrible at others. The kind of drama you can't drop but you feel frustrated watching it. The writer had an idea. That idea was great. But she messed up when she involved the over dramatic love story especially with a really bad-written and acted female lead. The sub-plots were so interesting. But at the same time the troubles the characters went through were exaggerated much. The comic scenes were amusing and hilarious. But the supposed touching scenes were cheesy and superficial. The music, songs and performances were magic. Nothing I've seen before in a drama. The drama showed all the issues happening in the behind scenes of entertainment business. That was cool. But the way they were presented made me feel like I was watching a makjang rather than a musical drama.

Themes like Brotherhood vs. Love, misunderstandings ruining lives, being human means making mistakes, mistrust, rivalry and suspicion were presented and again in a dramatic way. At moments -especially when they were singing or the supporting characters were on screen- I would gape at the screen mindblown. And at other moments I would be gritting my teeth fighting the urge to vomit.

For the music and the supporting actors, the drama is totally worth it. But at the same time there are the other issues. So..

I will and I am re-watching the songs and performances. I even wrote the titles of the songs down to keep them. As for the female lead, I'll try to avoid dramas she's in when I can.
I'll try to avoid the writer as well.

Leia Mais

The story is nothing special. It presents ordinary people going through troubles every one goes through at one point of life. The three stories are loosely connected.

The two episodes are fun though nothing extraordinary. We are presented with many daily human issues that trouble us ; army enlisting and how it affects relationships, being the first son and its burdens, debt, cheating, rumours, loneliness and turning points. The drama evolves around three themes; love, family and youth.

It's fun to see those many talented actors in only two hours.

If you want a break from dramas but can't pick a film, these two special episodes might provide a break.

P.S Kim Nam Gil's presence here is so adorable despite his messed up character.

Leia Mais

I will make it short. If you are ever interested in a Mulan like type of strong willed girl in the Chinese history, this is for you. Those two are the symbols of strong women in the Chinese history, even tho they both have more an legend like existence.

What I love, is how this strong and skillful girl is portrayed. She can be called a feminist of her time, but she's not portrayed as what we called "femnazi". She's not portrayed as a genius strategic type warrior only, but also as daughter, as a wife, as a young girl with a big heart.

I would like to add that the strategic battles in this show are awesome haha.

Leia Mais

* Story : The book itself is well written. How the story is narrate, how the characters are speaking, everything portray very well the beauty of Chinese language. You can feel everything : hopes, happiness, sadness, desperation, revenge, regrets, loneliness. This story is rich in emotions, and the rhythms is well controlled.
Every single characters are important, even though they won't appear as much as the main. The main is the main, only because she's the one telling her story. They are very humane. They are not entirely good, and they are not entirely bad. They all evolves in a certain way, and they are all only just people being trapped in a very conservative society. Their hope, their wishes, all broken down one by one, for the sake of their family or for their own sake.

* Acting/Cast : They don't try to be someone else, they are the character. It's like they are just telling their own story, not someone else's. You can feel someone's pain, you can understand someone's sadness, you can feel someone's happiness, thanks to the actors.
I would like to add how the drama itself is very well produced. How they adapted the story from the novel, the costumes, the traditions are all very close to the reality. It looks real? No, it's real. They've done a lot of research to be as close as possible to the reality. One of the actors, Zhang Xiao Long, is a teacher of Qing dynasty's traditions : how to bow down, how to speak, how to behave, how to eat, how to drink, everything single details are close to the reality.

* Music : The musics are all very good, and have all the "traditional" feeling without the "old fashioned" sense. it's well chosen, well done, and it's a part of the story as well. The music portray another type of Chinese traditional beauty.

* Rewatch Value : Believe me, I've watched a lot of historical Chinese drama since I was little. And none of them are as good as this one. This drama is god like. I've read the book, plenty of times, and I've watched the show countless time. You cannot get tired of this show.
But for the people who are not used to Chinese historical drama, or don't know much about Chinese culture, it may be very difficult. Even for those who are not able to understand the "old" Chinese way of speaking, you will not be able to understand the whole beauty of it. But I believe you will still enjoy the show!

* Overall : If you have other historical dramas to watch, watch them first. See the god like historical drama at last. Ever since I've watched this show, there's no way I can enjoy other drama as much as when I was watching or reading Empresses in the Palace... Like for real.

Leia Mais

Sometimes old school dramas are just the best! One of my very first, decided to watch again, and lo and behold still is. Anyone interested in just a good romantic drama with a twist. This one is not your typical rich guy, poor girl. It's a reversal, rich girl, poor guy.

cast- just amazing, Kim Seung Woo plays the poor male lead, he is what made this drama so believable and his acting is incredible in this one. You feel his desire, emotions its written all over his face. the female lead Choi Ji Woo is somewhat more subdued but you still root for them. The rest of the cast was just superb. I like how they had a little bromance going on and the character developments throughout the drama, you really end up loving every character, What I also like is how the realism of the poor guy's day to day life and people in his shoes was portrayed. It's REALITY.

Music- definitely one of my favorite osts....even tried to find one particular song. not even in print and cannot find it on you tube. :(

overall just a fun, escape kinda fairytale, but in fact very realistic, believable especially the beginnings of falling in love with someone, just an enjoyable, feel good all around drama.

Leia Mais

Pros
-Some pretty good acting from Ji Sung! Was able to portray each character really well. Hwang jung eum was pretty good, at times I was like ...mehh :/...but other times was really good. I really liked seeing her in this character after watching Secret (which was also a good drama where she and Ji sung acted really well in) Another big cheers of good acting to park seo joon!
-Music was on POINT! Loved how each character of Ji Sung had its own instrumental.
- Had some really funny scenes, like I almost died
- I fell in love with Ji Sung

Cons
- Story was really good in the beginning....then I don't know what happened near the end. All of the 'conflicts' in the drama didn't really get solved. I felt like there were some big loose ends in the story. Like the writers got really lazy near the end. Wasn't happy with the ending. Good beginning and middle though which made me stick through the drama. I really did want to love it but it was so poorly put together at the end.
There's one part of the drama that really bothered me between two of the main actors I won't say who. I don't know why they did that. Also the writers made some actors in the story seem so important in the beginning but at the end they were totally irrelevant...
I think I'm being very generous by giving it a 6....maybe that's because of the pretty funny moments, good acting, and music.
It was a good drama. 7.5/10. I wish i could give it more, had potential to be GREAT.

Leia Mais

This drama brought so many feels, it was unbelievable. You really felt some strong emotions throughout the drama. The story was beautiful, the acting was superior, the music was the cherry on top. I usually don't rewatch shows which is why I gave it a 6.5. As for my dislikes, the pace of drama was really neutral, but it really just was able to capture the essence of a mother and child's relationship so perfectly. The amount of tears that fell from my eyes was disastrous. If you're in to family/relationship, love, emotions, abuse, feeeeeels, type of dramas, then this is it! Similar to the drama Tonbi.

Leia Mais