What a drama. What a man. Wow, I'm stunned by the quality of this drama. It goes straight to the top as the best Korean drama I've ever seen, and in 2nd place behind Soredemo Ito Yuke as the best drama. Why. Well, there were some that thing that niggled at me One. Having Japanese characters laugh in a kind of way, to remind us, that "Hey, don't forget we're the baddies here" How are the Japanese portrayed overall? Well, first of all, they have great uniforms. Some of the best scenes in the movie, are the Japanese sections/ They are portrayed as both honourable and brutal. Two. The"comedy" didn't really work for me. This is one of my biggest gripes with Korean historical drama. I guess what you would call "light relief characters" are a staple of these types of dramas. I'm not saying they never make me laugh, but more often than not they don't. I'm referring here to Park Chul-Min. Although there are scenes when he wasn't trying to be funny, and in some of those, you could see that there is a pretty good actor in there. There were also 3 actors who I thought of as The Three Stooges, but once they, or perhaps just one or two of them, did some straight acting, i was more impressed. 3. Characters disappear from the drama. 4. I can't make up my mind about the performances of Kim Kyu-Cheol, Lee Han-Wi, and Ahn Yeon-Hong. At first I thought She was rather weak, but in some scenes I thought she displayed some good acting skills. I also wasn't impressed at first by Choi Yu-Jeong. I just thought she was too bland. But once she married Yi Soon shin, her performance seemed to get better.
5. Well, this is not really a fault. There are so many great performances in this, but not all of them are great all the time. I guess it's because their characters become less interesting. (A)Jung Ae-Ri. She portrays Yi's mother. In his childhood scenes, she's terrific, but later as he grows to adulthood, her performance for me. Didn't hold the same impact (B) Jeon Ik-Ryeong. This for me was the most disappointing aspect of the series. Her character as the feisty courtesan Chung-Hyang was I thought astonishing. It was my facourite character in the drama. But then basically, she stops becoming a courtesan, and her performance, well, let's just say, she doesn't get the same opportunities as an actress. But for her performance as the courtesan, I believe she gives the greatest performance in the drama . Believe me, in this, that's no easy feat. The beards all look at the same. This drama has so many excellent performances in it. Besides the aforementioned, please stand up Choi Jae-Sung,Lee Jae-Ryong, Kim Gyu- Ri, Gi Ju-Bong, Jeong Dong-Hwan wonderful as the wily Yoon Doo-Soo, Choi Cheol-Ho, Lee In, showing that there are good young actors in Korea and many others. Oh, I nearly forgot Kim Myung-Min in the lead. He holds the whole thing together. He is the centre. It's really a terrific performance. It's only when I watch the flashback scenes, showing the difference between the older Yi, and the younger, that I can really appreciate his acting. The screenplay is terrific, with some wonderful dialogue. At first, I thought I preferred the story before he came Admiral. But, no, the series doesn't falter. It actually becomes more fascinating. Eg, the building of the turtle ships, Yi's battle strategy, the aforementioned Japanese sequences. The Battle scenes. At first, these were okay, nothing special. But as the series went on, they became better, bloodier. It's as if the makers of the series became more confident, in what they could show. I should warn people, that this series is one of the most graphic I've ever seen. That's not something, that bothers me, but it may others. I'll give you an example. In other Korean historical series, if somebody is about to be executed for example, we see the sword coming down, and then perhaps the person lying dead. Here, we see the blood.
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