Genre: Period, Historical, Romance, Revenge, Melodrama
Episodes: 36
Broadcast period: 2011-Jul to 2011-Nov
Cast: Lee Seo Jin, Cho Jae Hyun, Oh Yeon Soo, Song Ji
Hyo, Cha In Pyo, Hyo Min, Lee Hyun Woo and No Young Hak.
Due to
the Queen being of Silla blood, an elite group of assassins try to kill her and
the Crown Prince Ui Ja on a regular basis. This has prompted the King of Baekje
to assign his most loyal and skilled swordsman Moo Jin (Cha In Pyo) to guard
them. But due to unforeseen events, the
Queen dies to save her son, and Moo Jins wife dies while giving birth to a son,
Gye Baek.
Several
years later, Gye Baek (Lee Hyun Woo) now a youngster, works odd jobs, so he can
take care of his drunk father. Here he meets merchant-in-training Eun Ko (Park Eun
Bin), whom he immediately falls for. Moo Jin, who has lost his arm, has
remarried, so the past is unknown, and Gye Baek believes his stepmother and
stepbrother, are his real mother and brother. Though mourning, Moo Jin meets
the Crown Prince Ui Ja (No Young Hak) again, now a regular Prince due to the new
Queens (Oh Yeon Soo) son taking that title and sees right through his pretense, about
not caring about the past.
While
trying to uncover the truth, and helping Ui Ja, Moo Jin dies, while Gye Baek
witnesses it. Filled with anger, Gye Baek blames Ui Ja for the murder of his father
but ends up as a hostage of Silla. As years pass, Gye Baek (Lee Seo Jin) lives
only for one sole purpose: to kill the man, who killed his father, unaware that
there is more to the story than meets the eyes…
Yeah, I
know this is very detailed, and yes, I did spoil a bit, but I tried to stay off
the details, so if you decide to watch it, you will get several surprises and
you will notice the details I left out.
Out of all
the historical dramas out there, this one is the first one where I was in awe
of the quality of the costumes - like the first 10 min seemed extremely well. I
don’t now much about the uniforms of Baekje, but I know that the armor was
iron, and it kind of looked like iron. In most dramas I can see that they are
made of plastic (or whatever it is) but I didn’t in this one - at least not in
the beginning. Also, it might be because I had the first episode in HD quality
(I think 1080p), that might have something to do with it too. What I mean is,
it was nice to see that there exist good costumes out there, like realistic
ones anyways.
This is
also one of my first dramas where the lead actors are over 30 years old, as
they (directors, or whoever casts these actors) usually have young actors doing
quality and popular dramas. And they were all ‘veteran’ actors, with skill,
which was extremely nice to see. I have to admit, I was amazed by Song Ji Hyo. I
never knew she could act mean or evil - she can officially do both. I liked her
in this, and she is very good at acting. Though I noticed that she was tired (haha,
blaming RM for that). The rest were good too.
The
lacking thing in this one is both pace and extreme character development, which
I couldn’t really comprehend. Though the fact that these developments are the
reason the story end as it did.
But all
in all, an alright drama that made me emotional, and confused at the same time.
☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars
♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts
