Emperor of the Sea (2004)

In a beauty pageant, Emperor of the Sea would win hands-down. From sweeping vistas of windy cliffs to carefully composed interiors to torch-lit ships fanning out across the darkened sea, it is one of the most beautifully filmed k-dramas that I’ve watched. It also features an intriguing central triangle anchored by a break-through performance by a dynamic, dangerous Song Il-Guk. Unfortunately, the directing, acting and cinematography can’t make up for the weaknesses in the writing. As long as the screenwriters are dealing with the characters’ early lives where few historical facts are available, things clip along fairly well. The writing is solid if not exceptional, and the show’s other strengths outweigh the script’s drawbacks. However, once the characters collide with reasonably well documented historical facts in the final third of the show, things start to go awry. Character motivations change inexplicably and the narrative becomes confused and repetitive. The writers seem unable to fit the characters they’ve created to the actions that, at least according to extant sources, they actually commit. Lots of stuff, much of it bad, happens, but it often feels arbitrary, robbing the climatic scenes of the feeling of inevitability needed for maximum dramatic impact. It’s as if you’ve spent 50 hours with a set of characters only to watch them get randomly flattened by a meteor at the end. It may be spectacular but it’s not especially satisfying.

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Sea God/Emperor of the Sea is an amazing lengthy drama. We follow the life of Goong Bok (later named Jang Bo Go) who is a slave at a shipyard and wishes to escape the horrible life of slavery with his close friend Jung Nyeon who is somewhat a stereotypical side-kick character (the I'll-die-for-you-and-follow-you-wherever-you-go type). They are pleaded guilty for crimes they are innocent of, learn martial arts together, go through many near death experiences and later advance through ranks to become important people.

The story starts a little slow but is still interesting right from the first episode. Its the kind of drama you could marathon but personally I didn't because although it gets really interesting, it was never so addictive that I couldn't stop watching (guess thats a good thing? Hehe). There are many unpredictables in the drama all around. Things that you'd usually want to happen in dramas but never happen will happen here and things you'd probably not want to happen will happen as well. You might like it because it feels fresh tries to avoid the stereotypical stuff rampant in dramas but you might also detest it and curse the writers for not allowing things to go the way you want. This might especially apply in the romance department, it never really goes in the direction the romance lovers would want it to (especially the way it ends).

Some nitpicks for this drama (why it doesn't get 10/10) would be for one, I couldn't agree with actress Chae Si Ra being cast as madam Jami (the main female antagonist). According to the drama madam Jami is supposedly beautiful, seductive, intimidating and at times, scary. When the drama tries to give you any of these impressions from the actress, it just falls flat. Also, I found some of the fight scenes hilarious with all the unnecessary jumping and funny sound effects but overall they are actually very well done (also considering the year it was done, the experience the cast had at the time with fight choreography and just the overall fact that Korea has never been on par with China when it comes to martial arts in films or dramas). Anyways the hilarious parts are few. The ost in the drama are ok. Sounds like typical stuff if you're a k-drama veteran. You either like the ost or dont really care.

As a whole this drama has amazing production, excellent actors, deals heavily with themes of dirty politics, merchants & trade, pirate battles, country wars and is highly recommended to all k-drama lovers especially those who like the historical & martial arts blend and the rise of an underdog.

POSSIBLE SPOLIER BELOW:
The ending is why a lot of people might rate this drama poorly and I'd have to agree that it was a bit bad. Not anything I couldn't swallow so it didn't weigh heavily on me like the ending of Queen Seon Duk did (maybe because Ive seen worse or maybe because it seemed ridiculous). You could say the ending is similar to Bad Guy with a little extra. It sort of makes sense but if the writers wanted to, they could've made it happier.
POSSIBLE SPOLIER END

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Emperor of the sea

Finally completed this amazing drama. It was one of my favourite drama in my childhood but I forget the of the drama and story . after watching this now I remember some of parts . really enjoyed it . I like yeom moon character so much . He is an amazing actor . totally love it . I cried many time because of yeom moon . In my pov he was always right .
on the other side ... the story is all about life , survive, hard situation , pain , one sided love and business n full of action .but it also gives motivation to never give up .

(Okay ..it's my first time giving review about drama .I actually don't know how to explain things )

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A historical drama based on real personalities. From the beginning, it was good to see how the growth of an individuum could result in the growth of a community and the formation of a state. It shows clearly how each individuum has a big role in the construction of a society.

The story is developed in a good way and the various twists make the drama the more intriguing. I personally like to see the various political developments and the competitions between the various characters. The suspense that comes from the various goals and intentions of each character is always interesting.

I could suggest this drama to learn about a historical character, obviously considering the enrichment of the script with fictional events.

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I watched this show because I had watched some of it as a child, and I was curious to see whether the show was as good as I remembered it to be. Generally speaking, I love historical K-dramas, but this show is probably one of my least favorite K-dramas I've watched to date (in comparison to some of the older ones like Jumong, The Kingdom of the Winds, Empress Ki, and Iljimae and some of the newer ones like Mr. Queen, Mr. Sunshine, and Moon Lovers). There were holes in the plot of this show, and I kept finding myself confused by the characters' decisions and intentions. The story can also be slow at times.

Best things about the show:
- Song Il Gook (Yum Moon)'s acting
- Very intriguing and exciting war, political, and business strategizing
- Jung Hwa's dresses were so beautiful
- Satisfying to see an underdog rise in the ranks
- Okay fighting scenes
- Beautiful landscapes

**There will be spoilers below**

Worst things about the show:

One of my biggest issues with the show was Yum Moon's final decision to kill Jang Bogo. The second half of the show seemed to be building up Yum Moon's character arc. This character was adopted and raised as a pirate, which explains why he was okay with killing, stealing, and doing shady things. However, from the beginning, the show kept demonstrating that Yum Moon had some difficulty always listening to his pirate father/superior. He seemed to always want to keep his promises and had a soft/moral spot. He himself explained that being a pirate and doing bad things became his fate when he was raised as a pirate and that he couldn't escape this fate. Now, after Jang Bogo branded him and enslaved him, it made sense that Yum Moon came back fueled by anger and revenge. BUT against all odds, Jang Bogo forgave him, trusted him with big tasks and big positions, and treated him like a friend. The show kept showing that Yum Moon was having difficulty doing anything against Jang Bogo. Jang Bogo showed Yum Moon that he can be on the right side of history, doing good things, and he can have people's respect and friendship while not having to do immoral things (which he previously didn't like doing). We keep seeing Yum Moon in conflict with himself trying to figure out if he wants to listen to Kim Yang and get revenge on Jang Bogo or not. His final decision to kill his childhood friend and betray everyone's trust was very disappointing and made me feel like his character arc was just useless. Also, he said that he killed Jang Bogo to prevent the war, but upon coming back from killing Jang Bogo and seeing that Kim Yang is still going to proceed with the war, he doesn't take out one of his little daggers to throw in his face and kill him. Why would Yum Moon kill Jang Bogo, his childhood friend who gave him a second chance, but not Kim Yang, a greedy superior with awful motives? God knows. Very disappointing.

Another big issue with the plot for me was the fact that Jung Hwa still LOVED Jang Bogo, but decided to have both of them be in pain for years without getting together. The show never properly explains why Jung Hwa decides that she should not be with Jang Bogo even though they both loved each other endlessly. The only explanation she provides is something similar to "every time we try to get together, something awful happens to Jang Bogo" and "Jang Bogo needs to do great things and he can't do them with me by his side". This was all very stupid to me and made no sense.

Lastly, I very much disliked Jang Bogo's decision to sacrifice an entire city and army at the end knowing that it was a losing war. It was a very unwise, inconsiderate, and somewhat stupid decision. He could have easily stayed out of Kim Yang's way and found alternative ways of making an impact instead of getting himself, his entire family, friends, city, and army to die pointlessly. Overall, I think Jang Bogo was a little bit too idealistic. For instance, a lot of the issues they were facing would've been solved if he had just sent an assassin to kill Kim Yang and some of the other evil nobles. Yes, that would've been against his morals but by doing that he could've stopped a massacre and prevented the king from being murdered or prevented the new king from being controlled by evil and greedy nobles.

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Not enough sea action...

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.

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I watched this drama for both Song Il Guk & Choi Soo Jong and I was pleased with both of their acting. The story however was a bit slow and they drug out certain scenes that could have went by much faster (I think a lot of old historical dramas are like this) - so during the last half of the show I set it on speed & watched it in double time lol - honestly I liked it more that way :)
I liked Goong Bok & Yon's deep friendship and how they'd risk anything for each other ^^ They were like blood-brothers. The relationship between Goong Bok & Yum Moon was strained at best, they were friends but enemies at the same time, more friends in the beginning & more enemies toward the end. I constantly found myself struggling between like and hate of Yum Moon's character. I pitied him at times, loved him at times and hated him at times...
It seemed like the characters would go through the same exact things in a hundred different ways throughout the drama. Goong Bok & Yon were born slaves and lived most of their lives as slaves, they ended up meeting the right "master" and started climbing ranks and eventually succeeded in business & became powerful influences who strived to make all statuses equal, were not greedy for power & gained respect from people who liked that and made several enemies b/c of it too. Madam Jami was the worst I think - I really hated that woman (besides not really liking the actress & her horrible hairstyles all the time). I think I liked it most when Goong Bok was high enough in status & he started attacking the pirates (I think it's from episode 30 something plus).
And then we have the girl that both men loved - One whom she loved and one whom she cared for but didn't love. Her fate is actually really sad and depressing - I wouldn't want to be her. I know she loved GB but honestly I was wanting her to be with YM so she could take him out of who he was under, then YM could have lived an entirely different life. I shipped GB with Chae Ryeong.

The OST was the best thing in the drama I think ^^ My favorite song is "Leaving You" by Kim Bum Soo (ost 2) & then "Prayer" by Yi Hyeon Seop (ost 5) // other songs that were good but didn't catch my attention: "Love Like the Wind" by Moon Myung Jin (ost 6) and "Tears" by Kim Bum Soo (ost 9)

It was good for a one-time watch but I won't watch it again.

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