romantic-at-heart
Ipoh mali
This review may contain spoilers
Heart Stirring Journey
I never thought I would write a drama review but Mr Sunshine changed all that.
If you are the type who can easily figure out the punchline to a story based on a few words, please only read this after you have finished this drama. Assuming of course, you prefer to get immersed in the story without knowing where the story will lead.
“This is my history” “This is my love story” launched me into more tears the second time I re-watched this scene the day after I finished the whole drama. Although the drama ended with hope, I was unable to shake my feelings of sorrow for the tragic end for so many of the characters.
Lee Byung-hun was phenomenal as Eugene Choi, displaying a range of emotions from commanding to charming to endearing where he said, “... the beginning of revenge or the end of jealousy”. Certain scenes where the lighting showed his age made me appreciate him as an actor even more after finding out he was older than me and that he had also starred in Squid Game.
I loved how the relationship between Eugene Choi, Gu Dong Mae and Kim Hui Song developed into one of trust and brotherly love. I found Kim Hui Song annoying at first but was moved to tears when he burned the marriage letter. Gu Dong Mae was the cool bad guy which had some of the wittiest remarks when the 3 of them had drinks together.
Kuno Hida was the alluring hotel owner that was cool, calm and collected with a fabulous wardrobe of western dresses. She was a multi-faceted character that was a Japanese widow-hotel owner to most, a Korean daughter of a villain to few and an undercover supporter to the King that no one knew about. I particularly liked her role in getting Lady Ae Shin back to Joseon from Japan and her letter to the King after blowing up her hotel.
The attention to detail for the costumes and settings were on point. The wars and fighting sequences were very graphic and realistic. The scenes with the battleships were so real that I found myself wondering how much cgi was used. So it was a surprise to be able to spot 2 scenes which looked like it used blue screen.
This story was one of the best I’ve seen. But above all, the story telling was very real, without the usual unrealistic back stabbing and plotting that most historical dramas portray. Brilliant!!
If you are the type who can easily figure out the punchline to a story based on a few words, please only read this after you have finished this drama. Assuming of course, you prefer to get immersed in the story without knowing where the story will lead.
“This is my history” “This is my love story” launched me into more tears the second time I re-watched this scene the day after I finished the whole drama. Although the drama ended with hope, I was unable to shake my feelings of sorrow for the tragic end for so many of the characters.
Lee Byung-hun was phenomenal as Eugene Choi, displaying a range of emotions from commanding to charming to endearing where he said, “... the beginning of revenge or the end of jealousy”. Certain scenes where the lighting showed his age made me appreciate him as an actor even more after finding out he was older than me and that he had also starred in Squid Game.
I loved how the relationship between Eugene Choi, Gu Dong Mae and Kim Hui Song developed into one of trust and brotherly love. I found Kim Hui Song annoying at first but was moved to tears when he burned the marriage letter. Gu Dong Mae was the cool bad guy which had some of the wittiest remarks when the 3 of them had drinks together.
Kuno Hida was the alluring hotel owner that was cool, calm and collected with a fabulous wardrobe of western dresses. She was a multi-faceted character that was a Japanese widow-hotel owner to most, a Korean daughter of a villain to few and an undercover supporter to the King that no one knew about. I particularly liked her role in getting Lady Ae Shin back to Joseon from Japan and her letter to the King after blowing up her hotel.
The attention to detail for the costumes and settings were on point. The wars and fighting sequences were very graphic and realistic. The scenes with the battleships were so real that I found myself wondering how much cgi was used. So it was a surprise to be able to spot 2 scenes which looked like it used blue screen.
This story was one of the best I’ve seen. But above all, the story telling was very real, without the usual unrealistic back stabbing and plotting that most historical dramas portray. Brilliant!!
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