Just… watch it.
This drama is based on the fictional, The Story of Hong Gil Dong written in the 16th or 17th century by Heo Gyun. It’s about a Robin Hood-like character that robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. In the series though Hong Gil Dong kind of falls into his infamy rather than directly choosing that path. Gil Dong, played by Kang Ji Hwan, the bastard child of a minister is a guy that just wants to go off to China, but his fate has something more in store. He meets Heo Yi Nok (Sung Yuri), a depressingly stupid girl with a good heart, Chang Hui (Jang Geun Suk) a dark figure with an interesting past but an even more interesting mission and a group of interesting bandits.
…The Series…
The Good:
THE ACTING
1. Kang Ji Hwan. I love this guy. His acting is great and he’s adorably hot. What more could one ask for?
2. Sung Yuri’s acting isn’t amazing and in fact it’s contrived sometimes but she makes the character she portrays bearable. Also, as an actress she retrieves herself from the mess she was before.
3. The supporting cast is amazing. First the bandits: Cha Hyun Jung plays Mal Nyeo the feisty female, Park Sang Wook plays Su Keon the wanna-be ladykiller and the adorable Maeng Se Chang plays as the adorable Gomi.
4. Jang Geun Suk, I find the coldness and steeliness of his countenance interesting and appealing. For me it makes his character more believable, it just make so much sense that he would be like that.
THE HONG SISTERS
The characters that they created are so complex and great. Even the bad guys you understand, you see the dark sides of the good characters. I’m on episode 18 of 24 of the series and I still don’t know where the heart of some of the leads are. It’s great to be able to keep guessing and not have to resign to predictability. And the series is just well written. I’m still interested! And I’m so picky about dramas. (I literally only watched the first and last episode of My Girl because I didn’t want to waste 16 hours of my life, but since learning that it was also written by the Hong sisters, I might go back and give it a chance.)
The not so good:
1. Meong Cheong Yi AKA Yi Nok’s persistent stupidity. I understand it’s her character but seriously, she’s dumb to the point of handicap sometimes. She has a good and loyal heart though but I’m sick of the dumb-yet-good-hearted-female character in dramas.
2. This is just a general thing I hate about dramas but I wish that people would stop talking to themselves and stating the obvious. I understand that some viewers are slow but seriously, they’re not as slow as Yi Nok.
In the end watch this drama because it’s quickly becoming one of the best dramas I’ve seen. It’s nowhere near perfect (I find dramas in general can lose some of the, well, drama) but it’s exciting, the acting is good, the characters aren’t simple and even though we know from the beginning who is going to end up with who, there is so much that we don’t know that makes watching this drama worth while.
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