Mr. Sunshine (2018)

The bar has been set much too high by Mr. Sunshine for me to fall in love with any other drama in the same genre. Perhaps my all-time favorite. They depicted the most heartbreaking loss, misery, and tragic story that I don't want to remember, but every time I watch it again, the peculiar feeling of not wanting to let go returns to me all over again. If anybody ever questioned, "What's the best drama you have ever stumbled into?", this will be my answer. A timeless masterpiece, I might say.

Gun, glory, and? Well, you name it. (Also, the OSTs are OUTSTANDING). 

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A Genuine Piece Of Art

I will not waste your time with a long review.There are many awesome ones with great analysis if you want to find out about this Masterpiece.
Or,better,you can go completely blind,knowing the minimum.I guarantee,the experience will be greater this way.
Iam writing this to bring it up for those who haven't watched it yet and mostly for those who hesitate to start it.As i did too for a long time until few days ago when i decided to start it with a cold heart to be completely honest.
Once again words like Romance and Melodrama prevented me from start watching it,as these 2 Genres are not my cup of tea.
4 days later and just few minutes after i finished it,iam telling you this was my best watch decision in 2022.

If i had to use only one word to describe Mr. Sunshine,that would be the word "EPIC"

Epic Production/Direction/Cinematography/Acting/Music/Story/Characters.
It is a flawless,fair and square,amazing, 10!No doubts.No debates.End of story.
For me,Mr. Sunshine,is a complete Drama.It doesn't lack anything.Is not good there,average here and bad further.No, is PERFECT all the way.From the first minute to the last second you don't want to take your eyes off the screen,you don't want to take a break to use the toilet or go to sleep.

24 long episodes,over one hour each and yet after finishing, you are craving for more.You wish this journey never ends.
It is a piece of art for the eyes(amazing cinematography and visuals)for the ears(the Ost is unforgettable)and mostly for the soul.
Gosh i cried as i never had before with any other Drama.I felt so many emotions.Had shivers in my spine.Butterflies in my stomach.My heart was beating fast.Sad moments.Happy moments.Funny moments.
Great friendships.Amazing love stories.Sacrifices.Fights for a free country.

Ok i must stop here cause i can write all night.

Just pause what you are currently watching,add Mr. Sunshine to your watch list and hit play.
Make sure you have plenty of snacks and water nearby.You MUST watch this before 2022 ends,so you will have an excuse to rewatch it in 2023!
Enjoy.

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Wow!

I started watching Mr Sunshine a while ago, but gave up after the first two episodes because I found so many characters a bit confusing and I didn't know anything about Korean history. I then discovered (and fell in love with) Kim Tae Ri after watching Twenty-Five Twenty-One and re-started Mr Sunshine. Am I glad that I did!
Kim Tae Ri is luminously beautiful as Go Ae Sin, and her Hanbok are sumptuous. Go Ae Sin is an amazing character and no wonder everyone around her loved and wanted to protect her. All the other actors are top-notch and memorable. Yoo Yeon Seok was sexy and smouldering as Gu Dong Mae and it was such a different role to the doctors he usually plays. I liked the character of Kudo Mina and the fact that she reluctantly became Go Ae Sin's ally when she could've easily been a rival. Go Ae Sin's servants, Ms Haman and Mr Haengrang, were so funny and loyal.
Everything about the production, especially the cinematography, is top quality. A minor quibble is that the special effects make-up (eg blood) was a bit amateurish.
I always knew that Mr Sunshine was a top-rated drama and now I now why. There are many laugh out loud moments but you'll mostly need tissues. It's one of the very best dramas I've seen and is highly recommended.

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Watch Mr. Sunshine you won’t regret it!

This is the most beautiful Kdrama I’ve ever watched. I just finished it and I’m crying like an idiot. I’ve never been more invested in a historical drama. It is a cinematic experience that may bring on the waterworks. It gets an audience to truly think of that precious history that brought us to where we are today. All the sacrifices that gave us the world we live in. I loved it and hopefully y’all will too.

What drew me in to this drama was the fact that I had heard the love story was beautiful, and it was. However, I didn’t expect to fall so deeply in love with all the characters. From the comedic relief characters to Eugene himself (I just shed a tear typing his name so you know his death hit me hard), all of the characters made me root for them, made me want them to succeed.

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i cried

This kdrama is hands down one of the best ones i have seen so far. I typically dont watch historical dramas, but this one omg. The story was so good! it got kind of slow at times, but it was still ineteresting and everything was relevant to the story. The actor were also sooo amazing! i typically hate when there are random white people in kdramas, because their acting is always trash, but not in this one! every single actor was amazing. The only thing i hate is goo Dong-mae and Kudo Hina's ending. I shipped them more than the main couple and i am so upset over their ending. Im gonna watch youtube videoes of them for days.

Overall i highly recommend this drama.

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Guns, glory and gore

Plot: A slave boy who escaped the cruelty of low life and became an American soldier. Back to his origin, he met different types of people including the love of his life and that’s where their stories intertwined. Although the plot had some flaws, it was still acceptable.

Acting: Im Kwan Soo (Jo Woo Jin) always leave a good impression on me with every drama that he was in. Apart from him, Kudo Hina did amazing as well. She was the perfect graceful and classy spy woman for me. Other side characters(including the foreigners) made a great contribution in bringing their characters alive with their convincing acting. However, I was quite disappointed with Kim Tae Ri’s acting. I believe that she wasn’t the right actress for the character as her acting was lackluster and flat most of the time. Whether she was devastated, shocked or in love, her facial expressions were not on point or quite inadequate.

Music: Most of the songs matched the scenes and intensified the aura of the drama.

Rewatch Value: It’s not something that I can rewatch but it’s definitely something that you can’t miss. It’s somehow an eye-opener not just about wars, patriotism and loyalty but it’s also about second chances and living your best life as if it was your last day.

Overall: 8 to 8.5 because of the beautiful cinematography, background music, details and acting of almost everyone. I love the bromance between Eugene Choi and Kyle, I also love the friendship threesome of Yoo-jin, Dong Mae and Hui Song. The drama had a few laugh out loud scenes on the first few episodes which made it less boring despite the non-existent chemistry and dragging love story of Eugene and Lady Aesin. They couldn’t even flirt with their eyes or their smiles. Although they had some good dialogues, I just couldn’t see and feel that they were attracted to each other, I’m sure Lee Byung Hyun tried his best but their chemistry wasn’t there. I think, Kim Tae Ri failed to create chemistry with each character that’s why I wasn’t emotionally invested with her story. I never rooted for her as she’s always reckless and clueless. Best scenes for me were when Gunner Jang lit the fire to save the royal training soldiers and when Joseon people stood on their ground to protect the noblewoman. I wasn’t attached to their stories but because of the directing of flashbacks, close ups and dialogues of those scenes, I just couldn’t help but feel something. Death of each character has it’s own meaning, it was quite questionable on how sudden it was but the symbolism was still there. ? Eugene Choi had a hostage just like what his mom did, Hui Seong who got beaten to death just as the same of what happened on the day he was born and Dong Mae who got butchered by his own ‘family’ just like how his mom did. The ending was I was expected but the idea behind it was just amazing. Honestly, the suspense only started on Episode 20, the series could have been shorter if they cut out the unconvincing flirtation of Eugene and Aesin. This drama also made me hate Japanese cruelty to people during the war(in real life as well) and I can’t stop myself from thinking, ‘If I were alive at that time, will I survive?’. Apart from that, as soon as I finished the series, I decided to read the history of Korea and learned from it. Which made me think that the three men may symbolized the three kingdoms back in the day and Aesin was ‘Korea’.

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I am starting the review with this because some of the cinematography just took my breath away. Playing with the lights, slight hints about what is to come that you may not even catch... The fact that this was filmed in such beautiful places and all of the mountain views by themselves sometimes made my eyes tear up and wish I was there. Thankfully the angles that make it look like you are also a person living in the early 1900s Joseon and are secretly spying on the characters help to stop oneself from buying a plane ticket to see the views in person.

The story was beautiful. I might be a little biased since my country also has a history of independence fighters and a lot of losses against oppressors and so I buy this kind of stories very quickly. Nevertheless it was well-told and I am happy with it.
I loved the cute little friendship between the three main male leads. Even if they stayed in denial about it.

The acting was great. I remember the first time I saw AeShin cry I was really surprised because usually during dramas when people cry you can see that they are sad and you can see the tears coming out of their eyes. But with her there was sadness, self control, helplessness... You could actually see from the way that she cried that she was a noble girl who grew up with everything but wants to be more than just a pretty decoration for her husband, so she becomes strong. And thus when something bad happens she tries to keep her composure and yet that darn lower lip just keeps twitching and doesn't listen to her!
All of the other actors did a great job as well. I think the acting was superb for the most part(except for maybe a couple of scenes where dead people's eyes were moving a little but I guess it's really hard to stop them so I'll let it slide). You could see each characters whole life story written on their faces.
I loved it that the characters changed a little throughout the drama but they didn't change their key character details, it was very well done.
Also I just want to mention the casting. The characters really looked A LOT like their parents and the younger versions looked like the older ones. I don't see it done that often and I was really happy to see it. Even the adult gunner Jang looked so much like his father, even though as a kid he didn't look that much like him. That's what happens in the real world as well.

The music was really good but maybe because I recently watched a drama with soundtrack that is still echoing in my heart I can't bring myself to give this one a ten.

I would gladly rewatch it sometime because I fell in love with a lot of characters as well as the wonderful directing.

Overall a great drama. A must watch.

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Left my heart torn apart

Super high stakes, unpredictable, outstanding cinematography, beautiful OST, amazing directing and screenplay, incredible acting performances - a masterpiece!

I was hesitant to watch this since I’m usually not a fan of historical dramas but I was blown away.
I just finished the show and after bawling my eyes out for hours, this has left a permanent void in my heart that I’ll never forget.
The beginning and first half was sometimes a little slow paced for me to be honest but it builds up for the later half so that at that point you’re so attached to the characters it’ll crush you.
There’s a lot of like political stuff you might not understand unless you really pay attention to what’s going on all the time and every little scene is important. Even when it was slower it still had me glued to the screen and kept me interested which really surprised me.
And the second half I literally couldn’t take my eyes off.
(Not that I could see a lot through my waterfall of tears lmao)
The only thing that bothered me a little sometimes was the acting skills of the foreign actors on the show. As an actor myself I just wish they could find some foreigners that are actually actors. The Korean actors though just WOW! Incredible. Especially the 3 second leads too I am in love with their characters.
Also it got me really interested into researching more about the actual history of that era.

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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!!

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História emocionante. Fotografia linda. Músicas que te prendem. Emoção em todo lugar.

Entrou para a minha lista de favoritos com toda a certeza! Comecei a assistir com nenhuma pretensão, mas logo fui captada pelo o enredo, história e personagens. Amei o fato de eles darem forma não somente aos personagens principais, mas também aos secundários que roubavam a cena em qualquer momento que apareciam!

Cada cena e simbolismo foram trabalhados tão excepcionalmente no decorrer da história, que mesmo os telespectadores que não são coreanos (como eu), podem identificar e sentir o sentimento de revolução. Admito que chorei de soluçar no último episódio, mas o meu coração tem a vontade de assistir de novo e de novo. Eu gostaria de esquecer todas as cenas para poder revê-las e poder sentir todas as emoções como se fossem novas novamente.

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