Nothing but respect

I love movies based on historical events so this one was right up my alley. Yoo Hae Jin is great once again (like everything he does) but so is the rest of the cast. Very touching, sad, funny even, a mix of emotions. After watching I feel humbled and have nothing but respect for their ancestors.
It's unbelievable how random life can be and how their gigantic task could have been in vain if weren't for pure luck (or the Heavens maybe).
I have visited Seodaemun prison where the political prisoners were held and tortured, and this movie refers to it, I recommend everyone interested in Korean history to pay a visit.
The movie was pure joy, although very sad story.

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Truly epic

I am a sucker for historical dramas and this one is by far my favorite. It's the first time I have tried to watch a long drama and I'm glad I did.
Firstly, it was a lesson in Korean history, with real historical characters and events (romanticized for sure).
Secondly the cast was well-chosen, especially the 2 main characters, Yi Bang Won and Sambong, what great performances.
I like the rest of the dragons, minus one (Lee Bang Ji, poor acting in my opinion).
I am also happy that 2 of my favorite Korean beauties play in this :-) (Se Kyung and Yoo Mi).
Beautiful costumes, cool fighting scenes, great soundtrack, all in all an absolute masterpiece, which makes it my all-time favorite drama.
Congratulations to everyone involved .

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Bittersweet

I got left with a bittersweet feeling after watching this. The potential for an amazing drama was there but for various reasons it didn't happen.
The first reason is the obvious, the actors change. I really liked the original one and really disliked In Woo. Nothing personal against him, I know it was hard being thrown straight into action on short notice, but even so, he is not that good, at least in historical movies (his performance in Mr Queen was equally poor). He might be suitable for a cheesy rom-com but not for this.
Second reason for me was the inconsistency in using Korean language. They have used some old pre-Joseon, some Joseon and quite a bit of contemporary vernacular which is very disappointing. All historical drama I've seen use pure Joseon language, nothing modern so for me it was upsetting (I am not Korean but I have studied Korean a lot). Next step would be to use the stupid konglish but I doubt they would do that.
Final reason was the quality of the palace intrigues, a lot of time very superficial and poorly written, felt like filler most of the times.
Now to the good parts. Best part is the cast, great main actors (minus In Woo), some really good supporting actors (minus a couple ajhussis who play in every drama and are quite poor despite the fact, must have good management company). So Hyun is stunning, which I already knew. I've never seen Yoo Hwa before, great job and what a stunning beauty, I was mesmerized .
The costumes are gorgeous, I hope they are accurate as they looked quite different from the Joseon era. Fighting scenes were good too.
The overall story was good, but could have been better, still I liked most of the actors so I have watched it pretty fast, was done in 2 weeks but only because I didn't want to binge-watch.
In conclusion, quite a mixed bag this drama . Still worth a watch.

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Pretty bad

I absolutely adore Shin Se Kyung, I would watch everything with her. However, this one I couldn't.
The script is really bad (anything with sports is pretty boring, what can be worse - well, a story about a sport's writer), the chemistry between the main roles is not really there, the support roles are also poor (mainly because of the poorly written script but I also dislike the support female role). I saw many people swearing this is some really nice drama, with great chemistry (where?) to me it was just bad and could not get past the first 5 episodes. I feel sorry for Shin Se Kyung, hope her next one will be better.

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