Bloated Heart

The drama had a good selection of cast with decent varied performances. Jang Hyuk working double and triple shifts here. It had some interesting characters, especially Gye Won which I feel we didn't get enough of him. While the story may have been fine for the first half but it took a worse direction in the second half, losing whatever interest and build up it had previously. The keyword here is "odd" regarding the state of the production. Odd and questionable choices of the soundtracks, some of which didn't fit. Odd and questionable shot compositions and editing. Some shots had slightly different lighting or color grading of the same scene. The drama is filled with very long takes/shots that were too annoying after the 3rd time, it came off as a poor attempt in trying to mimic film, most of them didn't hit right. The only highlights of this drama were the intriguing 1st half and the character Park Gye Won.

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Secret Dealer

This drama was like a rollercoaster ride without the thrills or the rails. That first episode was unbelievably bad and a huge turn off to kick start the drama but I kept going regardless. The whole mystical shaman vibe in a historical setting turned out to be quite an unsuccessful combo in this case, it felt like they slapped on those elements without any real thought. The entire story felt so limited and restricted, even the cast, when taking into consideration its length. All of that was accompanied by poor pacing, you can imagine how they were trying to push it to reach the 20 episodes mark.

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An embarrasing piece

It started off on a decent note but hit a major roadblock somewhere shortly after, a big nosedive out of nowhere! Disrespectful atrocious writing, to say the least. You may witness one of the worst written plot devices and tension management here. I was willing to give it a chance in the beginning despite the setback, but my interest plummeted faster than a rock when the male lead got entangled with that deplorable love interest plot. In fact, this applied to all of the four female leads. The momentum sputtered and stalled like a car running on fumes and the leads were stuck in first gear the whole time. The potential for a captivating narrative was there, hanging in the air, but the execution was practically non-existent. I'm fairly certain this is the worst drama Jang Hyuk picked up in his career, hopefully the last.

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Sun embracing the moon

What even was that?! I would have rather gotten lost in a liminal space than watching this. The entire portion of the plot involving the kids was absurd and uncomfortable. They had no idea how to structure the narrative with the kids which led to a handful of subsequent problems that couldn't be fixed. About 80% of the drama was wasted on a single weak point of tension. The longer runtime made the tension even weaker. The following events didn't matter for how little investment the viewers have had in the first place. While the cast was mostly okay, Han Ga In didn't feel right in this drama.

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Arararang

Well, this was a painful watch to get through. The comedy was genuinely bad and the jokes were godawful. What made it even much worse was the terrible background music of these "comedic" scenes. It killed me slowly bit by bit with every attempted joke. The long runtime drove me insane. Just like any other drama with a similar formula, the story doesn't move until the last few episodes. The story itself was weak and padding it with comedic relief characters and side stories wasn't feasible to begin with. The cast performance was fine but they didn't have much to work with in the first place.

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Jang Hee Bin - The cursed

Any intimate scenes were hilarious to watch from any point of view, even from 1995. As if watching 2 animatronics getting physically close to each other. The first half of the drama was okay but the second one was a mess, it was all over the place. Once other sides started to intervene and the scope went beyond Jang Hee Bin, the drama became a generic palace power struggle royalty bullshit. The king portrayal probably the worst performance out of all the characters. The actor 'Im Ho' looks like a cartoon character when he gets angry. Amateur actors will bring more to the table than him. No wonder why he barely gets low tier main roles and the rest is between support and guest roles. I wonder why this drama managed to get 3 remakes. It would be interesting to see the 2002 version since the cast looks more appealing. The Jang Ok Jung (2013) remake was equally as problematic as this one. Maybe Jang Hee Bin as a historical character is cursed to be portrayed in any media.

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Not good

This is when the genre lost its direction and was going through a transitional period trying to figure out how to be modern. This drama went through a similar downhill pace as Gye Baek (2011) which both were airing at the same time in July 2011. They also both shared similar problems except this one was edger, cringer and worse.

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Okay

It's a watered down tale with low tension and disappointing baddies which all made the insane runtime just a tad bit more unbearable. The entire story is confined to in-palace drama where the king likes a commoner while another woman grows to be super duper extra jealous. You may imagine how the story will pan out for 60 episodes. Its length turned out to be its biggest weakness, this is further emphasized with its first and last 5 episodes of which they were dull and redundant. It would've been significantly better with a short runtime since the main leads were likable. Speaking of which, the main leads scenes were generally enjoyable, they had a good chemistry but only when it's NOT romantic. Their romance sucked! Making the king physically a weakling was a nice touch. Although the drama is named after the historical character and we were shown and told about her having ambitious ideologies but we rarely got to see that side of her character in the drama, just a few scenes in the middle and around the end. Instead, we got a typical melodrama in a historical setting while borrowing small bits and pieces from the real historical character for world building. The main leads were doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep the drama afloat. The drama is okay but it doesn't have much to offer and the long runtime is really hard to justify.

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BAD

Where to even begin with this mockery. It's as appalling as it sounds. The journey of a dickless simp following a clown king who can't control his dick. They could have explored the world of eunuchs in many different and interesting ways but they choose to go through the absolute worst possible route and interpretation of eunuchs. I wonder which is easier, finishing this drama or castration? Writing, story, direction, cast performance, sound design, cinematography, production, and characters were all abysmal by any measure. If you were to look through the last few episodes you'll realize even the writer was fed up with the drama and turned it into a hate writing. Even if you were a big fan of one of the cast members, I don't see this being worth it.

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Poor

Soulless and dry!! It got significantly worse when the drama forgot its main objective and focused on the parents opposing the ML's love interest. Too much unwarranted stupidity. The cast performance was serviceable at best. For a 16 episodes drama it didn't deliver anything substantial. Even if we were to condense down everything into a single movie, it still wouldn't be worth it.

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Try again!

Practically, this drama is just a shirtless men expedition. It featured one of the most deplorable writing efforts and attempts to be edgy and hip with the times (2010). The drama had absolutely nothing to offer other than Jang Hyuk presence. They made Jang Hyuk as an edgy cringey whiny kid full of stupid one-liners and little to no real characterization put into him. This is a prime example for how to NOT write a broken and traumatized character. The drama had no real fights, just a handful of flashy dances in slow-mo with little to no weight to their strikes coupled with unfitting soundtrack for the fight or the moment. To reach the 24 episodes mark they had to stretch it thin, literally, with a lot of repeated scenes, extremely elongated stares and gazes, irrelevant dialogue and random slow-mo shots which all resulted in a poor utilization of the cinematography.

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Rough!

It's a really rough watch. Primitive post production VFX with cheap cuts especially the blood spatters, the absolute horrors! It has to be cheaper if they opted for practical effects. If they were really on a tight budget then abandoning the post production VFX would have been the right move instead of making the drama looking cheap from the get go. Speaking of which, what on earth was that opening theme with thunder and water splashes effects. Real physical pain. The script, story, dialogue and writing in general was nothing but comical. Park Won Sang was the only highlight for me just for being there.

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What even is this....

Shamelessly copy-pasting their homework from Police University (2021). Nonetheless, the drama had the worst combination of anything and everything which ruined any appeal for it. It would have been a tiny bit better if the drama didn't have any romance. Aside from the first 2 minutes and 42 seconds of the introduction scene of the first episode, this drama was a waste of carbon emissions.

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Do yourself a favor....

Just from reading the synopsis it turned out to be as rancid as it sounds exactly! This feels it was made for a college group project while trying to be edgy and trendy. The standards keep getting lower nowadays.

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A sloppy mess for an interesting setting

It became quite apparent right off from episode 2 that this was a massive flop. The drama would have worked wonderfully and masterfully as a movie or at least as a 3-4 episodes short drama, otherwise, it's absolutely riddled with problems in its current condition and format. The unique setting and scenery weren't enough to help its case. It ingeniously transformed the art of storytelling into a chaotic, avant-garde mishmash of disjointed scenes that left me pondering the deep mysteries of life, such as whether the writers had ever heard of structured narrative or if they were just operating under the belief that plotlines are mere suggestions for lesser beings. Each plot twist, if one could even call them that, was a tantalizing leap into the abyss of narrative incoherence, leaving me on the edge of my seat not in anticipation, but in a desperate attempt to maintain my balance amidst the swirling vortex of plot holes and character motivations more elusive than a unicorn at a camouflage convention. I can't thank the creators enough for their valiant efforts to reduce character development to a cryptic crossword puzzle that nobody asked for, but we apparently all deserved, according to them. I wish to see better attempts going for a similar setting and theme from more competent creators. It's hard to recommend this drama unless you're a diehard fan of some of the cast members. Jun Ji Hyun disappearing for ~5 years then coming back with this project was nothing but a disappointment. It made it harder to be excited for her next project "Polaris (2023)".

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