Positives:
Negatives:
Overall: With all the hype, names, and money involved, definitely a huge disappointment. Regret having watched the whole show to be honest.
- Beautiful costumes and set
- Good acting by most main characters (with exceptions)
- Beautiful cinematography, although some shots were overdone
Negatives:
- Zero chemistry between two main characters, Kim tae Ri and Lee Byung Hun. The main story revovles around their love story, which can't be felt at any stage of the story
- Story moves waaaaay to slow. The show needed a lot more action, twists, turns and more interesting dialogues/confrontations. There was so much potential with the historical context, that hasn't been used at all.
- Lee Byung Hun's revenge story wrapped up too soon/handled poorly. One of the few interesting elements in the story was written so poorly. His desire for revenge just somehow fizzled out and petered out to nothing
- Embarrassing acting by all English-speaking actors, plus the French actor. Never seen so many poor actors in one drama. How can you can not make an effort to cast actual actors from America/France/Great Britain. I'm sure there are lot of talented actors that don't cost a fortune. Instead, it feels like the production team just picked up random foreigners they found on the streets of Seoul.
- Lee Byung Hun is a miscast. He knows how to play an action character, and I believed his rage when it came to his dead parents. Everything else (romance and humour) he just doesn't seem to be able to pull it off.
- Unncessary love triangle/quare(?). Was that really necessary? I guess so, since it is a K drama
- Too many cliche K drama scenes (excessive use of flashbacks, soundtrack, and characters just staring at each other for long periods of time while they are about to cry)
Overall: With all the hype, names, and money involved, definitely a huge disappointment. Regret having watched the whole show to be honest.