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If I could I would have given this drama 100.
First of all I want to notice the period of time when this drama was aired. Yes, it was during that controversy with South Korean president we all heard. All the stars going to election and posting photo-proofs, that they went there. The time, when the whole nation stood to remove the old president and choose a new one. This perfectly correlated with this dramas story! That is one of the reasons it was so loved in Korea. Actually the ending also shows that. All the lines in the ending scene are all related to the president issue, as it was aired right after elections. I will not give spoilers, so find out what was told at the end of this drama, after watching it till the end :P
So why did I give such scores?
1. Music (OST) - 10
This drama in my opinion has one of the best ost’s I have ever heard. Especially among historical dramas. My favorite has been Six Flying Dragons (for everything), the songs Muiiya, and song of a blue mountain were the best! Here, the whole ost compliments the drama very well, and the lyrics suit the situations. Moreover all of them have this traditional Korean feeling, using the language one usually hears in sageuks. The music was phenomenal in this drama. I’m gonna download it as soon as possible. I want to give this drama The Best OST Award! The epic-ness of the music just can’t be described in words. In totally gave me SFD feels. It is also a nice delight to listen to k-pop star participant Ahn Ye Eun's songs!
2. Acting/Cast/ Characters - 10
To be honest I was both worried and excited that Yoon Kyun Sang will be playing this role. Worried, because, as Moo Hyul in SFD he was amazing, and this role was quite similar to it. Excited, because this would have been his first leading role, and I really wanted a Hong Gil Dong drama. However he was PERFECT for this role. His height and big built, sometimes stupid expressions made me think that this is Hong Gil Dong. Every time there was a scene were we could see many characters it was so funny to see the height difference.
The whole cast did an amazing job, so I want to address some of the characters.
Women:
Yes, women in this drama where fantastic. Honestly I totally hate those whiny woman characters that only cry during the whole drama, wait for their lovers and, more importantly, get in the way!! However this drama was filled with strong-willed women who knew what they want. An ambitious Guiseng who was an artist, an all smiley, talkative strong girl. Gil Dong ‘s mother was also great. These kind of women I also saw in Shine or Go Crazy, they were really smart there. I also want to give a separate credit to extra women in the town. While men were scared to act, women offered their help first!
Villains:
Extra credit for villains, because they did an amazing job portraying them. I loved how the writer showed us the villains from different perspectives. Here I would like to say that the king was the most complex of them all. Historically this king is knows as the most brutal and tyrannical king of Jeoseon. This drama also portraits his inner conflicts. We get to see how he started, how he was like an angry child, but then the drama shows us that all of his traumas, all of his thoughts in the end can’t justify his cruelty.
Hong clan:
Yup! Hong clan was amazing. The 7 generals did great portraying memorable characters, cute thugs that later became heroes. But not only the main people of the Hong clan were great. Extra characters that joined along the way, all the people that got help from them, they all did an amazing job.
Main Characters:
As I said Hong Gil Dong was played perfectly and character development was no joke. However we need to give credit to other main characters than the lead boy. I already wrote about villains, ladies, Hong clan. But I cannot leave out our hero’s father - Amogae! Kim San Joong this year received Daesang ( the biggest/highest award) during the award ceremony for portraying Amogae. I think he also needs to receive the Father Of The Year award. As the drama says, we cannot start the story of Hong Gil Dong without telling his father’s story first. I liked his story so much that it was even difficult to let go of the young versions of all the characters. Even the stars chose as their best scene the scene with Amogae. The scene were even during the reading the whole cast and stuff was moved. Amogae’s way of talking was also so melodic that it was another reason to like him. I loved how Gil Dong later also sometimes talks like him. Slave Amogae was a big pillar in this drama. The other main characters are older brother and sister of Gil Dong who also did a great job. And of course Mori xD haha. After this drama he landed a lead role in School 2017 and later in Laughter in Waikiki. Why? Because he was such a memorable character in this drama that remained in the memories of viewers. Good job.
An amazing character development can also keep one captivated. All the characters changed over time.
3. Story - 10
This writer received the best script award this year. I think this already tells a lot. The interesting part was that it seems she combined two Korean Folk stories that synchronized very well with each other. The story of Hong Gil Dong bandit and thief that helped poor and scolded rich in the 15th century. The equivalent of English Robin Hood. A nice surprise was another Korean folk tale, this time not so based on a real hero but still, appears in old books. Legend of the Mighty Child. Born into a lowly family, such as slaves, a child with wings under his arms, that possesses a mighty strength. In the legend every time a mighty child was born his parents killed him, or made authorities kill him. People say that the wings symbolize Heaven, which in Joeseon was considered something to do with the King ( a son of heaven). However here, it symbolized that the child, born to a slave was actually sent by heaven and do its will. This was unacceptable in Jeoseon, so it is told that, the parents and authorities symbolize the people afraid of changes, afraid of the rebel. However the child is born again and again, even if the stories end tragically, people said that, the legend shows that the child is immortal. And that the desire of a hero, a savior is always there. The writer of this drama, who studied Korean history, combined this two legends into one. Therefore this story depicts the life of a mighty child who has actually survived. Born into a slave family, raisen higher than anyone else.
So the nice thing is that, this drama breaks the historical drama cliches about secret of birth. :D
The other part I love about story is that it tells us about equality. This kind of thoughts were pretty rare in old Jeoseon and Hong Gil Dong had them! He totally expressed that thought in the same way I was always thinking, haha.
Well the story had some great messages in it too. Very interesting and nice quotes, so listening to the is another part of the story that is very cool.
Many tell that this drama is slow at first and starts to roll after about 18th episode. Well in some cases that might be true. The main fight starts in the second half of the drama. However!! I didn’t think of the first half as slow. It was very well written, so many things happened, and it kept you on the edge the whole time. So don’t be afraid if people say it’s slow, as I was. The well written plot keeps you going and going.
The ending was the most perfect ending I have ever seen. Lol and I have seen a lot. Well I’ll correct myself. This was the most perfect ending for me. Because I personally like this kind of endings and they are rare. Especially in historicals. As I said in the beginning it also addresses issue with the president which has even bigger impact.
The story also doesn’t give us any loose ends. However! This part was a tiny bit disappointing because there were actually two little loose ends (that I can explain by my own imagination) but still I would have liked if the drama showed us a little about tiger and the uncle. But! This does not lower the rating of 10, because as I said those two little things can actually be explained by our own imagination.
Romance:
For those who look for romance. There is actually romance here! It shows such a deep, cute, sweet love between leads that I totally loved!!
4. The title - 10
I want to give a credit for the title. Rebel, thief who stole the people!!! Just how epic does it sound!! Amazing! I also love that in the drama they actually use this too!!
5. Rewatch value - 9
This one is low because i don’t usually like re-watching dramas. Actually I don’t rewatch them at all. So this score is pretty high, because the drama didn’t have any annoying and boring parts that I wanted to skip.
Overall I really recommend this drama. If you have liked SFD you will differently like this one! And visa versa.
First of all I want to notice the period of time when this drama was aired. Yes, it was during that controversy with South Korean president we all heard. All the stars going to election and posting photo-proofs, that they went there. The time, when the whole nation stood to remove the old president and choose a new one. This perfectly correlated with this dramas story! That is one of the reasons it was so loved in Korea. Actually the ending also shows that. All the lines in the ending scene are all related to the president issue, as it was aired right after elections. I will not give spoilers, so find out what was told at the end of this drama, after watching it till the end :P
So why did I give such scores?
1. Music (OST) - 10
This drama in my opinion has one of the best ost’s I have ever heard. Especially among historical dramas. My favorite has been Six Flying Dragons (for everything), the songs Muiiya, and song of a blue mountain were the best! Here, the whole ost compliments the drama very well, and the lyrics suit the situations. Moreover all of them have this traditional Korean feeling, using the language one usually hears in sageuks. The music was phenomenal in this drama. I’m gonna download it as soon as possible. I want to give this drama The Best OST Award! The epic-ness of the music just can’t be described in words. In totally gave me SFD feels. It is also a nice delight to listen to k-pop star participant Ahn Ye Eun's songs!
2. Acting/Cast/ Characters - 10
To be honest I was both worried and excited that Yoon Kyun Sang will be playing this role. Worried, because, as Moo Hyul in SFD he was amazing, and this role was quite similar to it. Excited, because this would have been his first leading role, and I really wanted a Hong Gil Dong drama. However he was PERFECT for this role. His height and big built, sometimes stupid expressions made me think that this is Hong Gil Dong. Every time there was a scene were we could see many characters it was so funny to see the height difference.
The whole cast did an amazing job, so I want to address some of the characters.
Women:
Yes, women in this drama where fantastic. Honestly I totally hate those whiny woman characters that only cry during the whole drama, wait for their lovers and, more importantly, get in the way!! However this drama was filled with strong-willed women who knew what they want. An ambitious Guiseng who was an artist, an all smiley, talkative strong girl. Gil Dong ‘s mother was also great. These kind of women I also saw in Shine or Go Crazy, they were really smart there. I also want to give a separate credit to extra women in the town. While men were scared to act, women offered their help first!
Villains:
Extra credit for villains, because they did an amazing job portraying them. I loved how the writer showed us the villains from different perspectives. Here I would like to say that the king was the most complex of them all. Historically this king is knows as the most brutal and tyrannical king of Jeoseon. This drama also portraits his inner conflicts. We get to see how he started, how he was like an angry child, but then the drama shows us that all of his traumas, all of his thoughts in the end can’t justify his cruelty.
Hong clan:
Yup! Hong clan was amazing. The 7 generals did great portraying memorable characters, cute thugs that later became heroes. But not only the main people of the Hong clan were great. Extra characters that joined along the way, all the people that got help from them, they all did an amazing job.
Main Characters:
As I said Hong Gil Dong was played perfectly and character development was no joke. However we need to give credit to other main characters than the lead boy. I already wrote about villains, ladies, Hong clan. But I cannot leave out our hero’s father - Amogae! Kim San Joong this year received Daesang ( the biggest/highest award) during the award ceremony for portraying Amogae. I think he also needs to receive the Father Of The Year award. As the drama says, we cannot start the story of Hong Gil Dong without telling his father’s story first. I liked his story so much that it was even difficult to let go of the young versions of all the characters. Even the stars chose as their best scene the scene with Amogae. The scene were even during the reading the whole cast and stuff was moved. Amogae’s way of talking was also so melodic that it was another reason to like him. I loved how Gil Dong later also sometimes talks like him. Slave Amogae was a big pillar in this drama. The other main characters are older brother and sister of Gil Dong who also did a great job. And of course Mori xD haha. After this drama he landed a lead role in School 2017 and later in Laughter in Waikiki. Why? Because he was such a memorable character in this drama that remained in the memories of viewers. Good job.
An amazing character development can also keep one captivated. All the characters changed over time.
3. Story - 10
This writer received the best script award this year. I think this already tells a lot. The interesting part was that it seems she combined two Korean Folk stories that synchronized very well with each other. The story of Hong Gil Dong bandit and thief that helped poor and scolded rich in the 15th century. The equivalent of English Robin Hood. A nice surprise was another Korean folk tale, this time not so based on a real hero but still, appears in old books. Legend of the Mighty Child. Born into a lowly family, such as slaves, a child with wings under his arms, that possesses a mighty strength. In the legend every time a mighty child was born his parents killed him, or made authorities kill him. People say that the wings symbolize Heaven, which in Joeseon was considered something to do with the King ( a son of heaven). However here, it symbolized that the child, born to a slave was actually sent by heaven and do its will. This was unacceptable in Jeoseon, so it is told that, the parents and authorities symbolize the people afraid of changes, afraid of the rebel. However the child is born again and again, even if the stories end tragically, people said that, the legend shows that the child is immortal. And that the desire of a hero, a savior is always there. The writer of this drama, who studied Korean history, combined this two legends into one. Therefore this story depicts the life of a mighty child who has actually survived. Born into a slave family, raisen higher than anyone else.
So the nice thing is that, this drama breaks the historical drama cliches about secret of birth. :D
The other part I love about story is that it tells us about equality. This kind of thoughts were pretty rare in old Jeoseon and Hong Gil Dong had them! He totally expressed that thought in the same way I was always thinking, haha.
Well the story had some great messages in it too. Very interesting and nice quotes, so listening to the is another part of the story that is very cool.
Many tell that this drama is slow at first and starts to roll after about 18th episode. Well in some cases that might be true. The main fight starts in the second half of the drama. However!! I didn’t think of the first half as slow. It was very well written, so many things happened, and it kept you on the edge the whole time. So don’t be afraid if people say it’s slow, as I was. The well written plot keeps you going and going.
The ending was the most perfect ending I have ever seen. Lol and I have seen a lot. Well I’ll correct myself. This was the most perfect ending for me. Because I personally like this kind of endings and they are rare. Especially in historicals. As I said in the beginning it also addresses issue with the president which has even bigger impact.
The story also doesn’t give us any loose ends. However! This part was a tiny bit disappointing because there were actually two little loose ends (that I can explain by my own imagination) but still I would have liked if the drama showed us a little about tiger and the uncle. But! This does not lower the rating of 10, because as I said those two little things can actually be explained by our own imagination.
Romance:
For those who look for romance. There is actually romance here! It shows such a deep, cute, sweet love between leads that I totally loved!!
4. The title - 10
I want to give a credit for the title. Rebel, thief who stole the people!!! Just how epic does it sound!! Amazing! I also love that in the drama they actually use this too!!
5. Rewatch value - 9
This one is low because i don’t usually like re-watching dramas. Actually I don’t rewatch them at all. So this score is pretty high, because the drama didn’t have any annoying and boring parts that I wanted to skip.
Overall I really recommend this drama. If you have liked SFD you will differently like this one! And visa versa.
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