Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi review
Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi
Story
(Summary from DramaWiki) This drama portrays the life of the 19th king of Goguryeo. Hwanwoong was sent from the heavens to make the world a better place. He fell in love with Saeoh and gave her the joojak necklace. But Kajin was jealous because Saeoh had given birth to Hwanwoong's son. She took the baby and threw him off a cliff. Saeoh thought that her son had died and she became overcome with grief. She turned into the black joojak and destroyed the world. Hwanwoong was the only one who could stop her. Afterwards, Hwanwoong went back to the Heavens and said that 2000 years later the true Joo Shin king will come to Earth and with the help of the four gods he will rebuilt Joo Shin.
I wasn't drawn in by the plot in the beginning and only kept watching because I thought that it might get better later. I'm glad to see that I was right. The first few episodes felt very slow and it takes a while for the real action to begin but once it started I was hooked. I started caring for the characters and the plot kept me wanting to keep watching. I was in love with the plot all the way until the ending. No spoilers here, but in my opinion the ending was god awful. I get the point in having a more poetic ending but I thought that it could have been executed better and in a way that gave resolution to the other characters as well.
Cast/Characters
Bae Yong Jun as Dam Duk / Hwanwoong
Initially I didn't really care for Dam Duk as a character, but throughout the series he grew on me. Bae Yong Jun really knows how to play a tricksy character who is both chivalrous and cunning at the same time. I liked how he played Dam Duk as someone who, despite all of his responsibilies and tragedies of his life, still has a sort of boyish charm that comes out whenever he makes a joke or is with Sujini.
Lee Ji Ah as Sujini / Sae Oh
If there's anyone who steals the show from Dam Duk, it's Sujini. It's very difficult to dislike Sujini, she brings up the show whenever it gets too gloomy and at the same time she's much more than a comic relief and a love interest. As I was watching the series, I kept thinking about J.K. Rowling who said that Ginny (the main love interest in the Harry Potter books) was tough and gutsy in a pleasant way and also compassionate. Now, I'm of the opinion that if JKR wanted to write Ginny that way, she should have watched TWSSG first and seen how Sujini was written and acted by Lee Ji Ah. She's one of those heroines who very rarely needs to be saved and is her own person rather than a love interest.
Moon So Ri as Kiha / Kajin
Out of the three main characters, the character I felt was best written was Kiha. It was rather obvious to me from the beginning where Kiha's character was going to end up, but the way she got there was amazingly written. Rather than hating and despising her, I felt compassion and pity for Kiha from the beginning until the end. She is a person whose entire life has been marked by tragedy and at one point decides to stop being a victim and tries to do things her own way instead. Moon So Ri was fantastic playing a more innocent and kind Kiha in the beginning and transitioning her to the broken Kiha in the end.
Aside from the three leads, TWSSG has a huge cast of characters. Even the supporting actors were great, they all did their part and made their characters come alive. If there's anything about this series that deserves to be acknowledged is how well casted everyone were for their role in terms of acting. I had a bit of a problem accepting some of the character's age (Dam Duk, Sujini, Kiha and Chu Ro played by Lee Philip). The first three characters looked too old to be the age that their characters were supposed to be. Chu Ro on the other hand, was supposed to be at least 10 years older than Dam Duk but Lee Philip is and looks a lot younger than Bae Yong Jun. But once I got over that, the characters were as enjoyable as ever.
Music/Technical details
As if good story and good acting wasn't enough, this series also has some amazing music. This background score feels very epic and fitted the series perfectly. Overall, the way this series is filmed is probably the best and the most epic I've ever seen in an ancient series (although Legend of the Condor Heroes 2003 shares that spot). One of the best things was how the battle scenes were filmed. Whether it was a one on one battle or an all out war battle, I thought the crew did really well. The choreography is very realistic even if there are a few scenes with superhuman jumps but it's no where as "out there" as wuxia series.
Overall impression
This is the first Kdrama that I've watched and I have to say that I loved it. The characters and the actors were great, the scenography, the music and the story is spectacular. All the way until the ending that is. It made me feel very disappointed because I had imagined the ending to be at least as good as the rest of the story. Aside from that this is really a good series. It gets 4 out of 5, but it's the ending and the slow beginning that keeps it from getting a 5.