Genre: Historical, romance
Episodes: 24
Synopsis
The story is about a man fighting against the selfish and corrupt government to save the ordinary peasants.
Cast
Jung Il Woo as Il Ji Mae
Yoon Jin Suh as Dal Yi / Wal Hee
Kim Min Jong as Goo Ja Myeong
Jung Hye Young as Baek Mae
This was a good series. In some ways it was superior to Iljimae 2008, because that series failed to give as much history on Iljimae, etc. But I don't know what possessed the casting department, to choose Yoon Jin Seo to play the role of Iljimae's beloved.
ReplyDeleteIljimae, as portrayed, was a "pretty boy" who girls were crazy about. Surely if he had the picks available to him, he wouldn't have chosen someone as plain looking as Yoon Jin Seo. Her appearance is better-suited for playing maid roles or nondescript secondary characters lending support to a central actor or actress. But not as a co-star.
When watching this series, it was easy to see there was no physical chemistry going on between her and Woo, who portrayed Iljimae. And I couldn't help thinking that Woo must have been greatly disappointed when he learned who his co-star would be. No doubt in real-life she wouldn't dare dream of engaging the interest of someone who looks like Woo. It was almost to the point of being a bad joke being told over and over again.
I've watched dozens of Korean dramas over the years. And, particularly for historical dramas requiring plenty of martial arts action, such as this series, it seems that sometimes a person's looks are relatively unimportant when that person makes up for lack of looks by having an exceptional athletic ability to perform the martial arts scenes, or at least great acting skills.
But Yoon Jin Seo exhibited no athletic ability, and her acting skills were well below the norm for Korean co-stars.
Woo impressed me for his body-speed when executing leg kicks, etc. No other Korean male actor I've seen moved as quickly.
Overall the acting was good. And the script was more suited to a historical drama than the 2008 Iljimae. And more consistently interesting than the 2008 series, which took about the first 4 discs before Iljimae started "finding his groove," so to speak. The 1993 Iljimae seems a bit amateurish by comparison to either the 2009 or 2008 series about Iljimae, but it's worth a look, if you haven't seen it yet.