If this series had a poster it would be say something like "The story of one of Korea's greatest hereoes" But just as applicable would be a line spoken by one of the main characters, which went something like "Nobody remains a friend forever, and nobody remains an enemy forever.
I'll divide my review into sections.
Performances.
I'll give names of characters, as I'm not very good at remembering actors names. It's too tedious to keep looking them up.
Best performance. Li Geom. (blood son of chulin and Daejo young
Usually I am more impressed by the older actors in korean costume/historical dramas. But this guy was excellent. I want to see him in more stuff.
The last king of goguryeo, whose name I can't remember.
Wu Zeitan.
dae joyung's father
Those for me were the best performances.
Best character and look at me performance
xui rengui
Funniest moment.
When Xui Rengui tells hongpei to take his purple cloak off referring to it as a curtain.
Most poignant scene.
The death of Geomlan.
The dialogue.
There are at least two types of dialogue here.
Professional screen dialogue, and dialogue that sounds like it was
written for a school play, or that youngsters might say when playing war games.
The battle/fight/violence scenes. Was all that jumping up and down really how they faught in those days. As episodes wore on, scenes became more graphic. At first that impressed me, but later I became unconvinced by how unlikely looking the blood was. It looked just too much like strawberry jam. Scenes that kind of grew tiresome. "Give me death your majesty" I was hoping that for once someone would actually get what they were supposedly looking for. Daejoung (mostly) in disguise and peeering up from under his big hat. Characters i found a bit tiresome, but I suppose I got used to them. Heuk sodol, and the guy with the weird voice. A fascinating story, that kept me enthrallled.
The battle/fight/violence scenes. Was all that jumping up and down really how they faught in those days. As episodes wore on, scenes became more graphic. At first that impressed me, but later I became unconvinced by how unlikely looking the blood was. It looked just too much like strawberry jam. Scenes that kind of grew tiresome. "Give me death your majesty" I was hoping that for once someone would actually get what they were supposedly looking for. Daejoung (mostly) in disguise and peeering up from under his big hat. Characters i found a bit tiresome, but I suppose I got used to them. Heuk sodol, and the guy with the weird voice. A fascinating story, that kept me enthrallled.