Yeon Gaesomun review
This is it…the Korean drama that permanently hooked me on the genre! I had seen a few episodes of “The Immortal Yi Soon Shin,” and was a little interested. After all, what guy doesn’t like historical dramas with lots of fighting, sword play, intrigue, and cool wire maneuvers! However, I started watching that series around episode 20 and just couldn’t follow the story line 100%
Luckily, my wife and I were just channel surfing one night when we came upon the series opener to Yeon Gaesomun (YGSM). Immediately I was intrigued about the character and tuned in week after week to see what would happen next! Most importantly, this drama peaked my interest enough so that I did some searches to find out more about the real YGSM.
For those of you unfamiliar, YGSM was set back around the mid 600BCs during the Geguryeo dynasty. Real historical documents don’t really treat YGSM, stating he was a ruthless dictator who overthrew the King and set up a puppet regime with YGSM the real power behind the throne. During his “reign,” he repeled the Tang (old China) dynasty’s invading hordes several times before his death. After he died, his three sons feuded over power and their inability to choose a successor led to the decline and decimation of old Geguryeo.
That doesn’t make for good drama though! So SBS took a lot of “creative interpretation” of history and created a 100-episode of YGSM, spanning his entire life.
The Synopsis:
The series starts with YGSM being sold as a young child to a slaver who eventually treats him as an almost son. Through the course of his young life, YGSM wanders with his master’s caravan from Korean to Tang China. YGSM rapidly becomes an advisor to a shady character who plots to overthrow the Tang King, but it turns out bad and just as the shady usurper dies, a band of mysterious black-clothed ninja looking dudes tell YGSM it is time to return to Korea and take his rightful place as one of the royal family.
During his struggle to restore his place as head of one of the aristocratic houses that make up the political structure of the time, he befriends a girl who is running away from her “mean uncle.” Of course, the girl turns out to be a princess in disguise and her mean uncle turns out to be the king. After winning a contest of strength and skill, YGSM wins the princess’ hand in marriage and becomes the King’s favorite advisor. However, the Korean King’s political strategy with China is one of capitulation vs keeping Korea a strong independent country. This causes great conflict with YGSM and his friends so…well, I don’t want to give away too much of the plot!
My opinion:
Let me tell you, what a wild ride! Especially the last 30 or so episodes where YGSM overthrows the King and fights with the Chinese. The Chinese King was stereotypically evil, but you just couldn’t help but like the character with his evil laugh and funny responses to the Chinese generals when things weren’t going well in battle.
There are plenty of great characters, including the King (mentioned above), YGSM’s sidekick and father (who makes several appearances throughout the series) and several Generals on both sides.
There’s plenty of fightin’wire maneuvers (including a cool boomerang knife scene you can see on YouTube), large battle scenes, cloak and dagger diplomacy, even a few romantic storylines between several of the characters. Of course, some of the historical facts have been changed “just a bit.” But hey, isn’t that the way with all these good dramas?
Watch YGSM and you won’t be disappointed!
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