The acting is good. Kim Sae Ron is a great little actress and I hope that she can keep that skill into adult hood. I enjoyed her portrayal of Yeon Hee with both vulnerability and strength. Yoon Shi Yoon also did a good job as Heo Jun. He had the most character development and he was a cool character. The other actors were ok also.
The music is good.
I won't rewatch this.
If you like supernatural historical dramas or a Yoon Shi Yoon fan, then this isn't a bad watch.
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Why I rated it six stars:
the characters were so STUPID. Yeon hee was a weepy mess. She'd literally mope about the kingdom thinking "wow, I should fix this curse...but I don't know how" this is the same kingdom...that is filled with plagued people, how do you NOT know how. Fix up a potion, it's not rocket science. And then the characters just seemed so unconcerned with the whole curse thing. They were all like "we could be fixing up potions...but let's stare lovingly into eachothers eyes instead" *vomit* And then the whole red robes. what the heck???? I can imagine the writers sitting down saying "well, we need someone to be red robes. Let's totally throw them off! Like really throw them off, and pick someone that just gives innocent vibes...even after the viewers know that he/she is a ruthless cutthroat..." I just couldn't believe that red robes...was red robes...like who thought of that??? And then I thought maybe we'd get some explanation on WHY red robes is evil...because they sure as heck don't appear evil, but nope, we're just given the fact and have to accept it. I almost felt bad for hongjoo. Seriously. She was surrounded by a bunch of idiots. How many times did she have to tell the main cast that if they try to kill her the kingdom will be cursed...seriously this would happen like at least once an episode...I basically felt like the characters were ruled by their emotions instead of mastering them. That they had no logic and spent the majority of the drama (or at least the last half) wallowing away in despair without doing anything to overcome their problems. While it started out good it quickly went down hill as the characters made the same mistakes over and over and over again. This is a real shame because I was super excited to see this since YSY is one of my fave actors.
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THE STORY
The story for me is one I haven't really seen or read yet. Maybe it's one of the reasons why I liked it so much. It was pretty original for me. An unfortunate princess born with a curse and an unfortunate guy born as a bastard of a prominent family. You just feel sorry for them in the beginning. Then you kinda fall in love watching them try to go after every obstacle thrown in their way. I love the cinematography and the costumes are so colorful.
THE ACTING/CAST
I have no complaints. Every single actor did a magnificent job in my opinion, even the guy who played Heo Ok. He played the annoying, cowardly spoiled privileged son perfectly. A lot were turned off because of the age gap between the main leads but I didn't care. I think they had great chemistry. They played their part well. And the writers took into account of her age, in my opinion, so there weren't any heavy, weird skinship scenes. Just cute fluffy romance scenes. I've always loved Kim Sae Ron's acting. She's one of those actresses that get better as she grows older. I don't think I've ever watched a show that she did that I didn't like. Yoon Shi Yoon, omg... he's just too cute. Kwak Shi Yang, he was the guy I liked in Perseverance Goo Haera. Lee Yi Kyung and Do Hee, I shipped them hard.
THE MUSIC
There's only 4 songs in the OST but I am in love with Lush's "Kite". I can play it over and over and the chorus of Lim Jung Hee's "Distressed/Moon(Sadness)", I just love the lyrics.
REWATCH VALUE
I would definitely re-watch this. I really liked the plot, the characters and to listen to the 2 songs mentioned above.
OVERALL
I was debating on whether I would deduct points for the ending. But the more time that I think about it, the more I think that it was a fitting ending. So 10 out of 10.
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I anticipate come back shows of actors who have completed their military service so I was expecting something from this show. I have read negative comments about the show because of the age gap between Yoon Shi-yoon and Kim Sae-ron but I must say that, while watching, the age gap didn't really show that much.I'm not a fan of super loooong historical dramas but I do love them (I've only sit through all episodes of Dong Yi, others I skimmed only). My first impression is that the show is a bit of Moon Embracing the Sun and Arang mixed together.
I love the supporting characters but the one I like most is Hong-joo (the shamaness). The actress really embodied being the evil shaman and just by her stares, I can feel the hate/fear/worry/evil happiness she felt. And of course, I do love our main couple. Sometimes, I really wonder whether Kim Sae-ron is really that young to deliver an acting this much. Oh, Yoon Shi-yoon, I can stare through those eyes all day and feel all his emotions. There is real chemistry between them and I felt the love and intimacy between them despite the very limited skinship there is in the drama (Sae-ron is still a minor). I want a reunion. Soon. But maybe I can wait until Kim Sae-ron becomes an adult and they can do more than what i have seen *winks*.
Story-wise, the show really did deliver. Most of the times I feel like a certain event will likely happen but then it goes the other way. The plot didn't drag that much despite having 20 episodes though there are times that I felt, here we go again. For a historical drama with an expected tragic ending, the show satisfied me knowing that the direction of the story is logical and it didn't seem forced.
*spoiler* REACTION ON ENDING I was really sad with how the show ended, I felt the regret right there.
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The jazz of a saeguk spiced with fantasy that pivots on a poignant human story
As far as my K Drama watching goes - this was an adventurous pick and I’m glad I watched because it opened me up to a new genre of KDramas that I actually quite like.I try to watch dramas because of the synopsis and not because of who’s in it and how popular or not popular it was. Being an objective viewer of tv just saves a lot of energy and steers away disappointment. And that’s what I learnt with the show.
The story is stellar and very intriguing. I particularly loved the humaness of it all and how it portrayed flaws ,shortcomings and the sometimes cruel consequences that result in the quest for righteousness. Master Choi and his family’s story arch was particularly poignant in the portrayal of the above mentioned. I also enjoyed the villains . I love being challenged and provoked by a villain especially when they somewhat make sense, The shaman has some profound lines to make for food for thought in the development of the drama.
The court angle was also very pleasant though it was not quite the education in Joseon Dynatsy . Again - the important thing to note about Mirror of the Witch is that it’s a story about humaness and its flaws. All the other things like the magic ,court intrigues etc just support the narrative.
As for the cast - I wouldn’t change a thing . Yoon Shi- Yoon was a great balance to the intense palette of the show and Kim Sae Ron gave a measured and good performance. I loved Yum Jang Uh as the antagonist and special mention to Jang Hee Jin and especially Lee Ji Hoon as the replacement king . He was really good.
The chemistry with the cast was also on point which is a rarity in the K Drama world . All sides of the cast gelled supremely well which I believe counters the drag around ep 16.
The music was okay. Not great but okay.
I also find when reviewing saeguks- one must tackle the costume design. I give the costume a 10 out 10 . The costumes were beautiful that they distracted me from reading the subtitles.
Rewatch value is almost non existent because of the nature of the show . You already know what’s going to happen and all the intrigues so what’s the fun?
Now for The ending . It was sweet and cleverly done. I don’t understand how people are objecting to that ending. It does fair enough justice to the story especially given the nature of the drama.
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Explaining this without spoilers will be hard, however I will give it a shot. The acting for this drama was amazing and for once I fell in love with the female lead and support characters, as well as secondary characters. Even the support characters did their job well, even if their role was a little undefined. Some of the characters had great explanations…then you are left with a huge handful of characters, not knowing who they are or what their actual purpose is. As for the plot, I am greatly disappointed. This drama is one that had so much potential, but turned sour in just a few episodes. For the first 5 – 7 episodes, I sat wondering when something good would happen. Many elements of the drama were left unexplained and by the end, there were more holes than swiss cheese. There were some parts of the drama that had been done well and I quite enjoyed seeing the battle of the royal figures (can’t really explain…cos spoilers). But some parts just left you at a dead end.
The ending of this drama was also a little too disappointing. It could have been done a lot better and I feel as though that the drama was finished way too early. To put it simply, more episodes and a lot more planning in the plot and it would’ve been great. Explanations and character development was lacking.
I personally will not re-watch this and even if I did, it would be because of the music and acting. If you are a fan of historical dramas, supernatural and a little comedy, I would say give it a shot. Definitely a Major Miss or hit drama.
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When I started with the first episode, the first thought I had was that the story was interesting, in a way that I wanted to know how the next part would unfold. I had the same feeling over the next few episodes but as it got around ep 13 and beyond, it felt like the story was going in circles. Personally I thought they were better off at making it a 16 ep drama rather than a 20 ep. If they did, the story wouldn't feel draggy and I wouldn't loose interest halfway through the series.
Be that as it may, the characters of the main leads were well played. I like how Kim Sae Ron acted her role as Yeon Hee. She had a strong hold of her character and she was consistent throughout the episodes. For someone so young to be able to do this makes me excited for her other dramas( hopefully she would also lead in it).
As for Yoon Shi Yoon, he was good but he lacks the aura of a main lead. He has it but there were some parts where I question him being the lead. He lacks that stance that male lead characters have. But even if I say that, he was still able to convey Heo Jun's inner turmoil well. As for the other characters, I can say that they, especially the characters of Hong Joo, Queen Shim and Choi Hyun Soo were exemplary actors. They played their roles really well, although Hyun Soo had some parts that were not written well (like the part where he constantly hides the truth from everyone making things complicated).
The music was awesome, I like the selection they made on this drama.
I wouldn't rewatch this drama.
Overall, it has an interesting plot that needed a little twerk, with excellent and good actors, complemented with the right cinematography and a smart selection of music to mirror the scenes in the drama.
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couple of plotholes, overall not a terrible watch
I was hesitant to watch this first because I read reviews/comments from a couple of people said they got bored, it got draggy, or the leads don't have chemistry. Some people were worried because FL was 15-16 years old when the drama came out and ML was older than her.Just like any other drama, this will only appeal to some people and some won't like it.
For me, I think the romance & chemistry was fine. I don't think you need sex scenes or kissing scenes to show a couple's affection/chemistry toward another. And I'm sure they didn't include those scenes because they knew people would feel a bit weirded out knowing the girl's real age. I was more weirded out in Goblin tbh where they had kissing scenes along with the age gap. So I can't understand why people felt there was no romance/chemistry in here.
I think the drama was engaging for most part, yes I felt like they could cut down some of the same "villain outsmarted good guys or good guys got the upper-hand now and outsmarted villain but then again villain strikes with upper-hand" episodes.
This would've been easily done in 16 episodes.
I have to say the villain was nicely developed. The flaws in this drama are plotholes. Couple of things that don't make sense and was never explained and we're left clueless making assumptions. The ending was one of them. Another one was we see people and they just randomly disappear in the show and never explained as to what happened to them. Or random characters appear and we aren't told much about them.
There's some decent action scenes and the black magic and curse aspect did attract my attention. I think they should have explained more regarding some of the things that were unanswered. 20 episodes should have been used wisely for that to clear confusion.
Overall not a bad watch, My first time watching a drama with YSY and KSR. And they didn't do a bad job. It wasn't the best drama, but it isn't the worst either. I didn't get bored at all nor did I felt anywhere I was forcing myself to watch it.
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