Was it worth it: For me, yes. For others, probably not.
What I liked the most: Yoon Shi Yoon. He beat out every other good aspect the drama had.
What I disliked the most: The directing was HORRIBLE. Also, I tend to find traditional Korean music more akin to “noise” than “music.”
Moment Meter: 1/10 – Only because the director didn’t know how to build tension. A lot of moments fell flat because of it.
Other thoughts: All visuals (effects, make up, sets) were done extremely well. Everything visual was top notch. The acting was great (mostly. Didn't care for Kim Sae Ron's acting). I hated Jo Dal Hwan’s character, so good job there. Some scenes were downright gross. The music could have been better. The story was also pretty good though the ending was unsatisfying. The directing sucked. Scenes dragged on longer than they should have. The writing and acting were there, but the PD was terrible at building tension. The story line moved along at a pretty good pace, but the individual scenes dragged if that makes any sense.
Conclusion: Probably wouldn’t have liked it too much if not for Yoon Shi Yoon. It had all of the potential in the world, but someone dropped the ball and the end result is a drama that feels slow, watered down and generally annoying.
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What I liked the most is that you didn't spend every episode saying, "Oh my god, that person is so evil, how can they keep getting away with fill-in-the-blank and no one picks up on it." You know those dramas where the bad guy/girl has such a complex evil plot and everyone is just too blind to see it. Well, here the evil is clearly evil, everyone knows they are evil, and the reason why they keep getting away with it is plausible.
The casting was fun. From (Welcome Home!!!) Yoon Shi Yoon who played the ultimate devoted man to the plucky Kim Sae Ron, the ridiculously lovable Lee Yi Kyung and his perfect partner Do Hee, Evil's Evil Step-Mother Yum Jung Ah and the endearing, emotionally torn Lee Sung Jae....it was fabulous. But the icing on the cake was throwing in some final episode cameos by two of my all time favorites Ahn Kil Kang and Kim Kap Soo. I literally squee'd.
The music was typical OST. Nothing to write home about so I scored it in the middle. And as for rewatch value, also lower because I don't really see myself watching the series again.
Watch this if you don't like historical dramas but want to dip your toe in the water, if you love a good, slow-building bromance story and if you missed Yoon Shi Yoon while he was serving.
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Story - the story was ok in the beginning, it seemed a good story, but it was so badly made... The plot had two many twists that it was as Prison Break. Every time something was about to happen, something else terrible for the main leads would happen to avoid to continue the story. When I was in episode 12 I was hoping it would have already finish. Perhaps it would have been ok with 16 episodes, even better with 12.
For the two main leads, I didn't have any problem with the gap age difference, because I know the romance wasn't the most important thing in this show, and even better, cause I couldn't see any chemistry between them. And the ending.... I couldn't understand why they made a 20 hours show to finish the same way as it could have finish in the first episode.
On the other hand, there was no character's development. All the time the characters were manipulated by Chong On, the villain, and they changed sides... So, you never know which twist you were going to see, because they hadn't any coherence at all. One moment they think one thing, the other they do exactly the opposite.
Acting - as I said before, I like Yoon Shi Yoon very much, even if in here he hadn't the funniest rol as he had in others dramas. The rest of the casting was good, overall the villain shaman. So, my 5 is mainly for Yoon Shi Yoon.
Music - I only remember one song that was kind of nice and they repeated all along the episodes, so, apart from that, nothing special to say.
Rewatch value - I only watch twice the dramas that I've really liked, so, no, I'm not watching this again.
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Yum Jung Ah’s portrayal of Hong Joo is fantastic. She does a very convincing job of enacting the corrupt shaman. I liked the plot and I wish the characters had been written more suitably. The whole “lighting 108 candles” concept was interesting. Some of the common themes that this drama explores are good vs evil, slavery, love triangles, mob psychology etc. Heo Joon’s storyline is one of the best, more realistic and genuine ones in the drama. Another plus point for the drama is that it has a good soundtrack. My favourite songs are – Love by Lush and Distressed by Lim Jeong Hee. The time leaps in the drama were okay. And the ending was not too great. But over all, it was entertaining, although I won’t be watching it again. So if you like black magic, stories about royal families, then perhaps you could try this.
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I know people had their reservations about watching the drama because the actor is in his thirties and she is still in her teens, but for me, I didn't notice the age difference. Also this is a period piece, so the age difference here makes more sense, and in the story she's 16 and hes in his early to mid 20's which seems right. (Also if your used to Shakespeare plays the age difference isn't a huge thing.)
The music throughout this drama instrumental surprised and probably made this drama's feelings all the more real, its very well edited and very well placed.
Unfortunately the heaviness of this piece and horror filling of it, for rewatch value would be about a 50/50 for me. If I was in the mood, I would consider it, would I rewatch it with a friend if she/he asked? Yes, it wasn't terribly hard to get through nor was it difficult to watch.
Overall for me, I thought it was an outstanding in the acting, and outstanding in the cinematography of the piece. It was one of the most beautiful dramas I actually watched when it came to costumes, and the angles of the camera. Though the white wig was very well done, it only was messed up once or twice, and barely noticeable unless you look for it. I highly recommend this drama to anyone who isn't afraid of ghosts, witches, or dark spirits.
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Waste of time
The only person who is able to save the wounded princess/maiden character is completely controlled by the antagonist who is bent on ensuring her death. The story was never able to redeem itself from this ridiculous setup and like a fool I watched it till the end thinking, hoping, to see some remarkable writing to be able to free the shaman/priest from the evil shaman's thrall only to be bitterly disappointed. Those are hours of my life I'll never get back.The male protagonist is eye candy. It's great to see Min Do Hee in any role and she shows sass here. The relationship between the female protag and her adopted brother is just creepy. Everything else is sheer nonsense.
Mirror of the Witch feels like some remedy you buy from a snake oil salesmen who guarantees that it will work, it will work! Just take it home. Give it time. Believe! Except you should've trusted your instincts from the word go that what's in the bottle is just what meets the eye, something that resembles sewerage sludge. It's just deceptive; that's the only word for this movie. One can easily tell by ep 3 that there's just no way anyone can save the maiden, given the set of variables imposed. Why anyone would go on to write such utter BS and produce it is probably the only miracle in this whole mess.
Vehement recommendation is don't watch. Unless you're ok with wasting 20 hours of your life. Nothing was noteworthy except the feeling of being misled into a fantastical journey only to find that it's just a drug induced haze that should never have been attempted.
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