The Return of Iljimae (TV - 2009)

Finished watching this last night. I love both 2009 MBC version of Iljimae and the 2008 SBS version with Lee Joon-gi.

There are viewers who don't like this version (2009) because the story was narrated, but I myself don't mind. I think the narrations make the story clearer and easier to follow. They were even helpful in fighting scenes.

This was titled with the word 'return', as if it was the sequel to the 2008 Lee Joon-gi version, but this was not. The title was only to make us easily differentiate one version to another.

MBC won the comic strip rights so I suppose this version is the one closer to the book. I love the beginning of each episode, how they made it like the beginning of a new chapter. In the end of each episode, a drawing appeared - probably taken from the comic strips. The ending song in the first half of the series, the 3/4 song, was nice and had a simple melody, like a children song.

In this version, the story began with a rising politician had a son with his servant. The servant got kicked out and became a gisaeng (courtesan). The baby was put in a basket, thrown in a river, and saved by a beggar and a monk. Knowing that the baby was alive, the politician's men wanted to kill him, so the monk took the baby to China, where a rich couple adopted him and gave him the name Iljimae. Iljimae means a branch of peach blossom. In China he learned some martial arts and mastered qing gong (=levitation art).

16-17 years later, China sent a spy to Korea and the spy asked Iljimae to accompany him so he could enter Korea easily. This was after he told Iljimae that he had been adopted. So Iljimae went to Korea and looked for his father, but his father refused to acknowledge him. Iljimae was living desperately until he met a girl name Dal, whom he fell in love with. However, Dal was charged with treason and put to death. This was because her father had been slandered by corrupted officers as a traitor. After witnessing what happened to Dal, Iljimae swore that he would defend the weak and the poor.

From Dal's guard, Iljimae learned a rare sword art; and later when he was stranded in Japan, he learned ninja art.

In his journey, he became a hero for the people and befriended the deputy chief police - even though they were enemies, one a thief and one a cop. He robbed the greedy corrupted officials and gave the money to the poor. Every time he made a move, he would leave a branch of plum blossom made of gold. He met another girl who looked like Dal and was looking forward to reuniting with his mother.

I think scenes with Iljimae and his mother were the best. It was not a really happy ending but it was better than the Lee Joon-gi version. In Lee Joon-gi version, Iljimae never had a scene where he reunited with his mother.

Iljimae's main enemy was a corrupted official named Kim Ja-joem. Kim was actually a traitor who worked for China.

Next, after knowing that China (Qing Dynasty) would attack Korea after Korea's failure in making cannons; Iljimae went to China under the pretext to meet his Chinese fiancée. His task was to find Qing's war strategy. His efforts were in vain because the secret letter fell into the hands of Kim Ja-joem. Korea lost the war, while Iljimae was unconscious after suffering a grave injury. When he regained his health, he helped the Korean crown prince - who was held hostage in China - to return as many as possible war prisoners to Korea. When at last Iljimae returned to Korea, his son - whom he never had met - was 9 - 10 years old, and the Chronicles of Iljimae had became a popular book.

Jung Il-woo made a calm, sad Iljimae. He chosed to be silent and rarely smiled. Lee Joon-gi's Iljimae was passionate and would laugh to disguise his sadness.

Lee Joon-gi's Iljimae was the son of a high official who was a close friend to the king. The king was suspicious of everyone and he killed Iljimae's father, then sold his wife and daughter, and was after Iljimae's life. An ex-thief and his wife took care of Iljimae. Iljimae at nights searched high officials' houses, looking for a certain sword (and its owner) that killed his father. To disguise his true intention, he robbed the house and gave the loot to the poor. He would leave a painting of plum blossom branch. 

I prefer the idea of Iljimae leaving a painting than a gold of plum blossom branch. Wasn't it better to distribute the gold among the poor? Or am I thinking like Judas Iscariot? 

Lee Joon-gi's Iljimae was more frustrating to watch. He indirectly sent his own sister to die and most of the time he lost in fighting (except in the end), not to mention his habit of having his back facing the enemy.

China also has an Iljimae version: 2010 The Vigilantes in Masks a.k.a. Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei, starring Wallace Huo. This is my least favourite among the three. Here Yi Zhi Mei was an ex high ranking official whose family had been executed because of a false accusation. He became a fugitive. Then a former colleague asking him to retrieve the stolen gold for disaster relief. He recruited 3 helpers for the job. The costumes here didn't make sense, in my opinion. They wore the masks on the nose. In this way, the enemy could still recognize them, right?

Korean Drama Series (part V)

Lookout (The Guardians)
This was quite good and entertaining. A prosecutor built a secret team consisted of an ex female cop (a fugitive) and two young people who were good at computers. Sometimes a priest helped them. They were against the prosecutor's boss who thought that his past crimes had been forgotten. The actor who played the prosecutor was quite good, although there were bizarre moments when he laughed and cried at the same time. The main actress who played the female fugitive was 35 but looked like in her early 20's. I didn't like how she played her character. It was immature for a cop, I mean with all her trainings she should be stronger in handling matters. When she talked to her female cop friend, it was more like talks between housewives than cops. The two high-school students were very bad, made me wonder how they recruited the actors.

Triangle
I like this very much. Three brothers got separated after the death of their father - the mother had run away. The eldest became a policeman, the middle a useless gambler who slept with someone's wife for money, and the youngest adopted by a rich man to be his heir at a big casino. They had lost contact with each other for years. Now the middle and the youngest fought each other, competing in work and in winning the heart of the same woman.
I like Im Si-wan (who played the youngest brother), so this series was a sad one for me, to see the middle and youngest brother fought many times. At first the series was similar to the ones made in Hong Kong, you know: brothers separated, gambling, casino, construction... but Hong Kong series usually have faster paces (for them time is money) and more details scenarios. The eldest left his younger brothers at the orphanage for 2 weeks, but why he left? It must be for something important. This was never explained. The youngest also was said to be a cruel director at the casino, but why? Was it something about the dealers' salaries? Or just because he had transferred personnel staffs  who supported his enemy? It also didn't make sense how the middle brother suddenly won every game because in the past he was a loser.

Babel
I don't like this one. The pace was too slow and not many things happened in 16 episodes. A reporter became a prosecutor to find the truth behind his father's mysterious death. Tower of Babel was a symbol of human arrogance, and in this case it represented the big company which was the center of this story. The characters were all nasty and not convincing as well. I think I had picked a wrong series to watch. Not my cup of tea.

Pied Piper
When I first read the synopsis, it did sound boring: "...solve the problems without violence". But this series was far from boring and I enjoyed it very much. It was about a team of crisis negotiators vs a character named 'Pied Piper', who whistled before phoning 112 (equivalent to 911 in the U.S.). Pied Piper persuaded suppressed people (who were angry to powerful people) to commit terror in order to be heard. The last terror (the hijacked plane) was great that I couldn't believe this was made by Koreans.

Confession
This one was very good. I liked its serious ambience and its pace. The central character was a lawyer who tried to prove his father's innocence in a murder case. But this is not Remember: War of the Son, this one has better actors and script.

IRIS
NSS (a secret anti-terrorism organization) vs IRIS (a mysterious organization that loved world chaos. In this matter, it was against the unification of Korea). The story centered around a NSS female team leader and two of her male subordinates, Kim Hyun-jun and Jin Sa-woo. Kim Hyun-jun received a direct order from NSS director to assassinate North Korean prime minister, and he succeeded, but later he learned that the order was actually from IRIS. Hunted by both North and South, he then sought revenge by joining North Korean agents, not realizing that they wanted to bomb Seoul.
This series was interesting and exciting, although I think the love story slowed it down.

Doctor Prisoner
This was entertaining, although not as good as I had expected. This reminded me of Chief Kim / Manager Kim, which also starring Namkung Min. In Chief Kim, he was in rivalry in the financial director, now he was in rivalry with a doctor in prison. He wanted to take over his position in order to seek revenge against Taekang group's director. Comparing this to Confession, I prefer Confession; but perhaps because I prefer law-investigation genre.

Jung Yak-yong
I liked this a lot. Only 8 episodes and in each episode every case was solved. Jung Yak-yong was a prosecutor, loved by the king but had lots of enemies in the palace. The king demoted him and sent him to a far place, where he helped local police to solve cases.

Hidden Identity
This was interesting and quite enjoyable. They were supposed to have hidden identities, but were found out many times. The main enemy was someone called Ghost. There was another TV series with the same name, so I wonder if Ghost was a likeable name for enemy.
The lead character joined Team Investigation 5 - but it's a 'secret team', not a part of the police or any known organization - to find a missing team member, who was also the brother of his late girlfriend who had got killed by Ghost's man.

Crime Squad
First episode was boring and I almost gave up, but I thought the lead actor was good. It did got better. The cases were not excessive -- I heard they were based on real life cases. I didn't like how a 'weak' policewoman could enter into the crime squad team, but she died soon and was replaced by someone better. The reporter thing also didn't work, in my opinion. Her co-workers also never seemed to do any work. The main character joined the police and worked under the very detective who indirectly caused his daughter's death - to have a better understand of the situation.

Queen of Mystery
It's like Miss Marple Korean version. At first it looked like a regular drama with basic detective stories, but as the story progressed the cases got more serious. It started with a simple mini market theft to serial murders to perhaps a political case. The last case was not completely solved to make a way to season 2. Cast were good because none of theme was wooden or gave blank stares. It did frustrate me at first because the lady investigated cases without her mother-in-law's knowledge - thus the mother-in-law called her all the time.

The Good Wife
I haven't seen the original American version. This was about a house-wife whose prosecutor husband went to jail because he had been suspected to receive bribery and sexual favours. It was horrible to see his sex video played on national TV. [Here such video was not allowed to be shown on TV - even the blurred version - since 2010]. She took a job in a lawyer office where her ex-school friend was one of the presidents. She did a good job. She began to forgive her husband, but she found out that he had had another affair with her recent co-worker. Then she began an affair with the company's president. First episodes were fine. I enjoyed watching the cases and trials. But as the story went, I didn't like how she became a bit cruel to his husband and began her own love affair. The plot was too American. The way the kids discussed things with the parents, the settlements outside trials, a wife against her husband - those ways American ways.