Iljimae

 

.......I don't even know where to begin.......

I liken this drama to something that happened to me when I was was in elementary school until about the time I graduated from high school. I had this friend and we had been friends for a long time. We saw each other a lot, we went to church and school together and got into general childhood and adolescent mischief, it was wonderful. Then one day, without warning she turned on me and made it her goal in life to make my life miserable. To this day I still don't know the reason, but it makes me sad because we did have a wonderful friendship for a number of years. 

I went into this drama excited because it had Lee Joon Ki and the child actors Yeo Jin Goo and Kim Yoo Jung. All are wonderful and I love watching them work. As I continued to watch though, everything began to fall apart. I stuck it through though because I wanted to believe that it would get better and we could separate on amiable terms, but it was not to be. When the curtain closed on this drama, my jaw was on the floor and I was resiting the very strong urge to flip the computer desk and then light the computer on fire.

Yes, it was that bad.

I knew going into it that there were going to be problems. There were reviews all over the internet and I like to know what I am getting into before I invest myself in something. That way I watch things that I like. I went into this drama fully aware that I would  probably be disappointed, but I did not fully realize the extent of that disappointment until the end. 

Let's start off with the first thing that was weird. The drama begins with Iljimae being awesome and ninja-ing his way across a rooftop. When he gets to his destination he pulls out......wait for it.....wait for it.....an invisibility cloak. That's right ladies and gentleman, Iljimae has an invisibility cloak. He also has super legit stage makeup, prosthetics, and plastic explosives. Um.....we are in Joseon right? This isn't like a Korean The Village only they have future things in the old time period? 

I'm Iljimae and the laws of the universe do not apply to me

After that....interesting....introduction, we learn Iljimae's back story and the events that created the man we had just seen. Even though the beginning was incredibly sad, it made me really happy because I got to see these two cuties: 

They're going to get married someday, it's going to happen okay?

The first time I saw them was in The Moon that Embraces the Sun so how could I say no when I saw that this was the first thing that they did together? Yeo Jin Goo did not disappoint me with his child acting skills. I may or may not have shed a few tears when he had to deny everything and run for his life. Kim Yoo Jung, while she didn't do a lot in the drama, the parts she was in were adorable and just furthered my belief that these two are meant for each other.

Nine and eleven year old love

This drama did have its good points: the cast, the scenery, the relationship between characters, and, of course, Lee Joon Ki being a freaking ninja. But that all blew away with the bad story line and the insanity of the last episode. Seriously? How could they do that not only to the characters, but to us as an audience? I had this grand ending planned for the drama because 1) I thought that all the characters deserved nice things because of everything that they had gone through and 2) a good ending would have at least made watching this show worth it.

That ending though.....I'm still confused about it, mainly that random kid the mothers were taking care of. If anyone who reads this post and has seen Iljimae, can you tell me who he is? Seriously! Is he some reincarnated soul, is he even related to Iljimae? Who the heck is he? And the thought of actually watching the last 15 minutes of that drama again to try to figure it out, makes me want to cry.

The writers did do one thing right though. Ilijmae's calling card was a painting of a plum branch that he would leave at the scene of every crime. All through the drama I was hoping against all hope that the writers would allow me the one happiness of Iljimae pulling off a giant heist and unfurling a gigantic version of his symbol.

Thank you

So as to whether or not you should watch it? It pains me to say it, but don't do it. I'm glad I watched it in a strange way, but I would never want to watch it again. Not even clips of it on Youtube. I don't want to have to relive all that nonsense again.

~Alora