Drama Reviews - Mr Sunshine (2018)

 

Mr Sunshine is about Aeshin, a noblewoman who lost both parents in a resistance effort, then learns to wield a gun to join the Righteous Army and fight for her country's sovereignty, with some help from Eugene Choi, an American-Joseon soldier, Dongmae, a Japanese-Joseon swordsman and her fiancee, Heesung, a 'handsome Joseon man', as well as owner of Glory Hotel, Kudo Hina.

Wow, what an epic. So thankful Kim Taeri chose to act in this since I checked it out mainly for her.
I have nothing to fault on the acting. Kim Taeri continues to impress me by her wide range and depth of acting despite being so new. She truly embodied all aspects of Aeshin, whether the noble woman who cared for her people but with a playful and naive side and was overconfident in her English abilities or the gun wielding resistance fighter who had to see her comrades go one after another. I'm excited to see what other works she'll pick next. Kim Min Jung also stood out as the classy Hina with such amazing chemistry with Dongmae (Yoo Yeon Seok). And how awesome is it that we get 2 main female leads who are both strong and badass and able to hold their own in beauty and brawn against the men?! Loved their respect and camaraderie towards each other. The 3 leading guys and supporting characters were also reliably good.

The directing was also a stand out, with such beautiful shots that look like they belong to a movie. Though I feel like they went overboard sometimes with the picturesque sunsets that looked obviously fake. The set and costumes department all deserve an award too. This show had a huge budget and it shows.

Kudos to the beautiful OST as well. My favourite was See You Again by OST queen, Baek Ji Young and Becoming the Wind by Ha HyunSang. Such aching tunes but will be on my playlist for a long time.

The last Kim Eun Sook show I watched as Secret Garden which was a long long time ago. Ever since then, I haven't had an interest in her shows that were popular but didnt do so well critically. I'm glad I checked this out (thanks Taeri!) because the story was slow to start and had some obvious logic leaps, but when it mattered, it came together to give the most heart thumping feels in the last 1/3 of the show. I have no problems with sad endings (and how many times was guns, glory, sad ending said in the show? There was really no other ending) and I'm glad she went that way because that was the reality of that time. The heart of the show really is the patriotism of the people to protect the country, and I think Kim Eun Sook managed to flesh that part out very well by using AeShin as the embodiment of the Joseon spirit as she was the one that was fully committed to the cause and the one that everyone else protected at all costs. 

For such a show, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of humour injected into the story. From the reluctant friendship between the 3 guys to Aeshin's English blunders or annoyance at Potter Eunsan's pettiness to everyone poking fun at Eugene for not being able to pick up Korean quickly enough. I also loved Hina's little iconic rhymey quips (eg. dongmu (friend = Hee Sung), dongji (comrade = Eugene) & Dongmae) as well.

All in all, worth watching in every way and fully deserving of the accolades showered and good to spark some interest in the history of Korea as well as it tried to shed light on people who were fighting against the tragic reality of the time. If Sky Castle didn't air, I'm sure this would have swept the Baeksangs 2019. But now, there's strong competition and I'm excited to pick up Sky Castle, though it has to be on hold for awhile because it hits too close to home. Watching My Ahjussi now for a completely different change of pace.