The Master's Sun Rview

  It has been so long since I've written up a drama review. (Okay, so I've been pretty bad about writing anything lately.) And really, that's why I started this blog in the first place, to review dramas and share with others my love and hate for certain dramas (mostly love, though). I also want this blog to be a resource for people searching for a new drama to watch, and so I'll return to the beginning and start some more reviews.

  I first want to tackle the drama The Master's Sun. Now, I need to say that I have a really hard time with the Hong Sisters' dramas. I don't tend to love them as much as other people, even though I start out finding each one amusing and fun. I've noticed that I'm much better at finishing them if I watch them as they air. I've never finished You're Beautiful or Couple of Fantasy, and I had trouble pushing on about 3/4 of the way through My Girl, The Greatest Love, and My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, though I did finally finish those. 

  And then there was Big. What a huge disappointment for me. I was so excited to see Gong Yoo playing a teenager body-swapped into an adult body (and such a fine body, too). I was excited to see Lee Min Jung in another drama, since I loved her in Boys [preposition] Flowers. And the whole setup seemed just so great, that I figured it would be a wonderful addition to the Hong Sisters collection of dramas. But things don't always work out I want them to.

  Then there was news about The Master's Sun. Despite my hesitation and reluctance to be caught up again in the hype of a Hong Sisters drama, I found myself eagerly looking forward to it's premiere. Why, after being burned so badly the summer before, was I so willing to take another plunge into the deep end of uncertain drama fare?
  But I jumped in anyways, and I'm so glad I did. I love this drama. It's one of the best dramas that aired in 2013. It's smart, imaginative, dark, funny, creepy, and all-around fun. I would unabashedly recommend it to anyone. So, if you haven't watched it yet, do so. (Also, without really giving anything away, I think it has the most satisfying ending of any Hong Sisters drama. At least the ones I've watched.)
  There are so many things to love about this drama, and I want to address them all. However, despite how much I love The Master's Sun, it has its faults, and I feel that I need to discuss them first. 
  (Major spoilers ahead!)

  The biggest problem with this drama is the whole Cha Hee Joo/stolen necklace storyline. It is given so much time and is built up so much as a central plotline to the story, only to fall flat as an underdeveloped and weak storyline. The only real good it does is to bring our two main characters together and keep them together when they reach a point that they would move apart. The mystery isn't very mysterious, the acting by adult Hee Joo is not good, and everything just sort of fizzles out. It takes way too long to get to the point and detracts from far more interesting things.

  Another problem is that there are more interesting mysteries inherent in the story that are never explored. What really happened to make Tae Gong Shil able to see ghosts? Why does she have that gift? And why does Joo Joong Won have the ability to make the ghosts go away (apart from the obvious excuse for extra skinship)? And then, when we meet another person who shares her ability and knows what happened to her in the two years she was in a coma, we're never given an exploration of that theme.

  Along the same lines, Lee Chun Hee, the man who knows those things, makes such a late appearance and has so little to do with the story. Such a waste of his talent! And such a waste of an interesting storyline! 
  Also, Gong Shil's character development in discovering those pieces of her past was skipped over with a terrible use of a time lapse, and we were robbed of the opportunity to see her come to terms with her curse/gift. It would have been so, so rewarding to see her come to the realization that she had opted to keep it in the first place, and that she wanted to keep it now, despite the difficulties her gift brought into her life.
  Now for the good stuff. And really, there is so much of it. 

  Firstly, and most importantly, there's skinship. Lots and lots of skinship. And it's from the very beginning of the story. It's built into the whole premise of the show, since Gong Shil has a reprieve from seeing ghosts when she touches Joong Won. And she's desperate enough to take every opportunity she can to have some peace and quiet from all the ghosts asking for her help.

  Next, there are the main characters, and I'll take them one at a time. Gong Hyo Jin has such a beautiful way of making each of her characters so relatable and real. Her rendition of Gong Shil shows us a desperate, kind, sometimes-selfish, good-natured and fully-realized character who is aching for a bit of normalcy in her haunted life. We feel for her, and we love her, and we want her to succeed in cracking Joong Won's crusty outer shell. 

  Joong Won himself is such a caricature of a drama hero: the grumpy, arrogant, emotionally scarred, handsome chaebol, with no real connection to people other than his aunt and long-suffering secretary. And yet, So Ji Sub is so delightful at finding the little quirks and characteristics that make him into a more realistic person. In the end, Joong Won is almost as relatable as Gong Shil, and you can't help but like him, despite his stubborn crankiness hiding the hurt little boy inside.

  Then we have Kang Woo, the devoted security guard who falls hard for Gong Shil and who has his own mysterious motivations for getting close to Joong Won. He's sweet and kind and knows what he wants (and doesn't want, for that matter). He's a typical second lead, but he's so well played by Seo In Guk that he doesn't seem flat and uninteresting like so many others in Dramaland. 

  The last side of the love square is filled by Tae Yi Ryung, the shallow, insecure, narcissistic, and smitten actress who's always felt inferior to Gong Shil. She falls for Kang Woo and is bratty in her efforts to woo him. She sounds just awful, but Kim Yoo Ri does a fantastic job of making her likable and funny. She has a core of sweetness deep down inside that really only comes out around Kang Woo. And she's absolutely clueless as to how to win his love. She's all-around great.

  Another thing I love about this drama is the eerie aspect lent by the ghosts. While the lesser ghost stories can seem a bit formulaic and simple, I feel that they add a level of danger and suspense to the overall story. They up the stakes in the story and provide nice little mysteries to be solved throughout the drama. They also have twists that make them fun to figure out.

  Of course, some are better than others, and some are more memorable, but they each feel like a piece of the whole picture of Gong Shil's life. And they're great catalysts of character development, especially for Joong Won, who desperately needs growth to get past his hangups. Also, the cameos are fun.
  I like that there are also various kinds of ghosts: ghosts who want help so they can move on, semi-malevolent ghosts, vengeful ghosts, lonely ghosts, helpful ghosts, and some ghosts who aren't necessarily ghosts at all. Basically, lots of different ghosts.

  Besides that, each ghost story has its own tone. Some are tragic, some are funny, some are scary, some are heartbreaking, and some are dangerous. But they are all moving in their own way. They each teach Gong Shil and Joong Won something, as well as leaving a lesson for the people involved with each ghost.