While I was still feeling the after effects of Goblin (aka Guardian: The Lonely and Great God) and our reluctance to watch the new The King: The Eternal Monarch (with Lee Min Ho) we happened to come across this movie by Kim Go-Eun. She stars in both Korean dramas and how lucky we are in finding this film.
She is both Hong-ee and Seol-hee here but the movie starts with her as Hong-ee, the daughter of Poong-cheon, one of the three great swordsmen who fights for the oppressed and the poor during the Goryeo era. The other swordsmen were Seol-rang and Deok-gi. The led an uprising that ended badly for them as Deok-gi betrayed both Poong-cheon and Seol-rang when he switched sides. Poong-cheon eventually died here, and Seol-rang escaped with Poong-cheon's daughter Hong-ee. Deok-gi then changes his name to Yoo-baek.
To remain incognito, Seol-rang changed her name as well to Wallso and tries to teach Hong-ee the way of the sword. She learned very well however she wasn't that much interested in sword fighting as she did not yet know how his father died. Seol-rang's and Hong-ee's presence was not know to now Yoo-baek until Hong-ee participated in a sword match and Yoo-baek recognized her fighting style. He was curious of her master so he pursued her, but she escaped.
Seol-rang aka Wallso, knows that their secret was might as well be known, she proceeds to tell Hong-ee that night how his father, Poong-cheon died. She also told her that it was her and Deok-gi (now Yoo-baek) are her enemies now.
Seol-rang then banishes Hong-ee and now begins her path of vengeance.
Along the way, there were twists and turns and eventually Deok-Gi's prophecy of Hong-ee coming back from the past and Poong-cheon's death will be avenged.
We were surprised as to how this story was well written for a Korean movie. Story telling was great and the production was almost comparable already to a Hollywood production. There were minimal character development in the beginning, but hey, this is a Korean movie, so all these were explained in a lot of flash backs.
There were a number of these flash backs that we lost count, and sometimes we got lost honestly. With the characters changing identities it took us a while to adjust and we understood the story when we were able to catch up.
The revenge story plot and twists are however not original as we have seen these scenarios happen in another movie (which we can't remember). Even so, it was our first time to see it in a korean film, so maybe we can count it as original as well? Original or not, we did not see it coming, the twists. So kudos to the production for keeping us in our toes.
The story is rich with colorful characters which maybe they can expound, but they didn't, or they didn't have to. The story revolves only with 3 major characters, yet we find it entertaining and we love the fight scenes. When they fly through the air, we almost forget this is a korean movie, the jumps and flying were reminiscent of the Kung Fu movies we are used to. Some were over the top, but thankfully it wasn't that much of total disregard of the laws of physics.
Kim Go-Eun's performance here we were surprised. We can still picture her from the Goblin as someone who's helpless and meek. Here she was fighting and great with her martial arts skills. It took a while for us to be accustomed to her flying and jumping and slashing all over the screen. She did great here although we still have doubts if she really did some of the stunts hereself. Acting wise, she was great here. Did you know that she won a number of awards in Korea? She always win an award since 2012 till 2017 (except for 2014 - our research can only cover until 2017 so we don't know any awards won 2018 to present).
Another actor we liked here was Lee Byun-Hun who played the general Yoo-baek. This guy is also a multi-awarded actor and he has a separate webpage solely for this purpose. We saw already in movies like Iris: the Movie, Red 2 (with Bruce Willis), GI Joe franchise as Storm Shadow, and the Magnificent Seven (with Denzel Washington). He has a commanding presence here that one can't discount. Performance wise he is heavy and we can really feel his character here. Such a treat to see him on screen.
As to the story telling, the pacing was nicely executed. Great use of scenes slowing down, then speeding up, taking us for a joy ride and we were entertained. We thought the fighting was the gravy here, but we were wrong. The drama was the heavy hitters here or gravy, and the fighting were the side dishes.
Streaming on YouTube is the Filipino dubbed full movie and if you want to watch it. click on the thumbnail below.
