Mirror of the Witch

I came to this series because of seeing The Man From Nowhere and being very impressed by the young actress Sae Ron Kim. Following on that line, I came across Secret Healer and was amazed at the stylish, beautiful, funny and powerful portrayals (and betrayals). Ok, so 20hours is - to modern western eyes - far too long. However, after a while I settled into the pace and subtlety of the work and was well and truly hooked, right to the end. There is a truly tragic storyline, plenty of magic (good and mostly bad), slapstick and humour aplenty and good old fashioned love stories. Some of these stories were undoubtedly complicated (even twisted) but the redemption of bad deeds through genuine remorse, forgiveness or stubbornly refusing to quit, runs throughout. Sins of the father, mother, brother, friend and true enemies are played out against a royal court in crisis and there's even some villagers rioting with pitchforks (burn the witch!). I liked the characters a lot, their roles were demanding (plenty of wrenching emotional scenes) and - within the context of the piece - totally believable. Lastly, I'm now a big fan of ultra-low-key emotional acting: by the end the tiniest move of a face spoke volumes. Excellent.

Okay disclaimer: I did not finish this. I liked the premise and felt like this could have been great but it just wasn't. Even my love for Yoon Shi-Yoon and his wonderful acting could not make me finish this. I was just too bored. The plot and pacing had major issues, and with a host of annoying and unnecessary side characters, it was just not worth my time to keep watching. I felt like this could have been great with a trimmed down plot and less plot-lines/characters.

This drama could not get any better. Such a wonderful mind boggling drama. Every episode's ending makes you wait in awe for another episode. Eagerness Bundled up at every cliffhanger. Such a great quality product. Cast is beyond excellence. Everyone did justice to their role. And not to mention, the CG Work is out of the world classy piece of work. Sometimes it looks real and so natural and blends with the scenes. The set, Forest and other natural scenery are epic definitely makes you awestruck. Delight to watch this exemplary. Full of suspense, thrill and undeniably emotional roller coaster. Incredibly well done drama. I am so glad they chosen Kim Sae Ron to play the main character. she is slaying the role with her finesse acting prowess.

This drama was like a rollercoaster ride without the thrills or the rails. That first episode was unbelievably bad and a huge turn off to kick start the drama but I kept going regardless. The whole mystical shaman vibe in a historical setting turned out to be quite an unsuccessful combo in this case, it felt like they slapped on those elements without any real thought. The entire story felt so limited and restricted, even the cast, when taking into consideration its length. All of that was accompanied by poor pacing, you can imagine how they were trying to push it to reach the 20 episodes mark.

A cursed princess Seo Ri Yun Hee played by Kim Sae Ron has been abandoned in the mountains surrounded by talismans. Any man she falls in love with will perish and in trying to lift this curse she creates many potions and magic that help to cure sick villagers. Into her life comes an unhappy man Heo Jun who inadvertently burns the book of magic so decides to stay to help treat the locals and lift the curse. It is an ok supernatural historical drama and the acting is all good but the pacing is slow and times and I think would have benefitted from fewer episodes. A lot of people complain about the ending but personally I did not mind it as life isn't always rosy.