I have not reviewed a movie before but felt compelled to share how much I love this masterpiece. It has been nitpicked to pieces making one wonder whether it has indeed been sabotaged. It is too beautiful to be left to suffer such an injustice. For example, it was lambasted because a temple that was onscreen for, like, a second, did not look Korean. The nitpickers had totally ignored the fact that this is a FANTASY drama, hitting the show below the belt by taking advantage of Korean viewers' patriotism thereby pushing them away. Nevertheless, it became an international hit, having been #1 most streamed TV show on Netflix in at least 11 countries and in the top 10 in at least 19 other countries.
The story centers around King Lee Gon, played to perfection by Lee Min Ho, who found a portal to a parallel universe where he met gutsy detective Jeong Tae Eul played by Kim Go Eun. Dedicated to her job, Tae Eul doubts Lee Gon's fantastic tale of being a king in a parallel world and tries to discover his identity. She is not one to go gaga for a gorgeous stranger at first sight no matter how openly he expresses his interest in her. But her unfavorable first impression of him is a source of amusing repartee so I didn't mind at all that she took her time to fall for him. How she finally believes him is one of the most thrilling and satisfying developments of the series.
The story is rather complicated, but the pace gives viewers enough time to understand what is going on. Scenes and dialogues that might seem irrelevant turn out to be important, so viewers need to be observant, including of those relating to the romance between the leads as they tend to express their feelings more with their eyes and facial expressions than cheesy lines. Viewers who prefer simple plots might not appreciate the complications and mysteries, but those who go along with the ride would be rewarded with a beautiful and fascinating adventure.
(Netflix stats added on 7/6/2020)
Update (9/25/2023): Since this drama came out, I've been bothered by the controversies that derailed its reception in South Korea, baffled by their incongruity. This drama is OBVIOUSLY anti-Japanese. It has scenes where Japanese characters are OBVIOUSLY villainous. Yet, it has been attacked because a temple that appears for less than a minute looks Japanese and some Japanese flags were accidentally placed in the warships of the fictitious Kingdom of Corea for less than minute. Many viewers would not even notice these minutiae! I definitely didn't. In fact, I watched the war scene more than 5 times to see the misplaced flags but all I could see were the flags of the fictitious Corea (one is the red-and-blue flag resembling the Joseon flag and the other is the King's flag with the flower). This is the height of nitpicking. Anti-Japanese viewers did not appreciate the OBVIOUSLY anti-Japanese theme of the drama, but instead complained to high heaven about virtually invisible mistakes that detractors kept insinuating were Japanese leaning. It did not help that South Korean news sites kept featuring these controversies. This aroused my suspicion that there is more to this than meets the eye. And I might have gotten my answer. Recently, this drama was banned in South Korea together with Pachinko, another drama starring Lee Min Ho. Two out of six banned dramas star LMH. And that aligns with my impression that some people in the Kdrama industry have some beef against LMH. Going through social media in 2020 to get more information about the controversies, I saw a shocking amount of antagonism towards LMH. In a drama fan site, a group of haters hogged the comment section of this drama, heckling, harassing and bullying those who posted positive comments about it. A normal viewer who doesn't like a drama would leave a comment or two, probably drop the drama and get on with his life. Right? These haters, who violently objected to being called haters, went on and on and on about alleged flaws of the drama, not letting up even after the finale was aired. If they hated the drama that much, why didn't they drop it and let the fans of the drama enjoy it? They turned out to be fans of LMH rivals in the industry.
