Tree with Deep Roots

an admirable craft. first for the subject who use love,politic and crime in a wise manner. than - for performance. the romanticism is present but it becomes pillar for a seductive story about the use of power. the atmosphere, the script, the acting - all at high level. not a surprise - the Koreean cinema has precise science to give more than soap operas or basic series. but this case can be a splendid example of historical movie in film noir clothes. not for subject itself but for the powerful-delicate questions who defines it. for the art of characters nuances making. and, sure, for the ability to use the history in a special manner for seduce and for build large image about its bricks.a different revolution. a challenge. and a fight. that is all. but the essence is more subtle.

one of Koreean series who could be a seductive surprise. because it is different. because it use the romanticism in admirable way as part of a large web of fight for power, idealism, secrets, conspiracies and the truth as step by step hard way. a film noir and a subtle parable about profound chance dimensions of society. a story who gives not spectacular events or nice dramas but questions. who seems be just a historical crime film about the price of freedom and the manner to use the power. so, more a film, a great trip in the heart of history, using classic tools with great impact.

It's about the king who did methodically create the Korean alphabet in the 1400's. In this story the opposition to his intent is fierce. In fact, his alphabet remained controversial for several centuries. The first few episodes of the series are simple-minded and the dialogue seems silly. I almost stopped watching. The story soon gets more compelling and the dialogue more natural. Although some in the +main cast+ are given noticeably little to say but just have to try to look attentive; good humored; worried or sorrowful; wary or alarmed; or wise. The story is suspenseful and exciting. The martial arts scenes are creative and fun, as is the soundtrack. The discussions are interesting about whether +the people+ should be trusted with the power they might gain (over their government) from reading and writing. The mayhem that is the conclusion came about two episodes too late in my opinion and also didn't give me the satisfaction I would have preferred. It has faults but I recommend it as well worth watching. 7 + 1/2 stars.

For some reason, I found this drama a bit long winded and hard going. I loved Six Flying Dragons, which in a way precedes this story, being about Sambong and the Secret Roots (or Hidden Roots in that drama), which is central to this story. Great cast, some overacting at times, I felt. The latter episodes were by far the best and very moving at times. If the overall pace had been a bit faster, I probably would have enjoyed this more. Pleased I watched it.

I really liked the story for Tree with Deep Roots. It is about the King of Joseon (Korea) who invented their alphabet as a simple way for his people to learn to read. Before that, they used the Chinese writing system so only the noble class could learn as there are thousands of letters and poor people never had the time. I have no idea if any of it is based on a true story...

The focus is that there are numerous groups who are trying to stop the king publishing the new letters and they will go to any length to achieve their goals. Hidden Root is a secret organization who make stopping the new letters their priority and the king has to defeat them to succeed in publishing his new writing system.

The star of the show is a slave whose parents were killed by the king when he was a small boy and he starts off trying to get his revenge by killing the king until he learns about the project to help the people.

It's slow to get going. You need to watch 4 episodes to get into it but after that, it's got plenty of action including great martial arts / fight scenes. It's only 24 episodes in total which is short compared to some of the other Korean historical dramas but it feels about right.

I recommend this for fans of historical dramas and Martians arts etc. I doubt there is much universal appeal here. If you don't like historical stuff and have no patience for subtitles, this isn't the show to change your mind (probably).

I watched it on drama fever and the translation is very poor. There are loads of obvious mistakes that stop their sentences from making sense on occasion. I wish they would improve their quality control or get a native English speaker to go through it before releasing it.