What a fascinating look at the life of a man born a slave but gifted with a mind that saw the sky as a playground for ideas. The epic story was quite accurate in its depiction of Yeong Sil in the time of King Sejong, the greatest King in Korean history. Together, they created masterpieces like time clocks, water clocks...so complicated in nature that only Yeong Sil could understand. Predicting sun and moon eclipses was quite political in those days that astrologers and mathematicians alike could get killed if they got it wrong. Song Il Gook was marvelous in the lead role. It was a striking difference from his dashing roles (Jumong) wherein he fought with swords and martial arts. Here, he was clumsy and proved that he was a scientist, and not a trained fighter. He was frequently punished as a slave and got hurt in many ways. But, Yeong Sil plodded on to old age. His history says no one knew where he was born nor when he died. The writers started and ended the series very well, I must say.
All other actors were amazing in their roles. There were not too many over-emotional scenes, as a matter of fact, we saw jealousy as the main evil. JYS concentrated on the science aspect and the how-to's of the great inventions of Yeong Sil. King Sejong also invented the Hangul at the same time and I'm glad the writers found a place for it. There was hardly any romance as with most of Il Gook's series. The addition of current events showing us the modern Korea and the museums that houses JYS's inventions was fabulously done! It made for a true history lesson. For the Kdrama fans interested in live action, romance and adventures...this is not for you. It had many slow moments of astronomy lessons and could've been cut to 16 episodes. But a very good watch overall!
