Haechi

The drama had so much potential, but never managed to break through. The pacing was inconsistent for its elongated cool-down periods and its redundant flimsy 24 episodes. One moment you're going at a steady pace and the next, you're like, "Come on, let's get moving!". These long breaks in between didn't even serve a meaningful purpose like to develop the characters or build up for what's next. It should've been cut down to 10-12 episodes while cutting off the nonsense and focusing on the politics. The story slowed down and became less interesting in the 2nd half when the prince went into the palace. On another note, Go Ah Ra, she didn't fit her role at all, too fragile and soft looking. Strangely, her character (Yeo Ji) got demoted to a guest character in the 2nd half, little to no contribution or screen time. If I have to take a guess, the character didn't really fit the narrative to begin with, so it was hard to keep her around in the 2nd half, which also explains the attempted romance, the writers were desperate.

Several others have mentioned this, but the light and colors were disappointing. It gets better but so many of the episodes in the first half of the show are so dark you have to turn your screen brightness all the way up. There's also a lot of distractingly shaky camera work. Visually, not great. However, the first half of the show had me bingeing. I loved the characters and plot. The actor who played Prince Milpoong was especially impressive- I will never be able to watch him in anything else. Also, (MINOR SPOILER) a minister has character development and isn't just pure evil, which is so rare it became one of my favorite plot points.

Unfortunately, after the characters overcome the first two or three big issues the show starts to drag. It seemed like the writers had to get to 48 episodes so they had to make up a bunch of roadblocks for the leads. It ended up feeling repetitive and the prince and moon soo were yelling for half the script. Additionally, Go Ara's character disappears halfway through the show due to an injury. She comes back after 8 episodes or so as a completely different character. The romance suffered because of it and felt awkward and not very well developed.

So - I'm giving it a seven because I liked it enough to recommend to my sister and I LOVED the acting and all of the leads. It's unfortunate that Go Ara was injured - I think it affected the plot a lot. I skipped through a lot of the last episodes.

I'll be doing a lot of research on King Jeongjo now and I'm now watching Dong Yi :)

Haechi was lengthy but had a nice set of characteres that supported the drama well.

First of all, there were too many characters, but they eventually teamed up for a common cause and it was easier to keep up with the story after that. The story itself was a bit slow at the begining, as the characters were introduced. Then, it was kind of boring and I almost droped it, as it seemed like just another historical drama about corruption and those old mean rich men who just can't make peace with the main character. However, the story picked up eventually. The twists were good, the characters interesting and the drama and action scenes just enough to keep the interest high. However, I found the romance unnecessary, as the story focused more on the political aspect than the love story and thus the later felt like it didn't fit the plot.

So, seven out of ten.

The scenario is certainly very well written, but the realization is extremely mediocre. The management of light and colors seems to have been totally neglected by the director.

The dark scenes are very numerous, which I hate particularly. In the age of HD TVs and images, and even ultra HD, visual quality is an integral part of the show. Fortunately, most directors of Korean drama perfectly measure this criterion. But apparently not Lee Yong Seok.

In nocturnal scenes, the light must be artificially increased in a judicious way so that we can enjoy fairly bright images, including faces, but not only, the sets must also be visible with their colors so that the images are beautiful . Lee Yong Seok seems not to have understood this.

The colors of the clothes are also neglected compared to other Korean historical dramas of the Joseon period. For example the clothes of the nobles are dark, those of the police too. It does not matter that the color does not scrupulously respect the historical notion, the images must be bright and beautiful.

Lee Yong Seok did not understand the importance of the visual beauty in his work. It's really unfortunate, because screenwriter Kim Yi Young has proved his talent with Dong Yi and Yi San, among others. Dong Yi was made in 2010, but the achievement is excellent, the management of light and colors is infinitely better than in Heachi. Same for Yi San. And this is not the only example of Korean historical drama where light and colors are very well mastered, there are for example The Crowned Clown, Queen For Seven Days and others.

I usually liked historical because of treason and conspiracy plot but this kdrama did not offer that much. I tried to watch at least the first three episodes and then watch the last one. I think it is important to keep viewers interested in every episode and this kdrama did not deliver much.