Bulmyeolui Lee Soon-shin

This is an amazing show. I do not watch much television, and I am certainly not a fan of war dramas, but this show has my husband and me absolutely riveted. My husband served in the US military and was stationed in Korea, which is why he started watching this series. I couldn't help but get caught up in it myself. The acting, sets, costumes, and filming are all superb. The series focuses on Yi Soon-Shin's extraordinary abilities as a leader of leaders and a canny strategist; it's a refreshing change from the mindless muscle-headed "tough-guy" Hollywood war heroes we're used to seeing. So if you're looking for an Asian Rambo, don't bother with Yi Soon-Shin. But if you are a true history/military buff, you will not be disappointed.

This drama was one of the best if not the best action movie based on a real life hero that I have ever seen! The acting is superb. I don:t know a lot about the actors in this drama or if they are big actors in Korea but they all touched me. Kim-Myoung was outstanding as Yi Soon Shin as were all the other actors in big and small roles.The music is so haunting and the way it was used as the background to the sea and land battles was unreal. The movie also delved into the everyday lives of the people of Chosum as well as into the workings of the King and his court. It is also a story of friendship, determination and love for country that is really the story behind the story. Thank you, this is just the opinion of a Big Fan in Delaware.

I tell my friends that the best show on TV right now is a 100+ episode costume historical series --in Korean with subtitles-- and they just roll their eyes. But this show is extraordinary. Besides being a gorgeous production, the plotting is tight and fast and the acting absolutely top-notch.

I've watched other Korean historical dramas,including Age of Warriors, which I also enjoyed. (A number of actors overlap between the two series.) Yi Sun Shin seems to me the best of a very good lot. It combines historical sweep and spectacle with human scale story-telling and considerable depth of genuine emotion. It addresses the strength and weaknesses of the monarchy, as well as the day to day lives of Yi Sun Shin's rag-tag navy crews.

Some historians suggest that Yi Sun Shin was a finer naval strategist that Nelson, and this show brings across the kind of genius and self-discipline that makes that claim believable.

Why do people tell us about Nelson or Drake all the time when Yi Soon-sin exists and nobody talks about him? Did any of those admirals win a battle without losing a ship? Did they win 13 boats to 120 to 333 ships? Did they sink 500 ships without losing not even one? Well, Yi Soon-sin does. The first time you hear about him you say that is impossible, I should check this, but when you hear about Hansando, Myeongyang, Sacheon, Okpo, Noryang... But Yi Soon-sin has enemies from Japan:

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi
• Wakizaka Yasuharu
• Todo Takatora
• Konishi Yukinawa

But also enemies in Korea, who sent him to jail: -The Western Faction But some friends: -Sung-Riong And some like Won Kyun who is first a friend and then he sends him to jail. Sometimes the information is not exact.because they invent all Yi Soon-sin's life and not only the battles.

It would be hard to over-praise this magnificent series, and the entire production rose to the high level of Yi Sun Shin himself, the savior of Korea from invasion and oppression who has been called by Western historians "the Lord Nelson of Korea". He was, however, a better man than Nelson in many personal ways.

It's my understanding that this series, like the equally outstanding AGE OF WARRIORS and others, are created for young people as adjuncts to school history classes, which may help explain why the writing, acting, direction, costuming, and production values of the series are outstanding. On occasion the writers drift somewhat from history, but generally only when the details aren't fully known and dramatic license can be taken. As a historian I am persnickety about historical accuracy, and deplore the endless historical errors that have turned films like BRAVEHEART and TITANIC into ridiculous travesties. The televised story of Yi Sun Shin, from childhood to final triumph, is true to the meaning and purpose of this incredible man's courageous life story, and that's what counts.

Many Americans will be astonished to see that this series idealizes social justice and deplores the defects of autocratic government to a far greater degree than any current U.S. TV series, which look frivolous by comparison. It should make us thoughtful when we must watch a program made in Korea to learn lessons about democracy and economic equality.