watashiwachiaki

From left to right: Bidam, Lady Mishil, Deukman (Queen Seon Duk), Kim Yushin, Princess Cheonmyeong, Kim Chunchu (future King Muyeol)

Story Background:
King Jinpyeong is the 26th king of Silla Kingdom (one of ancient Korea's Three Kingdom). Silla has an old prophecy that when twins are born, male descendants of the royal family will dry up. With this, the King is not allowed to give birth to twins. But King Jinpyeong's wife, Lady Maya, gave birth to twin girls. Afraid that the most influential & very charismatic court lady Mishil would use his twin daughter to overthrow him, he asked Lady Maya's nursemaid, Sohwa, and Hwarang legend Munno to run away & hide his 2nd daughter. After a breathtaking fight with the Hwarangs (elite group of male youth/knights), led by Chilsuk, trying to snatched away the baby, Munno & Sohwa managed to flee out of the kingdom.

15 years later, the King's 2nd daughter, now named Deukman, grew up in the desert and is always surrounded by merchants who gives her western books. But as fate has it, Chilsuk found them. In a sandstorm she got separated from her foster mother Sohwa while they were running away to fight for their life. Believing her mother died, Deukman is forced to find the legendary Munno in order to know her secret past. However, when she met her twin sister Princess Cheonmyung it became inevitable to cross Lady Mishil's path! Little do they know, there was an omen. Lady Mishil will always be powerful and no one can oppose her until the day when the Big Dipper's Gaeyang star split into two making the 7 star 8. The Gaeyang star signified the twin princesses.

Deukman agreed to be friends with Princess Cheonmyung as the latter promised to bring her to Munno. But an event led to Deukman witnessing how sinister Lady Mishil is. Without fear, probably because Deukman is too young to realize Lady Mishil is influential and is feared by many, she made a commotion while the hwarangs are preparing for the King's parade. This led to an accelerating revelation in front of the king and all the royal nobles that Lady Mishil and her son, Bojong, are trying to kill Deukman's friends. Lady Mishil felt so humiliated. In order to protect Deukman from Lady Mishil, and believing she is a boy, Princess Cheonmyung arranged for her to be one of the hwarangs. Together with her friends, Jukbang & Godo, who are so afraid of Lady Mishil's wrath, Deukman joined the Hwarang faction of Kim Yushin (future Korean history's greatest general who unified the Korean nation).

Lady Mishil (Go Hyun-jung)

As time flies Deukman learned Lady Mishil actually controls the royals. Aside from being a very intelligent and a smart strategist, Lady Mishil uses her charisma to seduce men to built her own influential circle. She managed to kill Silla's 24th King, King Jinheung, to pave way for King Jinji who is her lover that time. But when King Jinji refused to make her Silla's queen, she again used the Hwarangs to overthrow him, giving the crown to King Jinpyeong.

Tables turned when Deukman learned the truth about her past and royal noble Eulje starts to give order to kill Deukman because she is a threat to Silla. Together with Yushin Rang, she once again left Silla's capital. But an accident happened. Princess Cheonmyung was killed by Hwarang DaeNamBo. This ignited Deukman's rage to oppose Lady Mishil and claim to be Silla's first female ruler!

Witness how Princess Deukman battle it out, using her perceptive intelligence and knowledge on trading and politics, with Silla-era femme fatale Mishil.

When Deukman was young, she dreamt of an unknown woman hugging her. The woman said,

Deukman-aa. The path ahead of you will be arduous. And it will be painful.
You will lose beloved ones, and experience utmost loneliness.
It will be more barren and dim than in the desert.
For it will seem like you have the world, but it truth you will not be able to gain anything.
But still must endure it. All right? Endure it to the end.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Ohemgeeee.... hahaha... I didn't realize the one paragraph background became so long. ahihihi.... ah! but seriously, this political drama is so much WORTH WATCHING!
Needless to say, we all have different taste, so Im not recommending this. BUT, I promise you, if ever you run out of good quality dramas, you should try watching this and the 62 hours of your life won't be put to waste!

This historical drama (I think they call it sageuk in Korea) was actually political but as twist and turns it ended in a tragic love story.

I'm actually tryin' my best not to give spoilers haha!

Bidam (Kim Nam Gil)

Although I envy Deokman for having Bidam (the 2nd most popular character in the drama although his character won't appear only until episode 21), my most favorite character/s are Jukban and Godo!!! hahaha! Because they are so funny! they may not be as eye candy as the hwarangs (LOL Alcheon Rang became so popular even tho he's just a supporting) but to me they made the series more livelier.
What I like the most is how the drama didn't neglect the minor characters (^_^). I enjoy so much watching how the hwarang's subordinates (referred as Nangdo) would always start arguing over small things, like who's the best etc, and as boys they end up beating each other! hahahahaha!

And you know what is the most amazing thing in this drama? we're supposed to dislike the bad guys right? but ah, you won't hate Lady Mishil!! Instead, you'll like her! She became actually the center of the drama! Like people are watching it not because of Deokman but because of her! brilliant isn't it? =D

Anyways, this post is prolly too long hehe. Let me end it with, for a person who's attention span is too short, watching this (for 5 consecutive days) was truly a big achievement on my part! ~~(like the very next day I spent the whole day sleeping!)~~

and it's aozorachan666's fault why I decided to watch this online! hahaha! and of course tomalicious's biniBningPunkista hahaha (^_~)