Joseon Lawyer (2023)

pas le meilleur sageuk, mais pas le pire /not the best sageuk, but not the worst

Ce sageuk est assez classique, nous avons le roi qui veut bien faire, un ministre tout puissant qui l'en empêche, et qui tue ce qui lui bloque le passage. Du coup, des enfants vont grandir avec un esprit revanchard !

Ce que j'ai aimé :

La production de qualité, les costumes, bijoux, scènes et paysages sont jolis.
Le casting a la hauteur, on retrouve beaucoup de têtes connues !
L'histoire sans être transcendante est pas mal menée bien qu'un peu lentement.

Ce que je n'ai pas aimé :

L'histoire d'amour entre les leads n'est vraiment pas crédible, cela manque terriblement d'alchimie.
L'actrice principale ! Malheureusement elle essaie de ressembler à Shi Sae Kyeong, et donc garde la bouche ouverte souvent, et a un visage sans expression.

This sageuk is fairly classic, with a king who wants to do the right thing, an all-powerful minister who prevents him from doing so, and who kills those who stand in his way. As a result, some children grow up with a vengeful spirit!

What I liked: The production quality, the costumes, jewellery, scenes and landscapes are all pretty.
The cast is up to scratch, with a lot of familiar faces!
The story, while not transcendent, is carried out well, although a little slowly.

What I didn't like: The love story between the leads isn't really believable, there's a terrible lack of chemistry.
The lead actress! Unfortunately she tries to look like Shi Sae Kyeong, so she often keeps her mouth open and has an expressionless face.

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A must watch!

I do not like leaving reviews after the 1st episode but I feel i have to explain why you should be watching this!
i had low expectations on this drama and i have been surprised by how good this is!

the first thing i have personally noticed is how the music plays a great role on this drama and accompany each and every type of moment accordingly: you will have some action, some fairy tale, some comedy, some silliness, some seriousness... each moment is differently highlighted by the perfect sound!

furtherly, the camera moves around the set, sometimes in circle.. and it really takes you to a 360 vision of the surrounding, fantastic!

there is a very high and good sense of aesthetic, the chiaro-scuro from the lightening is just perfect!

then.. i am not particularly into the ML but.. wow.. he is super good! his expressions, he is mischievous, playful, and his smiles.. are not just silly ones.. it seems obvious already he has a final goal for what he does .. and it is more complicated than what it seems at the beginning.

also, they use black and white for flashbacks from the past.. and i just love it!

the narration is clear so far, you understand why things are the way they are, things are very well explained to you; the plot, after just one episode, is already disclosing for something deeper, more painful that what you might gather from the first 20 minutes of the drama!

i have high hopes now for this drama and i also hope i won't be disappointed :)

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If you're here for Woo Do Hwan, he doesn't disappoint

Starts off with a modern case by case outlook in a historical period. The cases and situations are random, interesting, painful with quite satisfactory endings. There's a bigger thread that connects it all though. This becomes clear within first 2 eps, so not that much a spoiler. This thread paves way for some twists, a love triangle and revenge. And the last few eps completely deal with this part instead of the case by case style.
Cons first, not thorough or well covered story for a drama dealing with law and injustice and righteous causes. Gaps within cases and overall thread with how they took certain arcs, also had huge gaps or should I say, they tried so hard to keep things focused on ML who is not technically part of the royal fight, that they completely made it seem like there was only one person with brains in all of the royal court, which is the villain. And some of the build up expectations for certain scenes didn't seem to live up to it. Also, romance.
Pros. Woo Do Hwan is a one man show which is a delight to watch. Whether he's sad, angry, playful, happy or anything really. It's just so nice to watch for some reason. Cast is good. So acting and performance is all good. Dunno anything technical about cinematography but it certainly felt pretty to watch. WDH's relationship with everyone else in the drama is also fun to watch. His best friend, the FL, the SML and the supporting casts. Also his clients.

Overall, drama = 8 + WDH = 8.5

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Ruined it at the end

This drama contains everything that I love: historical romance, justice, noble values and amazing romance. It started off as one of the best shows I have ever watched. However, they completed ruined it episode 14 onwards. The king literally leads to the death of the ML's sister and then they are calling each other "friends". Yoo Ji-Sun just suffers needlessly, without any ending given for him. The FL leaving for three years makes no sense either. Killing the ML's sister was just not needed. So disappointed towards the way that it panned out.

The actors did a wonderful job throughout. Really wish there are more historical dramas that explore the theme of justice, without ruining it like this one.

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Res ipsa loquitur

Joseon Attorney 'appealed' to me because it stars Woo Do Hwan and it’s an historical, two of my favorite things. However, at 16 one-hour episodes it could not ‘sustain’ any level of intensity. Uneven performances and storytelling almost made me hold it in ‘contempt’. Woo Do Hwan’s performance ended up being the ‘grounds’ for me to finish it. Oh yeah, going to be law puns in this review!

Han Su and his buddy Dong Chi come to town looking to make money while plotting revenge on the people responsible for killing Han Su’s parents. Along the way he meets an undercover princess and turns enemies into friends.

I almost dropped this drama after the first episode as I 'judged' it to be cringey in the most 'arbitrary' way. Instead, I bit the bullet and was able to finish the 'rest' of the episodes. As the ‘cases’ became more interesting and the revenge plot deepened, I began to enjoy it more. The romance felt unearned and didn’t ‘exhibit’ much chemistry between Han Su and So Won. My chief ‘complaint’ was that So Won’s character wasn’t written very well. She was earnest but despite saying she trusted Han Su, her ‘actions’ constantly countermanded him. Bona had one expression which made her character even more uninteresting. Yoo Ji Sun had a similar emotional 'delivery' 'issue'. The king was largely ‘incompetent’ needing others to help make 'decisions' and couldn’t ‘bail’ anyone out.

The story 'diminished' in the last few episodes. The king 'rendered a decision' based on 'facts not in evidence' that drastically ‘damaged’ Han Su. In almost no time, Han Su ‘waived’ the ‘offense’ and was back to being buddies with the king. The ‘execution’ of alternating between comedy and drama was not well done. Woo Do Hwan ‘demonstrated’ a wide variety of emotions with his usual skill. The ‘issue’ of going from laughter to tears and back again, and not ‘settling’ on a thematic mood made it difficult for me to care about the characters as I find comedic responses to serious problems distancing. The OST lacked in coherency and was ‘liable’ to cause ‘motion’ sickness as it bounced from music inspired by 1970’s television, to rock, to overtly melodramatic tunes. Trying to fit in as many bromances as possible also ‘challenged’ the veracity of the story.

Joseon Attorney didn’t raise the ‘bar’ for historicals, but I don’t hold it ‘in contempt’ either. I’d make the ‘argument’ it could have been more ‘brief’ instead of dragging out the episodes and I ‘penalized’ it for some of the weaker performances. The drama didn’t do Woo Do Hwan’s talents any ‘justice’ either. After ‘examining the evidence’, my ‘verdict’ is that while it was ‘unobjectionable’, it was not ‘effectual’.

7 July 2024


*res ipsa loquitur-the things speaks for itself

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If it wasn't for Woo Do Hwan, I would never have watched Joseon Attorney.

If it wasn't for Woo Do Hwan, I would never have watch Joseon Attorney. The banality of the plot could be brightened up by strong characters and outstanding acting, but... no. Everything is quite ordinary: there is a hero who avenges the unjust death of his family, there are friends who help him, there are enemies.

I can’t say that this is a brilliant work (after all, this type of drama does not imply something outstanding), but there were some episodes where Woo Do Hwan was just brilliant. He managed both funny moments and tragic ones; I got exactly what I expected from him. He doesn't go too deep in the drama, and in the funny moments he didn't act like completely crazy, which some actors do.

And Woo Do Hwan's voice deserves a special mention - I can listen to it endlessly, with it's tone palette.

By the way, I really liked how the relationship between Kang Han-soo and Yong-joo developed (perhaps, except for the last episode) - that rare case when I had enough leads and justifications. In my opinion, these two people are meant for each other - gentle Yong-joo and noisy Han-soo.

Even though the intrigue and ending of Joseon Attorney was revealed rather quickly, it was a pleasure to watch the drama. Cute locations, unhurried plot, beautiful costumes of the main characters, great attention to detail - all this will make watching a good time. Do not expect a confusing action-packed detective story - this is more of an excursion into the legislative and judicial ups and downs of the past, rather than an exciting story with an unexpected ending.

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In the end I lost my interest.

In the beginning, the drama started very well. The story is unique and interesting. You can see that people always have the same problems such as divorce, and swindle. Do Hwan is perfect for this role. He can show all emotions of his character.
Also female character, Bona shows her emotions. Her character isn't like other princesses. She doesn't think she is a flower and sits and lives a very quite life. I really like it. But maybe the writer should give more power to her.
In the beginning, I like this drama. However, after 12 episodes something gets in boring. A lot of crying, everyone cries. I feel I watch the same scene and the story doesn't flow.
In the end, the writer tries to add a sad ending. Characters wait 3 years for nothing and then when they meet its like ''Okay, we had been separated, but we see each other no problem anymore''. -_- She can live freely, but they wait for nothing. It is not a tragedy.
I like bromance. King, Han Su ve Ji Sun's friendship is beautiful and funny. Song Geon Hee who play king role, is very good actor. He generally plays support role but I think he is a scene-stealer :)

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Only watched this for Woo Do Hwan

The acting saved this drama. Woo Do Hwan is making us laugh and cry in the same episode.. yes he can do that. On top of that, Bona is outstanding in her role as FM, this is the first drama i watched of hers and she did not disappoint.

For the story, I felt like the writer was torn between comedy and tragedy, and couldnt really choose so this happened. So many unnecessary deaths (Im looking at u the king who decided to kill Eun Soo for no fucking reason...) followed with exagerated comedic moments. Also wassup with Woo Do Hwan's sisters always dying in historical dramas ?

One thing that i really wished going into this drama was to have mostly independant episodes with different storys every time like "if u wish upon me" or "tomorrow" and im glad we kinda go that, so thats what i really appreciated it and continued watching it. Even tho, oh so miraculously every case ML was given lead to him gettin closer to his revenge...

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So disapointed in the ending arc, too many misunderstandings

I initially loved most of the episodes, for me I always love when there's an over-arching plot that hangs in the background of the show, in this case, the revenge element for his family. Each episode has a new case for our main character and its fun to watch. However, it slows down in the ladder half and is dragged down by misunderstandings.

I fell in love with how fast the romance was, between our main characters. But again in the ending arc it's filled with misunderstandings and the second lead getting in the way. It was so frustrating to watch. I don't want to spoil what exactly it was, but I would not recommend this drama because it just changes so much from the beginning. Once again disappointed by a drama that hooked me in the first episode but could not keep its pace in the end.

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The acting is good and the overall story is there but...

I really enjoyed the combination of actors in this drama and of course woo do hwan never disappoints with his characters particularly the archetype of hansoo which he plays very well. Bona and N also impressed me in the first half but I feel likee as the story went on the princess became more and more one dimensional, yes she was almost a bird trap in a cage but why did we not see pull more power in the palace, even if the royal family standing was weak, she could have done something right? or at least tried because it felt like the last 2-4 eps were just showing scenes that happened at different times without showing how we got to each of these scenes resulting in this lack of depth to the emotion the characters were experiencing because we didn't get to see how they got there, particularly the time skip and the last scene like at least tell me how they all reunited again?? but I did like the message and themeing across the whole show about justice and writing the first edition and revised edition of the law, just wish they could have focused more on that rather than what we were given.

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