gibby
You should watch it.
It’s now been several weeks since I finished Gaksital, and I’ve been thinking about how to write this review since well before the end, but nothing has been coherent. I’ve got eight pages of notes, many of which are repetitive; hopefully this will make sense.
To be honest, my expectations starting out were already sky high. City Hunter and Healer are two of my favorite dramas of all time. Going into Gaksital, I was promised action sequences, secret identities, and a superhero story. There was no way I wasn’t going to like it.
In short, Gaksital is a lot of things, not all of it good. If you asked me to list what this show does right and wrong, the latter list might be a lot longer. It’s remarkable how some technically good dramas fail to get my heart, but Gaksital for all its faults is one that I think I’ll remember for a long time.
The Story:
At its heart, Gaksital is a simple story about a man and a movement. But while the big picture is uncomplicated, the smaller character stories and their relationships are all tangled. It’s a wonderful mess, because part of good storytelling is good character development, and Gaksital had a lot of that planned for us.
Gaksital is quite literally, a big story. I don’t just mean that it’s epic (although it is). At 28 60-minute episodes short, this is officially the longest kdrama I’ve ever watched in full. Was it tightly written? No. Could it have been several episodes shorter? Maybe. Did I love it despite those things? Duh.
I felt like I was reading a book. The story takes its time to set itself up, which I actually wasn’t sad about. I knew vaguely where it was going, and I was more than happy to let it take me along for the ride. It didn’t go exactly where I wanted it to go in the middle, and it was occasionally repetitive, but ultimately Gaksital was never boring.
Characters:
The great thing about Gaksital is that we start out with all our main characters in place. They’ve got their goals and agendas. But it’s never static. Their attitudes towards each other are ever changing, but they’re still recognizable as the same people at their core.
We open with Kang-to (Joo-won) being terrible. He’s hated by the Korean people, but he’s hard to hate as a hero, because we know he’s working his way up in the world in the only way he knows how: by siding with the Japanese. And among the Japanese police, he’s somewhat an underdog, having worked his way up from the very bottom because of his heritage. The show sets up a moral conflict within him so well. Hating his actions but also being on his side was my favorite aspect of the opening episodes, because he wasn’t good, but he was fighting against a bigger bad.
The thing about morally gray characters and questionable pasts is that it gives a layer beneath the surface. We understand the bad guys that much better, because our “hero” understands them. I get to watch a man’s motivations and actions totally change while it was apparent that he’s still the same person on the inside. While Kang-to was never unpredictable, he had the moral conflict that makes the anti-hero story so compelling, and Joo-won didn’t hesitate to show it to us, even though the writing wasn’t always there.
Most of the rest of the main cast is similarly layered, but I do want to express disappointment with the female lead, Oh Mok-dan played by Jin Se-yeon. Ultimately Mok Dan isn’t a strong character. She’s a strong person, I’m sure, but she doesn’t have the same depth as the rest of the main cast. She plays her role and plays it well, but often is reduced to a plot device, which is sad. I wonder if she would’ve been more compelling if she had been played by a different actress, but I don’t think there was ever much to her character in the writing to begin with.
The Romance:
I dunno, it was fine. This show isn’t a romance, and it doesn’t pretend to be. I believed it, and it got me in the heart, but ultimately romance and love is all a vehicle for something else. It’s often what drives the characters. Gaksital isn’t about people falling in love. It’s about people being in love and the terrible and great things they do because of it. I felt like the romance served its purpose, but this will never be a couple I think about later.
The OST:
I’m not normally one for romantic angst, but I kind of loved it here mostly because my favorite song would play every time the characters were sad and pining. As a whole, the OST was great, and it always fit the mood. The action sequences and the dramatic moments all had their music. It took me so long to find the album on Spotify, but I have now and I’m happy.
The Cast:
First and foremost: Joo-won. I’m officially obsessed with him. While I have little to no interest in his other work, I’ll probably watch everything he puts out in the future. Joo-won is so great in this. Even when his hair is weird and his eyebrow is ever furrowed, there’s something about his energy and the directing that makes him magnetic on screen, and it’s a pleasure to watch. I started going through Joo-won withdrawal even before I finished the show, and Imma be watching all his 1N2D episodes on YouTube so hopefully that’ll tide me over until Alice comes out.
The thing about Joo-won in this role is that even when I didn’t like him, I still liked him. I was always with him, and I could feel what he was feeling. It’s not unique to him, but with the heightened emotions in this show, it was super noticeable.
Park Ki-woong: This guy is great. Or maybe his character was great. But he was great in this role; that’s undeniable. Talk about perfect casting. He’s so likeable until he’s not, and I loved watching his arc. I started Kkondae Intern as soon as I finished this, because I missed him so much.
Jin Se-yeon: I mentioned previously that I wasn’t really a fan of her performance. But I found out later that she was only like 18 at the time, and now I feel untalented and lazy, but such is life.
The Hair:
I had a lot of questions, and some issues. Maybe it’s a 1930s thing. Maybe it’s a 2010’s thing. Either way I often had problems with Kang-to’s hair. There’s one segment of episodes where it was good. Gaksital’s hair was always on point though. Perfectly windswept. Perfectly badass.
A brief description of some less-good things:
This writer has a love for setup that goes from intriguing to borderline frustrating. The characters are all smart and take their time to plan their actions, but I wanted to shake them into acting faster.
This show could have been a really great character study, but I feel like some of the development happens too fast to feel genuine.
There’s a revenge plot in here that feels half forgotten about for most of the drama.
Yeah, the bad stuff doesn’t matter anymore. I love this show.
To be honest, my expectations starting out were already sky high. City Hunter and Healer are two of my favorite dramas of all time. Going into Gaksital, I was promised action sequences, secret identities, and a superhero story. There was no way I wasn’t going to like it.
In short, Gaksital is a lot of things, not all of it good. If you asked me to list what this show does right and wrong, the latter list might be a lot longer. It’s remarkable how some technically good dramas fail to get my heart, but Gaksital for all its faults is one that I think I’ll remember for a long time.
The Story:
At its heart, Gaksital is a simple story about a man and a movement. But while the big picture is uncomplicated, the smaller character stories and their relationships are all tangled. It’s a wonderful mess, because part of good storytelling is good character development, and Gaksital had a lot of that planned for us.
Gaksital is quite literally, a big story. I don’t just mean that it’s epic (although it is). At 28 60-minute episodes short, this is officially the longest kdrama I’ve ever watched in full. Was it tightly written? No. Could it have been several episodes shorter? Maybe. Did I love it despite those things? Duh.
I felt like I was reading a book. The story takes its time to set itself up, which I actually wasn’t sad about. I knew vaguely where it was going, and I was more than happy to let it take me along for the ride. It didn’t go exactly where I wanted it to go in the middle, and it was occasionally repetitive, but ultimately Gaksital was never boring.
Characters:
The great thing about Gaksital is that we start out with all our main characters in place. They’ve got their goals and agendas. But it’s never static. Their attitudes towards each other are ever changing, but they’re still recognizable as the same people at their core.
We open with Kang-to (Joo-won) being terrible. He’s hated by the Korean people, but he’s hard to hate as a hero, because we know he’s working his way up in the world in the only way he knows how: by siding with the Japanese. And among the Japanese police, he’s somewhat an underdog, having worked his way up from the very bottom because of his heritage. The show sets up a moral conflict within him so well. Hating his actions but also being on his side was my favorite aspect of the opening episodes, because he wasn’t good, but he was fighting against a bigger bad.
The thing about morally gray characters and questionable pasts is that it gives a layer beneath the surface. We understand the bad guys that much better, because our “hero” understands them. I get to watch a man’s motivations and actions totally change while it was apparent that he’s still the same person on the inside. While Kang-to was never unpredictable, he had the moral conflict that makes the anti-hero story so compelling, and Joo-won didn’t hesitate to show it to us, even though the writing wasn’t always there.
Most of the rest of the main cast is similarly layered, but I do want to express disappointment with the female lead, Oh Mok-dan played by Jin Se-yeon. Ultimately Mok Dan isn’t a strong character. She’s a strong person, I’m sure, but she doesn’t have the same depth as the rest of the main cast. She plays her role and plays it well, but often is reduced to a plot device, which is sad. I wonder if she would’ve been more compelling if she had been played by a different actress, but I don’t think there was ever much to her character in the writing to begin with.
The Romance:
I dunno, it was fine. This show isn’t a romance, and it doesn’t pretend to be. I believed it, and it got me in the heart, but ultimately romance and love is all a vehicle for something else. It’s often what drives the characters. Gaksital isn’t about people falling in love. It’s about people being in love and the terrible and great things they do because of it. I felt like the romance served its purpose, but this will never be a couple I think about later.
The OST:
I’m not normally one for romantic angst, but I kind of loved it here mostly because my favorite song would play every time the characters were sad and pining. As a whole, the OST was great, and it always fit the mood. The action sequences and the dramatic moments all had their music. It took me so long to find the album on Spotify, but I have now and I’m happy.
The Cast:
First and foremost: Joo-won. I’m officially obsessed with him. While I have little to no interest in his other work, I’ll probably watch everything he puts out in the future. Joo-won is so great in this. Even when his hair is weird and his eyebrow is ever furrowed, there’s something about his energy and the directing that makes him magnetic on screen, and it’s a pleasure to watch. I started going through Joo-won withdrawal even before I finished the show, and Imma be watching all his 1N2D episodes on YouTube so hopefully that’ll tide me over until Alice comes out.
The thing about Joo-won in this role is that even when I didn’t like him, I still liked him. I was always with him, and I could feel what he was feeling. It’s not unique to him, but with the heightened emotions in this show, it was super noticeable.
Park Ki-woong: This guy is great. Or maybe his character was great. But he was great in this role; that’s undeniable. Talk about perfect casting. He’s so likeable until he’s not, and I loved watching his arc. I started Kkondae Intern as soon as I finished this, because I missed him so much.
Jin Se-yeon: I mentioned previously that I wasn’t really a fan of her performance. But I found out later that she was only like 18 at the time, and now I feel untalented and lazy, but such is life.
The Hair:
I had a lot of questions, and some issues. Maybe it’s a 1930s thing. Maybe it’s a 2010’s thing. Either way I often had problems with Kang-to’s hair. There’s one segment of episodes where it was good. Gaksital’s hair was always on point though. Perfectly windswept. Perfectly badass.
A brief description of some less-good things:
This writer has a love for setup that goes from intriguing to borderline frustrating. The characters are all smart and take their time to plan their actions, but I wanted to shake them into acting faster.
This show could have been a really great character study, but I feel like some of the development happens too fast to feel genuine.
There’s a revenge plot in here that feels half forgotten about for most of the drama.
Yeah, the bad stuff doesn’t matter anymore. I love this show.
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