King Gwanggaeto- The Great Bore

YAWN!!!  Yeah that's about as good as it gets for King Gwanggaeto- The Great Conqueror from me.  I am sorry KBS, but I always find your historical dramas more drawn out than MBC.  Just my preference though I guess.  This drama was way too long for the storyline that it was telling and I think that was it's biggest flaw.  It started out so rushed and confused, which I found extremely disappointing considering it had 92 episodes in total.

We begin with an aging King narrating his youthful exploits as he struggled to protect his people and his nation, he then in turn takes a huge calligraphy brush and proceeds to etch some huge Chinese characters which I assume read the country's name.   We then head to the past and meet Dam Deok as a regular prince and the Ghost General for the Gorguryeo empire.  Now I love a good tale on Gorguryeo, based on my tracking of Jumong and Daemushin and of course the Hodong tortured love from Ja Myung Go.  He fights to protect his country and family with his excellent military skills and we begin in an already conflict filled war between the nations on the plain trying to obtain their own power. 

I initially thought, they would take us further back to childhood to see how they got to this point, after all with a 92 episode count there is plenty of time for that, however, that never materialised.  We continue to watch as Dam Deok goes from being a regular, prince, to crown prince, to king.  He goes through a series of difficult situations including internal conflict within the court, after all it wouldn't be a sageuk drama without those elements of people working for the royal court trying to control the royal family in order to get more power for themselves. There is even the issue of Dam Deok's marriage as a means of gaining power and control over him, an fascinating military coup, and a power struggle for Dam Deok to assert himself.  At times I also shed a tear when certain characters passed away. 

However, I find that after Dam Deok became king the drama took a turn towards the monotonous and boring.  It was all war, war, war, war.  Whether with the Houang, the Khitan, the Mughals, Baekjae, or Silla, it was constant war.  Dam Deok would do something, the other countries would retaliate, and then another country would form and alliance and it was a process that repeated continually.  There was no intrigue to mystery, no more character development, no love story, no heartache, just plain and simple war.  20 episodes straight with no real plot development, only Dam Deok giving inspiration words about the protection of his people being paramount, and then his followers realising how "wise" he is.  It lost me along the way.  It got the point where I skipped ahead a few episodes to see if it would make a difference, and it felt like if there was no change.  I missed one war and was then in the mist of another.

For me, I enjoy sageuk's to tell a tale.  It is the development of the characters and their growth  from weak individual to strong one.  A leader that is faced with turmoil and overcomes this to lead his people confidently.  While King Gwanggaeto does have this, it looses its focus along the way.  What I find most interesting was that the drama was slated for longer broadcasting.  This is one time I have no idea why.  Perhaps it is due to my lack of deep knowledge of Korean history that I could not relate to this drama, however, that was not the case for Jumong: Prince of Legend.  Though that too began with Jumong as an adolescent, I found the tale to be coherent.  I could watch Song Il Gook transform from a playboy weakling, to the powerful first king of Gorguryeo, and support him as I watched.  In the case of DamDeok, I didn't really care.  There was no fascination or connection to the character.

For me it was not worth my time and effort to watch it.  I finished it by simply skipping through the later episodes.  So on the Bel scale it gets 1 out of 5.

According to Bel: It's not worth 92 hours of your life.