A review of a Kdrama Series called “Descendants of the Sun”
Descendants of the Sun was a highly anticipated drama for 2016. Starring in this Series were four of the most awaited actors and actresses in Korea: Song Joong Ki, Song Hye-Kyo, Jin Goo, and Kim-Ji Won. “The series was a major hit in South Korea where it drew a peak audience share of 38.8%, and gained popularity across Asia." (Wikipedia). The film also received several awards such as being the Most Popular Show of the year by Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation. "And everyone was eagerly awaiting the drama since it was Song Joong Ki's comeback after being discharged from the Military." (Kdrama Kisses). Other than that, this drama was also popular for showcasing the great landscape of a fictional city called Uruk/Urk.
Descendants of the Sun was an Action-Love genre of a tv series. It revolved around the story of a Special Forces captain named Yoo Si Jin and a doctor named Kang Mo-yeon who fell in love with each other while serving for their country in the midst of crisis. The film also includes a story of a supporting couple.
Captain Yoo Si Jin was a character played by Song Joong Ki. He was a captain of the Special Forces who fell in love with a doctor whom he saw in a hospital he went to-- Dr. Kang Mo Yeon played by Song Hye Kyo, a level-headed doctor who values her oath so much. She was the type of person who says everything that’s on her mind, and has a strong personality. She was also that type of person who holds a lot of pride in her abilities. Even though she was that type of person who also has speaking abilities that don’t lose to anyone else’s, it seems that she could not just resist her feelings towards Captain Yoo Si Jin.
Seo Dae Yong had been involved in aiding many disaster areas. He was the more serious type of person than Si Jin. He was also the one who fights stronger than Si Jin. Though, he was a very serious type of person, he still had a soft heart and still always there for his best friend, Si Jin. He got involved into a “fake relationship” with a girl named Yoon Myung Joo, who was also a soldier. This “fake relationship” eventually became true. Having his serious and tough image, he had a hard time expressing himself to Myung Joo.
Yoon Myung Joo was an army surgeon. She had interest on getting engaged in a relationship with Dae Yong because she saw his strong and serious personality. Myung Joo was also that type of person who has her eyes set on only one man. She was the General’s daughter so it was kind of hard for her to really admit her feelings for Dae Yong to her father since he already set someone for her; which later revealed to be Captain Yoo Si Jin.
The story started with Captain Yoo Si Jin together with his Special Forces Alpha Team, defending their land against their rival North Korea. It already showed its amazing cinematography and its captivating action scenes; showcasing the talent of the actors on combat fighting. In this scene, Captain Si Jin engaged a knife fight with a Korean captain also, leaving him a slash in his abdomen. After having that mission, Si Jin and Dae Yong had a leave from duty. While having their leave from duty, they encountered a disturbance outside. Some guy committed a crime and stole someone’s motorcycle. Being loyal to their duty, Si Jin and Dae Yong had to capture the thief who did something bad and it happened that the thief fell from the motorcycle he was on. After being successful on capturing the bad guy, Dae Yong lost attention on the thief while giving him first aid and lost his phone to the thief. They went to the hospital where the thief was brought to. There, Si Jin fell in love with Dr. Kang Mo Yeon in their first meeting. He experienced “Love at first sight”.
After being caught by Mo Yeon’s charm, Si Jin decided to have a check-up from time to time in the hospital where Mo Yeon is working on the slash he had in the fight with the North Koreans. And that’s how their love story started. It was because of his being passionate about his fascination with Mo Yeon. They started getting to know each other and initiating some date for them to have time together but Si Jin often not go to their planned date because of the missions that suddenly come. Being not able to meet up for several times already, Mo Yeon decided to talk to Si Jin and stop seeing each other already. It is also because it seems that Si Jin is a very mysterious guy for her for not telling what he ready does in his job. But Si Jin, without her knowing, has to really not tell anyone about their job because of some protocols in the army. However, Mo Yeon was really having a hard time with her job because of some unfairness in their department.
Captain Si Jin, together with his Alpha Team, was deployed to support or guard those people in the city of Urk and to help with the on-going construction of the plantation that the Group of Companies of Mo Yeon’s hospital was making. Eight months have passed, and he was already having good times with his co-Special Forces; he was also done with dealing with the past that he had gone through with Mo Yeon. Until one day, Mo Yeon was to be deployed too, together with her own team, to this place called Urk to maintain the medical shelter; also to give aid to the workers of the plantation of their company. Thus, the start of their new chapter as being lovers again. They gained their passionate love with each other by having some duties together. They began building their relationship again while serving for their country.
One day, a huge disaster came to the city of Urk. A very strong earthquake struck the city and everything just disoriented to its original place. The plantation that Mo Yeon’s hospital’s project got collapsed because of the earthquake. The incident happened while the workers were busy with constructing it so great number of people got involved in the collapsing of the plantation. The incident was brought to the teams of Captain Yoo Si Jin and Doctor Kang Mo Yeon for them to give aid to the people who were in that situation.
Captain Yoo Si Jin and Doctor Kang Mo Yeon had gone through a lot throughout their whole stay in Urk. They had built their relationship well together with their fulfilling of duties. I would not elaborate more on every detail about their story. This Series is really long and the given limit would not be really enough to review every element of it.
The reason why Descendants of the Sun was one of the highly anticipated drama of 2016 was because of its unique approach of what love really looks like, its cinematography, and its showcase of great places around the world and great talents in the industry. Action and Love had a really good combination in this drama that’s why a lot of people enjoyed watching it.
However, even if it was a stunning drama to watch, there will always be some areas of improvements. There will always some weak points of it too. As what the other reviewers of this drama are saying, this series was a bit overrated. Maybe because they already had big expectations from the actors and actresses in the series. True, because we cannot really refute the fact that these stars are much-admired in the industry.
As what a reviewer said in her review of this series, “I know I might be upsetting some people by saying this, but the bald truth is, this show is far from well-written.” This series showed numbers of inconsistencies in terms of the flow of the story itself. They, somehow, focused on the scene where there was a huge earthquake that struck Urk. It covered almost ¼ of the number of episodes of the drama. Well, it showed the greatness of the two main characters in terms of their duty, but it certainly was not that relevant to the issue that their company were having.
Different points were already discussed. And I think that the series, itself, made the people fall in love with its great talents, its great cinematography, and the overall impact of it to the fans of this series. I personally loved watching it, most certainly, because of the chills it gave me while watching it. It made me feel as if I was really part of the characters in the story. It was also because of the places they had displayed in the drama, the OST’s (Official Sound Track), and the stars who starred in the series.
What I learned from this Series was that, what is destined for you will always find its way to come to you. By being inspired by this Series, I came to a realization about the truthfulness about a relationship. The video I saw over the net says that a relationship is just like a ship. It said there that the true test of a ship is not how beautiful it looks on a dock, it’s how well it does in a storm. A true test of a relationship is not how being perfect it is. Not how beautiful it looks like. It is about how it survives in a midst of a storm or conflicts. Just like in this Series, even though they were challenged by numbers of disasters, whether literally or disasters between the two of them, they still managed to use their skills and passionate love to conquer them all. It also applies in the real life. Don’t let conflicts or the so-called disasters derail you in the path you desire to take on and just continue with living your life to the fullest. Just wait for the right time, stay focused, and love humbly. Just like what Si Jin said in the Series, “The reason we do what we do is because it must be done. I believe that I fight for the peace and freedom of the land we live on.” Live must be lived on because of what we are fighting for. Even though we may encounter a lot of obstacles in life, especially in love, we must still fight for what we desire to be and to have.
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