Dropped like a hot potato - Damo (2003)

I would love this to pieces. It would enter the hall of fame of my favourite dramas. But the director had to constantly move the camera in the fighting scenes and as a result destroy this drama for me.

Honestly this has everything to become a classic and timeless story, and for many it is a classic. The story revolves around a woman who works for the police office to help investigate crimes that involve women. She has a tragic past where her family was killed and was separated from her older brother. Her commander takes her under his protection and they grow closer to each other. She then meets the leader of the outlaws who is her older brother, but they don’t know it. I know I didn’t describe it really well, but this is a compelling story about duty, love and betrayal, where the writer has crafted three dimensional characters and a full world. And it feels very Korean. Nowadays, dramas tend to be very polished and modernized, but this is has so many details that make it so Korean and it is charming. 

Ha Ji Won was great here

I heard that this is the drama that catapulted Ha Ji Won to stardom and, after seeing it, I can say rightfully so. She was rough around the edges, but she emitted so much raw emotion. This is one of her finest performances. I think that she hasn’t surpassed her performance here in many of her later works. Of course, the rest of the cast did an excellent job too. The two leading men were convincing and the supporting cast had also their charm.

The commander

And the brother

The sole reason why I didn’t enjoy this drama while I loved certain pieces is the directing. I think the director tried to be very contemporary – this is one of the first fusion sagueks – but he didn’t have either the skills or the budget or both. After a point his style became very tiring and I didn’t pay attention anymore. So this is not dropped per se, I let it play in a corner while I did work in my laptop. But it equal to being dropped in my book. 

It is a miracle I managed to snapshot a scene where it wasnt blurry