Arang and the Magistrate (2012)

While Kim Eun O is looking all around the country for his mother, he meets the ghost A Rang. While she fought for her ghostly life, he saw her hair pin and since it was the one he gave his mother, he saved the girl to get more information about his mothers whereabouts. At the same time, A Rang is actually looking for her memories, so she can find out who she is and who killed her. And since the gods Yeom La and Jade made it that way, those two have a closer destiny than they thought.

This ancient fantasy drama has many elements, that makes it enjoyable. For example showing the gods and how they live was aways a great way to amuse me. The production company really seems to use fog, since they used the fog machine whenever possible. I still liked the background and landscape they used. To me it looked like they tried really hard, to make the surroundings fit perfectly for the scene they are showing. They did well! Sadly I can't say that about the OST. This OST sometimes was epic and good, and other times I wondered how they thought that the song would fit the drama. It was a regular up and down of feeling the scene more intensely because of the music or getting all emotions destroyed because of it.

Now, for the important part: The story was not bad! I think it is exciting! If they could have made it into 16 episodes... The thing is, whenever there was some kind of questions to lead one step closer to their goal, I could answer it in seconds. But they needed 5 episodes to figure it out. Maybe it was made obvious, because it's not a detective drama. But then again, it gets boring quite easily, if you already know it and the characters don't act. Especially, when one of them is pressured with time.

What also kind of bugged me is the missing chemistry between the two lead characters. They were cute together, they ware both beautiful. But when they kissed or looked at each other, I felt like it wasn't that emotional. No matter what ending both of them have, I feel like I wouldn't be all too touched. I kept watching for the puzzle, not for the lovestory. Which is kind of sad, since they focused on love a lot.

So, I really liked to watch the drama, but the lack of emotion made me give it only 4*. And barely 4*. Watch it, if you like ancient dramas or the actors or need an easy quiz to solve.

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I love how these stories portray men protecting their women! Life contains good and evil in all aspects of life. I also love how the writers of this drama combat evils or demons. Lee Joon Gi was great in this Drama Series, he showed passion, and emotions, and brought his martial arts to the screen. I love this actor's acting abilities. His main lady lead Shin Ma Ah also is awesome in her acting skills as well. Lee Joon Gi is on my Favorite Actors list so what I need to say about him it is already listed. I want to thank the writer(s), producers, visual effects, musicians, music scores, and the rest of the cast for an outstanding job.

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I actually watched this drama because I`m a huge fan of Min-ah since MGIAG era so I gave it a go. It caught my attention at first since it was really unique and intriguing. It was really funny too especially the Shaman. But as it went on I was casually losing interest in it and I find myself just skipping parts because its either boring or just plain infuriating. In other words, its so slow paced that I just wanted to drop the whole of it. I don`t know how there are 20 episodes when they could have done a 16 episodes. Its just that there are some parts where its not even needed in the drama and you`d just be wondering why its even there. Also, I`m kind of unsatisfied for the ending. The kids were cure tho.

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If you are looking to get into historical kdramas (saeguks as they are known) this is definitely a drama to begin with. The world building is glorious and the story plot in itself is incredible. You are left waiting on tenterhooks till the very end!

And of course, where would a good drama be without a stellar cast. Believe me when I say this, every single role in this drama was so well casted. Kudos to the three main leads though, Lee Jun-ki, Shin Min-a and Yeon Woo-jin. They all did a fantastic job and the chemistry that Shin Min-a has with both the leads is incredible.

Loved this drama all the way to the very end!

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I just finished this drama and all I can say is wow! I don't think I have seen a more beautiful drama. Everything about it can be summed up by that one word: beautiful. It was visually stunning, the music was superb, and the acting was brilliant. I rarely enjoy a drama this much, but I really enjoyed this one to bits. I thought the story was original and the balance of humor and drama was just right. The romance was beautiful. For a fantasy story, it was done very realistically. Nothing seemed rushed and everything just fell into place. I don't get at all how some people thought it was boring. I was hooked from the first episode. This is one I would definitely recommend to those that appreciate really good drama.

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Hy guys.... i think this drama is not really the best. I think the story is to long-winded and it doesn't draws you in. It's similar to all the melodrama/romantic comedy dramas but i think it has a special something in it. The thing i like the most about this drama is that there are many stories going on but they will have the same end. I think the drama is a little to predictable and in the main part you usually know what's going to happen. In my opinion it's most similar to the drama my girlfriend is a gumiho. I think the best actress for this role is Shin Min Ah. It really matches whit her looks and her stile of acting. I still think the Gumiho was better but this is not bad at all, so if you liked My girlfriend is a Gumiho make shore to check it out! :D

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Excitement turned dread.

Honestly the positives mentioned below are mainly my thoughts for the first 6 episodes of this show. Once we hit episode 7 it began to lag a lot and lost most of it's charm.
It was soooo much fun at the beginning- surprisingly so. I was not expecting much to be honest, the rating on MDL is a little lower than most dramas and I haven't seen it be talked about elsewhere.
Lee Joon Gi and Shin Min Ah have fantastic chemistry, which I also wasn’t expecting. I love Shin Min Ah and am… neutral on Lee Joon Gi. I like him sometimes (My Girl, Flower of Evil), sometimes not (Scholar who walks the night)- but I think it's all on direction or the script because here his character has such personality (opposed to his usual more serious roles). He really shines here, and I believe Shin Min Ah heightens that as well due to their chemistry and ability to goof with eachother convincingly.
Yeon Woo Jin is great as always too. Had an interesting character arc overall.
Hwang Bo Ra is sooooo cute in hanbok! I had never seen her in a sageuk before but I think it really suits her.
The character Dol Soe was insanely annoying, and it would have been an improvement to have him omitted from the show entirely.
I didn't care for the heaven/hell characters, or the villains (except when Yeon Woo Jin was involved with them), so it mainly became a continued watch for the characters I did like and not the story.

The plot is initially fun, plain and simple. When your lead characters are so likeable it's easy to make a simple story like this enjoyable.
It definitely would have benefited from being the standard 16 episodes instead of 20 though. It became very drawn out. I feel like they packed all its appeal in the first chunk and then we were stuck with the rest slowly occurring.

It got to the point where I was struggling along, fighting to finish, so during episode 14 I finally decided to drop it. It's a real shame because I was having so much fun with it at first.

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