Shining Inheritance (2009)

I really liked this drama, one of my faborite dramas; this is because it has a interesting plot, with great characters; it makes you hate someone the people in the drama!

Also for people who are planning to watch it, it has a great ending; I personally jumped, screamign 'Yay!' until my dad came up stairs, oopss!

Anyways, the acting is very good and so real, it also has some really cute scenes that will make you smile so much your jaws will ache! haha!

I really enjoyed it, the only thing is that the episodes amount is a bit long, however all the episodes are interesting and none of them are boring or anything. I think episode 27 is the best!

Well, enjoy this drama; hope you will like it as much as I do!

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It's so hard to find the words to describe what it's like watching this drama! I have started this review a dozen times now, and I still can't figure out what I want to say! So, I am forgoing my own convention, and breaking it down into the scoring template.

Story: The story is a mix of insanely unbelievable coincidences, overly used cliches with a heaping dash of wonderful thrown in. Even when they were completely disregarding the intelligence of the viewers by not only having her father being helped by one love interest but as well as having the lost brother being helped by the other love interest, this show was still a really great watch. Just be prepared to suspend disbelief in more ways than one.

Acting/Cast: This drama was way, way too long though. I didn't even like it all that much for the first 13 or 14 episodes, I persisted only so that I could finally start Flower Boy Next Door. But then Lee Seung Gi's character stops being such a self-centered jerk and starts to grow and mature and I was hooked. What new catastrophe would the evil witch and her daughter create next? Would Jun Se ever stop being the absolute perfect guy? Would the witch and her mother ever realize there was just zero way to win with the absurdity of the lies they spouted? These questions needed answers!

Music: I honestly can't remember a single song! Except for one that my friend pointed out sounded like a song from Full House. Which only made me realize how much the lead girl looks like Song Hye Kyo sometimes!

Rewatch Value: I rewatch, A LOT. There are very few dramas that I have seen that I can say I would never go back and rewatch my favorite scenes from. But I don't see myself ever going back and watching anything over again from this one. Too much sad and ridiculousness. I loved it, of course, but I don't think there is anything I want to go back for.

Overall: This drama is worth watching, even if you end up skimming a lot of it, like I was tempted to do. And did do for a couple of scenes, like everything to do with Jun Se's dad. This drama isn't an overly happy one, in fact for the most part it's pretty angst-filled. So be ready to shed a few tears if you decide to start it!

PS. Moon Chae Won is an AMAZING actress! I have never seen an actor or actress cry as naturally as she does, and even in midst of my deep hatred for Seung Mi, she was able to spark sympathy in me.

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I'm torn between the 9 and 10. It's now amongst my top tier of favorite kdramas. I'd give it a 9.5, so I round up for this XD.
Let me just say out of the 60 kdramas I've watched thus far, this is the longest one at 28 episodes. I typically try to avoid anything over 20 episodes. It's why I pretty much don't watch American television anymore, because the shows never end. Even in some of the 20 episode dramas, it can drag a bit during the later episodes. And yet ironic, this being the longest one I've seen and I didn't feel like it dragged at all. Maybe I was just prepared for it, but it kept a good story, and solid subplots throughout, with well written and developing characters. Sure, a lot may look at this drama and say it has everything your typical kdrama has, but unlike most, it writes it in well. If I had one word to describe what Kdramas are typically about, I would say "misunderstandings". It's the foundation of pretty much every one. Of course this one is no different. However, I really didn't feel it was because of ignorance or stupidity (well, maybe except for the father). Sure, the ditsy mother and daughter combo can be irritating and they need absolutely everything spelled out for them, but they aren't amongst the main characters. Everyone who is really important in this drama actually seems to use their head most of the time, and when a misunderstanding frustrated me, there seemed to actually be legitimate reasoning behind it, unlike a lot of dramas where it is just straight up annoying naivety. It's well written and the cast is great.
I'm in love with Han Hyo Joo, XD and yes it is the reason I even watched this. She is fantastic as always. I'm a big fan of Lee Seung Gi as well, and he was great. The grandma is such a refreshing character too. By far the smartest character in the drama, when it's the parent and grandparent figures in most dramas that are usually the most hair pull worthy. But she is super likable and never does anything to frustrate. Ironically, as the character is supposed to be old fashioned, and yet she feels like the complete opposite most of the time. The villain of the story is great here too and I really couldn't believe how evil they were at times, and yet I've never felt so much sympathy toward a villain during final episodes. You always want their comeuppance, but here they brought me to tears.
Overall, just really great and never a dull moment. Definitely amongst my favorites.
As for the music. IDK, maybe I'm just burned out on drama osts, that nothing really stuck out to me. Or maybe I was always so interested in the show that I just didn't care. I usually like a lot of drama osts. But lets be honest, so many of them get made, that they are usually uninspired.

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I loved this drama so much. This drama what got me to know Lee Seung Gi and Han Hyo Joo. I think that they are amazing actors. They have their characters down to the T! The acting is well done. The chemistry with the family is awesome.

The story was new to me the time I watched it so I thought that it was an original story to me.

The Music was not memorable. I gave an 8 for a re-watch value is because there were very sad moments in the drama and there would be some of the scenes I would skip because I got frustrated at those scenes but there were funny moments too.

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This was a really good drama. I will say I think it wins the prize for the amount of lies told in one drama.
I am glad I watched this while I was on vacation, because once I started watching, I couldn't stop
The acting was fabulous. Han Hyo Joo has been one of my favorites for a long time and she did not disappoint as Eun Sung
Lee Seung Gi as Hwan was someone I started out hating and grew to love as his story comes to life. Ban Hyo Jung as the grandmother was superb. So many good actors, difficult to mention every one. One more I have to mention though is Yun Joon Suk. as Eun Woo. What a great job he did portraying the autistic brother of Eun Sung
Much can be learned from this drama. To mention just a few,liars never prosper, have a goal in life, love those in your life because you never know how long they will be here, follow your heart, stand up for what you believe in.
I only gave this drama a 6 for rewatch value. Mainly because it is so long. I think there are a few episodes I may go back and watch but I don't think I will rewatch the entire drama

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2009/SBS

Once again my preference to SBS is confirmed with Shining Inheritance. Having a few of the more recent SBS drama's (among others) it was a welcome surprise to see so many familiar faces. No doubt this will continue the more different drama's I watch. I just couldn't help but notice how Shining Inheritance shares much of its (supporting) cast with 49 Days and City Hunter, two of my favorite drama's so far. After seeing only a few episodes, I could understand why it had received such high ratings on the first airing. I was even more happily surprised that my fear for it being too long (28 episodes) was being proved wrong along the way. Every time I anticipated the plot to slow down or become repetitive, a new trick was unveiled that kept me interested.

The story line and the tools used in order to maintain that high interest are what really set this drama apart from others. While contemporaries such as Secret Garden may excel in their production value, City Hunter in their soundtrack and both of them in acting, it is the script that distinguishes Shining Inheritance. Very loosely based on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, the brilliant twists in this drama perform very well to hide the few shortcomings that always pop up in (Korean) drama's such as excessive melodrama, unrealistically close encounters and predictable plot devices. I'm looking forward to a drama that could match or beat Shining Inheritance story line-wise, though. Know any? Let me know! It should also be noted that the producers of this drama do such a good job at cliffhanger episode endings that it's almost cruel at times.

The acting in this drama is well above the acceptable standard, with the large supporting performing even better than the main cast. Each are given their adequate screen time (except perhaps for store manager Lee Joon Young, played by Baek Seung-Hyun) and many familiar faces from aforementioned dramas's make a great appearance, particularly 49 Days' Bae Soo-Bin (as Jun-Se) and from City Hunter as well as 49 Days, Choi Jeong-Woo (as Jun-Se's father Park Tae-Su). Familiar faces such as Kim Mi-Suk (as the evil stepmother) also prove the older actors are regularly outshining the younger main cast. Han Hyo-Joo as the female lead Eun-Seong delivers her breakthrough performance, which I personally found more impressive than male lead Lee Seung-Ki's acting. He does well in his following drama My Girlfriend is a Gumiho in 2010 though. There's very little to complain about with this great cast, although I found the characters Woo-Jeong (Hwan's sister) and Yeong-Ran (Hwan's mother) a little extreme, though that's probably not the actresses' fault. I wish to see Min Yeong-Won (as Hye-Ri) in a bigger role some time though. She's too good of an actress just to play in supporting roles.

Similar to when I reviewed Formidable Rivals/Powerful Opponents earlier, this is also a drama that doesn't really stand out for its soundtrack or production value. Though don't take this as if it's really missing anything, it's just not memorable.

In short, it's really the story line and the supporting cast that make this drama quite exceptional. Don't be scared of its 28 hour length, it is used really well. Watch this drama if you can spare the time!

8/10

http://www.reddit.com/r/KDRAMA/comments/m3xya/shining_inheritancebrilliant_legacy???_??_2009sbs/

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This drama always had me at the edge of my seat! It never bored me to death at all. The suspense and the thrill of this drama was to die for! The acting was SUPERB!!! This drama made me shed so many tears even when it was just the 2nd episode. Each episode always had you hoping that everything would work out, but the evil wicked stepmother always made you angry and so did the stepsister. This drama is indeed like Cinderella but better. The stepmother always had you wishing that she could just die. Anyway this drama will have you going nuts. It's a great drama where you want characters to like each other, characters to go and just die, characters to just have some sense and speak up. So many secrets and lies....There are times where there were scenes that i literally punched the computer screen. It's one of those dramas where you can laugh and cry and feel the pain of the characters and see how much each and every one of them changes throughout the drama. I was very surprised at how they made their acting very realistic. You can't imagine how much pain she goes through in order for her to have the life she can finally have. This drama is very very well made. It has comedy, romance, drama, many many cliff-hangers.............what more could you ask for in a drama??? This is definitely one of the best I've seen so far!

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the story was good slow but good they could have finished this in 15 eps
the music was lovely the acting was stellar
the stepmother and daughter were so evil in this i brought out my hexes and voodoo doll (well i was going to buy one anyway)Seung ki was truly adorable and mean. halmoni (grandmother) needs five stars for her acting. She was also the grandmother on rooftop prince so it was nice to see her in a good role where so got more screen time.
the music was good as well. but i don't think i'll watch it again it needed more to the end for me to rewatch it.
the story is about a girl who goes through so much tragedy and how she bounces back and doesn't allow the bad thing that was done to her color her life (karma)she helps those who she can help even though she needs is herself
so overall i give it an 8 because there were some truly talented people in this movie

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I usually don't have that much patience for Drama's. I find the last few episodes take the longest to watch. I really like Seung Gi so I wanted to watch one of his dramas since he is just so cute. I watched him in 2 Days 1 Night and then i really wanted to watch this drama. When I saw that this drama had 28 episodes, I had convinced myself that I would drop it soon. But I loved it so much, that I watched all the episodes within a few days. The story was so amazing.

The acting and the story line just has what it takes to make you feel everything that the characters are feeling. I am not an easy person to make cry but I cried quite a few times during this drama. I liked that it was very family orientated and yet it managed to fit in just the right amount of drama and romance.

The characters' stories were quite predictable but it did have the odd twists from the actions of the 'villain' side of things. Even though the story was long, it felt like it wasn't long enough. In the end you feel like you want to see what happens next even though you know that it's over. It's like you end up searching for behind the scenes clips just to be able to see more things to do with this drama.

I high recommend this drama. It's nice to watch with family as well,or just to sit buy yourself as you watch handsome and pretty actors work to the best of their capability. It gives you a total emotional roller coaster with tears, laughter, happiness, sadness etc.

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This drama had the whole package for me personally.This drama in my opinion was excellent but with a few errors. I couldn't belive when I first watched it how similar my life was with the main character(not the rich thing though:D). She has an autistic younger brother like myself so she is very helpful to him. I realised that this had to be believable and it really was. The autistic boys acting was spot on and she really did care for him thorughout the story. But anyways back to the drama.The drama was fresh for me as I've never seen a drama with so many elements to it.It is very complex at times and you find yourself stuck to your computer screen. The acting is incredible and the way the bad girl(Moon Chae Won)is able to act so innocent and so evil at the same time is really incredible.A few flaws with it is the length although time passes quickly in the drama you may find yourself a few times screaming at a character to think for a second. But overall it isn't boring.And finally the chemistry between Han Hyo Joo and Lee Seung Ki is brilliant. I would definetly give this drama a ten out of ten and reccommend it for everyone!!

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