The sword fights are passable, but you’ll cringe at how they usually miss the mark with modern combat. In the show ‘Empress Myung sung’ the Korean soldiers are (apparently) equipped with civil war era muskets, becasue they’re shown manually loading the gun with that stick. But after they’ll shoot a dozen rounds like it was semi automatic. I thought you couldn’t fire more than twice a minute, and that’s if you’re good. Funny stuff.

Saying that korean historical dramas are “highly fictionalized” is being generous. Those shows are typically more concerned with pandering to nationalism than depicting history.

But they have TREMENDOUS camp value, which is why I will always watch them. Canned sound effects, soap opera style monologues (with the subtle pause effect too), fight scenes straight out of a power ranger show, and Korean generals who can cut down 20 Japanese enemies. The Chinese / Japanese villains are so outlandishly evil that they could sub as batman nemesis. If the boundaries of logic suffocate you, these shows will provide immediate relief.

Thanks for the link, I got a posting up on it now. This is definitely welcoming news. I will be back again visiting Korea later this year.