1
Klio
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Is My Country: The New Age perfect drama? No, it isn’t & it most definitely has its own flaws like every other show. However, it’s closest to something I want to see in more dramas & it was able to make me feel so many different emotions while watching it. It has a good pacing, I never felt bored while watching it & never wished to skip any parts.
It’s character driven with complex and well portrayed characters and compelling relationships between them, amazing actors, lots of angst, good fighting scenes and interesting political game set in the past. Even though I could feel what’s going to happen in the end because so many things throughout the whole show led to it, I still went into every episode feeling anxious and excited.
What I loved the most about this drama were its characters: Nam Sun Ho, Seo Hwi and Bang Won. I felt their pain throughout the whole show, and even when they did horrible things I couldn’t hate or fault them for it because I could understand their reasoning. This drama does a great job at showing how things are never black and white but always grey, how people tend to do bad things with good intentions, how good deeds aren’t always followed with gratitude, and how circumstances and environment change good people into someone we view as monsters.
I strongly believe these three characters were inherently good people who were forced to do bad things in the turbulent times by the environment that allowed only the strongest to survive. I could write a whole essay about them, but I’ll only say that you’ll see a lot of conflicting emotions, bad decisions, pain, regrets and great displays of strong friendship and loyalty. Sun Ho and Seo Hwi’s friendship (bromance) is probably my favourite relationship ever. The drama started and ended with it. They faced impossible odds and tried to break their bond numerous times but were always pulled back together. They hurt and backstabbed each other as much as they risked their own lives to save each other. Watching them was heartbreaking, but seeing the good sides of their friendship was so satisfying.
Woo Do Hwan, Yang Se Jong and Jang Hyuk were incredible. They brought these characters to life with their acting and I can’t imagine anyone else in these roles. Woo Do Hwan was especially good and his portrayal of Sun Ho made him one of my favourite actors.
Kim Seol Hyun as Han Hee Jae & Ahn Nae Sang as Nam Jun (Sun Ho’s father and villain of this story) were also good. I liked Nam Jun as a character, but hated him as a person.
One thing I didn’t like about this drama was romance between Hee Jae and Seo Hwi. Hee Jae on her own wasn’t a bad character, but their relationship felt rushed and I couldn’t feel it at all. It felt like they knew each other only for a few days before they were separated, but somehow their love lasted for years and they were ready to die for each other despite them barely knowing each other. I couldn’t buy it. However, their relationship isn’t the focus of this drama and there weren’t many dramatic, over the top, scenes so it didn’t really affect my score.
Other thing I didn’t like is how the plot in the beginning felt convoluted (?). I couldn’t really understand what was happening with the king (who is never shown but only talked about) and his generals, who fought whom, why and where, but to someone who is more familiar with the end of the Goryeo period it probably wasn’t that confusing.
OST was, in my opinion, amazing (even though I’ve seen people saying they didn’t like it). Different genres fit different types of scenes and I really can’t complain about the song choices. Many of them are part of my regular playlist now (Wild Road and River Flower deserve to be mentioned separately).
Camera work and fighting sequences were exceptional. Can’t complain about that either.
This review is already too long so I’ll stop here. I recommend My Country: The New Age to everyone who likes period dramas & doesn’t mind angst. If you’re like me and you like angst, morally grey characters and character driven plots this drama is definitely for you.
It’s character driven with complex and well portrayed characters and compelling relationships between them, amazing actors, lots of angst, good fighting scenes and interesting political game set in the past. Even though I could feel what’s going to happen in the end because so many things throughout the whole show led to it, I still went into every episode feeling anxious and excited.
What I loved the most about this drama were its characters: Nam Sun Ho, Seo Hwi and Bang Won. I felt their pain throughout the whole show, and even when they did horrible things I couldn’t hate or fault them for it because I could understand their reasoning. This drama does a great job at showing how things are never black and white but always grey, how people tend to do bad things with good intentions, how good deeds aren’t always followed with gratitude, and how circumstances and environment change good people into someone we view as monsters.
I strongly believe these three characters were inherently good people who were forced to do bad things in the turbulent times by the environment that allowed only the strongest to survive. I could write a whole essay about them, but I’ll only say that you’ll see a lot of conflicting emotions, bad decisions, pain, regrets and great displays of strong friendship and loyalty. Sun Ho and Seo Hwi’s friendship (bromance) is probably my favourite relationship ever. The drama started and ended with it. They faced impossible odds and tried to break their bond numerous times but were always pulled back together. They hurt and backstabbed each other as much as they risked their own lives to save each other. Watching them was heartbreaking, but seeing the good sides of their friendship was so satisfying.
Woo Do Hwan, Yang Se Jong and Jang Hyuk were incredible. They brought these characters to life with their acting and I can’t imagine anyone else in these roles. Woo Do Hwan was especially good and his portrayal of Sun Ho made him one of my favourite actors.
Kim Seol Hyun as Han Hee Jae & Ahn Nae Sang as Nam Jun (Sun Ho’s father and villain of this story) were also good. I liked Nam Jun as a character, but hated him as a person.
One thing I didn’t like about this drama was romance between Hee Jae and Seo Hwi. Hee Jae on her own wasn’t a bad character, but their relationship felt rushed and I couldn’t feel it at all. It felt like they knew each other only for a few days before they were separated, but somehow their love lasted for years and they were ready to die for each other despite them barely knowing each other. I couldn’t buy it. However, their relationship isn’t the focus of this drama and there weren’t many dramatic, over the top, scenes so it didn’t really affect my score.
Other thing I didn’t like is how the plot in the beginning felt convoluted (?). I couldn’t really understand what was happening with the king (who is never shown but only talked about) and his generals, who fought whom, why and where, but to someone who is more familiar with the end of the Goryeo period it probably wasn’t that confusing.
OST was, in my opinion, amazing (even though I’ve seen people saying they didn’t like it). Different genres fit different types of scenes and I really can’t complain about the song choices. Many of them are part of my regular playlist now (Wild Road and River Flower deserve to be mentioned separately).
Camera work and fighting sequences were exceptional. Can’t complain about that either.
This review is already too long so I’ll stop here. I recommend My Country: The New Age to everyone who likes period dramas & doesn’t mind angst. If you’re like me and you like angst, morally grey characters and character driven plots this drama is definitely for you.
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