Mirror of the Witch

Mirror of the Witch

6.5/10

Mirror of the Witch

Genre:                                Episodes: 20                     Year: 2016

Romance

Fantasy

Historical

Synopsis:

Unable to produce an heir, the Queen of Joseon turns to a Shaman who wields black magic in order to conceive. She gives birth to twins, a Prince and a Princess, but both have been cursed by the black magic used. The Shaman places all of the curse onto the Princess and orders her killed, but the Princess is rescued and grows to adulthood. Together with Heo Joon, the son of a slave, the grown Princess, Yeon Hee, works to break the curse that threatens her life and plagues Joseon. 

Cast:

Yoon Shi Yoon (Heo Joon)

Kim Se Ron (Yeon Hee)

Kwak Shi Yang (Choi Poong Yeon)

Yum Jung Ah (Hong Joo)

Lee Sung Jae (Choi Hyun Seo)

Jang Hee Jin (Queen Shim)

Lee Ji Hoon (King Sunjo)

Lee Yi Kyung (Yo Kwang)

Moon Ka Young (Sol Gae)

Min Do Hee (Soon Deuk)

General Thoughts:

12 episode dramas should only be 10. 16 episode dramas should only be 14. 20 episodes dramas should only be 16. Such is the unfortunate fate of K-Dramas. Once again we have a clear example of a brilliant story supported by phenomenal acting that is ruined by the writers trying to stretch for more episodes than their story can actually cover.

Some golden moments hidden by unnecessary episodes

While so, so much of this drama was excellent, it got bogged down in its own misery as our characters danced into the realm of poor decision making and inability to make any sort of sense. Except for Joon who somehow managed to remain a sensical and endearing hero until the end. It’s such a shame that the story had to be spread so thin, as the beginning of the series had absolutely perfect pacing.

Goodness the beginning was intense

The first 11 or so episodes were exciting and perfectly paced, with an equal balance of our heroes being victorious and our villains being dastardly. While the story centred around its initial set-up and then Yeon Hee and Joon lighting candles to break the curse, it remained exhilarating and extremely addictive to watch. However, once the true manipulative nature of our villain was revealed and Yeon Hee went to the palace as the Princess the plot started to lose its momentum.  Acting-wise this drama was like a buffet of extraordinary talent. Yoon Shi Yoon makes his return from military and definitely makes himself heard. His acting was flawless throughout and he managed to maintain a tricky balance of light-heartedness and deep emotion- easily able to switch between the two between scenes or even inside a single scene. The royals in the palace all gave excellent performances as well, particularly our main two- the King and the Queen Dowager. Both Jang Hee Jin and Lee Ji Hoon put in stellar performances. Although playing extremely flawed characters who often made mistakes, the two managed to keep their characters (mostly) in the realm of likeable.

Lee Ji Hoon brought all kinds of intensity to his role

While there were definitely times you wanted to slap a bit of sense into them, through the marvellous acting, their decisions were always understandable as we were all made privy to the fears and vulnerabilities that underlined these characters. And of course we have Yum Jung Ah who has given us one of the most dynamic villain performances of the year. Hong Joo was terrifying, dislikable, and strangely pitiful.

A solid villain performance is always fab

Yum Jung Ah was able to show all aspects of Hong Joo’s character- from her deep, unending hatred, to her loneliness and pain. She always showed just enough cracks in Hong Joo’s confidence that she never appeared straight-up evil, but never too much vulnerability that there was any hope of redemption. The weakest link in the cast was definitely our leading actress. I’m not usually one that cares for the age of actors- as long as they give a convincing, believable performance, I don’t care if they’re 13 or 33. However, I do think that Kim Sae Ron’s age was a huge weakness in this drama. She’s not a bad actress, but she does lack the ability to exude a maturity beyond her age- which is something she definitely needed in this drama. I never felt like the character of Yeon Hee was ever a woman- she always remained a girl to me. This wasn’t helped by Yeon Hee’s innocent and inexperienced character, as she only came off more child-like. The romance was carried solely by Yoon Shi Yoon whose incredible acting lead me to believe that it was plausible for him to fall incredibly, madly in love with this girl- but I never really felt such emotion from Kim Sae Ron, and Yeon Hee’s feelings for Joon felt more like a school-girl crush than anything else. That one scene of Yeon Hee’s anger that flickered between Yeon Hee (Kim Sae Ron) and Hae Ran (Jung In Sung) showed what the show might have been like had the role of Yeon Hee gone to a more experienced, mature actress. And it was awesome.

Defiantly the weakest link

Sorry Kim Sae Ron, I do like you and I do think you’ll become an incredible actress- but I don’t think you’re quite there yet, and this role was a bit much to handle. The supporting actors were all wonderful, shining beautifully in what screen time they had, but never overstaying their welcome. The cinematography was stunningly beautiful, as was the soundtrack and both added an alluring sense of mystical wonder to the series. Despite its shortcomings, it was always a very visually (and auditory) appealing drama.

What Was Great:

First Half:

The first half of this series rocked. The story flowed so smoothly from its initial set-up to the bulk of the plot with hardly a breath in between.

It was a boring episode if no one got stabbed

It was intoxicating to watch, as the story kept moving at a ripping pace and there were so many mysteries to uncover. Relationships developed swiftly and believably and the story was building itself up for a thrilling climax between our heroes and our fantastically villainous villain. Sure, that climax wasn’t as intense as it should have been- but the build up to it was excellent. If the whole drama had moved with the same pace and determination as its first half, this could have been a truly excellent, unparalleled drama.

Villain:

Yum Jung Ah also rocked. She was so dynamic in her role as Hong Joo. I was easy to dislike her character, but despite her actions being completely wrong, she remained completely understandable. It’s part of what made her such an interesting rival- she’s totally psycho, but it’s totally understandable why she became that way. It’s not so much that Hong Joo was an evil woman, but her circumstances lead her to develop such an intense hatred of the royal family and the hierarchal system as a whole, and she just so happened to have the power to do something about it. 

Fascinatingly evil

What’s most fascinating about Hong Joo is that she isn’t exactly wrong. It is wrong for the royal family to have such complete control over everyone’s lives. It is wrong that a person’s worth is decided by the circumstances of their birth. But her way of attempting to change the system is also wrong. What’s even more fascinating about Hong Joo is that she and Joon share many of the same beliefs and struggles. Both are treated poorly due to being born in a lower class, and both find it ridiculous and unfair that you can never rise above your birth status. However, while Joon struggles to find the right path to tread and the right way to challenge these ideas, Hong Joo chooses hatred and revenge. Hong Joo is an insanely interesting character to have around, and thankfully not too much time was spent pouring over her backstory. We are given the simple facts about how she got to where she was, and that made it understandable to see where she was headed.

Hugely dynamic

Redemptions All Round:

Redemption arcs are hardly ever executed all that well. They’re passable and characters go from being unbearable to tolerable- but rarely make it back to being likeable characters. But not in ‘Mirror of the Witch’! 

Best redemption arc I've seen

Redemption was something these writers were able to handle excellently. My particular favourite was Queen Dowager. She was understandable, but not always likeable- but her redemption arc was wonderful. She starts as a victim before rather rapidly becoming a mild villain- I mean, she wants to kill one of her kids so that’s not great. But after she loses the Crown Prince and finds Yeon Hee again, she does her best to try and protect her daughter. It’s clear that everything she’s done has been to try and protect her children. I mean if both are going to die you might as well try and save one, right? It’s a beautifully complicated situation that makes for some interesting television. Queen Dowager going from wanting to kill Yeon Hee to wanting to protect her at all costs was completely believable and fantastic to watch. The King had a similar redemption, albeit a bit less satisfying (as he briefly returns to being a d*uchebag after his redemption arc is completed). 

Literally coughed up the blackness of his heart

Our Orabeoni Poong Yeon had the least satisfying redemption arc, but a redemption nonetheless. His first redemption was not so much of a redemption and more of a he-was-tricking-everyone-including-the-audience. 

Cool fire-power. Shame you didn't really do anything with it.

I do wish we’d had a bit of a clue-in to the fact that Orabeoni wasn’t actually going to kill Yeon Hee, as while I was relieved that he’d been tricking Hong Joo, I’d still wanted to punch him hard in the face for like 4 episodes because he was acting like such a bloody prat. His actual struggle with black magic and insecurity had far less of an impact as we had all seen it before. Only he was pretending the first time. But not the second. But it all turned out the same way anyway. Linked in with Orabeoni we had Sol Gae who had a real b*tchin’ redemption. You could see it gradually creeping up for a while, but it was still beautiful to watch how her love for Orabeoni drew her away from Hong Joo. And while she didn’t live long after, at least she managed to live the remainder of her life true to herself. 

Final Wrap-Up:

I’m glad the writers chose to end the series the way they did. It takes a lot of guts to kill of your heroine, but I’d be pretty miffed if they'd made a magic way out of the curse right at the end.

Had people killing themselves left, right and centre

 I honestly thought that Joon would be the one to die, so I’m much happier that Yeon Hee was the one in the end. Because she was a much milder character and I wasn’t all that attached to her. 

Surprisingly I'm not mad that our heroine died

The show did have the option of using Hyun Seo as the final sacrifice to break the curse, but ultimately I’m glad it was Yeon Hee. It was a bittersweet moment when she chose to sacrifice her life for Joon, and it seemed only fair that the last candle to be lit was Yeon Hee’s. She’s spent five years of her life granting the wishes of everyone else, and while it’s kinda sucky for her that she died in the end anyway, it was nice to see Yeon Hee taking things into her own hands after she’d been following others for the majority of the series. I also appreciated the way they didn’t try and bring Yeon Hee back in any way after she died. She died and that sucks, but Joon still lived a good life. He didn’t appear to love anyone else, but he dedicated himself to medicine and lived a long life, and it was a sweet way to end the series having Yeon Hee waiting for him in (what I assume was) the afterlife.

Acting:

Congratulations everyone, your acting was superb. Everyone (except maybe Kim Sae Ron, but I’ve said my piece on that) did a phenomenal job and made the drama that much more enjoyable to watch. Yoon Shi Yoon was a complete stand out, and while this drama didn’t end up being spectacular, it was still an excellent stage for Yoon Shi Yoon to make his comeback.

Every thumb I have is up for Yoon Shi Yoon

What Wasn’t:

Inconsistencies:

Sometimes I was just plain confused as to what was going on. The whole flipping of Orabeoni was a tad confusing, but my biggest gripe would definitely have to be how unclear the rules around Black Magic were. 

Do you people not know that you're ON THE SAME SIDE?

The curse was set up nicely and followed the rules that were set- either Yeon Hee or Hong Joo had to die. Only the Crown Prince or holy fire could kill Yeon Hee. If Hong Joo dies before the curse is broken the curse can’t be lifted. Simple. Black magic rules- not so clear. Hong Joo seemed to do whatever she wanted so long as it was convenient for the writers. Apparently anyone can be afflicted by black magic, willing or not. The blood connection to Hyun Seo was a big ol’ what the f*ck is going on here. So Hong Joo uses magic to control his dead body. Fair enough. (I won’t ask why no one just killed Hyun Seo cuz that dude was causing all kinds of problems, but whatever.) To rid Hong Joo of her black magic our heroes destroy the source of her power- which they do in order to free Hyun Seo. Only he’s still under her control. What, why, how? And her black magic is still affecting Poong Yeon too. HOW? THE WOMAN CAN’T USE BLACK MAGIC! I don’t…how…I can’t even. 

It would be great if you actually arrested her, but that's none of my business

It also got a tad confusing regarding information. As a viewer we have all the information about the curse and who’s afflicted by black magic, so it could be a little hard to keep track of which characters knew what. A couple of times I was caught of guard by characters doing foolish and apparently incomprehensible things, only to realise that this character didn’t have this teensy piece of info. I won’t lie though, sometimes characters did have all the information and still acted like idiots anyway.

Lack of Romance:

About as much love as we got

Although the romance was a major point of the series (our big conflict was dying for love), the romance was actually a little lacking. Again, this is mainly due to the huge age gap between Yoon Shi Yoon and Kim Sae Ron. While I genuinely believed that Joon loved Yeon Hee, I wasn’t totally convinced that the two were uncontrollably, madly, I’d-die-for-you in love with each other. It does hurt when you can’t have any snogs. In fact the skinship between the leads was kept to a bare minimum (again due to how young Kim Sae Ron is). While the love was passable, I was really hoping for a brilliant, explosive love story. This was not a brilliant, explosive love story.

Draaaaaaags On:

Oh my goodness this drama is long, and it starts to feel long- which is not what you want. At the start I couldn’t wait to get to the next episode and stayed up all night watching. But past the halfway point it actually felt more like a chore. I had to watch the drama to see how it ended, but I kinda wanted to skip a few of the more mundane, wheel-spinning episodes. Once Yeon Hee enters the palace the plot doesn’t really manage to make its way forward. 

Definitely keeps intensity up when you have a crazy chick murdering a whole bunch of people

Our villain keeps playing the same tricks and the same people keep falling for them. It was repetitive and slightly exhausting. Once Hong Joo was locked up I don’t know why anyone would go visit for a chatty-chat. They all know what a conniving, manipulative person she is, yet everyone just seems to go out of their way to get used by her. It did feel like the writers were rehashing old material in order to drag out a couple more episodes. 

Re-watch?

Long dramas have to be really cracking in order to warrant a re-watch. Unfortunately ‘Mirror of the Witch’ was not a cracking drama, mainly because it was so long. 

So pretty though