I've just finished the kdrama last week! Aaaa...I've fallen in love with Lee Junki all over again! For those who don't know who he is, he's acted in a kdrama titled 'My Girl' and a movie titled 'The King and the Clown'.
In this drama, he acted as a son of a noble family, to be more exact the nephew of the king in Chosun era -Lee Geom. His father, Lee Wonho, was accused of treason and was killed one night with him being the only witness since he was hidden by his father in a wardrobe.
In that one fateful night, his family was scattered. He himself was 'stolen' by a thief who broken into his house after his father was killed. He was raised by the thief and his wife. But after suffering from the trauma, he lost his memories after a high fever. He grew to be a young man with a good heart, but acted like a scoundrel. Always being bullied by classmates who were born into noble families, he began to regain his memories.
He then began to search for his birth sister and mother with the help of a gangster. But being a son of a traitor, wrongly accused or not, his searching had to be done in secret. Unfortunately, when he has found his sister, she was caught and was charged as a wanted criminal for being a runaway slave girl and for injuring a guard. Having learned that she was a traitor's daughter, and her brother, Lee Geom, had been in contact her, the authorities set up a gallows to lure him out. However, in his failure to rescue his sister, he watched her being hanged to death. He abandoned the thought of finding his mother, afraid for endangering her life, hoping that she is well and alive somewhere.
He shifted his focus to avenge his father's death by looking for the owner of a sword which had a symbol carved into the blade as a clue. It led him to his father's comrades who are all the king's loyal ministers. He tricked his adopted father to teach and train him the skill of a thief, and train martial arts from a con man. In his searching, he steals from rich foolish nobles who extorted their wealth from the poor and commoners, and he returned what he had stolen to the poor.
Sounds familiar? Of course, he is 'Robin Hood' to the people. The rich feared him for their wealth, the soldier hated him for various reasons, the people loved him and gave him a name, Iljimae, which mean a branch of plum/titis flower (mei hua). For every time he steals, he leaves behind a drawing of a branch of plum flowers. The townspeople began to declared him as King as after an incident and the people began to lose faith in the king.
As the story climaxed, the truth of his father's death led him to the Palace. He began to planned to burglarise the Palace. That one night, he found out about everything and after threatening the king, he disappeared. Rumors of him being dead was spread all over country. However, after 4 years, someone else burglarised into the Palace the same way.
All in all it was a good drama, I cried so bad in the tragic moments. For those who will be watching it, enjoy! It is really a treat to all Lee Junki's fan and kdrama's fan.
