Legend of the Blue Sea 푸른 바다의 전설 Review

★★★★★

The 2016-17 Korean drama, starring Lee Min-Ho as Heo Joon-Jae and Jun Ji-Hyun as Sim Cheong.



Brief summary: Once upon a time in Joseon, a man fell in love with a mermaid, but their story came to a tragic end. Now in modern time, Heo Joon-Jae is a successful con artist, who picks his victims from the proud and arrogant. When he vacations in Spain, a girl breaks into his place and he apprehends her, but this girl can’t seem to speak or function like a civilized human being! He takes her under his wing out of pity for the remainder of his vacation and invites her to come to Seoul, but because of dangerous circumstances, she erases herself from Joon-Jae’s memory. He leaves, and she decides to follow him, all the way to Seoul! Her timing is impeccable because circumstances are just about to get dangerous again for Heo Joon-Jae!

This drama seemed to be a celebration of Lee Min-Ho and Jun Ji-Hyun. There were many cameos by actors and music that gave off that effect, such as appearances from Krystal Jung, Kim Sung-Ryung, and Na Young-Hee, and music from “Boys Over Flowers.” Both Lee Min-Ho and Jun Ji-Hyun played outstanding characters and were the emphasis of the entire drama.

I was impressed with the twists and turns the story took because they were all relevant and for the most part progressive for the story. The plot itself didn’t leave anything to be desired.



It would have been nice to see just a little bit more of the secondary characters, such as Tae-Oh and Si-Ah as a couple. I think the angles on all of the secondary characters could have gone just a little bit deeper.



“Legend of the Blue Sea” classifies as a fantasy drama, which means many viewers may behave like me, nervous to start it because many recent fantasy dramas have only succeeded in making us happy and excited before ripping our heart out in the final episode. A word regarding that hesitation- This one is in the clear, but try not to fear a sad ending at the end of a drama. Sad endings just make us think, think about what we would do instead, and think about the deeper message that the drama was really trying to send.



All in all, “Legend of the Blue Sea” was successful and really enjoyable! Laughs, tears, all of it! Highly recommended, especially for fans of Lee Min-Ho or Jun Ji-Hyun!