A Word That Starts with “S”? Sunshine!
K-Drama Review: Netflix Original Series: Mr. Sunshine (2018)
“Mr. Sunshine” has an amazing cast of actors and actresses. They played their parts with such realism. You felt like you were there in history with the real Koreans, Japanese, and Americans.
You probably wouldn’t think that a series with a title like “Mr. Sunshine ”would be a Korean drama, right? But it is! It’s a Netflix original and it’s intense!
You’re probably thinking: Why is it called Mr. Sunshine? If you watch the series you’ll figure that out.
The main actor is Lee Byung-hun and he is the reason this series caught my attention. He’s Korean, but the first time I saw him was in one of the Terminator movies. It was one of the terminators: T-1000 in “Terminator Genisys” (2015). It was amazing! So when I saw that he was the main character in “Mr. Sunshine ”, I had to look! I was not disappointed.
It is a war drama from a historical period that depicts the conflicts involving the Americans, the Japanese, and the Koreans. His character starts out as a little boy who was a slave but escaped to America. The name given to him by the kind and generous American who saved his life was Eugene Choi. His Korean name was Choi Yoo-jin. He grew up and became a high ranking officer in the US Army and was sent back to Korea on a special assignment. He wasn’t exactly thrilled that he was being sent back to a country where he was never treated like home. However, when you are a soldier you obey orders.
This series was not only entertaining, but also very educational and emotional. I got caught up in the lives of each of the main characters listed below.
~ Lee Byung-hun as Eugene Choi / Choi Yoo-jin, who became a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.
~ Kim Tae-ri as Go Ae-shin, a Joseon noblewoman, a skilled sniper, and a loyal member of the Righteous Army.
~ Yoo Yeon-seok as Goo Dong-mae (his Korean name) / Ishida Sho (his Japanese name), whose father died fighting the war and fled to Japan. He joined a Japanese criminal organization and when he returned to Korea, he wanted revenge!
~ Kim Min-jung as Lee Yang-hwa (her Korean name) / Kudo Hina (her name when her father forced her to marry a rich Japanese in order to get his money). She became a widow and returned to Korea to manage the “Hotel Glory”, a property that she inherited after the death of her husband.
~ Byun Yo-han as Kim Hee-sung, an extremely wealthy Joseon nobleman who was supposed to marry Go Ae-shin, only she fell in love with Eugene Choi. But that didn’t stop him from loving her anyway.
Korean dramas should always have a love triangle.
I fell in love with each of these characters. They were so real to me.
I’ll have to do a follow-up investigation to find out if there was a group called the “Righteous Army”.
A one-word description for this Netflix original series? Outstanding!
Thanks for reading.