Emperor of the Sea (2004)

62% User Rating

Drama

Action & Adventure

War & Politics

Emperor of the Sea is a South Korean television drama series directed by Kang Il-soo and Kang Byung-taek and starring Choi Soo-jong, Chae Shi-ra, Song Il-gook and Soo Ae. It aired on KBS2 from November 24, 2004 to May 25, 2005 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:50 for 51 episodes. The historical drama is based on Choi In-ho's novel of the same title, which depicts the life of Jang Bogo, who rises from a lowly slave to a powerful maritime figure who dominated the East Asia seas and international trade during the Unified Silla Dynasty. The drama was received extremely well, holding the number one spot in the ratings for majority of the weeks it aired. It was also exported to eight countries earning approximately US$1.8 million in profits. The filming set in Wando County, South Jeolla Province also became a tourist attraction.

Kang Il-sooDirector

Cast

View Cast & Crew

Song Il-gook

Yeom Moon/Yeom Jang

Kim Kap-soo

Lee Do-hyeong

Park Young-kyu

Seol-pyeong

Chae Jung-an

Lady Chae-ryeong

Choi Soo-jong

Jang Bogo/Gungbok

Soo Ae

Lady Jung-hwa

Bae Soo-bin

Kim Yang

Kim A-joong

Baek Ha-jin

Seo Do-young

Moo Jin

Baek Sung-hyun

young Gungbok

Lee Jae-yong

Master Jo Sang-gil

Park In-hwan

Bogo's father

Lee Won-jong

Choi Moo-chang

Chae Shi-ra

Madam Jami

Kil Yong-woo

Kim Dong-seok

Cheonghaejin Garrison 1

Reviews (1)

All Reviews

ParkMin

Rating 30%

November 19, 2023

What's up with the ending of episode 2 and onward? They straight up gave us random spoiler scenes and cuts from different points of future episodes. This was just a cheap tactic trying to hold the viewers hostage early on. Maybe because episode 1 wasn't well perceived? Kicked off to a bad start already. Song Il Gook and Chae Shi Ra were okay. Choi Soo Jong isn't appealing in historical dramas as always. Park Soo Ae was meh, she's better off in regular melos. The story and directing were equally problematic mainly regarding two insufferable themes that is love and rivalry, of which both were subjected to pathetic writing. If that wasn't enough, you got too many repeated montages of flashbacks to keep you annoyed. At the end, we got a "let's just wrap it up and end it" type of ending. Some characters were completely robbed off of a reasonable ending. It wasn't even a matter of historical accuracy, that's irrelevant. Emperor of the sea but they were 99.9% of the times on land.