dragonbabezee

I haven't seen much Korean television, and I don't know what it was about the name or thumbnail of Alchemy of Souls that made me click on it when it came up in my Netflix "recommended" list, but I am SO glad I did, because this is hands down my favourite TV show in the last 5 years at least!

Do you like historical drama with gorgeous sets and costumes? You will find this in Alchemy of Souls. Do you like fantasy martial arts? This has that, too! Do you like romance? Comedy? Heck yes, it has loads of of brilliant side-splitting comedy and heart-thrilling romance! Drama? Yes. Forbidden magic? Evil villains? Soft bois? Loveable characters? Beautiful, deadly female assassins? This series has ALL OF THE THINGS!

Three things really stand out in Alchemy of Souls, that I believe are what make it so appealing and addictive.

Firstly, it has a plot that twists that writhes like an eel, keeping your brain glued to the show to keep track of everyone and everything, whilst not being so slippery that you lose your grip. The result being that you stay intrigued, engaged and satisfied, though always wanting more! The show drops you into the magical lore and politics cold, pretty much, and you must figure it out how this world works along the way with all the clues the show gives you. There are a lot of characters to meet and learn the names of (I found remembering the names during the first 10 episodes fairly hard) which can trip you up or slow you down at times, but stick with it and you'll get there.

Secondly, the major characters are all AMAZING. The female lead, Naksu is a stone-cold assassin mage, an orphan raised in the wilderness and trained for her deadly purpose, only to get stuck hiding out and "in-disguise" as Mu-Deok, a lowly servant girl in a young lord's house, and for the time being, without any of her magical or fighting powers. The male lead, Jang-Uk is the young lord, whose mother died in childbirth, and whose mage father walked away from when he was a baby. He doesn't want for anything, except to be taken seriously, and to claim his birth right as leader of Cheonbugwan, the centre of magical constellation reading. The only problem is that Jang-Uk has no magical ability because his "gate" has been closed by his absent father and no mage will go against his father's decree that it stays closed. Oh, and also he is lazy, pampered and gives up easily. He's no dummy though, and is the only one to quickly see that the young maid Mu-Deok is really the hunted and highly skilled mage assassin Naksu. Confronting her with his deduction, he cuts a deal with her. She will teach him how to become a mage, and in return he will help her regain her mage powers. Mu-Deok brings a lot of the drama, and Uk brings a lot of the comedy, but these two characters can both pivot on a dime, with Mu-Deok's antics in the name of her deception making me laugh so hard that I cried, and Uk sometimes delivering tear-jerking speeches.

The side characters are all richly sketched out too, and similar to Uk and Mu-Deok, most of them provide dramatic, hilarious, and touching moments throughout the two series, with their own sub-plots, love stories, ambitions and disappointments. Even the most venerable, evil, tragic or ambiguous of the characters get moments where their vices and flaws are exposed for a moment of comedy. The tone ranges from dark and tragic, to silly and light, and with these characters it all works.

Thirdly, the show is beautifully shot, and the costume dress, sets and locations are excellent. It does feel quite often that the world they live in is rather small, pretty much only consisting of the four magical houses, the palace, the town, the mountain village, another village on the far side of the lake and the wilderness, and every happening, past or present is set in these limited locations, but that's all right. It's a fantasy. Visually, the show is fantastic. The VFX are quite cheesy and cheap looking at times, but I give it a pass. This isn't a show that needs to rely on its effects to impress or bedazzle, and I think they might have spent the budget on the talent and costumes, so I'm not going to niggle about the quality of VFX.

The only criticism of the show I have is the speed at which the last episode wrapped up. I needed to wallow in the resolution more, and there were things that were stated but not witnessed, which after long a long emotional build up, I thought needed to be seen on screen for the sheer catharsis. I'm not sure why a bit more time wasn't taken there, as it seems like they show wasn't pushed for time at all - many of the episodes are over an hour long, so could not another fifteen minutes be included to show those reunions and characters coming to major revelations? I would know my review down a quarter star for that, but it still rounds up to a ten.

I guess the film makers did one thing right in putting their best effort into the first half of the film, so then at least some would watch the ending for the resolution despite it's decline in script, editing, pacing and sense.

To be fair, we did laugh at many scenes at the beginning, though some from the cringe element. The two sisters are oddly prudish even for two non-nudists. The cast appears to be a mix of actors and extras given speaking parts. Perhaps some agreed to frontal nudity and others didn't, because we get a mix of straightforward nudity and fan-dances with comically, strategically placed props.

However, that's not what really let's it down. The sound is choppy throughout, and the camera needlessly handheld at times. In the last act the script, not strong to begin with, falls apart, and actors seem to be ab libbing with the most banal non-communication. The editing goes to pot, especially with the multiple fade-to-black cuts during the not-sad-at-all funeral. The final insult is that the resolution of the story is not revealed to us - the argument and subsequent agreement between the sisters is without audio, with just...airplane noises over the top? WHY? Was the audio not useable? Why not reshoot? Was the script so lame that it was deemed unworthy of inclusion? Again, reshoot, please! It couldn't have been expensive to shoot - two girls and a car on the side of a country road.

I don't know. Hopefully it was a learning experience for everyone involved.

Okay, I wasn't expecting to be wowed, and there were parts of this movie that had me going 'what, really?' but there were other parts that were so unexpected, gross, delightful, beautiful and funny that I give the movie an 8 out of 10 overall.

The depiction of the black magic that the Queen uses was great. I loved the dwarf characters and they were done incredibly well effects-wise also. SPOILERS: both forests, the Dark Forest and the Fairy Forest took me by surprise. At first I was like pfft! Dark Forest is a Swamp of Sadness rip off, but no, they had an interesting twist there. And the Fairy Forest! The fairies! The cute furry animals hopping about! When was the last time a director was brave enough to put something so uncynically pretty and mythological in a movie? Ridley Scott and Legend come to mind but that was 27 years ago! So does Willow, a 23 year old film. Fans of those movies might also like this one.

The two male possible love interests were great also. The things that I didn't like about it were, first and foremost, that Snow White hadn't definitely picked one of the two handsome men who had fallen for her by the end of the movie, when she seemed to like both of them. So, after that build up of romantic tension, there was no resolution on that front. It made for a bit of a dud ending. Also, Snow White at times seemed to lack motivation. Her big stirring speech, although well delivered, came out of nowhere. Also, no-one seemed terribly surprised when she came back from the dead, post apple poisoning. Plus, the usual femme in battle scene clichés irked me - the girl wears no helmet, presumably so we can see her pretty face at all times, and while everyone's getting hit by arrows and pitch all round, she remains miraculously unscathed despite appearing not to make any moves to evade injury.

Still overall good movie, although I was confused about what audience they were going for. If it was girls then they dropped the ball on the romantic resolution. If it was guys then the Fairy Forest is going to turn them right off.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I saw it for free on the big screen and I still felt ripped off, and I couldn't walk out because my friend had organised the screening and only five people turned up. So I can say without a doubt that this movie is rubbish right to the end. The jokes were painfully unfunny, often offensive and embarrassing. I don't know what Travolta and Williams thought of this project, whether they knew it was stinking while they filmed it and therefore put no real effort into awful material, or whether they're losing their grip on reality and thought they were doing a good job. I can't feel that children would have thought it any funnier than I did, but I wouldn't show it to them anyway.

A fascinating, and at times, titillating examination of everyone's favourite subject - ourselves. This series concentrates more on the interaction of human behavior and biology than any other documentary series I've seen, and comes up with some very intriguing observations and postulations. However, much of the program wanders into the territory of speculation (and perhaps filmmaker bias), but treats these speculations with as much weight as the facts and established theories. A credulous audience could be mislead. This series also trumpeted other dubious attractions, such as the first orgasm filmed...from inside the vagina. Interesting, but...the series is full of such talking points, designed to suck up audience ratings as much as educate, and yet, you can't look away.