a great historical drama that i would not hesistantly recommend.
though a lot of people have to die, but the ending is so touching and hopefully. i'm amazed by the scene that everyone is gaksital, everyone can be the national hero. an ocean full of white on the national hatred day is so overwhelming.

so to sum up, i rate this 8/10 for these following reasons:
1. Context: this one based on a comic, so the context as well as story is undoubtedly well-built. no need to reconsider
2. Film set, costuming: will bring you back to eighteens', nineteen's. everything is so well-handled, you couldn't even find a single glitch. The Kyungsung Imperial Police's uniform is a big big plus point, (Joowon looks really great in it :'( ), and apart from Rie and Madame's colorful but still gorgeous costumes, the others' are so simple in design but still meet the quality.
3. Cinematography: This drama got filmed a lot outside, which is also another hugh plus, since Korean nature got potraited so well through that. Some amazing scenes can be named such as: the flower field (where Kangto and Shunji rode the bike and cry together), the wood near the circus and Shunji's elementary school (where Mokdan used to await Gaksital - a totally green scenery, very beautiful), the rice field in winter (in their young days' scenes), the Geumhwaseon
4. Action scenes: Quite good if taking into consider that this is a Korean drama (not Chinese ones whose everyone learns kungfu...) Some is a little bit distracted since Gaksital and the pioneers in the army all have a tendency to jump so high and the opposite still couldnt avoid it. Sometimes i was even like wtf... but I have to admit that the action director did a great job. Kicks are really great and pleasing to see...
5. Music: I especially love the one sung in Latin, i think it is some kind of bibble...
6. The pace: good, no dragging too much, some first eps have nice cliffhanger that provoke your curiosity.
7. Characterization: It might be cliches that heroes used to be jerk, and bad guys all have their stories, but when being potraited by 2 main actors, things turned out so well that nothing is awkward anymore. Park Kiwoong did a really good job, his transformation is even much more impressive than Kangto's.
What i really love is that scene written had involve love stories in this historical drama so well that audience wouldn't find it annoyed at all. Love became thing that tied all the lead actors in such complicated relationship, where one loves one, but that one loves another. A circuit with no ending, and leave great impact on what they did after.