Joseon era
Assistant advisor Seong Igyeom is a young man, slacking off in the royal palace, gambling without much luck with other fellow officers when Chief Royal Secretary Jang catches him. While deciding how to punish him, the Chief Secretary finds out that Igyeom is actually a smart and highly-educated young man and wants to use his qualities for a very important task: travel to some Kingdom's provinces where it is said public officers are corrupt and are harming the peasants.
Given the fact that he doesn't have much choice but to accept, Igyeom officially becomes the new royal secret agent and departs for his mission with his trustworthy and goofy servant Chunsam and a female police officer, Hong Dain, whom he previously met thinking she was a courtesan.
While on the road to their appointed province, the trio will form an unlikely yet strong bond that will help them through many adversities and, since their first mission reveals to be a successful one, they're soon personally chosen by the Emperor himself to undertake other missions to eradicate the corrupted ones.
And that's when things get complicated as they discover that Igyeom's half-brother Yibeom, whom he lost contact with a long time ago, is a robbers gang's leader and accused of the assassination of a nobleman and his entire household.
Meanwhile, in the aisles of the royal palace, a higher-ranking official is plotting to sabotage the royal agent's mission in order to have Chief Secretary dismissed and to become even more influential on the Emperor's decisions.
My Opinion👍
This is actually my third historical fiction drama after "100 Days My Prince" and "Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo" and I must say I really enjoyed it. The story was flowy and, personally, I never felt bored and found the comedy moments hilarious and well balanced with the more serious ones.
Speaking of seriousness: in this series, we have a glimpse of the persecutions of the Catholics in Asian countries and how they had to be always alert and hide their beliefs.
Some of the topics go from who hard it is to follow the righteous path (but it'll be rewarding in the end) to learn how to let go of the past if it affects the serenity and stability of your present.
On a lighter note, I adore the caricature characters of Chunsam and royal guard Choi; the former ends up in trouble most times because of his way of not thinking it through and the latter is just the poor guy who ends up involved in daring situations when the only thing he wants is to calmly be a guard of the royal palace.
A big round of applause is due to the styling and hair/makeup department as their job was flawless: actress Kwon Na-Ra looked amazing in both traditional hanboks and when in disguise as a man. I don't know anything about the Joseon era's fashion, but the costumes were really well done, and also the men's ones were spot on.
Rating: 4/5
Ph: hancinema.net and screenshot
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