If you love roller coasters, then this drama is for you. It is full of highs and lows, which will make your life more interesting. It will also teach us a lot about Korea and its history and culture. The main leads are Kim Tae-Ri as Go Ae-Shin, Lee Byung-Hun as Eugene Choi, and Choi Yu-Jin. Other cast members include Yoo Yeon-Suk as Gu Dong-Mae, Kim Min-Jung as Yi Yang-Hwa, Byun Yo-Han as Kim Hui-Seong, and many more.
It was created by Lee Myung-Han, directed by Lee Eung-Bok, written by Kim Eun-Sok, composed by Nam Hye-Seung, and produced by Kim Young-Kyu and Yoon Ha-Rim. It aired from 7 July – 30 September 2018, every Saturday and Sunday. It has total 24 episodes of around 1 hour and 15 minutes.
It is the third highest-rated drama in the Korean industry. The cinematography, storyline, plot, characters, and location everything is perfect, and the best part is the strong female character. This drama portrays slavery, the army, fighters, cops, and government officials, and what the whole situation was like in the 19th century in Korea, Japan, and America.
It also gives us many lessons, like not giving up on yourself and life. Yu-Jin, despite so many difficulties, survived with his willpower, and then he went to America, changed his identity to Eugene, and worked for the military there.
On the other hand, Ae-Shin, despite losing both her parents in a war, didn’t lose hope and became a great fighter and decided to do what her parents couldn’t do. You will experience a lot of butterflies and a spark when they both will meet. Having different journeys and different paths, how will they make it? Will they make it or not? How was their love story?
To your questions, some of the facts are given below, enjoy it and then watch the drama with your full interest.
1. Hollywood vibes
As soon as it starts, you will get that aesthetic vibe, the delivery of the dialogue that, too, in the English language, will give a different vibe. The accent of every character is flawless, and this is a unique fact for this K-drama.
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2. Yu-Jin’s Past
His parents were slaves. They both worked under a king. One day, a friend of a King was mesmerized by his maid and asked to give her to him. He agreed, and the maid was Yu-Jin’s mother. The next day, when he came to take her away, her husband came and protected her, but the King decided to kill her husband. A small kid heard this conversation from some villagers and ran to his home.
He found his father on the ground and his mother begging for their lives. Some people grabbed the kid as per the orders of the King and tried to kill him.
But, Yu-Jin’s mother took the pregnant daughter-in-law of the King and gave her a small cut on her neck. By doing so, she was trying to save the life of her son, and then she gave Yu-Jin a necklace and told him to go away as far as possible. The King tried to kill her, but he didn’t. Instead, he killed her husband, and then she took her own life by jumping into the well. The daughter-in-law was saved, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
3. The King searches for Yu-Jin
The King sent his men to find Yu-Jin, and he also got a sketch made of him by a professional artist and circulated it throughout the whole village. It became more difficult for Yu-Jin to hide, and he was continuously running for days for his life.
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4. How Yu-Jin got to know about America when he was small
After running for days, he found food on a table outside the house. He grabbed and ate a lot because he hadn’t eaten for days. He was then spotted by a man who told him to eat slowly. After eating, he gave him the necklace and told him to give him one and a half packs of rice because that necklace was worth his mother’s life and two and a half pack of rice.
The man denied it and asked him to leave. But, suddenly, a foreigner came to him, and he convinced him to sell China so that he could go back to America. The man told both of them to leave. Then, Yu-Jin asked the man where is America. But the man allowed him to stay with him in his house for the time being.
He used to be a witness to so many wars. Many times, he was so shocked and numbed to see what was happening in his life. In a war, he lost his loved one again, and he used to call him his father. He then shot the head with his gun the first time. All the soldiers, along with him, became prisoners of the United States of America. Joseon had refused to take them, and America decided not to kill them.
He then decided that he would become a rebel, hold the gun again and get revenge for his father from the country who abandoned all of them. The man sent Yu-Jin with the foreigner to America on a ship. He was hiding inside a basket full of fruits.
5. Yu-Jin’s Journey to America
After reaching America, he kept on following the foreigner and asked him to give him some work and a place to stay. The foreigner used to believe in God, so Yu-Jin convinced him by saying that God is everywhere and he listens to everything.
The foreigner, in return, asked Yu-Jin to teach him the language of Joseon so that it would be easy for him when he went there after three years. He used to run small errands. One day, he got bullied and beaten up by a group of bots. Then, he decided to transform himself. He cut his hair short, and he was also learning the English language.
6. Entry of Ae-Shin
She was the daughter of Sang-Wan and his lover. Both of them were very brave and were killed by people of their own who deceived them. Her mother was very brave. She didn’t get scared and faced the situation single-handedly.
She got the princess treatment, and she was very kind-hearted. She didn’t like any show-off. Instead, she was more interested in getting knowledge. She used to like newspapers more than jewels.
7. Ae-Shin’s grandfather was against reading her newspapers every day
A lady from her house, maybe a family member, searched her whole room in order to find a ring. But she got some cuttings of newspapers. She told this to her grandfather. He became very angry.
He told her not to get blinded by the world’s current affairs, but she never listened. So, he told her to read and transcribe some books, and she was not allowed to see any visitors, and she had to skip her morning rituals as her punishment.
But she completed the whole translation in one night by staying awake and went to wish her grandfather good morning. Instead, he didn’t acknowledge her and said that Joseon was not changing and falling apart. So, it was better for her not to get involved in this.
Her grandfather asked her to get married and live like a flower under his husband. But she revolted and said that she would rather prefer to die.
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8. Ae-Shin’s strike
She didn’t eat anything for four days and even denied drinking water. Her maid, too, decided not to eat. She won, and her grandfather decided to be a hidden fighter. He asked a man who was once against Joseon to teach her everything so that she could survive. He didn’t want to lose his granddaughter, just like his son.
9. Her training began
Soon, the man introduced himself as his mentor and started her training. Before shooting, he taught her to climb the mountains and run for miles.
She learned shooting after many practices, but she couldn’t do it in the first shots. Then, slowly she can hit 2-3 targets out of five. Her mentor told her that she could do anything as she was a very girl. She can write for newspapers and teach at a night school, but why did she have to choose this dangerous line? In return, she said, “Words have no power, so I’ll fight with a gun.”
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10. Eugene got a transfer to his homeland Joseon
He was packing things in the episode, and it was shown that he still had that necklace as his mother’s memory. He was all ready to go, and just after reaching there, he started his mission.
11. Ae-Shin and Yu-Jin’s first meet
Ae-Shin went to shoot the people who were planning against Joseon. Just then, she spotted another person firing the same people. It was Yu-Jin. He ran to catch her, and then they both pointed guns at each other. They were just like comrades. They both had the same target. But then they both ran away because people were searching for the shooters.
When they both changed their dresses and just passed, Ae-Shin smelled the gunpowder, and Yu-Jin, too, found something weird about that woman. They both stopped, and their eyes met, and they kept on glaring at each other.
They interacted with each other. Yu-Jin came and asked her if she would be looking for him. But, she denied it and said that he looked like a foreigner based on his clothing, the way of talking and interrogating the princess at night. They both felt something different.
12. A new character- Dong-Mae
Ae-Shin wanted to go and enjoy somewhere, so her maid asked everyone to go to the French Bakery to try cookies. As they were eating, a man killed two people with his sword. Ae-Shin remembered that she had seen him. She had saved his life when they both were small. He also remembered it, and both the men were planning to molest her. That’s why he killed them.
Dong-Mae was the son of a butcher. They were called Paekchong, the untouchables of Korea. Many scenes were shown of how their lives were and how they were mistreated. They didn’t get enough income to survive.
13. The King’s love for coffee
Almost everyone loves coffee nowadays, and it has become an addiction. This series tells us that at that time, too, people used to have the same kind of love for coffee. King Gojong loved coffee, and it was found that because of his love for coffee, an attempt of assassination occurred against him.
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14. Ae Shin’s marriage with Hee-Sung
Hee-Sung suddenly proposed Ae-Shin, and she also agreed. He was a protective, possessive, and a kind man. But, their marriage was called off in the last episodes.
15. The most famous scene of Mr. Sunshine
It was the scene where Dong-Mae cut the hair of Ae-Shin with his sword. At that time, hair used to be the most essential part of a person. It is used to define the legacy of a particular family. When Dong-Mae did that, Ae-Shin’s grandfather had beaten him very badly and warned him to stay away from her; otherwise, he would be punished without any prior notice.
Her fiance Hee-Sung too, lost his calm and fought with him. Eugene, too challenges him. While all this was happening, Ae-Shin was crying, and she was very sad that a part of her hair given by her parents was cut and disregarded.
Dong-Mae used to like Ae-Shin, and he did all this to save her. The army was gathering information about her, and by doing this, he distracted them. He told this to Eugene, and he was proud of him.
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