Okay, this is not bad at all and I gotta give credit all to Jung Il Woo. The latest official stills are out for the fantasy sageuk Records of a Night Watchman and compared to all previous offerings this is the least visual fail to come out of the production to date. Nevertheless, few purty Jung Il Woo pictures aren’t enough to fully wash away the ominous stench of Kim Sung Oh looking like a he wandered from a cosplaying Burning Man to the drama set, nor will it allay the concerns surrounding acting-challenged Yunho and relatively newbie actresses like Go Sung Hee and Seo Ye Ji have what it takes to anchor the female side of a sageuk story proper. I really wished this drama looked good right off the bat, because there are a lot of flaws with the storytelling that will get covered off if it’s gorgeous to behold and the visual effects stunning.

Drama narratives usually take time to develop and most viewers are game to give a pretty drama a few episodes leeway to let the story get cranking if the first episode starts off boring. But if a drama both looks and tastes bad, chances are higher it’ll strike out immediately. I really want Jung Il Woo to be in a good drama and playing a good character, I know having those two stars aligned is really hard but he’s been in a series of stinker for me after 49 Days The PD for Night Watchman actually has a very solid track record with sageuks having directed the epic Jumong, a sageuk that also had fantasy elements which now seem rather hokey but a few years ago didn’t seem half-bad. The screenwriter has sageuk King’s Dream and political drama Daemul under his belt, neither of which are bad so doesn’t warrant any early anxious about the writing for Night Watchman. Maybe I’m back to mildly optimistic about this drama again?