Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 9 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 11 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 12 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 13 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 14 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 15 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 16 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Love Song for Illusion is a South Korean historical romance and fantasy drama about love and revenge. The narrative follows a love story between a Crown prince with a dual personality and an assassin seeking revenge for the massacre of her family.
Sajo Hyun is the Crown Prince of Asatae with a personality disorder due to a childhood trauma, which led him to develop an alter ego named Ak-hee. Yeon Wol is the only surviving member of the royal family of Asatae after Sajo Hyun’s father slaughtered her family in a hostile takeover, which made him the King.
Yeon Wol grows up training with the assassin group known as Wind Knife, a secret group of rebels whose goal is to restore the Crown of Asatae to the rightful heir. Yeon Wol’s only goal is to kill Sajo Seung and everyone in his lineage as revenge for her family’s massacre, but fate has a different plan. Yeon Wol falls in love with the son of his mortal enemy, the Crown Prince Sajo Hyun. Consequently, the Crown prince has to fight for Yeon Wol’s affection against his alter ego Ak-hee while still fighting against government officials who think he is a half-wit incapable of becoming the King of Asatae.
The premise of Love Song for Illusion has a unique plot where the male lead suffers from a dual personality disorder, and the female lead breaks stereotypes of female leads in historical dramas since she excels in martial arts and is the leader of a rebel group. Therefore, the series’ plot provides an interesting and refreshing outlook, but the script writing messes up the exciting premise.
The plot is all over the place, making it difficult for audiences to understand the primary storyline. From the beginning, Love Song for Illusion is choppy and develops from bad to worse, making it barely watchable. There are neither exciting plots nor surprising twists in the storyline, making the series bland for the most part.
The writers try to bump up the excitement in the last episodes by aggravating AK-hee’s obsessions and greed, making him want to eliminate Sajo Hyun, which adds some thrill, but not quite enough.
The redeeming feature of the storyline comes from the amazing acting delivered by the main and supporting characters. Park Ji-hoon plays the dual personality perfectly, creating a unique distinction between the timid Sajo Hyun and his alter ego Ak-hee.
Sajo Hyun is a vulnerable man with no interest in politics but enjoys arts and fashion design. His mannerisms are cautious, self-preserved, and unconfident, while Ak-hee is bold, daring, manipulative, greedy, selfish, and confident in his martial arts skills. By comparison, Yeon Wol is daring, quick-witted, resourceful and wise.
The chemistry between Sajo Hyun and Yeon Wol is impressive, especially how she can easily tell Ak-hee apart from Sajo Hyun. Consequently, Sajo Yoong is infuriating, but we must applaud his resourcefulness and ability to sway the masses. He is manipulative, calculating and ruthless. Consequently, other support casts do an impressive job of bringing the character to life and advancing the narrative despite the bland script writing.
Overall, Love Song for Illusion has a refreshing premise and would have been impressive if the writers had played their cards well. The impressive cast does their best to bring the characters to life and, supported by the aesthetically pleasing cinematography, makes the series watchable. After the first few episodes, the show becomes flat and absurdly exaggerated and only picks up in the final episode.
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Verdict - 6/10
6/10