Now the saving grace of the series for me is Park Kyu

Written by Masaya

There are factors from the drama (Tamra the Island) that filter the targeted audiences quite a bit. This drama isn't appealing to males because it's a reverse harem theme (unless they stop thinking guys should watch guys theme kind of dramas. Maybe they'll never be comfortable with their own sexuality.) Besides that, not many Korean guys like to see a Westerner at the opening getting the girl. The old folks would care less (and probably stopped watching after 5 minutes at the beginning seeing William, Yan and his mother.) Also, I don't think bathroom humor is popular with traditional Asians.

The gut of most story is about a love story. Things thrown around the theme are supposed to give depth. With Tamra, the author wants to tie it with the political intrigue so some smuggling activities (which are supposed to be related to the political intrigue) were thrown in to enrich the story. Now the girl in red is the deposed king's younger sister (who looks more like his daughter to me.) But anyways, I would guess that she's doing all this (somehow) for vengeance in order to take the throne back. (That's as far as it goes, something like Goong.) Meanwhile, Park Kyu (who either works for the present government or is the government himself) wanders in smuggling country to investigate. So you have the good guy Park Kyu versus the bad guy, the red dress girl and her ninjas minions. On the parallel, you have our hero trying to win girl's heart from a Westerner. Yeah there are some conspiracies brewing but the audiences are left wondering what the heck is going on with all the smuggling business and why is that important. I don't think people care too much smuggling. They want big stuff like overthrowing the government sort of thing. (But then it's Jeju Island, what do you expect?) 

Now the saving grace of the series for me is Park Kyu. I'm not saying that because I love the guy but he is good what he's doing. I guess after watching dramas for 20 years or so the attraction to certain acting charisma becomes a reflex. At first glance, for some reasons Im Joo Hwan keeps reminding me of Edison Chen. (Yeah the shrimp who created the big scandal.) Anyways, that's not to say I remember how E.C. looks like. Maybe the images in my memory played tricks on me. So that put a bit of a setback toward seeing that face. Second was to pass the beginning of the drama. I can recall it was painful (getting pass William, Yan and co.) So I got into the drama and after seeing Im Joo Hwan as Park Kyu, he reminds me of another face. It's Dawson from Dawson's creek. (Okay, at this point I think the images in my memory must be playing tricks on me.) But Im Joo Hwan holds his own. He charms me with his act. This guy is a stuck up at first glance. But he's righteous and has a good heart. He's the type that doesn't express his true feelings and really depends people to see him through his actions and not his words. The more I see him, the more I found myself drinking up every single of his expressions, including that of the longing sad eyes of the one sided love. Oh so heart-breaking... Im Joo Hwan plays the part very well and I think he's perfect for the role. I'm not a concentrated Kdrama fan so I don't watch that many Kdramas but I'm glad I found him. Even if this drama doesn't have good rating, I'm sure this role will give him window for future roles. He really deserves to get in the spotlight.