THROUGH JANE’S EYES: CHAPTER 1: ALCHEMY OF SOULS
I know it’s been a while. Life was happening to me as it was happening to you too. I am sorry, Mianhaeyo. Jebal yongsohae juseyo, Please forgive me. In repentance, I am glad to present a review today not a recommendation.
If you have noticed (and you should have by now), I love fantasy dramas. It is where everything is okay. The sky may be red, and people flying, magic and superpowers may become everyday things and it is perfectly okay.
Among the various fantasy dramas that aired recently, the dearest to me right now is Alchemy of Souls. You may have watched it or are about to but all in all you should have at least heard of it (except you are that unique 1%). If you haven’t, then you must know that there is nothing not to love about the drama. It has action (beautiful, beautiful sword action I must say), it has magic, it has very pretty men and women in amazing modernized hanboks, and the characters are very witty and innately funny. The cinematography is perfect and so is the story. The only thing you may not like is the fact that someone thought it wise to split an already amazing drama into two parts.
As much as I hate the annoying tension of waiting, I fell into the temptation of watching one episode and I was in a downward spiral of waiting each week for the next episodes.
If you are not a fan of spoilers, then at this point, I should say Bye and Thank you for coming. If you are, then let’s go ahead.
Alchemy of souls tells the story of the mages of Daeho, a fictional country that doesn’t exist in maps or history books. Giving you a little preamble before the main story, Daeho is made up of various magical families. Amongst them are some families that are particularly popular.
The Jin family, own and protect the Jinyowon. The Jinyowon houses many magical objects.
The Park family lead Songrim. Songrim oversees the training of young mages.
The Jang family produces the Gwanju of Cheonbugwan. Cheonbugwan controls a huge amount of magic and also advises the royal family.
The Seo family protects the borders of Daeho and have lights that burn for each member of the family.
The heirs to each of the families together make the “4 seasons of Daeho”.
These families alongside representatives of other families make up the most powerful council in Daeho, the Unanimous assembly.
About 200 years ago, there had been a severe drought which made all the powerful mages conduct a ritual to refill the largest lake in Daeho. As a result, hail fell from the sky which turned into water but there was a piece of hail that didn’t melt. It was a body of magic which conformed itself into the fire, then stone, then water and back to its ice form. The process of doing this generated a black powder as a by-product, the soul ejector. The soul ejector was used to carry out Alchemy of souls, which could allow souls to shift bodies. In the quest for such great power, there was great chaos, and the ice stone was locked and sealed away. Now 200 years later, we see that somehow the ice stone has gotten out and people have been secretly using the soul ejector recklessly.
The plot revolves around Jang Uk, son to the Gwanju of Cheonbugwan. He had his gate of energy shut close by his father as a child and unlike every other mage in the country, he has no magic. He is incredibly witty and funny and has very high self-esteem (which I love) even though he goes through various teachers all in a bid to become a true mage. His already troublesome life takes a drastic turn (for the worse in a sense) when he meets and recognizes the legendary assassin, Naksu, stuck in the body of the formerly blind but greatly mysterious Mudeok. They come to a mutual agreement, Mudeok would train Jang Uk so that he become a mage and in turn he would become the source of her energy to get her magical powers back.
With Mudeok’s help, every step is a risk with one’s life on the balance. She, through pain and sweat, gets him to not only get his portal of energy opened (by nearly killing him) but getting free energy from an incredibly talented mage. Through her help, Jang Uk, gets to Ryusu, the second level of magic many mages spend years to reach, in a ridiculously short time. After walking through blood and fire and with Tansu, a skill of swordsmanship, easily associated with Naksu, our Jang Uk reaches Chisu, the 3rd level of magic that only a few mages have reached.
As the story goes on, we see that suffering and hard parts are easily attracted to the Jang Uk and Mudeok pairing. Everything becomes hard when it gets to their turn. They always achieve things through suffering and so they naturally get closer to each other. As they draw closer and closer to their aims, Jin Mu, the very evil assistant Gwanju, who is the genesis of everything bad in the story comes up with interesting ways of always putting sand in their garri.
As the first part of the drama drew to its end, the funny prince of the royal family discovers that Jang Uk was born with the King’s star. A potential threat to his position as heir to the throne and he allows himself to be deceived by Jin Mu into putting the lives of Mudeok, Jang Uk as well as all the mages of Songrim at risk.
Jin Mu discovers that it is Naksu who is actually in Mudeok’s body, and he controls her spirit into killing Jang Uk. Yes, I said it, killing Jang Uk. And just when we were about to match down to Seoul to catch the Hong sisters (the writers of the drama), Jang Uk comes back to life looking cooler than ever and reminds me why I love fantasies. With that, the first part comes to a close.
I loved every moment of watching the first part of Alchemy of souls. I loved the funny ways the various love pairings were presented and how foolish even smart people could be. I am eagerly looking forward to the second part in December and let me tell you, with the trailer it seems that our Jang Uk has reached Hwansu, the highest level of energy and he fights like the sword is just an extension of his hand, an absolute masterpiece. If you haven’t watched Alchemy of souls yet, hurry on then because trust me, it was worth every single minute of its airing.
