Chae-ok is the daughter of a nobleman, who was framed for conspiracy and thereafter committed suicide. She got separated from her brother at the age of 7 when she was caught by the officer who then took her to be the slave of Hwangbo Yoon's family. Alongside him, she was raised in the mountains and learned martial arts and sword fighting. She has loved Yoon silently for years, knowing they cannot be together because he belongs to a higher social class. Instead when he becomes a police commander, she joins his bureau as a damo to continue being near him and working with him. When Chae-ok goes undercover while investigating a counterfeiting ring, she meets the rebel leader Jang Sung-baek. She must try to arrest Sung-baek, but despite her bravery and resolve, she finds herself falling for him.
Adapted from Bang Hak-gi's manhwaDamo Nam-soon and with an expensive budget of per episode, Damo took more than a year to complete. It was filmed in Taean County, South Chungcheong Province. To help elevate the quality of the show, 80 percent of the series was pre-produced before airing, a rare occurrence among Korean dramas. It was also the first Korean drama completely shot with HD cameras. Steering away from traditional historical dramas, Damo ushered in the new subgenre "fusion historical drama," with its use of flashy wuxia-style high-wire action, CG, and a soundtrack that combined traditional music with anachronistic modern rock/electronica.
Reception
The series began with modest ratings, but it soon began to gain popularity among viewers in their 20s and 30s. Damo was the first Korean drama in the Internet era to reach 1 million posts on the message board of its official website, which caused the site's servers to crash. It eventually passed 4 million posts. Dedicated online fans coined the tongue-in-cheek moniker pyein, referring to themselves as "crippled by pain" because they spend hours in front of a computer writing comments and discussions about the drama and chatting online with other viewers, to an extent of not being able to lead a normal life. The cast and crew also interacted with these netizens online, to better "read" viewers' reactions. Even long after the series had ended, the Damo pyeins continued to generate content, such as a newsletter called Damo Ilbo written in Joseon-era Korean language, music videos edited by fans themselves, and thousands of drawings related to the show. Online popularity led to revenue, and MBC earned an estimated a day through Internet residual fees. At the end of the drama's last episode, a caption onscreen read "We would like to thank the Damo pyeins." Damo, which had recorded average ratings of more than 20 percent, became mainstream thanks to the huge popularity it enjoyed online, and it turned into a cultural phenomenon, forcing TV networks to thereafter change their approach to ratings, online content, and viewer feedback. Damo's cast, writer and director were recognized at the year-end MBC Drama Awards, and the 2004 Baeksang Arts Awards.
