The King's Affection (2021)

Perfection!

Please don’t listen to the reviews saying it’s dragging and too slow-paced. I am very glad I didn’t look at any reviews before I started watching because I might’ve passed on a drama that is now one of my absolute favorites.

It wasn’t too slow or too long at all! I was glued to the screen for every second of these 20 episodes and binged the whole thing in two days, with only one break for a few hours of sleep.

I generally love the crossdressing trope but I think it is only done right, when the other characters don’t find out for a long time, which this drama did perfectly. I have seen a few shows where the love interest found out way too soon, which takes away the whole thrill of the trope. The King’s Affection does an amazing job at keeping up the thrill and only slowly revealing parts of the truth. The characters are all well-written and three-dimensional and make you care for them and worry about their fate, so no scene feels like a bore or filler. Even with the length of 20 episodes, it never felt like it dragged on for too long. It was exactly the right amount of time needed to tell this beautiful story.

Park Eun Bin did an exceptionally great job, portraying the Crown Prince. I love that the writers made Dami become a fierce, badass Prince instead of a damsel-in-distress trying to pose as a man. The way she acted and held herself made her the most believable man I’ve seen in a crossdressing drama or movie. I’ve seen some people say she looks way too feminine to pass as a man, which I find funny cause I could list at least 6 idols who could pass as a woman and fool everyone, so why is it so unbelievable that a man could have her features? Effeminate men exist.

I really fell in love with the whole cast, but especially Nam Yoon Su, who played Hyun - his fate was the one I was most anxious about because he was just so charming.
And of course, the child actors also did an amazing job, especially Choi Myung Bin in her double role.

There are quite a few parallels to Sungkyunkwan Scandal but it didn’t bother me. Both dramas are amazing.

Seriously, please give this a watch, it’s amazing.

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Sizzling romance, well acted, interesting plot...what's not to like?

9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean Historical Romance Drama with 20, 70 minute episodes.

During the Josean era, the birth of twins was considered an unfortunate sign. To disguise the event, the king sends a message to kill the infant girl and everyone who attended the birth. The mother, the Crown Princess Constort, had the twin infant secretly snuck out of the palace to save her life. After years of living at a monastery, Dam-yi, the girl twin, winds up returning to the palace as a maid. It is not long before her brother, the young Crown Prince, notices their remarkable similarity and gets her to pretend to be him so he can go on a mission outside the palace. Unfortunately, due to mistaken identity, the young prince is killed and the Crown Princess Consort realizes her daughter was disguised as her brother. To save the life of the only child she now has, Dam-yi's mother requests that she continue in the role of the Crown Prince, her brother. As the years pass Dam-Yi (Park Eun-bin) yp keep people from discovering her secret she maintains both physical and emotional distance from others earning her the titles "the five step prince" and "Ice Prince". When her first love, Jung Ji-woon (Rowoon), is brought to the palace to tutor the "Crown Prince" she finds that the womanly feelings she had buried for so long start to emerge. Now Dam-yi must not only keep her true identity secret but also protect those around her in an environment where many factions seek the crown.

I loved the premise of this. The reason she had to act as her brother was both logical and believable. The interactions between her and all of the characters around him/her were interesting and engaging. The love story between the two main characters was well paced and heart warming. There were multiple villians and they were very much love to hate. It had a Mulan sort of feel to it overall. Spoilers** The only slight detractors were I felt we never found out what happened to her cousin who was mortally wounded in the end. If he lived and there was a possibility that he would although unlikely, he would come for the crown again. I thought the young prince being killed was unnecessary. It was very disheartening because she had told him he would be okay. Hyun never expressed any interest in the crown and they did not explain how it came about that he wound up being the one to ascend to the throne. I mean he was more or less the last in line that they talked about but still there was no mention of how he felt about it. In general the monarchy was portrayed as weak, they did whatever their vassals wanted to the point of maids and the eunichs somewhat bossing the royals around. I am sure some of that went on but it seemed to be very prevalent in this one. She is very petite and feminine to "buy" that she was a man. That is not unusual though, every one I have seen with this trope you have to allow artistic license and just "play along." I mean if the queen seemed to buy it, and the rest of the royals who would question it? I don't expect movies to match reality - they are movies. People generally cannot bound between two buildings, jump out of moving cars, take on 50 guys, but we accept all that in action movies. So, I didn't mind that she was a very "feminine" looking man and that those around her bought it. Overall I loved it though and those minor points were very minor. I loved how strong her characater was and all the things she had overcome. I would watch it again and totally recommend it to anyone that likes this genre. Very well done. The acting was amazing, costumes were beautiful, settings were eye candy, and the characters had a lot of depth and development.

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"The King's Affection" is a historical romance drama that managed to win my affection. I came to admire and adore the main-characters and the supporting characters. The first two episodes were really strong and the latter 10 episodes managed to keep my interest going but i had to put it on-hold after ep 14 because things were really dragging after that and the writing was nowhere superior to how it was in the earlier episodes. But i picked it up again after a few months and finished the last episodes on Netflix. It has all the tropes i love but didn`t manage to make a perfect story out of it but it was good anyway. Yeon Seon is a admirable heroine who was a victim in this whole story that get forced to take on her dead twin-brothers throne. I just adore her two servants who always stood by her side and protected her. Then we have the absolutely fearless but vulnerable hero Jung who stood for what is right. He couldn`t accept nor condone what his father had done and what he stands for. It really took a toll on him mentally while growing up but he still stayed strong in his beliefs and managed to grow up into such a great man- deserving of our beloved heroine Yeon Seon. I love how he dearly comes to love her while still thinking she is a Male Prince. He loved her when he was a boy and he falls in love with her again as a man. I rooted for Jung and Yeon Seon with all my heart, wishing their happy ever after.

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Lovely but boring

I just finished watching King's Affection and we'll in a overall it's a 6.5/10.

First, the principal idea is amazing! Having a King disguise as a Woman is truly a big deal. And the romance between "King" and the scribe surpass all the barriers!

But that's a lot to complain...


Too much episodes, and you know why? There was A LOT of silly little romantic scenes that didn't add absolutely nothing in the story. I know, it's cute but there was TOO MANY!

The OST was repeated SO MANY times! Like, in every romantic scene the principal song was playing...there wasn't another song to put in? It made every scene that it was played on monotonous.

At the end, HOW did the "King" survived??? She literally drank POISON and BLED??? It wasn't explained.

Plus, how did her good cousin became the King if his bad brother was still alive and could have tried to become the King?? It wasn't explained either.

And more, the ending after everything that happened was so...boring? It was cute in a way but it was TOO FAST! They could at least showed more of Jiwoon and Dami.

For me, it was a great drama but there was failures that caused discomfort for me.

By the way the main actors 10/10 cannot complain, i love Eunbin and Rowoon!!

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My #1 All time favorite kdrama

From the first minute, I was hooked. The story line and why things happen interested me soooo much!! I live all the mystery that goes in and I love how Scribe Jung is always there for “Lee Hwi”. I also love that she was adamant about getting close to Scribe Jung at first but she fell for him even though their love seemed impossible at the beginning. I was a huge enthusiast of their love and I found myself crying whenever there were obstacles and things that made it seem like they could never be happy together. All I wanted was for her to get her identity back and to be able to be with Scribe Jung. I love how Scribe Jung always proved himself and he didn’t just talk but he would walk his talk. He was persistent and didn’t give up on Lee Hwi. I live their relationship so freaking much !!! <3333 I’ve yet to see another kdrama as good as this one. It’s my absolute favorite.

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Promising start but lack of storyline. Could be wrapped up within 12 episodes.

Started as a very different , high pitched plot but drops it's pace at the middle. Too many unnecessary hilarious moments given to the main lead.
At some point u could think it should have become a romantic comedy rather than a historical drama.
Growth of the 2nd male lead was very slow.
The queen could play a better role to help the disguised king to take the revenge .
Too much unrealistic conspiracy theory.

All the supporting roles were placed & played beautifully . That's the only thing I liked about the story.

It could be a drama as good as mr queen , but ended up disappointing me. It needed to end between 12-16 episode. Too much length made it more boring.

Things to like- the cast.
Among all The gender blending dramas, this one's female acting as male was very much convincing.

Ost was good .

Rowoon really caught my attention ❤️

Will i rewatch ?? Nope....

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Loved it so much

Made me put my phone down for 20 hours straight. But god that was an emotional roller coaster and made me so anxious the entire time. I thought it would be a heartwarming and slow story especially since it has 20 episodes. I cried, i was happy, i was sad, i was shocked, i was concerned, i laughed(not for too long though), i was anxious. Made me feel a little bit too many emotions at the same time, it was horrible in the good way. I'm very impressed by their acting skills, the plot was very well done too. I recommend it to people who are feeling really bored or just want to feel something

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Good Enough

Korean Drama " The King's Affection " is a drama with the theme of crossdressing in a melodrama rather than in a comedy.

The drama has a killer start, with a strong background story and tragic characters. The progress of the king's story is, in addition, smooth, and pretty dramatic. However, the romance was weak and probably the weakest point of the drama, as it didn't progress nicely and it had plenty of ups and downs.

On the other hand, the performances were spot on, and intense and the main leads handled their characters masterfully.

As for the cinematography, it was okay, not too original, but it feated the story.

So, overall, six out of ten.

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Nice Love Story

You love who you love. This drama depicts just that. Female pretends to be male heir (Prince Lee Hwi) to the throne, engulfed in drama and secrecy. At the same time, she must also hide her love for a man whom she loved from her childhood. However, attraction is strong between them, with him thinking that he is in love a man! How interesting to watch as the truth unfolds. A series of emotions, attraction and eventually adult love, which I found enjoyable to watch. The chemistry between the two leads Eun Bin and Rowoon is matched well. A really nice love story.

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Amazing character dynamics

I don't want to say a lot since I believe that you should watch for yourself. I just want to list the elements that impressed me the most.

- I never got distracted and was fully immersed in every episode, even when I was feeling tired or not really in the mood for it. As someone who gets distracted easily even when in the mood for watching dramas (I usually finish a one-hour long episode in almost two hours because I can't focus), this is pretty incredible for me.
- The story, while being VERY dramatic, wasn't as unbearably sad and frustrating as I feared. The numerous obstacles were justified by the overall plot, and while I felt my heart ache for the mains, I never felt frustrated about it and my interest in the story didn't fade.
- The dynamic between the two main characters is one of the best I've seen in a Korean drama so far. In most dramas the love story always ends up being between "a person and a woman" rather than two people, even when the female lead seems to be empowered/independent/whatever. In "The King's Affection" the romance is between "two people", and the protagonist actually comes across as a complete person who just happens to be a woman, as it should be.
- Kind of related to the point above: despite it being a historical drama, the gender roles aren't reinforced all that much and the characters have more room for their personalities to flourish.
- Most of the support characters have their own role in the story and aren't just there to act as a frame for the main characters. The only (very bad!) exception would be the second male lead, but the vast majority of second male leads in Korean dramas are either just there to be a useful tool for the main characters, or a complete waste of time, so I wasn't surprised.
- The gender-bend trope was done right, without those "funny misunderstanding/accident" moments that can be found elsewhere. It's the first time I see a serious take like this and I loved it.

If you're interested in a project with Park Eun-Bin after watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo and you like historical dramas, I highly recommend watching this.

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