If you are worried about the length of the drama, that is not a problem. It goes by so fast, because each episode has so much plot going on and you just have to keep watching the next episode and the next to see what happens. After the first 20 minutes the plot was well underway. It didn't take the first 3 hours or so like many other dramas to get going. I was thoroughly hooked after 20 minutes.
Having said all that, Empress Ki is heartbreakingly flawed. I don't have a problem with tragedy if it all makes sense. But the plot went crazy during the last third of the drama. I felt cheated because we were led to care for these characters in the first 30 episodes and in the last part we are just tortured by having to watch bad things happen to them over and over and over again. Character and relationship development came to a halt. Nyang's feelings and motives become ambiguous because we don't get to see her with the King or the Emperor anymore. She is just dealing with all the plot twists for most of the last part of the drama. Alliances keep shifting and the plot turns become almost repetitive. How many times can we see a character being tortured before it loses emotional resonance? The drama is no longer character driven at this point - but the characters we have fallen love with are now at the mercy of plot twists and evil characters. The over-arching revenge storyline felt rushed and anti-climactic. That was supposed to be the main conflict of the entire drama and it is treated as just another plot turn.
The thing I hate most is that the main characters aren't given enough screen time together to keep up with the relationships that were developed so well in the first half. The scenes where they are actually together and interacting are really sparse in the last part of the story. The actions of even the most beloved characters were frustrating and hard to swallow.
But still I Ioved the characters so much by this time I had to see it through. After watching it to the end, I feel like I have been strapped down in the imperial palace's torture chamber for the last several episodes and feel pummeled and depressed.
Reading all the other reviews I see that not everyone feels the same way about the last part of this drama, so there is a good chance you will really love Empress Ki if you like melodramatic action historical drama. It definitely will grab you in one way or other. For me, knowing how let down I was by the second half, would I prefer to have never met these characters or started this drama to begin with? Well, I think I would probably go back and do it again. That's how much I loved Empress Ki despite it's major flaws. But I think I need a romantic comedy now to give my heart a break.
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What seemed to be an intense love story with one of those love triangles that I despise so much turned out to be a lot more complicated. There was a lot of political strife and this drama really portrayed how terrifying the palace could be. I would liken it to a battlefield except in this case, our main lead Nyang had to use her intellect and tactics to beat her opponents. Nyang was one of my favourite characters in this drama. At first I liked her for her strength but it wasn't only that she knew how to fight but she was also a character with a lot of wisdom. In my eyes she wasn't as power hungry as some of the other characters, she was someone that knew how to use her power to help others.
Another character that I admired was Wang Yu, to me he was the perfect king. He was wise, brave and loyal to his country. For me, he and Nyang were really similar in their ideas and beliefs. They also knew how to live for others rather than just for themselves, which really amazed me numerous times in this drama. The fight scenes were epic and there were many of them to enjoy!! This drama really had me on edge many times, when one villain would be eliminated we would get someone even worse and this really frustrated me to no end!! Many of the villains in this drama showed moments of humanity and I couldn't hate them as much as I wanted to, instead I would feel sorry for them. I came to find that not all of these villains were inherently evil but became like this as a result of their greed for power or because of their circumstances.
This drama was really thought provoking, fast paced and exciting. Before I knew it I was on the last episode! All the actors/actresses were perfect in their role. One actor that I am sure to keep my eye on is Jin Yi Han who played TAL TAL. He was a delight to watch throughout the drama and a character that I became more interested in with each episode. He was clever, brave and like Nyang knew the difference between right and wrong. Jin Yi Han will forever be TAL TAL to me XD.
The OSTs in this drama were amazing especially the instrumentals that played in the background during the action and sad scenes. It really made me feel a whole lot more emotional when watching these scenes.
As for rewatching this drama, I may rewatch certain episodes of this drama and possibly rewatch the whole drama when I have started to forget about it. This is a drama that I never want to fully forget, although it is a fictionalised account of Empress Ki there are many important lessons taught in this drama. It was a story of bravery, strength, Identity, greed and of course love. This drama was a long and heartbreaking journey but I shared many amazing moments with the characters and for that I was glad I watched it!
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Stunning is the word that comes to mind. And this is a first when applied to Korean historical dramas which I’ve always shunned under the impression that they were mostly palace intrigues involving a lot of stuffy, elevated speech in grave, dimly-lit, austere settings. Indeed, _Empress Ki_ had enthralled me so that it wouldn’t surprise me if Korean historical dramas comprise my current watch list to the exclusion of all else—at least for the time being.
Its epic scale was its chief appeal. The story’s settings encompass a continent as it begins in ancient Korea and then moves westward to Beijing all the way to the Silk Road and China’s western frontier before settling for good in Beijing and its environs, with a brief sally back to Korea. The story is equally epic as it has, in the broadest strokes, a love triangle involving an emperor, a king, and a self-made empress; strife and unrest among nations and ethnicities; and a palace intrigue replete with the usual murders, betrayals, and acts of revenge, more than meriting the drama’s allotted 51 episodes. There was a moment of doubt, at episode 38, when what seems to be the story’s biggest conflict—the heroine’s ouster of the inveterate tyrant—is resolved; but it didn’t take long for the tension and suspense to rebuild, putting me once again on the edge of my seat chewing my fingernails.
Just how much I was moved by _Empress Ki_ can’t be said enough. Even the villains evoked my sympathy: namely, when Tanggisi helplessly watches his sister get executed and when, fending off his assassins, Regent Bayan calls for his nephew’s help only to fall under his nephew’s sword. Even Yom Byung-soo, who I wanted to see boiled alive in a cauldron (in the old Mongol style), had a moment deserving of my sympathy: namely, when he sighs in dismay at Tanggisi’s mission objective if or when El Temur's hidden treasure is found. (Tanggisi wants to raise an army and regain control of Yuan when all Yom wants to do is retire and live the good life.)
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What I liked:
This drama has a lot of political intrigue, which I do enjoy. I tend to watch a lot of historical fiction so this does satisfy that interest. The costumes were beautiful. The ending was also very well done, so I was pleased when I walked away from it.
What I disliked:
There were many moments I almost wanted to drop this drama due to how lengthy it is, and my inability to feel sympathetic towards any of the characters until close to the end. Empress Ki was a strong female lead, which is nice, but she was not a likable character. I did not enjoy the love triangle. At one point I was hoping they would just stop, because I did not believe any of their characters deserved to be together.
It took a lot for me to continue this drama, so I don't plan to ever rewatch it. I would only recommend this if you are willing to sit through a lot of boring episodes and put up with pushovers and annoying love triangles to get to a good ending.
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It could have ended nicely when she finally became an empress because it was, after all the ultimate goal. What disappointed me was every 10th-15th episode the plot line changes and the story shifts its focus on something else aside from the previous problem on hand. That was really annoying.
I could have loved both kings - Yuan and Goryo alike but instead I fell in love with Taltal, Governor Bayan's right hand and nephew. Sometimes I day dream that he and Sunyang would actually end up together instead of the power driven-infused kings. Their tandem by the end of the drama was more in place than her link with the kings.
The music was timely, I couldn't ask for a better sound track for it. I have already re-watched several scenes from random episodes just because I liked the cinematography and the kick-ass fight scenes and archery of our heroine.
I would recommend this to watchers who are into saguek and all the palace/warlord/politics conspiracy, but let me warn you that the romance isn't the main focus here, it might even disappoint.
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Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
I read a few of the other reviews before I decided to post and I don't fully agree with them. Yes this is a sageuk (historical k drama) and yes it is long. 51 episodes may seem like a long show to watch but it is well worth it. There are of course artistic liberties taken with the story but the traditional story line is still there and this drama also does a good job with costumes and period accurate details. It keeps you on your toes and its not just a happy go lucky show, there is real drama and real suspense. If you can find the time for the whole drama you will not regret it, the characters good and bad make you love them. The lead female is powerful and impressive while being elegant. Leading men both pull off their characters well and while you will most definitely find your self screaming at the screen during this drama, its ability to frustrate and suprize its audience is one of the keys that kept me watching. On another note if you are interested in history or in Asian culture this drama is intriguing and can give you new insight without being opressive.
I don't want to add any spoilers so I am going to have to stop here but as a last word this is my favorite sageuk and I recommend it to everyone.
***re-watch value is only low because it is long.
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Not for binge watching, maybe a little outdated
I started this when I was sick with flu and watched some 20 episodes in 2 days. The first 10 episodes were really good with constant twists and turns. The middle part from 20-40 felt very repetitive with war after war and neverending palace plots. I skipped all fight scenes and Tanashili scenes. They were just too predictable and devoid of meaning. (=Outdated in terms of current expectations). The last 10 episodes were again a rollercoaster. I think it's best to watch this drama as it originally was meant to be watched, 1-2 episodes per week. Probably only then is it possible to appreciate the big scale of the production and the effort that went into making it visually outstanding.Regardless of this perhaps being a classic and must-watch, I felt the characters were rather one-dimensional and there could have been more shades to the culprits. Now they are just mainly hatable monsters. I have to say I didn't feel much empathy for the main leads. There were some scenes that stood out for both Ji Chang Wook and Ha Ji Won, but the space they were given to portray character depth was rather limited (in comparison to action scenes). Therefore Tal Tal emerged as one of the most interesting characters, as there was slow progression in his coming to the fore. All in all, with the ending (not an actual victory) and the permanent wars and power struggles and last speeches of the Empress Dowager and Head of Eagle House, I felt the message was one of there being always shadow forces and continuity in power politics regardless of people in charge changing.
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The reason why I gave this drama a low review is not because it is bad, actually was pretty good drama that kept me watching till the end, but it had many moments, particularly at the ending episodes which made it make no sense whatsoever. Stay with me on this, let's first see the good parts:
GOOD:
1. Every single actor and actress perfected their role. 10/10 on acting.
2. Very catchy story, especially for a historical drama, and it's beautiful how they focused the story on more than one character.
3. The main actress portrayed a very strong main role, which was rather amazing and had me always cheering for her.
4. It was thrilling enough to keep me watching till the end, the plot twists kept it running.
NOW here's why even though it has all these good points it yet did not score high, the bad parts:
BAD:
1. Though I enjoyed the plot twists, they were TOO MUCH, too much to the fact that it started ruining the story at the end. It felt like as if the directors and writers desired and valued a storyline with full plot twists and little to no emotional sense to the watcher whatsoever.
2. Some scenes were pathetically annoying in terms of weak spoiled characters, even though the actors themselves acted very well, their roles themselves were annoying. For example, the Emperor or the Dowager, just because they had power they were given a loooooong ass story that just dragged over and over.
3. This proves point 2. there was little character development. I wished that people in this drama would learn from their mistakes to act differently in later episodes.
4. There was little to no emotional sense given to the watcher.
5. Wtf is this ending, explained but rushed, and gave little to no credit to the last characters that deserved it!!
In conclusion, I get that this is meant to be a historical, tragic drama, but they went waaaay overboard with this tragic theme which lowered my rating.
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From the reviews I have seen in here the rating really depends on which guy you want for main female to end up with, if you end up liking the wrong ship its gonna be more painful and I have seen more lower scores because of it. There were definitely some parts of the story which made me so annoyed and that happened near the timeskips. I loved empress ki character for how strong she was against villains.
You will see huge character progression, when you start to rewatch it and see the characters from beginning and then look at them near end its amazing what time and events can do to some people even if its good or bad. If you like seeing strong main female, romance, drama and don't mind historical genres and some political side of the palace then watch it. I enjoyed it so much I wish I had forgotten most of the plot so I get to re-experience everything for the first time!
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Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
I couldn't stop watching - it's that good
I don't always give drama series 10 stars but the Emperor did it for me. Ji Chang Wook is such a great actor. I especially loved the rage he was able to display. It just seemed so REAL! The Empress' character was perfectly played by Ha Ji Won! She is brilliant and so naturally beautiful. This is the first time I have seen this actor and I was super happy with his performance. I just may have a new favorite. lol This series was well written and all the actors and actresses did a really great job. SPOILER ALERT! I knew right away that darn ****** was a villain...haha! I just hate Spoilers so that is the best I can do for those of you impatient ones. ;) Lots of tears flowing from the characters in this one, even Maha (Kim Jin Sung) was in on it. I really loved this drama. I'm glad I decided to watch it. At first I didn't think I would like it. I think I can finally sleep tonight.Cet avis était-il utile?
Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
Where are my anti-colonial babes at??
Given there are already 100+ reviews of Empress Ki, I'll focus on the colonial power politics of the show, as that's what drew me in. But like, did no one else watch this show because of it's anti-colonial themes??This Kdrama is the first historical one I've watched in a long time. Usually, I watch Chinese palace dramas, but dealing with Chinese censorship rules limits the exploration of history and I don't enjoy analysing propaganda that much. In contrast, Empress Ki is unfettered.
toxicbybritneyspears's review mentioned "national identity" as a key theme of Empress Ki. I agree but would extend that further by arguing that the drama examines the complexities of national identity as it intersects with colonial politics. While watching Empress Ki, I automatically started comparing it to Mr. Sunshine (South Korea, 2018), which features anti-colonial resistance during Japan's colonisation of Korea. Mr. Sunshine attempts to grapple with classism clashing with resistance efforts led by nobility and aristocracy, but ultimately fails. Empress Ki, despite also falling short in a similar grappling, does provide a wider range of characters portraying the difficulties of unified anti-colonial resistance.
For context, the drama is set during the 1300s when Korea (then known as Goryeo) is under Yuan dynasty rule (Mongol empire). From the drama's start, Goryean characters have starkly different experiences of colonization. There's a king (Wang Yoo) dealing with powerlessness. A surviving daughter (Seung Nyang) navigating the death of her mother at Yuan hands. An ambitious man of poor background (Byung Soo) betraying Goryeo for survival. Other Goryeo citizens live in Yuan, either in the Goryeo ghetto or in the Yuan Imperial Palace as staff. These experiences result in a wide range of actions, from outright defiance of Yuan rule to willing collusion with the Yuan regime.
Circumstances suggest there's no hope for Goryeo to achieve complete autonomy from the Yuan empire (or so the drama implies). Wang Yoo's ambition is to reclaim his throne, implying that under his control, collusion with the Yuan dynasty can end, and he will strengthen the country for the sake of his people. Seung Nyang takes a different approach: high-level infiltration. Climbing the ranks, she eventually becomes Yuan Empress with considerable political influence, claiming to use it for the benefit of the Yuan people and those from Goryeo living in Yuan. They both execute these strategies better than expected given the stakes.
However, my main frustration is that while these characters make grandiose statements about improving the lives of ordinary citizens, these everyday folks are given meagre screen time. We don't see much of everyday Goryeo people beyond Seung Nyang's early gang days. The people in the Goryeo ghetto seem to lack agency, relying on the whims of Seung Nyang or Wang Yoo. The drama even depicts the villagers as ungrateful when Wang Yoo visits the town (for his own political aims). Palace staff who won't support Seung Nyang's schemes receive similar dismissive treatment.
And that brings me to Byung Soo. Early on, he explains his betrayal of Goryeo, stating Goryeo did nothing to protect him as his family struggled to survive in a poverty-stricken country. Someone, perhaps one of Wang Yoo's men (or Wang Yoo himself, I can't remember), remarks that the Yuan dynasty is to blame. True, but not the whole story. Byung Soo articulates the struggle of the working class and poor who can't afford to think beyond day-to-day survival. What's the point in fighting for a kingdom that forces its people to serve another nation and rejects those who manage to return to Goryeo soil?
For me, that should have been the crux of the drama. Yet, it's not until the final few episodes that Empress Ki turns its attention in that direction. Seung Nyang and Eunuch Dok Man express their internal conflict of national identity, suspended between Yuan and Goryeo. Seung Nyang, focused on personal revenge, hasn't grappled with this conflict until then. Dok Man must choose who to back, his choice bound up in which nation he wants to support. Yet, his character isn't fleshed out to bring that discussion to the fore, and he is seemingly rewarded for choosing to back Seung Nyang, while Byung Soo is killed for betraying her.
I wonder whether Byung Soo's character represents some laziness from the writers, perhaps due to the drama biting off more than it can chew. When Seung Nyang looks down on Byung Soo's corpse and expresses remorse for how Goryeo's abandonment of him led to his actions, one wonders why he was condemned for actions seemingly deterministic.
And on a similar note, why aren't the villagers given their own chance to contribute to resistance? Surely, they have the ability to organise collectively and take some power, even if small, into their own hands?
In the end, I think Empress Ki was onto something by drawing out ambiguities. Initially, I worried it might end up oversimplified like Mr. Sunshine or with a Stockholm syndrome-y assimilationist tale, as in The King's Woman (Chinese, 2017). However, given the extensive screen-time, there was a missed opportunity to delve into the trickier elements of colonial power politics.
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