JJS overshadows SSK as the king completely however this drama still failed to captivate me

aigoo...I just spent some time writing a review, but then my laptop shutdown and I lost it T_T so I'll sum it up into a few words:

what I liked:
- production quality (the clothing, backgrounds, lighting etc. were nice compared to recent period idol dramas)
- JJS as the male lead. I've seen him in the King2Hearts and think his acting and portrayal of yi in was very believable
- park ye young as court lady dong. I've seen her in hometown cha cha cha and didn't know she was good at sageuks! she looks like a different person! In fact I think she should've been cast as the female lead instead!
- the veteran actors, who acted the court ministers. although the bad uncle guy looked like every other bad guy in these dramas, the older actor's acting was good and as expected
- the actor who played the grand prince (kid)
- I actually liked seeing that actor from crash landing on you in here as one of the shady ministers
(thinking....what else I liked lol)
- I liked when I realised it wasn't worth my time and dropped it...T_T

what I didn't like:
- so I may sound like a broken record, but shin sae kyung really wasn't the right choice for this drama. I don't think she's a good actress. As someone who's seen a few other historical dramas that are so much better, they should've picked someone who could've played the part better!
I've seen snip bits of her in rookie historian and I think she looks okay in idol drama but not in a more serious drama filled with more experienced actors! she looks so out of place! whether she's sad or happy it's unclear most of the time, because her acting is so stiff and she looks likes she's crying most of the time or about to cry. she also shakes her eyes around too much.
- the "romance" was so unconvincing! I felt bad for JJS who was really giving his best, but the female lead made the kissing scenes awkward and I didn't feel much chemistry between them..
- the pacing. tbh from episode 1 I was waiting the whole time for the male lead to find out about her identity! I didn't really care about the rest of the plot and when he finally finds out in episode 7 I think I was happy but then the drama just went down the drain.
- the female lead's character was really badly written
- the cross-dressing was nonsensical and made us and the other men look like idiots. also..she was initially dressing up as a "man" to save captives from Qing by earning money with playing Baduk/Go, but it never actively showed her freeing anyone and also does she have power to free anyone?
- the bad writing
- female lead's revenge plot was weak
- I liked that the music wasn't a bunch of kpop like in idol dramas, but I feel like they could've put more effort into the instrumental OST because that's sometimes what tends to carry these historical dramas

Overall this drama is pretty forgettable and such a waste of like 12hrs of my life!
After a while I wondered why I was even still watching it

also I just remembered something which makes the female even more stupid! why'd she want kim myung ha to help her when he was the one who wrote the false attestation?!

also I thought myung ha was better than the female lead because he could actually act lol, but overall this drama isn't the best. maybe it's better than others, but meh

but all that to say, would this drama have been better if SSK weren't the female lead? maybe, but I guess we'll never know...

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how does this compare to other versions?

this is another manga series which like kimi ni todoke got a newer drama adaptation. although I prefer the movie of ao haru ride from 2014, I did like seeing extra scenes from the manga in this version. BUT none of the live actions ever covered the actual retreat scene, which I guess doesn't matter too much for the romance, but it would've been nice to see that.
the anime only has 1 season and a few OVAs but otherwise it feels quite incomplete and only covers roughly 3/13 volumes of the manga, whereas this first season (eight 25min episodes) jumps through scenes all the way till about volume 6!! but fails to include some important plot points from the manga and thus rushes through the romance aspect. All this to say I do think the cast looks a bit more like the anime BUT I still still prefer the movie cast. the only actor I like in this is Kou. I'll keep my eye out when the second season airs next year though.

p.s. the kikuchi actor they chose looks too much like plastic! even the actor in the movie looks way better lol (nothing against the actor personally though, but I'm not a fan of kpop looking guys lol)

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It took a while to find this movie..

[I found this movie on mydramalist more than a year ago and finally found it on a torrent website last year.]

Plot (as far as I remember):

Girl is living with her adoptive father in the mountains and hiding away from people. One day she meets the ML. I think after that her father tells her who she actually is and shortly after their house gets burnt down and she goes to her actual home. turns out the ML is the Lord of that area and they meet eachother again. He starts being interested in her..because their families somehow don't want them to marry, they elope but get caught..

i hope i did a well enough job explaining this movie..

overall it seemed slow even though it maybe isn't. i guess just the music but I think it fits.

the acting is good and I think the main couple had some chemistry.

the ending was acceptable.

overall 8/10

it's not my favourite but the visuals for this movie especially the scene where he meets her by the horse and the lighting is very good.

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starts out funny and turns more serious

i was hoping for this drama to become more of a serious one and it sort of did although there's still some funny bits towards the end.
I've seen 10/12 episodes and have been here since 2 episodes were aired.

some of the plot points throughout the show never got explained like the crowned princess showing up again in ep 5 or some other ones. also I would like to know how so rang survived 7 years ago..
i know this is a shorter drama so they had to squeeze things in but hopefully all the plot points get explained in the last 2 episodes.

i really love the main couple. they're so cute!!

shin won is anooying and just gets duller. but i hope he ends up with the girl who saved them in ep 10.

i like the OST and casting.

I've made some edits for the main couple ?

I'm excited to see how they wrap things up..

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