Meari21

She is literally called Consort Kang in the drama. She is based on Chang Noksu, one of his royal consorts. The real Yeonsangun had a total of 9,000 royal consorts and concubines. Asian rulers were allowed to have as many consorts as they wanted but there was only one Queen/Empress and primary wife. They didn't only have one wife but many.

Concubines and consorts are different. Royal consorts are married to the ruler and they usually have noble background. Concubines do not have the same privilege as consorts. Consort Kang wouldn’t be this powerful in the court if she was a mere concubine.

Good thing they struck gold with Chae Min's casting. It could've easily gone the opposite way. This kid is blowing up in Korea. He was a C-list actor and now everyone wants to work with him.

You mean Consort Kang? Yes, she is. He has several other wives. Consort Kang is only a fourth rank consort but she's his favorite so she's technically the only one that matters among them. He also has countless concubines. As I've mentioned in another post, Kings and Emperors usually have a royal harem that exists solely to produce heirs. Consorts are usually married to the ruler for political reasons so most of them have powerful people backing them up or they're part of a powerful clan. Rulers usually have a Queen or Empress and primary wife. However, the true power of these wives depends on who produces a male heir. None of them have given him an heir so far and he has no queen as of yet. It's just the way it was back in the day. Men could have as many wives as they could support so it wasn't considered cheating.

Yep. Their writers have been heavily influenced by western entertainment that it no longer feels Korean-Korean, if you know what I mean. I like the silliness of the old Korean romantic comedies. I even miss their love square trope for some reason. lol We don't really get those anymore.

This has the vibe of old school K-dramas and I do enjoy it very much. Yes, it's cliched and formulaic but it's precisely that familiarity that I think people missed. For someone like me who has been watching K-dramas for more than 20 years, I've seen them evolve and improve over the years. While I appreciate variety in these dramas - I do enjoy their grittier and more grounded dramas - a lot of their rom-coms have lost their magic because they've deviated from the original formula that served them well. Once in a while, I would like to see a rom-com that reminds me of a simpler time when K-dramas were just plain escapist fun.

They probably just memorized the lines without thinking about proper enunciation, tone, and accent. I'm pretty sure none of these Korean productions hire language coaches because the actors also sound like robots mimicking human speech when they speak English. lol

I’m only talking about the drama and in the drama he has no queen as of yet.

Consort Kang is not his concubine but a royal consort. He is married to his consorts. They are ranked according to their station. Concubines are lesser wives or mistresses. Kings and emperors usually have more than one consort or wife, and they take on concubines as well. This is called a royal harem. They exist to produce heirs. But there is only one queen/empress and primary wife. He doesn’t have one yet.

He’ll be 25 this month. With age, it’s the year that matters. 1990 and 2000. To be specific, she’s 10 years and 4 months older than him, not 11. Now that’s real math. lol

True story. And yes, the math doesn't lie, 10-year gap. Is 2000 -1990 = 11 to you? Lee Chae Min was born on Sept 15, 2000. He'll be turning 25 in two weeks, Yoona is 35 now as she was born in May, 1990.

Just 10 years not 11, Yoona was born in 1990, Chae Min was born in 2000. I dated someone 10 years my junior, I was in my 30's, he was in his 20's and yet he was more mature and accomplished than me. I guess I was one of those creepy aunties then. lol

The older dramas were better imho. Yes, they were cliched and formulaic but they had simpler plots and they were more proudly Korean. Many of them were just plain escapist fun. The later dramas have been heavily influenced by western culture they might as well be Asian clones.

I actually complained about that. lol I thought the age gap didn't make sense because the character was supposed to be just several years older but they went on to cast someone who was 20 years older. I had the same reaction to the Goblin pairing. Interestingly, both dramas were written by the same screenwriter.

I'm usually not fond of this trope but Kim Sam Soon is a classic! For those who started watching K-dramas in the early 2000's, this was THE noona drama! That's also the drama that introduced me to Hyun Bin.

I agree with the other poster who commented about Something in the Rain, though. The start was good, the rest was just a whole lot of BS. lol I like Son Yejin but I couldn't stand her character there. Her parents are even worse!

Noona dramas are not my cup of tea but I can get behind them if they are engaging, the chemistry between the leads is there, and if the May-December pairing makes sense within the context of the story. Sometimes they just pair actors with huge age differences for no particular reason and cast a much older actor for a role that's written for a younger one simply because the actor is popular. I hate that.

The pairing in this drama, however, makes sense to me. He's a young, gullible king and she's supposed to be older than him. I even wish they made the character much older because she's a Michelin star chef and it's uncommon for chefs to attain that kind of prestige in their 20's.

He reminds me of Bi Wenjun actually. In fact, he's like a combination of Bi Wenjun, He Yu (who kinda looks like Song Kang), and Honda Kyoya.

I've been reading a lot of comments about the time travel concept in this drama and theories of a time loop, so I'm going to copy and paste what I said in a previous post...

"Explaining time travel is tricky as it is all based on theory. In fiction, they use this concept to literally take people back in time or take them forward with some kind of magical or sci-fi fantasy-esque circumstances or tool/mcguffin. In this story, it's the book that allows her to travel because that book's origin is connected to her. It was created because she traveled back in time at some point and the book couldn't have existed if she hadn't. But there is an original timeline that allowed for that to happen or a point of origin, which I doubt will be explored here because there is no logical explanation for it, it just happens. Think of the Time-Turner in Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban film and how they used the concept of time travel, I'm guessing they're taking that route in this drama. I don't think it's a time loop, it's just that time is an abstract concept, there is no beginning and there is no end. In a time loop, the characters keep going back in time and reliving it over and over again and usually there's at least one who can remember everything that has transpired so the time loop can be broken. I don't think that's the case here."

Of course, I could be wrong. Only time will tell. Yes, I made a pun. lol

Explaining time travel is tricky as it is all based on theory. In fiction, they use this concept to literally take people back in time or take them forward with some kind of magical or sci-fi fantasy-esque circumstances or tool. In this story, it's the book that allows her to travel because that book's origins is connected to her. It was created because she traveled back in time at some point and the book couldn't have existed if she hadn't. But there is an original timeline that allowed for that to happen, which I doubt will be explored here because there is no logical explanation for it, it just happens. Think of the Time Turner in Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban and how they used the concept of time travel, I'm guessing they're taking that route in this drama. I don't think it's a time loop, it's just that time is an abstract concept, there is no beginning and there is no end. In a time loop, the characters keep going back in time and reliving that over and over again and usually there's at least one who can remember everything that has transpired.

She’s not a concubine but a fourth rank royal consort. She was probably a former concubine that was promoted to consort. She doesn’t seem like she has the most desirable pedigree considering what happened to her in the past. Concubines are merely women taken by men as their mistresses to help them produce heirs. Most concubines are of low birth or even prisoners of war or hostages taken from enemy states. Consorts, however, are wives, they are married to the king. Consort Kang may not have the highest rank among his consorts but she is his favorite so she holds a lot of political power within the royal court. He has no queen at the moment, probably because of political reasons. The title of queen is usually reserved for someone who can offer the most vital and powerful alliance to the kingdom. Queens are usually of royal blood. None of his current consorts are probably royal just noble court women. But technically he can promote any of them to Queen if he chooses. It just won’t be a good move politically especially if he can find a more suitable or better match.

Ohh, Dae Jang Geum! Yes, that was my first introduction to the elaborate food prepared for Korean royalty called surasang. I started eating out at Korean restaurants in my city after that.