Hime

The emperor here must be one of the nicest emperor’s that I have seen. He actually cares about his people and subordinates, is flexible and willing to listen before making decisions.

Both main leads are also smart, kind and overall likable. A lot more characters to like than to hate.

With that said, I found myself bored many times starting around episode 20. There was a lot going on with many characters but at the same time it also felt like nothing was happening. There were some things that I wish were explained in more depth. I was left with some questions by the end of the drama.

No problem. I also hate open endings or dramas that end with a lot of loose ends. Thankfully I read some spoilers before watching this one so I was already expecting that ending and only watched it because I had nothing else to watch.

It depends on what you are looking for. Watch it for the investigations and a smart female lead. There is not much romance. In the first half of the drama the main leads barely interact with each other and the guy who is supposed to be the second male lead steals most of the screen time.

Also, be warned, the last episode ends abruptly. There might be a second season since the story was left unfinished, otherwise I cannot recommend it.

Yeah, I agree. The problem is that they did not make the drama interesting enough that the messages would stick in our minds. Only the memorable dramas have the power to do that, and unfortunately I think this will be a drama I will soon forget I ever watched...and I have a pretty good memory. ^^'

Maybe it is just me, but I felt this promised something that it did not deliver.

The cast is great and the premise seems interesting enough but for some reason I found it extremely boring. (partially because I tried to binge-watch it instead of watching it every week)

The main characters seem to have only one facial expression for most of the drama, the dialogues are not interesting, there are way too many characters taking screen time, ...

The romance between the main leads was anticlimatic and lacked any chemistry. I am not even sure at which point they fell in love. I don’t know if the problem was with the writing or the execution but the actors deserve to star in something better than this.

For some context, I have been watching kdramas since 2010 and have watched thousands of Asian dramas since then. This comment is based on my personal experience and opinion. You are free to disagree with anything and everything I have said.

Yeah, I think that was my problem with this drama. It had so much potential but it was ruined by bad storytelling.

For most of the drama the male lead acts like a child and when he finally is cured and can act like an adult man, their happiness lasts for like 1-2 episodes until there is an "accident" and he has amnesia but only forgets the female lead, so cliche. He then proceeds to treat her like she is the plague and marries another woman. The villains here are always getting their way and their punishment is not enough in my opinion.

Also, the way the male lead gets his memory back, which only happens almost at the end of the drama, and how they get back together was far from satisfying.

The female lead can be quite selfish and childish too, wish she was more mature.

But oh well, at least I can move on from this one after having it gather dust on my watchlist for so many years.

You can find the first 10 episodes subbed on YouTube and episodes 11-40 on Dailymotion. If you are able to access Viu from your country or use a vpn you can also find all the episodes subbed there.

Little warning tho, although the premise is interesting and I had this on my on hold list for many years waiting for it to be subbed, the story is quite frustrating.

It seems like the rest of the episodes were uploaded recently.

That’s the thing tho, this story was far from epic. Even the regular 16 episodes were hard to watch for me, I kept feeling the urge to skip ahead because nothing interesting was happening.

I have watched Empress Ki 3 times and it never got boring for me. I would definitely re-watch it even if it had 100 episodes.

I do agree that a lot of sageuks do have more than the typical 16 episodes, but this one was already hard to watch when I thought it would be only 16, so them going for 20 made it an even worse experience for me.

I love Park Hyung Sik but not even him could save the drama for me. I was bored out of my mind. I do not mind the lack of romance, but it lacked in so many other departments. The female lead was not as badass as she was supposed to be, the investigation was not as interesting as I expected, ...

Of course, this is just my opinion, I am glad at least one of us enjoyed it. To leave it on a positive note, we agree on something, Park Hyung Sik makes any drama better. XD

I even forgot I was watching this. The plot development is very slow, and they went for 20 episodes instead of the regular 16 to make it worse, the actress chosen for the female lead does not fit the role, everything was just meh. It was not able to grab me at all.

Tbh, I think this might have been one of the worst sageuks I have ever watched. Why? Its not like the acting is bad or that the premise is not interesting. It was the way the story was told, the things they chose to focus on, the lame lackluster ending. I can’t really say for sure what is wrong with this drama, the only thing I know for sure is how I felt, most of the time, while watching it - BORED.

I watched this 6 years ago. It might be better to ask someone who has watched it more recently.

True, I obviously do not know much about the genre. I have changed the review to only include the word fantasy. Thank you for letting me know.

I think I actually commented as a reply to a comment in another drama, The Journey of Chong Zi I think. But I just wrote a short review that is more like just saying what is great about this drama, which is everything, and how, probably, there will be no other drama this year that will top this one for me.

Still not over this one. Nothing I have watched in the past month is even close to TSL. The plot, the acting, the music, everything is so good.

I regret writting a long comment instead of a review. Now it is lost somewhere in the comment section. ^^'

If you check the date of my comment you will see that I posted it a year ago. Since this was so short and it has been so long I don’t remember any details.

From my comment I can tell that it is not a sad ending, but I am not sure if the main leads are dating at the end. Probably more of an open ending.

Great. Thank you. I will wait for the rest of the episodes so I can binge-watch. ^^

This was a little too cliche and the love triangle too complex to develop the story in only 9 episodes of 20 minutes each. Not enough time to connect to the characters or ship her with any of the brothers.

I kind of wanted her to not end up with either of them. It felt healthier and better for everyone if she just left. Being single is underrated.

There are many things that play a role in making a great drama....great.

The plot, the acting, the filming, the background music and how lound it is, the editing, the chemistry between the leads, the way the characters are written, the pacing, the ending, ...

This drama’s biggest flaw is the editing. The scenes are put together in a way that feels disconnected and like parts are missing. The plot, or more like the storytelling is also pretty bad. The ending is what it is, not even going to go there since there might be a second season.

The Romance of Tiger and Rose is in the recommendations because of the similarity with the women being the ones in power. Aside from that, these 2 dramas cannot even be compared, they are on completely different levels.

This could have been a good drama, but whoever was responsible for editing the scenes and putting them together did a horrible job.