Hime

Does not have much of a plot, has a few clichés and it feels like some things were edited out. There were at least 2 episodes that I started and thought I had skipped an episode by mistake because it started with a random scene that had no connection to the previous episode.

If you have nothing else to watch, maybe watch for the romance and all the fluff, tho I personally think there are better fluffy romantic dramas out there.

I definitely agree with you when you say that actions are worth more than words. These days you will see people that throw "I love you" at anyone, even when two-timing, while there are people that do not often say things like that but prove every day through their actions how much they care.

I think this drama was well-written and had great character development, which is why I was a little more mad than usual to find out they cut so many scenes, mainly romantic scenes between the main leads. I wanted to see more of them. The ending scene they removed also made the ending feel a little abrupt, but oh well, I should be used to this by now. It is not the first time a Chinese drama edits out a bunch of scenes because of censorship. :(

All those moments were probably what saved the romance between the main leads. I just don’t understand why they left some kiss scenes and removed other. The person deciding which scenes to cut must have been under the influence or something. XD

I don’t mind subtlety, but people lying down holding hands and hugging together, even back then, did not equal being a couple. There were playboys back then too. If a man gets all touchy but never actually says "I like you", especially back then, I would start questioning things. Later on he proves with his actions that he truly loves her, but it is not like they removed his confession because they wanted to make the whole thing more subtle, it was probably just the typical Chinese censorship at play.

So, my point is not that the drama suddenly became bad because they removed the male lead’s confession, but that it made no sense for them to do so as the plot and character development would have benefited from that scene being there.

It is like you went out to eat and they served you dessert but out of nowhere took away your plate without even letting you have a bite. Sure, if you did not know they had desserts in the first place you would not be as mad, at most you would be wondering what happened to dessert, since a restaurant is supposed to have them.

You were the person who did not know about dessert, while most people here knew about it and were mad. I was the one who also did not know like you but was wondering why they did not serve dessert and later found out they did have dessert but just did not bother to ask me if I wanted it.

Don’t know if this explanation makes much sense. It does to me. ^^'

I am not saying there were not enough scenes where they showed their affection. I meant that there should be a clear distinction between when they liked each other and when they became an actual couple. Just like people who are dating do not get married until one of them says "hey, let’s get married".

In the real world a lot of misunderstandings tend to happen when things are not made clear. Like one thinking they are a couple and the other thinking they are just "getting to know each other".

The drama did not stop being good because they removed that scene, but it definitely made it less clear when and how they became a couple rather than just 2 people with feelings for each other.

I watched it 4 years ago, but from my comment I can tell there were no kisses between the main leads and the second couples had obvious fake kisses. Channel 3 back then rarely had real kisses between the actors, it was all the camera angle.

Yes. I also knew about it from the Bible. I was replying to your first comment. I knew you knew about it, just was not sure you knew the reason behind it. My bad. ^^'

Like I said, this is a drama from 2013. Back then people had more patience when watching a drama. A lot of dramas were way over 16 episodes (which is the common number today, with even some having 12 episodes).
What migth seem to you like a slow plot today, was considered a plot with a regular pace back then. When I watched, I skipped a few scenes here and there but I though that overall the pace it had was needed to develop the story properly. The focus of the drama was showing the female lead's journey to becoming Empress Ki so the plot needed to be "slow".
I have watched kdramas with 16, even 12 episodes that felt much slower, essentially because there was not much to the plot.

Also, I did not mean the drama was not interesting before ep 30, just that after that is when the plot progresses faster and there are more things going on.

We also constantly change the way we view dramas as we watch more and more dramas. Maybe you came across this drama too late. If you had watched it a few years ago you might have not dropped it.

I know I have tried re-watching dramas I watched back in 2010 and thought "wow, this is so boring, how did I like this back then,?". Then I remember back then I had other standards.

Watching a drama episode by episode or binge-watching can also make you feel differently about the drama. That is why all over this site you have people who watched a drama every week and found it entertaining while some people tried to binge-watch it and ended up dropping it. There are many factors that influence our opinion about a certain drama.

So in conclusion, this drama is NOT slow. You found it slow, I found it to have more or less a proper pace, and some people even wanted a few more episodes. It is all relative. And that is the beauty of it. Different people like different things at different times.

"no expectations, no disappointment"
Can’t say you are wrong about that.

I found out about that scene because I felt there was something missing. Suddenly their relatioship seemed to have moved forward for no apparent reason. Then I read a comment about it and found out they actually removed the scene where the male lead confessed his feelings and they had their first kiss. For me that seems like a scene that is pretty important to explain how and when they got together. By removing it, they made it seem like they suddenly started acting like a couple out of nowhere. I know their feelings were pretty obvious, but voicing them out or having a kiss was necessary for them to transition to a couple. And that was removed from the drama for no logical reason, making the story less consistent.

I know it might sound weird to us, but in the past that was done as a way to protect the woman. A widow had a really hard time back then. Today women can get a job, but back then the husband was the one providing for her. So by marrying the brother of the dead husband, she would have someone to support her.
I am sure some of the things we consider normal today would also make the people who lived in the past go "ewww". ^^'

In a mistery or thriller drama yes, it would be ok and maybe even make it more interesting. But not in this drama. I can ignore some things like small plot holes and little details, but we are talking about entire scenes that were removed that were needed, like the male lead confessing his feelings for her and their first kiss. Anyway, I am glad you were able to ignore these things and fully enjoy the drama. I wish I could have done the same.

You mean 8.6? The thing is that for a kdrama this a better than average rating, not a great rating. There are several kdramas out there with a similar rating and that cannot be compared to Empress Ki.

I think the issue is that recently people have been watching it for the first time and they are judging it from a 2023 viewer perspective and forgetting this is almost 10 years old. Kids these days also have a hard time sitting through something longer, I blame Tik Tok for that, so they end up giving lower ratings to dramas that do not give them what they expect right away.

I would rather have more dramas like Empress Ki being created than a bunch of short dramas. 99% of these short dramas have nothing to offer in terms of plot or acting, they are mostly just fan service.

I did not watch them either, just the extended ending after finishing the drama.

But it was definitely noticeable there were scenes that were cut. There was one particular scene that was very obvious was cut because later on the female lead was remembering what happened and they showed a few seconds of that scene. To us viewers, that scene that she is remembering never happened. They might have as well cut the scene where she remembers what happened in the scene that was cut.

But yeah, I enjoyed the drama anyway, just can’t pretend all the editing did not lower that enjoyment.

Yeah. And there are people here complaining the pace is slow and stuff. This is 51 episodes long, so of course things will develop slower than a 16 episode drama. I think people these days just do not have patience to sit through a longer drama no matter how good it is. I have watched the whole thing twice and have no regrets.

My crush on Tal Tal was even stronger the second time I watched it. xD

This is a drama from 2013, so the filming will not be as good as a drama from 2023. And a historical drama with 51 episodes, of course the pace will be slow. If they made it too fast they might have ended up doing what other dramas do to fill the holes like recycling the same plot devices and adding a bunch of flashbacks.

Also, if I am not mistaken, you dropped it right around when things start getting interesting - the romance between them starts developing properly and there is a shift in her character. ^^'

A tip from someone who has watched the whole thing twice. Remember this is a drama from 2013 and not a modern kdrama with just 16 episodes. The story is more about Seung Nyangs journey to becoming Empress rather than her romance with either of the male leads (tho this drama is definitely not lacking in the romance department).

Wang Yoo is important to her but he is her first love, and you know what they say about first loves. So just hang in there.

For her to move on from one man to the other and go through all the hardships and finally become Empress the pace needs to be slower. The plot and characters need time to develop. The female lead is a great character, rare to see, she is smart, strong, independent, does not need a man to come to her rescue every 5 minutes like most female leads.

So, passing this masterpiece would be a shame. Just watch a few episodes when you have time and be patient. This is not a 2023 rom-com afterall, this is a historical drama from 2013, so it needs to be enjoyed slowly.

P.S. - If you hang in there long enough, you might start to ship her with Tal Tal. I know I and a bunch of other people did. He is another great character that really shines here.

I was wondering how this went from being above 9 to 8.6. But looking at the comments, I think I have a few suspects. ^^'

No matter what you say, this is one of the best sageuks out there. And I think I have the right to say this since I have been watching kdramas for over a decade and have watched thousands of dramas since 2010.

Although this has 51 episodes, I have actually re-watched it with my mother and my sister and both thought it was great. Of course it has its flaws but there is no such thing as a perfect drama. The acting is top notch and the characters are well-written and interesting, especially the female lead. Even the way it ends would have bothered me in any other drama, but here I was ok with it because the drama as a whole was great.

To judge this masterpiece with 2023 eyes is not fair. For a kdrama in 2013 to have such a smart and strong female lead was something new. Most kdramas, even to this day, have female leads that are either dumb or are always needing rescue, sometimes both.

So no matter how much the rating drops, this will always be a 9 to me. 9 is the highest rating I have ever given to a drama and probably less than 20 of the thousands of dramas I have watched have received this rating. That is how much I liked Empress Ki.

I think I would have given this a really high rating if it was not for all the scenes that were edited out, some that made later scenes make no sense, like the leads reminiscing about something we never even saw happening in the first place and all the kisses that were cut, what a shame.

The ending also felt chopped. I did not realize that was the ending until I saw the credits. I have no idea why they cut out the scene that can be found on the extended ending, it did not even have any kisses. It would have made the ending less anticlimatic.

But overall, this was a good drama with great characters as the main leads. They were both smart and the female lead was able to handle a lot of problems without the male lead having to always come to the rescue. The Emperor, oh well, he was a piece of work. I believe he did care for her, at least more than he cared for all the other human beings around, but he did not know how to love. He was cruel, obsessive and a coward. And it was all about him and what he wanted.

Yeah, that is the only reason I was kind of okay with it too...and cause it’s a drama. In real life tho, I would find it weird.

If it was only the eyes...The whole face is the same. Imagine kissing and worst, doing you know what, with someone who has your sister/brother’s face. Ew, nope.