sunflower63

Being a saeguk lover I couldn't miss watching this drama and I have to say that it was nothing too original. The plot was really similar to many others seen before but what bothered me the most was how weak and vulnerable the King was depicted to be in this drama. I don't know if this really happened in Korean history but most of the King figures in saeguks are shown to have terrible personalities and not to be able to make decisions on their own and in this case it happened so many times that it got boring and on my nerves. What saved this drama was certainly the great acting of the two main leads Prince Gwang Hae and Do Chi (Seo In Guk and Shin Sung Rok) which made it all worthwhile. I am rating it with a 7 simply for this reason and I only recommend this to lovers of this genre like myself.

I'm so, so glad you enjoyed this. :)

Good for you for having such a good memory! Even if I don't remember every detail like you do, I still remember the general feeling that the drama gave me and it's more than enough for me. ;)

You might be right here Amrita. Unfortunately I can't remember this drama very well as I watched it over two years ago, however I am pretty sure that the relationship between the two was much more than a mother/son type of relationship. I personally felt there were real feelings there but somehow she wasn't brave enough to take the plunge because of the age difference...this is the feeling the story gave me.

I felt exactly the same and have rewatched this again. A great story and fabulous acting too.

Thanks for this article, I am watching this drama and really enjoying it so far as both the story and the acting are really good...I need to watch episode 6 and I will be up to date.

I liked this drama a lot!! I really believe that Japanese dramas of the 90ies have amazing poetry in what apparently might seem like an ordinary plot. There were some issues that irked me which is why I am not rating it with a full 10 mostly the attitudes of all the female characters in this drama (being not their fault at all but obviously depending on how they were depicted by the writer), however the awesome acting skills of Toyokawa Etsushi made up for them as it was impossible not to be totally fascinated by his character. Another aspect that I enjoyed was that many parts of the Japanese landscape going from the far North to the far South of the country were shown throughout the story. I really wish the Japanese would have carried on releasing dramas with such incredible simplicity but depth of feelings.

This is an interesting topic thanks for writing this article. I am actually thinking of which iconic scenes I would put on my favourite list...well one of them would certainly be the night beach scene in Coffee Prince!! In any case I like your list as the moments you mention are certainly iconic, there are two dramas here that I haven't seen yet which are Autumn Tale and Thank You and I must add them to my list.

Is this not available in streaming anywhere? Thanks for your help.

I like him a lot as an actor and I am gradually learning to know him as a singer too. He was good in Protect the Boss and fantastic in Triangle and I am enjoying his acting in Spy too. I hope he will star in more dramas in the future.

This is one of the few Jdramas of the 90ies that I watched together with Long Vacation (my first and long loved drama) which was written by the same author. What I enjoyed most was indeed the 'vintage' feeling that it all had and certainly what was more outstanding here was the simplicity of the whole story and how it focused mostly on feelings. Indeed in this drama feelings were even more intensified because they were shown through sign language (also when the leads were arguing which was fascinating for me to watch). The performance of the male lead here was really outstanding and it was almost impossible not to feel empathy for his situation. Unfortunately there was also the typical feature of a quite annoying and immature female main lead together with other two very unpleasant second lead females. I always wonder why so often women are shown as being clingy and whiny in Asian dramas and for this reason I can't rate this drama with more than an 8.

I enjoyed reading this article. I also have mixed feelings about all the characters in this story which goes to prove that it is really well written.

I enjoyed this movie which was fun and full of action by the Korean Charlie's Angels. :)

I agree that bashing comes from both sides...I have read comments of people bashing Korean dramas against Japanese dramas so many times ...and in any case I am also for freedom of expression. For what concerns myself I don't like bashing this or that but I do like to make 'peaceful' comparisons as I find the differences between dramas coming from different countries interesting. For what concerns languages I personally don't find any of them by any means awful, but I do have great difficulties initially in getting used to the new sounds...it happened with J dramas and afterwards with K dramas and I still haven't had the courage to approach T or C dramas for that reason.

I watched the first two seasons of this as I found the idea of a controversial woman surgeon intriguing. I enjoyed the first one, the second one was not bad, however I couldn't bring myself to watch yet a third series repeating the same pattern over and over. I would have kept it to just one season.

When I don't enjoy a drama I feel relieved when it ends and this is what happened here. Indeed I was doubtful from the start on whether to watch it or not as the issue of plastic surgery was not so appealing however the first episodes were decent enough to capture my attention and made me decide to watch the whole story. Unfortunately the second half was really lame and the sparkle and curiosity for the story totally vanished. I was personally not impressed with Han Ye Seul's acting here as she seemed to always have the same expression and what drove me crazy was the fact that she hardly ever replied to the questions that she was asked and just stared at emptiness. If it wasn't for Joo Sang Wook's charisma I don't know if I would have carried on until the end. I agree that his character was much better enhanced in the drama Cunning Single Lady rather than here. I can't give this drama more than a 5 because of how bad the second half was.

woohoo...great article thanks so much!! I always wondered what all the food that we see in dramas was and here I could finally read a detailed description. I am not too fond of cabbage and spices but I am determined to try tasting some Korean dishes sooner or later. I am mostly attracted by their soups as they sound truly delicious.

I enjoyed reading this article and there a few dramas here that I haven't watched yet and that I will keep in mind. ;-)

@gottcha again we are on the same wavelength as I am totally on board with what you wrote here. ;)

I am glad that Shin Sung Rok won the villain award as I had voted him. I am happy enough with all the other awards as indeed YWCFS, IOTL and Empress Ki were good dramas which I enjoyed watching even if they were not my favourites of the whole of 2014.