Reviews

Just finished, and wow—Hwang Daseul did not disappoint ?? It actually reminded me a lot of TMS2 ?????? especially with some of those fight scenes and heavy dialogues. It’s only 8 episodes, 30 mins each, but it covers so much. The storyline flows really well, from the conflict to the resolution. Honestly, it pulls you in from start to finish, and the flashbacks add a whole new depth.

They went all out with the topics too, touching on stuff like child abuse, imposter syndrome, and fake identities. You can see the higher budget in the cinematography and production quality, and the cast did a solid job. Definitely worth watching ?

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IT'S A CRUSH

I binged watched this series, found it very entertaining but it went about 2 episodes too long. The confession in the 1st episode was so awful for the Han Ba Ram, it just set you up to really love the character & learn to hate Sangin. Im Han Tea was just the best of friends who finally realized he loved Han Ba Ram. For a moment you thought that maybe he would be another rejection . Sangin although beautiful to look at was an awesome villian of the series. I liked this drama, loved the band comradery and the singing was also wonderful. I think Korean bl's are getting more and more interesting & providing more real life issues. Making them less about hiding & rejecting your sexuality & more about the love that exists and the acceptance

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BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN STORY!!

The whole drama had me on an emotional rollercoaster!!! It was just beautiful. The way they portrayed every single emotion. The frustration, the sadness, the happiness they found in eachother it was all just perfect. Throughout the show Haejo and Jaemi had me both laughing and sobbing like crazy!! Everything was so well written. The humor was top tier please ???? I would DEFINITELY rewatch this!!

What I loved about the show the most was Heung and Haejo's bond. I'm so glad they did not bring a jealousy typical love triangle factor between the two of them and had Heung genuinely care for both Jaemi and Haejo. As I said, beautifully written. The only thing I was curious about in the end is I hope they had actually found his biological dad, but then Haejo going back to meet his other dad was so wholesome, after all he had raised him for 8 years!!

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Initial excitement quickly turned into great disappointment.

In my opinion, the story starts off well. What impressed me was that it was something new and original. The visual effects were also impressive. Unfortunately, the male and female lead characters were miscast. In my opinion, neither of them can act very well. There was no emotion, and no chemistry between them. The only interesting role was that of the father (Yuan Hong as Chi Xin), who kept the entire drama alive. There was potential, and I was expecting more twists and turns. The worldview was presented in too black-and-white terms, and at times the main characters came across as very hypocritical. I just skimmed through the last quarter, because I got more and more annoyed.

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Best drama of 2024!

I initially put this drama on as background noise while doing chores, without any expectations. I wasn’t familiar with Park Shin-hye and hadn’t seen her in anything before, but I did know Kim Jae-young, so when I found out he was the main lead, I was thrilled.! The drama captured my interest quickly; there weren’t any dull episodes, and all the actors delivered exceptional performances. It’s rare to find a drama where every actor shines.

Although I can’t speak to Park Shin-hye’s previous work, anyone criticizing her acting after this series is simply being unreasonable. Her performance was outstanding, as was Kim Ah-young’s—she was amazing! As for those saying the romance seemed forced… what exactly did they expect? Romance is one of the core genres here, and without it, the story would lack variety. Plus, the chemistry between Shin-hye and Jae-young, both on and off screen, was fantastic. I genuinely can’t see how it could seem forced.

All in all, this is an excellent drama, and I’d say it’s the best one of 2024.

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A love-hate story that gets a bit fluffy

Some scenes you could almost feel the tension and the sparks of both attraction and hatred flying between the FL and ML. And then you have some rather dull scenes.
I feel it could have been possible to cut out some of the side stories and “fluff” without loosing much - a few less episodes wouldn’t have hurt the story much.
Mei Lin, the highly trained assassin, sometimes became a bit passive.
Murong Jing He’s character went through an emotional growth-journey. I kind of liked how we witnessed first the more indirect signs, and then his unashamed declarations of love.

As for the other love stories, Luo Mei’s didn’t really feel that it fit her character. As for concubine Zi Gu, they could have kept it at the emotional level and let her fate end in a different way.

For me, the common message from the love stories here was how love can make people take difficult choices, and willingness to make sacrifices.

I must admit I cried as I watched the last episodes in the middle of the night.

All in all, this had some good acting, the story was mostly ok but could’ve been a bit shorter. There were some scenes where the effects were so-so (I especially noticed in the later episodes), and I mostly enjoyed the music.

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My Dream came True!!

I have always had a fantasy of going back in time to ancient china and this drama is basically it. The MC travels back in time and being a scientist he is pushed into murder investigation and becomes a target of the hidden enemy who wants to overthrow the emperor. It is full of fun and romance and I implore you to try the first season and if you like it you are in for a fun ride all through season 3. I am hoping for season 4 but seeing how old this is I don't see it happening. He ends up with 4 wives and they all live good without fighting like you see in the imperial harem.

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My Dream came True!!

I have always had a fantasy of going back in time to ancient china and this drama is basically it. The MC travels back in time and being a scientist he is pushed into murder investigation and becomes a target of the hidden enemy who wants to overthrow the emperor. It is full of fun and romance and I implore you to try the first season and if you like it you are in for a fun ride all through season 3. I am hoping for season 4 but seeing how old this is I don't see it happening. He ends up with 4 wives and they all live good without fighting like you see in the imperial harem.

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My Dream came True!!

I have always had a fantasy of going back in time to ancient china and this drama is basically it. The MC travels back in time and being a scientist he is pushed into murder investigation and becomes a target of the hidden enemy who wants to overthrow the emperor. It is full of fun and romance and I implore you to try the first season and if you like it you are in for a fun ride all through season 3. I am hoping for season 4 but seeing how old this is I don't see it happening. He ends up with 4 wives and they all live good without fighting like you see in the imperial harem.

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Refreshing and quite original

I will say this script had a very good balance: There was funny moments, emotional and thought inducing scenes, fight scenes and some light romantic scenes.
How the screenwriters managed to tell the rather tragic life of Joseon widows without it adding a heavy emotional feel to the series was well executed.

It was a refreshing take on a historical drama, with unconventional female protagonist.
As for the FL, I liked her in One the Woman, and she gives a good performance here as well; she suits this kind of role where she can utilise her comedic timing.
Kim Mi Kyung (her mother in law) was brilliant as always.

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Do I Not Support Women's Rights and Wrongs?

I want to start off by saying this drama was able to capture my attention from the first episode. It is very well done
within the cinematography. The scenery is beautiful and I love that they allowed for a more natural undertone within the musical composition. The instances where you were just hearing the bustle of the market or the vibe in the palace really allows for you to fully immerse yourself. Really well done.

Now, for the bad, or perhaps more accurately: the infuriating.

This drama is by no standard within the realm of which characters are inherently only good or only bad. They are very much all grey and we see this immediately from the start when it came to the ML. His decision to pretend to be the husband of what he knew to be his enemy's mistress was diabolical. I didn't agree with the lies he conjured up to take advantage of her amnesia. (I am not a fan of amnesia plotlines at all. I find them a scapegoat for plotline.)

But I continue my rant to say, the ML was not an issue for me. He was doing what was necessary for the good of the people and city he was in charge of. His enemy is a bandit, known for a lot of terrible things and honestly, this mistress would have ended up also being charged and sentenced alongside of him for his crimes. So to me his decision to start his deceit didn't make me upset as much initially once I learned of what was going on within the first three episodes. It was kind of like how police do a sting operation and pretend to be a criminal to get into the mob or something. You have to do the unthinkable a lot of times to achieve.

Plus he was actually thinking of giving her an out in a way by letting her go to a temple or something. He did find this woman half dead from an attempted murder. He sympathized with her the best that he could given what he knew of her and her correlation to the person he was after.

Now fast forward this to him being unable to catch the 'enemy' he wants because the emperor pardons all of them from their crime when he finally goes to arrest them. So he is left with this mistress and this fake life and is unable to break it off because he is falling for her.

I can understand despite being unable to rationalize his reasons for why he continued his ploy.
But does that mean he is the worse character I have ever seen as a main lead?

No.

He never took advantage of her or crossed boundaries. He knew his feelings and that he was wrong, he consistently spoke about his guilt for what he did. And even when it came to a point he realized she regained her memories and was playing in the role still, he lamented he would take her wrath and the punishment that came from his wrongs.

This man is not perfect, but he is not a bad person. He made a stupid decision.

I segue now into focusing on the FL.

I'll be 100% honest, it was clear from the very first scene she was the enemy. The buildup to the reveal of her remembering and him realizing fell short. Even if you are not an experienced drama watcher, it was not difficult or hidden well to not realize this fact.

The issue is, like i mentioned ML lied for a greater good, fell in love and kept lying to not lose her. FL remembered and wanted revenge. The revenge in question for his TERRIBLE action is to kill him. Mind you she is an actual criminal who was smuggling goods that started a war and lead to so many deaths and was the reason for a good majority of the corruption going on within the capital.

ML's entire plotline was to capture this bandit that was doing this and put an end to it. Funny enough he only knew about the stealing and the murders but had respect for the criminal at large because he saw through all of the ploys how smart and tactful this person was. But then he found out that they were not just doing petty shit but was smuggling resources which were affecting the nation. AND KNEW ABOUT IT WITH NO ISSUES. Like it wasn't as if FL lead agreed to a job not knowing the reason behind it. SHE KNEW EVERY SINGLE THING AND HELPED PLAN IT OUT. She consistently was talking to enemy nation and even after regaining her memories and understanding why ML started his lie, had no damn remorse.

She felt justified somehow in her actions. Even more confounding was how after stabbing ML for revenge she decided to go right back into selling to the enemy countries? Like why? She goes on this crazy revenge scheme against this other Prince who worked with her in the smuggling but then killed her side to hide everything.

I am not sorry to say I couldn't resonate or sympathize with her because I understand your people had the rug pulled from under you, but everyone knew the risks of this business and nothing that you were doing was righteous and was instead harming those around you.

So tell me why or how I'm suppose to be feeling all this emotional hrumph everytime she mentions avenging her brothers?

I feel this FL was meant to be strong and amazing in everyway to match up to the strengths of the ML. And while I can see that in a lot of instances, I do not think she is at all a good person. She does not reflect on anything she does nor cares if it is not for her benefit. She wants to live out this bandit fantasy life among her uncle, and it seems whenever their endeavors catches up to them , in her head its unthinkable for them to be met with any penalty.

Cause after all they are simply living young and free in their actions.

I say all this to say, it was very difficult to engage in this drama seeing all of this going down. Then currently being in the era of the ML pining over her and trying to get back this woman and her thwarting him every step of the way.

Because she hates him and can't forgive him for his lies. Like please be so for real woman. Your entire character is a lie in itself, you go around pretending to be actual workers but then murder, steal and all of the likes. Why do you feel as if you are so deserving and better than this prince who simply wanted to stop all the bad shit you and your brothers have been committing?

I think this was ten times harder to stomach because it was on viki. This was the first show I had to turn off the comments because they were excusing her every step of the way. None of the characters are perfect, but the FL gets off in everything she does, learns she is doing, and continues to do. I further hate that her and her loonies actions in their gang were exempted and essentially allowed them not to face any penalties for what they had been doing for the past several years.

It was crazy seeing people literally say her actions amount to nothing in comparison to the ML's lies. I simply seem to although being a woman myself, can not excuse all the things she did and continued to do. This woman does not deserve an excuse for any of the wrongs she committed.

And I hate that she was never given an instance like the ML had to and was called out on multiple scenes to realize that what you think is correct is not the way to do things. I did not feel growth from her character nor any semblance of my definition of a strong woman. She is simply a character who is intuitive and cunning but missing the qualities of a strong woman by integrity definition.

She did not have to be perfect. Honestly, if she realized her actions were not good and admitted her part in the inner turmoil going on within the court and still decided to avenge her brothers. I would respect her. But she fucked off instead on some wild revenge plot and immersed herself back into the lifestyle that started the ML on his lies.

I want to give her a zero, but that's not possible so instead I give her a 1.

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So full of life and exciting

I am usually not a fan of modern dramas because the stories aren't as fun as historical to watch but Dai Gao Zheng give modern dramas a LIFE...they are so exciting to watch because of the way he act not just the pleasure but all the other stuff and his approach and overall to a girls is so mesmerizing and very attractive that I have the will and more energy to watch them than the other modern dramas I watched so far plus both Chen Fang Tong and Dai Gao Zheng are amazing because I actually like Chen Fang Tong and she already acted with Dai Gao Zheng in "Maid's Revenge' and I love this love song from this drama and this drama ending was actually low budget but happy ending and the thing this time in this drama was actually that they made at least a call of ambulance if not for him to really be in ambulance so he at least when he was alive it wasn't just respawn like in "Maid' s Revenge" but they made it at least more realistic even though it's low budget and less objects and subjects involvement

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