Kdrama Review: The King: Eternal Monarch

Drama: The King: Eternal Monarch
Genre: fantasy romance
Starring: Lee Min Ho, Kim Go Eun, Woo Do Hwan
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤


This was a much anticipated drama since it's the first one for Lee Min Ho after his return from his military service. Since he's pretty much my favorite, I was part of this anticipation and looked so forward to it!

It seems like many people were let down... maybe they built it up too much, I don't know. But I was not one of them. I loved it. The story, the acting, the intensity, the creativity...and yes, even the craziness and confusion.

The opening scene when LMH appears on screen, in a uniform, on a white horse, with epic majestic music playing... was THE BEST THING EVER!

Anyway. The story is about a two worlds... parallel universes. Our main guy is the king in the one called "The Kingdom of Corea"... a world that divided from our own at some point in time and kept the monarchy rule. The other is our present day familiar "Republic of Korea" where our girl is a cop. The story opens when our king is a kid and his dad is assassinated by his uncle. A mysterious someone saves him (the kid) and leaves behind a strange memento. Our king is driven by the hope to meet this person some day and thank him/her for saving his life.

A key to this story is a magical flute-like instrument that allows travel between the two worlds. Our king, as a young boy, ends up with half of this instrument... and the bad guy... his uncle... ends up with the other half. The uncle is driven by the hope of continuing his quest for taking over the kingdom, which of course, means killing the king.

The story gets very complicated and mind bendy from there, with our characters traveling back and forth, and also having counterparts in both worlds. In other words, all the actors had to play two different roles.... one in each world. How cool is that? But also confusing, yes?

One of the best parts of this drama is the our king's sidekick... his personal guard, played by Woo Do Hwan. He is very stoic, stern and serious as the king's guard. In our world, his counterpart is very funny, child-like and playful. A complete opposite. Seeing this actor play both roles, sometimes in the same scene, was absolute perfection. So good! Our girl also played opposite types of people in both worlds.

Wo Do Hwan's duality was a highlight of this drama!

Anyway, eventually time travel also becomes part of the mix, and you know how confusing time travel stories can be! But despite all the questions and the "what the heck just happened?" moments, I felt that it wrapped up perfectly and everything made sense (mostly, lol) in the end. It's a very romantic drama with the love story developing quickly this time, which is a bit unusual. These guys don't have time to waste!

All the secondary characters and stories were also great. It made us all want a little longer drama I think, so their stories could be developed even more.

And the music. AH! Epic. I loved it.

Also, the cinematography. Seriously. Beautiful.

So yeah. I loved it all. I'm sad for those that had issues with it, given the highly anticipated buzz this was getting. I'm happy, though, that for me, it lived up to expectations. I'm so glad Lee Min Ho is back and I can't wait to see what he does next!

A very fast trailer:

 

 And my favorite song from this one:

 

Kdrama Review: Faith aka. The Great Doctor

It appears that for a time I'm getting my fix for stories from a medium other than books. Or shall we say, I'm adding to the mix of ways I'm getting this fix. Since I enjoy reviewing the stories found in all these ways, movies, TV shows, and etc. I'll add Korean dramas to the list. And thus I give you my first review of a Kdrama.

Drama: Faith aka. The Great Doctor (link to the online location where you can watch it!)
Genre: Historical Romance
Starring: Lee Min Ho and Kim Hee Sun
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

The is the third Kdrama I've consumed. The first two were very fun silly romantic comedies. But also filled with a lot of heart and deep moments. But this one was much much different from the first two in that it's way more serious (not to say there weren't funny moments because there are a lot) and is also an amazing historical period piece.

And, it lived up to the name DRAMA in a big big way.

It takes place in the 1300's during the Goryeo Dynasty... what Korea was in the old days. A young king and his young princess bride have recently taken power. They are guarded by an elite group of warriors called the Woodalchi. This group is lead by a dude named Choi Young. At the time the story starts, they are being attacked and the queen gets hurt. Hurt badly enough that the doctors of the time don't know what to do.

Well, it just so happens that right then, a phenomenon occurs where a gate is opened  to what they think is heaven. They feel like if they can go through it, they can find someone to help save the queen. And so, they send the Woodalchi leader through.

Choi Young, Woodalchi General

Turns out, the gate is actually a time warp hole and he comes through to modern day Korea... he asks around and finds out there's a doctor conference going on nearby. He snags the first doctor he sees and drags her back through the gate.

So now this girl, this doctor (she's a plastic surgeon), finds herself surrounded by these people from her ancient history and they immediately ask her to perform surgery on the queen. Which she does and saves her life.

Meanwhile, the gate closes. She is stranded.

It doesn't take her long to figure out what's going on. She realizes she is in the presence of some pretty famous figures from history... including the Woodalchi general who kidnapped her. And it doesn't take long for her to realize that she has arrived at a very tumultuous time in history. The political intrigue and the schemes and power struggle is intense. And somehow, when people learn of her skill and her knowledge of the future (which oops she lets slip out!) she becomes the center of this power struggle.

And so it goes from there. Fascinating characters, brilliant amazing costumes, beautifully choreographed fight scenes, political intrigue, fantastical elements and of course, romance. Because yes, she and the general become very very attached.

The General and the High Doctor

He has promised her that he will take her back to the gate, if they can figure out when it will open again. And yet... now what is she going to do? Leave him? Drag him with her? He won't come, because he is bound to the king. And if she stays with him... she will/might die... because of... reasons.

And so... what are they going to do?? AH! So intense!

It's one of those shows where you start to wring your hands in nervousness for what's going to happen next and then again and again and again.

It's one of those shows where you get so wrapped up in the intensity of the character interaction that you find your own heart pounding.

It's one of those shows where you have to watch just one more episode!

(Luckily, these shows are what we'd call one season's worth... this one is 24 one hour episodes. Which seems so easy to swallow compared to season after season after season of a show that we end of binge-ing on often.)

My only issue with this viewing experience is that there was tons of political talk and much of it went right over my head. Very detailed and yet, it was a blast to learn about this time in history. I'm sure there are a lot of embellishments, but still, you get the feel for what it must have been like. Awesome.

Lee Min Ho

This show introduced me to one of Korea's most popular leading actors. And it only took maybe one or two scenes for me to understand why and to fall under his spell. He is mesmerizing. And, in this show anyway, soothing and calming and so so smooth. And swoony. Did I mention the swoon factor yet? Because it's one swoony thing after another with him! He melts you with a look. Or with one velvety word. (Jenni, he's instantly blasted his way to my top ten, just so you know how serious this is!)

Here's some clips of some of the swoony moments if you're into that sort of stuff, set to the song that is their theme song:




Speaking of the music, awesome!  Epic and emotional. I loved it. Here's the soundtrack on Spotify if you'd like to listen a bit.

I can't find a good English subtitled trailer, but this one works to show more of the feel of the show, set to one of the other theme songs that I loved (though it should say "I am Woodalchi". Geez people get it right!




Bottom line: Epic and intense. I loved it all! Okay...now...which one should I watch next? I'm worried none of them will live up to this one!