Red Sleeve (2021)

If you are looking for a heart-wrenching angsty long-drawn-out melodrama you will love this

The Red Sleeve has a promising premise. My favorite moment is Deok Im's childhood when she is so full of life! I also love the friendships between her and other palace maids last throughout the episodes. The casting is really fitting, I loved the couple's chemistry together, and I thought they were incredibly swoony. I loved that they're both adults and yet can be so innocent and giddy together, it makes me smile. The visuals are gorgeous, and the OST is so wonderful and gives me all the feels.

But around the midpoint way I kind of lost a little bit of interest because it started to veer into heavy melodrama territory, and that aspect lasted too long because they're constantly faced with inconvenient circumstances, misunderstandings, miscommunications, the male lead is sometimes really harsh and showing off his power. I know that is part of his character and part of his growth, but I found it annoying. And the slow pacing just stretched for the rest of the entire series and I just got so tired. The final episode is too jarring, there’s no build-up towards the ending. I couldn't fully enjoy it anymore. For me, It would have been perfect if this drama is 8 episodes.

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Interesting shift in the plot…

Keep in mind that I will be discussing why I’m this close to dropping the series after finishing over half of the episodes. Spoilers will be included, only minor ones that I feel like one must know before starting the drama.

I usually love historical dramas and I don’t mind the cliche storylines and such. This drama was filled with just that, as most historical romance dramas are. I loved this one, keyword loved. Just finished episode 13, where the ML, the crown prince, becomes king. Sounds normal, but I have to disagree. Unlike other dramas, this one took a turn midway through the series and the writers decided that they wanted the whole plot to change. The series went from a lighthearted historical romance to watching two people engage in a frustrating relationship and the plotline took on a more depressing undertone.

To be straightforward, I don’t like what the crown prince’s character turned into. If you’re watching for the ML, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like this one unless you’re into guys full of red flags. In the first half of the drama, the crown prince was fine. Red flags here and there but as someone that chose to watch for the eye candy, I ignored it. Starting around episode 12 or 13, the crown prince started pushing himself (quite literally, as he was drunk ;-;) onto the FML as she wasn’t accepting his advances; it bothered me alot as her character looked visibly uncomfortable but couldn’t resist as she is just a mere court lady. Some may consider me sensitive, but I know many others are like me. I’m considering dropping the drama altogether if this continues ;-; I’m a fan of the ML and I don’t really want to see him playing a character that makes me feel this uncomfortable.. I also noticed how the FML stopped smiling as much which bothered me and made watching ep 13 almost unbearable.

I just wanted to give people a heads up on what type of drama they’re starting. My review was short and doesn’t cover much, I know. I wrote this at 3am bc I was so frustrated at the more recent eps lmfao

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when will this guy give up

how many times does she have to tell him she's not interested in becoming his concubine until he stops. maybe she secretly, very very deep down, so far that no hint is given even to the audience, DOES want to be his concubine. even in this case, all he is shown is a clear, straightforward rejection.
eventually he gets married to some 13 year old and makes some weird comments to deok-im about it and the whole time she is still refusing his requests. it was at this point that i stopped watching.
honestly, it was very sexy and enjoyable for a long time, but it just gets to be too much. on top of this, deok-im's supposed reasons for not wanting to be his concubine are very convincing; she describes the life of a concubine as one without freedom, voice, genuine companionship, and joy. it's incredibly hard to believe that she is lying or even wrong about this entirely unappealing life.
overall, i just don't understand why they had to ruin a pretty fun drama by making it more and more disturbing.
disclaimer: i know that the drama was based on real-life events, this however does not make it any more enjoyable, possibly even less. do not comment on my reviews.

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Good but could have been done better

I had to read a bunch of other peoples reviews to contextualize my thoughts. I agree with the this doesn’t work as romance take.They should have the romance be a side story. Because if romance is main story we almost always expect a lot of heartwarming ooooooo moments of which there were very few if not non-existent.It’s a horrible love story.

Love can be complicated and not have a happy ending. But one should feel like wow they really loved each other but life happened.( I got this feeling in Mr sunshine) here the FL feminist concerns are not dealt with appropriately because she never admits she is in love. Multiple things can be true at the same time. This drama did not know how to handle that. They can have been truly in love and shown it and still have shown all the tragedy and reluctance to conform.

The point at which the FL decides her love mattered over her concerns is treated pettily when it should have been the cornerstone of the show. The point in life where one decides what matter most. But they didn’t give the FL agency to portray this because they had it happen via her getting dragged back to the palace instead of making the choice herself. The asking and being rejected over and over makes the story seem immature. When they got married she seemed sad allllllllll the time. So it adds to the forced to do it narrative.

I don’t know how historical interactions between king and concubine were but if the King waited for years for this concubine instead of forcing them to marry him when he could have. I think it is safe to assume this was a very mature relationship with mutual respect. I expected the post marriage interactions between the King and concubine to be more meaty and less slave and master like. We needed more dialogue. We needed to see the FL retain her fire within the marriage and see her wrestle with her desires, duties and constrains. Instead she just became a wilted flower after marriage. The traits they had us believe made him fall in love with her at the beginning completely disappeared post marriage. So their love becomes unbelievable the story falls apart at the end.

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One of the most beautiful dramas I've watched

I think this is genuinely one of the best dramas I've watched. The chemistry, the story, everything was perfect. I enjoyed it from start to finish.


I will discuss the last two episodes, so don't read unless you have watched them!!!

I cried during the last two episodes, but in the end, I was somewhat happy that they went with historical accuracy. It was painful and beautiful.

Honestly started this because I thought it was going to be funny, and at the beginning, it was, but then we were hit with reality. Deok-im was a woman in a man's world, which contributed a lot to her goals and aspirations. One of those was to live life how she wanted, even if it was trivial things she wanted to have some control. When she fell in love with San, she felt that it would restrict her freedom to be with him, so she put it off for a long time, but she was drawn to him either way. Her heart ached for him, and she wanted to keep him safe at all cost.

In that episode, her heart won the battle when he asked her to choose between not seeing him again or being with him. I saw a lot of comments saying that the ending sucks, but it was honestly such a beautiful ending, and you could tell that her harsh words came from a place of love. She didn't want San to drown in sorrow, so she pretended that her feelings weren't as strong as his. But you could tell that in a way she loved him very much. She chose to be with him because the thought of not seeing him and not being around him hurt more than losing the little bit of freedom that she had. Everyone could see their love, and except for that other concubine, everyone was rooting for them and wanted them to be happy. Maybe if we got more of those happy moments with their child and the family they had, maybe more people could see that spending those happy moments with San had more value than the life she once dreamed of. Not to say that she was completely happy and without regrets because she definitely had many, but even when she asked him not to look for her, it was because she knew that she would do it again if he asked. She would fall for him again, and they chose to spend their eternity together in the end.

I am satisfied with this ending because it showed the harsh reality of the past, yet it combined with the beauty of love. Both San and Deok-im were part of each other's happiness. Again my only complaint is that I wish we could have seen more happy moments, especially with their son, as it would make it clear that she did love him and was only holding back. I wanted to see them raising their child together and being a family. I get that having those tragic moments was more important for the story, but still, I wish we could have seen them. It looked like San was a great father, and their grief truly broke me.

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Beautiful slow burn romance, excellent acting and great cinematography

Completed - 1/1/2022

My first completed drama of 2022. What a beautiful ride this has been. I think "The Red Sleeve" has become my favorite sageuk, surpassing "The Crowned Clown" and "Moon Embracing the Sun". This drama has equal parts court politics and romance.

Acting - The overall acting for the whole cast is excellent. We have the amazing lead couple, whose quiet, simmering chemistry is off-the-charts. Lee Jung Ho (ML) and Lee Se Young (FL) were charismatic and playful in the first half of the drama, and the acting switches gears to a more melodramatic and serious tone. Our second male lead, Kan Hoon, portrays a grey character well. He kept me guessing whether he's good and loyal, or bad and traitorous. Not to forget out crazy king played by veteran actor Lee Deok Hwa. There are several episodes and scenes where he just took over the screen, and you were so mesmerized with him. The strong women supporting cast from the Queen Dowager, all the Princesses/Concubines and court ladies - all act their part and make each scene believable.

Romance - As mentioned, this is a very slow-burn romance. ML loves FL for over 10 years and courted her for so long before they were officially together. We have to wait till Ep 16 for that to happen!!! You cannot deny their chemistry. It might not be sizzling hot but it's simmering from episode to episode. We started with the initial fun bantering to the quiet and loyal behind-the-scene support, and then finally talking openly about their feelings (mainly ML to FL). One of my favorite scenes was when ML was grounded by the king and has to stay in his room. Our FL quietly stayed by his side outside the door, and read him poetry from the Book of Odes. That was such a romantic scene! I was happy to see that scene again in the finale. On the other hand, I was frustrated for ML because he never openly heard FL's love confession. I understand where FL is coming from, and her choice to stay with him is an act of love. But ML confesses so many times that I think he deserves to hear those words from FL's mouth directly. In the end, the audience waited until ep 16 to finally have some happy couple moments for less than half a episode. Well, at least we got several amazing kisses (not fish kisses, thank god!) from our amazing couple.

Court Politics - The rise of the crown prince to the throne took up 2/3 of the drama. It's interesting to see another side of throne fighting. Here, we don't have other princes but only the crown prince. Yet, there's still a lot of secret meetings and fighting between factions, before ML can become king. The friendship between the Crown Prince and Hong Deok Ro is quite a tragic one. As with the romance, the complexity of this friendship is not in-your-face, but is slowly and gradually shown to the audience. The power struggle between the King and the Crown prince is interesting as well. It's quite evident that the king wants the crown prince to take the throne eventually, yet he just won't let it go. Behind all these politics, we also have women working behind closed doors. We have scheming queens and princesses, fighting for their own benefits. But the biggest villains is the secret society run by a bunch of evil court ladies. That plotline is quite interesting, as I never would have thought they could be powerful enough to influence who would be the next king. I guess it's similar to how there are powerful eunuchs in C-dramas.

Court ladies & Guards - I also enjoy the behind-the-scene look of the hard-working court ladies. The friendship developed between FL and her friends was heartwarming to watch. Without these friends, life for these court ladies is depressing. The friends also provide comic relief to a pretty serious drama. Having someone like Court Lady Seo to be by FL's side is a blessing.
She's like a mother to her. I can't forget to mention our loyal and naive palace guard, Kang Tae Ho. He is quite adorable, esp. when he's giving tips on how to court a woman!

Cinematography - This is a beautifully shot drama. I especially like the natural lighting in all the scenes. When the scenes are shot indoors at night, the light is strictly coming from the candles and lanterns. There's no fake artificial light. It makes everything so much more natural and real. The costumes are beautifully layered with appropriate accessories. Though court ladies can't wear elaborate outfits, but you can tell that all the clothes are of high-quality fabric and not flimsy ones.

Other Observations:
1. Is it really that difficult to kill a tiger??????
2. How did FL escape from the underground prison when the exit is where the head court lady is having a meeting?
3. Love the dumplings scene in the finale. I feel that the leads are trying hard not to laugh and might have ad lib lines some of the lines.
4. Ep 17 is a little slow. I wonder if it's better to keep it at 16 episodes instead of increasing it to 17. But then, the episodes are already 1.5-long, so maybe not.
5. I am not sure about the ending: somehow I wished the drama ended sooner right after the leads got together. I want to see them happy.

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The Red Death

Some soundtracks were brilliant and went hard while other ones were pure rehashed garbage picked up from your local free-licensed store. However, the drama itself suffered from being painfully long-winded, with excessive and unnecessary long shots that reflected negatively on the cinematography. Especially when the chemistry was average at best. Plot-wise, it fell into the trap of being extremely formulaic, treading familiar ground seen in many dramas with the girl/prince trope. It didn't dare to try anything new or to spin its own twist. The male lead made the whole experience significantly uncomfortable and challenging, his personality didn't exude any attractive qualities in the slightest; in fact, I found his behavior to be quite repulsive, appalling and off-putting, catered exclusively to the fan-fic obsessed mindset, which may explains its ratings.

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A wounded heart in a critical condition

Long time since i wrote a review, but now i am writing to express my condolence to myself, to sue the screenwriter and the director for their policy to follow up with the historical facts that made this tragedy to happen. Meantime, i will thanks genuinely the cast and them for this massive generation of a drama, a masterpiece, a divine live painting mixed between joy and sorrow black it in the end.
Lee se young and lee jun ho those two were the peace and the typhoon of this framework, their chemistry is beyond talking, strongly enough to make their scenes the best in a sageuk as couple then comes PKH and MCW in princess man and IU and LJK in moon lovers.
Deok im character who has her friends and her pride and free self above everyone, the tense that LSY had shown is unbelievable. She truly reminded me of MCW in princess man. Her character was between kind ,straight then badass and stubborn. She refuses to be subsided to someone and restricts her liberty. She can greatly hide her true and sincere feelings to someone to the very end for that purpose of hers.
Yi san/jeongjo character is a controversy, he lived in fear during his childhood and was always tormented by his father cp sado execution then by his gf king yeongjo who was strict on him and threatening him not to become like his late father. So he never truly had happiness in his life until he met with deok im, he started to smile and have fun with her that's when their story began. His affection to deok im grow bigger every time she saves,protect and look after him meanwhile deok im is in her defense state and hide her feelings to keep living her desired free life, so every time she refused to be his woman he go more persistent and savage on her. During his reign, he forced her to be his concubine without deliberating with her anymore hence she subjected to him because she had no choice although she likes him but she doesn't want this consort life because she knew the king has duties and he will not be hers only and the aftermath is known. So his obsessive character over her and his responsibility as a king to pretend to ignore not letting her live the life she wanted ( although she confessed it was her choice to stay by his side in the dazzling palace and i think after being worn out of his chasing after her)has drawn this wailing end.
This drama made me cry a lot experiencing successive demises that melted my heart and bruised my mind. It cannot be easily forgettable.

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Worthy of watching

I have watched this drama twice. I have to read English subtitles which has a lot of my concentration the first time I watch it. When I watch it a second or third time I always see something new. While other ratings were not at the top, I personally loved the connection between Lee Jun Ho & Lee Se Young. Their performance was excellent and kept me at times laughing and definitely the tears rolled in particular in the last few episodes. I only comment on the entertainment of the dramas I watch and leave any personal political thoughts out.
I watch dramas to learn, enjoy and reminisce my past experiences with love, loss and where I am now. I have become enamored with Korean dramas. I look forward to them everyday. Thanks to the talents of the gorgeous male actors and the beautiful women in these dramas.

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Not a fluffy romance and a different take on a different era

I binged this sageuk drama in less than 2 days, as I just got hooked.
I liked the fact it's based on real historical figures, even though the plot was largely fictional.
Fine cast and very good acting. Considering the vast majority of the drama took place within the palace walls, or immediately outside it, I felt the sets were wonderful and it gave a sense of how it must have been for those never allowed to leave.
This isn't a fluffy story at all. Whilst there are many light moments, the latter episodes contain tragedy and heartbreak.
The inner workings of palace politics, the personal maids and servants, tied for life to the King, who has total power and control over their lives, has been portrayed many times in sageuk dramas, but in Red Sleeve, possibly for the first time, I really felt like I got a glimpse into how hard and terrifying life could have been for anyone working close to the King; especially women.
In this instance, the ability to possess what one wishes, regardless, is taken advantage of. Though love is reciprocal, the effect this has on a previously bright, opinionated and free thinking character, I found so sad.
A King who in reality did a lot to reform policies at the time, but was overshadowed by his bi-polar, paranoid father, who was remembered for causing the deaths of a large number of his servants ~ although as the drama portrays, he and others felt Crown Prince Sado was purposely driven to madness.
At the end of the day, the King forced his will on the woman he loved, even though she'd explained why she didn't want to be his concubine.
A fated love story and not an easy ride. A little laboured at times, but overall a powerful watch. You might need tissues.

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How to move on from this??

What an emotional rollercoaster this drama is! It's one of the best historical dramas I have watched for a while. The story and characters were written with so much depth, and the actors conveyed this with so much sincerity. There were many darker themes woven into this romance to depict the harsh realities of court life for many women (loneliness, male dominance, court politics), and you really come to understand each character's motives.

The side characters are strong and hilarious but the chemistry between Lee Junho and Lee Se Young is electric. Lee Junho is captivating with the emotion he shows on screen - you were really with him the whole time and shared deeply in his happiness and pain.

There was a pain where I felt things dragged a little and that it was going nowhere with Dok Im and Yi San, but the continued tension between them made the ending all the more heartwrenching.

I'm not sure where to go with dramas now after this...

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Beautiful

I really enjoyed this wonderful story. The chemistry between Lee Jun Ho and Lee Se Young is fantastic !
Prepare yourself for a rollercoaster of emotions that is very rewarding.
The OST is also very beautiful and drags you completely into the story. You should not miss this historical drama
What makes it even more impressive is that this is partly a true story. This gives you a good idea of what the life of court ladies was like in the Joseon period. The 17 episode flew by .
The actors the production and the clothes were great too . for me this historical drama was one of the best i´ve ever seen .

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