El Afecto Del Rey (2021)

Not enough story for 20 episodes

At the beginning, this drama actually made me look forward to Mondays so much. On my watchlist, I had this drama at a perfect 10/10 star rating for about ten episodes until it started getting ridiculously repetitive and the plot felt very dragged out. Overall, the story was great with amazing characters, cinematography (those color palettes!), and romance. Unlike Lovers of the Red Sky, their love story felt very organic and well-paced. As the drama progressed, the focus naturally shifted away from romance and became more about court politics and family drama (in typical sageuk fashion) and while this was not as interesting to me (as someone who lives and breathes rom com), I saw it coming and expected something like that from a historical, anyway. It was fine. Until the love line also got needlessly angsty. These two literally spent the better two thirds of the drama trying to figure out if they should or shouldn’t be together. The same problems kept arising over and over again but were dressed up as slightly different issues. The political story also got quite stale and followed the format “let’s go investigate something, have lots of fruitless dialogue about that thing, and kill a bunch of people.” This is the main reason why I dislike anything action, but I digress. In the last couple episodes, I also became an avid hater of Dami, something I never thought would happen. Her hero complex and suicidal tendencies disguised as selflessness got incredibly out of control, and it was hard to root for a character who was so hopelessly throwing herself at danger and calling it self-sacrifice that I just wanted her to die at the end and have the drama be a tragedy. The lie she told Jun Ji Un (that I won’t spoil) before doing something unforgivable (at least in my opinion) was something that I wished he would hold against her. It was such a majorly fucked up thing to do that I completely stopped rooting for her at the end. Despite my hundreds of complaints, this drama did bring many good things to the table, and I absolutely adored the male lead from beginning to the end. I’d still recommend the drama to anyone that has some spare time, but just be prepared to use that speed-up button if you’re impatient like me.

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The Last Supper

why? Both aired on KBS, how come the Korean drama The Kings Affection is superior to the Korean drama Moonshine?

This advantage can be seen from the rating of 12.1% in the last episode of the Korean drama The Kings Affection, while the Korean drama Moonshine only got 5.9%. Once it was 7.5% in the initial episode, but it continued to sag until it reached that number.

The awards were also dominated by the Korean drama The Kings Affection with 5 awards, while the Korean drama Moonshine only got 3 awards.

So, in my opinion, Korean drama: The Kings Affection is boring, especially when it reaches dozens of episodes. It feels so long.

Was it because of the good ratings that it was extended to 20 episodes?

As we know, Korean dramas that can reach a 2-digit rating generally consist of many episodes, such as the Korean drama My Only One (106 episodes) which managed to break through 46.6 - 52.4 percent, the Korean drama Homemade Love Story (50 episodes). with a rating of 32.9% in the last episode.

So, my temporary conclusion (because I didn't use in-depth research hehehe), Korean people like soap operas that are long and convoluted, so the Korean drama: The Kings Affection, which should have finished in 16 episodes (or even 12 episodes?) Was extended for the sake of satisfaction. Korean audience.

Admittedly, there are some advantages to Korean drama: The Kings Affection, such as the story which is continuous and flows smoothly, although it often doesn't make you curious to see the next episode.

Also, the OSTs are very superior compared to the Korean drama Moonshine, namely: Shadow of you (SUPER JUNIOR-K.R.Y), One and Only (Lyn) and If I (Baek Ji-young) …… huhuhu makes me cry

In addition, the writer-nim's decision when composing the Dam-i/ scene played by Park Eun-Bin when dealing with his grandfather Han Ki-Jae (played by Yoon Je-Moon) was really good. As a senior actor, Yoon Je-Moon is indeed a coconut elder. The older the more coconut milk.

How about Park Eun-Bin who acted perfectly in the Korean drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo (gained a rating of 19.210% in the last episode)? That's cool. He successfully disguised himself as a real king, despite his petite body. But she's a girl right?

But the character I like the most in Korean drama: The Kings Affection, is Jung Seok-Jo, played by Bae Soo-Bin. He is a cold-blooded killer, the right-hand man of Dam-i/ Lee Hwi's grandfather, also Jung Ji-Un's biological father.

In Korean dramas with non-kingdom themes, Bae Soo-Bin often gets antagonistic roles. In fact, he became a specialist actor who cheated on the main female character, such as in the Korean drama A Pledge To God and the Korean drama Secret Love. Makes the audience excited: I want to hit him! Hehehe??

Lha in this drama, how come the task: sret..sret..sret. …kill people! No wonder the writer-nim's concoction for the scene of Jung Ji Un's father's conversion is very touching.

So, do you recommend this Korean drama: The Kings Affection?

Mmmmm…. whatever. The score is 11-12 with the Korean drama: The Red Sleeve which aired on MBC, and received many awards from MBC.

KBS apparently didn't want to lose, so it awarded many awards for Korean drama: The King's Affection, namely:

2021 KBS Drama Awards - December 31, 2021

Best Actress (Park Eun-Bin)
Best New Actor (Ro Woon)
Best Youth Actress (Choi Myung-Bin)
Netizen Award (Ro Woon & Park Eun-Bin)
Best Couple Award (Ro Woon & Park Eun-Bin)

The next review of the Korean drama The Kings Affection can be read here https://www.maria-g-soemitro.com/2023/01/the-kings-affection-review-drama-korea.html

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Decision is yours to watch or not.....

I'm writing this article wishing this will help you to take a proper decision whether to watch or not.
According to comments and other articles most of them writes that this drama is boring waste of time of watching.
In my opinion the drama has few faults in the middle episodes but the ending is wroth watching. At the beginning the drama start with dark plot where most people sacrifice there lives, so on later when the girl who becomes the crown prince with the hidden identity is very strong and cold hearted with lack of trust with people(another reason to watch the drama for the main female lead who is strong and shows her power). The other reason is Main male who is clumsy, smart and also strong which makes the story more brighter.
There are lot of crying, laughing, curiosity and anger emotions I went through while watching this drama.
Each and every episode is intense to watch for me, but some few episodes were there which was story line flopped, it was because the writer took the scenes very slow and made the last two episodes in rush which made the viewers to drop the drama.
Well all the episodes are available, so the struggle to wait for Monday will not exist now. It is easy to binge watch for you guys.
The story main idea is:
- why can't a girl have power and right live?
- how to trust someone?

GIVE IT A TRY IF YOU ARE WILLING TO THE ACTORS WON'T DISSAPOINT YOU :)

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Park Eun Bin and Choi Myung Bin saved the ship!

During the Joseon dynasty, the crown princess consort secretly gives birth to a girl and boy twins. While the boy will eventually inherit the throne, Confucianism values really condemn twins especially if it was a boy and a girl because they just don't think a man who shared a womb with a woman will have legitimacy. Therefore to protect the prince's future legitimacy, the King orders that the girl and everyone involved with the childbearing be put to death so no one knows about this situation. To protect the girl, her mother fakes her death and cast her way to live out her life in the countryside. Many years later, this girl the female twin ended up taking her brother's identity as the young prince because an incident killed the prince. The only people who now know her secret are her chief servant and her personal eunuch.

I have quite a lot of pros and the first is the portrayal of every character, especially our female lead. Her charisma and deep voice make it very believable, she is just like a very pretty boy in her prince costume. Although her figure is very slim and her small arm is very obvious she gives a lot of confidence with only just a cold stare. The only thing that I think could have made it better is if they did something to hide how short she is she really is because the height difference between her and her male lead co-stars is really noticeable.

Next, the pacing because overall I think it's very good, I'm completely absorbed by every episode up until probably episode 8. The child actors and actresses are doing a great job to make me emotionally invested right from the first episode. The child actress who played the twins, Choi Myung Bin, really shines in her roles! She pulled out the duality between the different twins' characters very naturally. Another pro is the OSTs are hauntingly beautiful, my favorite is "The One and Only", and "Shadow of You".

My con is mostly on the romance plot dominates the middle part of the story. I am not as engaged and I think that's because of the romance. Even though the romance is beautiful and I ship the couple, it is very heavy-handed and slow-paced. I'm watching the show because I really like our female lead and I want to see her navigate situations and crises, like her dealing with the envoy from China, fighting her grandfather's dictatorship, and keeping her secret. I think they are the strength of this series not so much the romance. Lastly, the action scenes are done incredibly well, but they're so sparse so I wish they are less melodramatic and had more action scenes.

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A drama with an identity crisis

OVERALL
Mmm...Skip, unless you're bored.

THE STORY
This drama is weirrrdddd. It's like someone wanted to produce a BL but was asked to produce a straight love story, so they decided to do something in between...and failed. The drama never really addresses the fact that Female lead basically lives like a guy, but at the same time, never addresses the fact that she's actually a girl. It's just SO weirrrrrddd. You can't make a gender-bending drama without addressing gender! What's the point? haha

On the good side, if you can not care too much about the romance, the political intrigue is interesting, enough to keep you watching until the end (even if not really hooked). On the negative side, the melodramatic, messy romance is basically 70% of the drama so it's a bit hard to ignore haha

THE ACTING
Good, I guess. Not much chemistry between the leads, from what I could tell, but it's not bad enough.

THE MUSIC
No comment.

REWATCH VALUE
Very low.

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A Pleasant One-Time Watch

I mostly picked this drama because I had just watched Park Eun Bin in Extraordinary Attorney Woo and was really impressed by her acting skills. She is just as outstanding in this drama. It’s amazing that the same person is playing the title character both shows.

The plot is quite intriguing. The twin sister replaces the crown prince and faces constant exposure and challenges, such as having to get married at some point. And produce an heir, good luck with that… Many gender-switching shows are very taxing on the viewer because the character is so very obviously NOT a boy or a girl. (Love in the Moonlight, I’m looking at you! Let’s pick the prettiest girl and everyone will believe she’s a boy… seriously…) Here, while we know the crown prince is played by a woman, it is not entirely unrealistic that people around her would believe her to be a young man.

The first few episodes are really good, there’s some fight scenes and the romance between our two protagonists develops nicely from when they were children. But then further into the show nothing really happens. It became extremely draggy. I kept watching because surely, at some point, it would pick up speed… and the last few episodes were definitely better, with lots of action and plot twists. But instead of 20 episodes, 12 episodes would have been sufficient to tell the story.

As others have mentioned, the cinematography in this drama is stunning. The setting for some of the romantic scenes at the home outside the palace was just gorgeous. Another high point was the acting. Though some of the characters were written a bit one-dimensional – like the bodyguard, very pleasing on the eyes for sure, but that seemed to be the main characteristic, and even our male hero lacked a bit of spark – the actors all did a fine job. A special mention goes to Bae Soo Bin, who was excellent as the ambiguous father of the male protagonist. The two supporting female characters were also quite well portrayed, which was a nice contrast to many other historical dramas where the female supporting cast is often forgettable.

Would I recommend this drama? Well, I did enjoy it overall due to the interesting storyline, the acting and the beautiful cinematography. But it’s not something I would watch again, unlike for example Mr Queen or Bossam, which I enjoyed much more.

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Traditional costume romance w/ really dark undertone.

I love the backstory, although it was the typical formula: ML and FL met while they were young, lost contact, met again as different person's. From adversary's, to friends, to lovers.

Even though this was supposedly a traditional costume romance, it has a really dark undertone. The story got a little draggy at some parts that I had skipped. Still, I managed to push through.. Glad the writers gave FL a happy ending that she deserves.

Good chemistry between the actors, even the young ones did good. This is not the first show who did the cross dressing as a major aspect of the show, but they did good. Not as awkward as other show I've seen.

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THE historical drama.

It is my favourite historic drama. It has a very strong/historical story and background, the plot is very intertwinted (very positive note). Nothing has been left behind or untold. I loved the 20 episodes lenght it gives you all of the explanations.
The costumes and colors of the drama are magnificient, beautiful and very accurate.
The dialogues are very deep and touching.
The OST is one of my favourite and is perfect for the script.
The actors are ALL 10 stars, touching perfection.
I love every minute of this romantica-historic drama and gives you a very full spectrum of real life emotions; it touches every kind of relationship: family, lovers, secret lovers, friendship, loyalty, traditions, cultures.

P.S. I’ve rewatched 3 times already.
Loved it.

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This was awesome, the perfect drama for Xmas time: funny, sweet, romantic, intriguing, the whole package. I admit, my main interest in this was Rowoon as Jung Ji Woon but I was also glad to discover Choi Byung Chan and through him Victon! Nice!

My favorite thing was that for a big part of this drama, many of the characters actually really thought that Lee Hwi was a man. Jung Ji Woon when he fell in love with her among them. After some initial bi panic, he just went with it. Or Shin So Eun, when she realized that Ji Woon was in love with the king - there was no horror or disgust, she was just sad that he loved another. The overall reaction was mostly "you love someone else, not me" and not "you love a man" which honestly hit the right spot with me.

Also, poor Ji Woon's father, a killer that he was, mind you. The crisis that he went through, just imagine it. First, he finds out that his son is the king's beloved - a shock in itself - followed by the fact that his son is the king's beloved! What must've gone through his head... "Either my son is into men... or I made a serious blunder 10 years ago!" Ha!

Wonderful drama. It really, truly hit the right spot. Lovely...

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King of Crossdressing Dramas

Finally, a crossdressing drama where the actress playing a man is actually believable as a man. I've seen quite the amount of crossdressing dramas and 99% of the time it's just a female in male style, but Park Eunbin is that 1%. From the stance, voice, expressions, down to the mannerisms, she perfectly embodies the role.

At the same time, the drama doesn't pretend like she's a perfect male. They acknowledge that the prince is feminine. They showed the fl naturally developed manly gestures but she can't help but be feminine. It fits to the narrative that no matter how hard she tries, she can't hide her feminine qualities that would eventually lead to suspicions. And Park Eunbin understood the assignment. She effortlessly shifts between two different identities while depicting the fear, pain and grief that both characters hold. She did great portraying the prince and princess both physically and emotionally. I have nothing but praise for her.

As a historical drama, fl is strong, smart and the hero that drives the plot. Most fl's are not as privileged as they are usually just the love interest that every male character likes or a damsel in distress that everyone has to save. Here the fl has the higher status and is in a position to be involved in political matters as a crown prince turned king. And this is also one of the rare sageuk where the king's children aren't scheming, fighting or killing each other for the crown.

As a romance drama, Park Eunbin and Rowoon as the leads have good chemistry and the reverse cliché was very entertaining. The ml being good with books, medicine and gardening, while the fl being great at hunting, fighting and swimming. The leads work so well both in romantic scenes and comedic ones. So the romantic and comedic scenes are actually sweet and funny, not cringey. The fl being the hero and the ml as the love interest was refreshing.

Lastly, I love the things they kept from the webtoon and the things they changed for the drama. The death of the real crown prince, someone everyone wanted to protect being the one who ended up dead, was ironic. The highlight of the drama, the reveal of the secret was tastefully done. And the ending, it was proper and clearer than the webtoon. It wrapped up well.

Overall, Park Eunbin's acting alone makes this drama worth watching. Her 25 years of experience was evident in this dual role, acknowledged by KBS Drama Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and Korea Broadcasting Awards. It was good to have her back in a historical drama, and Yeonmo was definitely worth the wait. Long live the King!

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