✒Sassy Joseon Journalist Takes A Page From Sappy Royal Romantic °7.5°
📜This show documents the beginning of sharp-witted Goo Hae Ryung's career as a historian at the Royal Joseon Court. Historians had exclusively been male. When women are permitted to take the post, the usual hazing, intimidation, and other bullying by the species accustomed to power (in this case men) takes place.📖We'll turn the page from her rocky start. The next chapter finds Goo Hae Ryung assigned to Prince Gowan for record keeping. The prince is housed in the most remote portion of the palace grounds. Most people have actually forgotten all about him. Why he is austerely isolated he's been marking his time secretly reading and writing °fiction° (scandalous!).
📚As the word count multiplies and the story takes shape, Goo Hae Ryung finds herself bound in palace intrigues, a mystery from the past, a literary - strike that - a *literal hunt for a lost manuscript, and her first personal romamce story. The tone of the show is mostly lite, though there are some serious moments in the mix.
🏰The inner palace intriguers are 24-hr false-news reporters. The machinations of the court as a whole are excellent. Here's the broad-strokes flow chart: The king is at the top, then the ministers, next are officials - level-1 all the way down to the 9th level editions - further down are the lowly but strangely powerful clerks, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Know thy place.
🤼♀️The rivalries between the territorial, often corrupt, and always bureaucratic agencies is Pulitzer worthy. They even penned a moment that is reminiscent of Ron Burgandy's Anchorman. I kid you not. That scene is a bestseller. Goo Hae Ryung's boss seems like a thoroughly non-serious person, but at times he enscribes a line that he won't permit anyone to brush away. Those moments are downright inspiring.
🤚🏽Though a very pleasant series, RH is not without blots. Some plot points, what characters say or fail to say, or their actions seem like misprints due to the lack of cohesion. The epilogue style ending doesn't augment RH either. (Here's another Kdrama that suffers from MSS, or Mandatory Separation Syndrome). While it was easy to predict the ending, at least in part, it is like an unfinished tome: It's not fully resolved. They weren't going for a serious historical drama, but one could almost pen a thesis on the way the show wrapped up compared to historical accuracy, ironically. Prince Gowan is not a roundly developed character. He definitely didn't get out of his mini compound enough, so he's almost child-like at times. Goo Hae Ryung is a little too independent to imagine in a give-and-take relationship. In fact, actress Shin Se-kyung is a force of perfect timing & snappy on-the-spot jibes. Her presence is strong to the point that she embodies the mother/lover type, not only in RH, but also in other productions like Run On. One has to wonder if the couple's diverse interests will be a strain that leads to reorganization later on. Even the life they are living at the series' end, which appears carefree, isn't true to their characters.
🍻It's up to the individual to decide if this lexicon of detractions mar the finished work. I easily edited it all out and was able to enjoy the show. Some of these unintelligible scribbles do affect the overall quality a tad. Perhaps they were hung over when they did the final editing.
📰Before I send this to the presses, I would like to post a petition of my own: If you like this show, you will love My Sassy Girl. (I know, the name is strange. For now, overlook its IMDB rating as not many people have weighed in on it yet). My Sassy Girl precedes this show by two years. It was a big hit in South Korea and opened the door for dramas like RH and 💯 Days My Prince. RH borrows heavily from MSG - it's inspiration, not plagiarism. MSG, is every bit as good as this show; don't let its outrageous opening sway you. In my book it's even better (it comes down to the male protagonists), not that we have to compare everything - they're both worthy of watching once-twice-even-thrice.
📁This will conclude the record of Prince Gowan and Goo Hae Ryung.
Signing off,
🔚
〰IMHO✏
🎬8 📝7 🎭8 🤔7 ⚡6 💓7 🦋5
Suggested Age 12& up.
Originally 〰️🖊3/2022
Was this review helpful to you?
A little bit of romance, a lot of history!
I started this drama because I didn't have much to watch and it was often tagged in Noona Romance list. I have never seen a period drama Noona Romance so I gave it a chance. And, boy, did it blow me over. Not in the field of romance thought. It was a cute romance. ML's acting needs to be better though. But what I loved about this drama was the rest of the plot! The way FL fights for her Independence in personal life plus years for a professional one is simply brilliant. The misogyny she and the other women historians had to go through to keep their place. Plus, The Royal Palace drama and how historians recorded history, the protests, it was all so fascinating to see. I am so glad they didn't just focus on the romance. I don't know how historically accurate the drama is in terms of historians, western education, Catholicism, western medicine, etc. but it is a must watch!Was this review helpful to you?
High Rewatch Value
This drama is truly great overall!! I must pre-face that I originally watched this show just because I am a Shin Se Kyung fan. But it wasn't just her that made this show so wonderful for me! To start, the production is wonderful. I loved the scenery, costumes, and cinematography.For a historical drama, this show was largely light-hearted and optimistic, which I loved very much. The repertoire between the historians was funny and very heart-warming.; it almost felt like watching an office drama at times.
The acting was on point from every character. And the characters themselves were so amazing, I feel very attached to them.
Some highlights of this show to me are:
-The relationship between the leads. I enjoyed the young, lonely, romantic ML and his dynamic with the adventurous, knowledgeable, and strong FL. They both long for freedom in their lives, but in different ways.
-The Crowned Prince Yi Jin. It is hard to explain but his character was very loveable and human. His mistakes, his feelings, and his perspective all feel very natural and definitely drew me to this character!
-The ending! I will not spoil, but I often have a bit of a problem with finales of dramas. This finale still kept up the pace that the show has throughout with an ending that I found satisfactory and memorable.
I have only just finished this drama today. But I watched it in only 3 days. So I know I will want to rewatch it again very soon.
Was this review helpful to you?
Delightful surprise!
What a delightful surprise! I found this drama to be unexpectedly good. It was a bit overshadowed by CLOY last year and it should not have been. To me it was the sleeper that deserves any and all good attention it receives. It has been on my watch list since last year and I just completed it recently. So glad I did. I thought both leads played their roles so well. I must say that I am now a Cha Eun-Woo fan. I was not so fond of My ID is Gangnam Beauty as I felt the male lead was pretty one dimensional but he was great in this drama. As a young (20 year old) Prince he lead an extremely sheltered and isolated life. His growth as a prince and man in this drama showed that in a sweet and humorous way. The female lead was a pragmatic, intelligent , beautiful character and was played so well by Shin Se Kyung. Without going into a hugely detailed review I would highly recommend this drama. Take the time to watch it...you wont be dissapointed!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I love this one.. after i start watching this i keep remembered love in the moon light (one of my fav drama, so i watch that again) but this drama is not good as that one .. as the story line of this drama i think they could have do much better than this.. first episode kind a boring but after that it get more and more interesting and confusing.. but the way them connect scenes are kind of lame.. really they have good story line but the end is worst.. i ecpected more than this ending..when the queen and other loyalists of prince dowon geting ready and the way scenes are line up i actually thought their will be huge fight and intresting ending.. but sadly that end is tooooo much boring ..
As the acting all actors did thir best.. prince dowon and go hyerung chemestri is not bad i like thire love ♥️ prince dowon is too cute ? isn't he ?.. second state councillor he is really in to his character and becoze of that i start hating him and end episode that hate gone
overall good drama.. i give 8.5 stars
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
One of my most historical fave!!!!
Okay, I'm also Cha Eun Woo bias teehee.I was not expecting this drama to be sooo good, since I kinda don't like Shin Se-Kyung's acting in general. I have read a lot of negative reviews on her dramas.
Regarding Cha Eun Woo, I was not also expecting that much of him aside from his obvious over the top visuals. I've finished My ID.. and True Beauty first so when I saw this both ML & FL were so surprisingly good.
It's a mix of historical, romance, comedy and drama. It's aesthetically pleasing from the leads' visuals, the costumes and the background. Also, surprisingly in the final episode, I love that they are open to show that the FL is having sex with the ML. So liberating lol.
What struck me the most was when the FL said to the King that historians are not his enemy but they are one of his subjects as well. I cannot forget that line. So so good!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The most unlikeable main characters I have ever witnessed.
I don’t know why they made her so damn unlikeable but at the same time, based on how they made the prince act I get it. The acting is solid , music is solid, cinematography solid, story solid. But her personality has been so damn unlikeable that even the scenes when the romance blooms has been disgustingly unwatchable. Like I said before the prince is chasing her LITERALLY the whole show. For the 1st like 10 episodes he has no other purpose and no other plot than to get the girl, so they make him act EXTREMELY thirsty and have the girl blow him off multiple times. The prince has cried 3-4 times more than her this show, he is such a puss. The romance is just so bad literally. They make her good at everything and they make the prince good at nothing and feminine. On top of that that, they make the prince chase her affection literally the whole show, no matter what she says or does literally he doesn’t care. Then she finally kisses him after he virtually begs for it and then continues to be a know it all. Her character was just terribly unlikeable and for the prince the whole time I was yelling p*ssy. The whole season all he has done is Cry , beg, ate , read, fantasize.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The headedstrong apprentice and the naive prince
I try to avoid watching sageuk dramas as much as I can because of these common tropes.- the "strong" FL
- the handsome ML
- court intrigue involving a puppet king and corrupt court officials
- clan rivalries
If you've finished one sageuk drama, then you've already finished most of them.
Korea must have hated their monarchy to a point where they almost never appear good or in actual control of the situation. The monarchy is either represented as being corrupt of being mere puppets.
This is another example of a noona romance that is if you don't mind seeing an ML who is not yet legally adult during the "courtship" bumble his way about the FL who is late into the socially acceptable marriageable age at the time. Although I'm a fan of noona romances, I must admit being disturbed and cringing at the interaction between the FL and the ML. Perhaps because the series primarily centered around the female point of view instead of the male POV. I also felt like the romance between the leads was unnecessary. They could simply have focused on the court historian portion of the story.
This series is notorious for its tonal shift from being a romcom to being a serious sageuk in the latter part of the series with the last episodes being too rushed to be fully satisfying.
Regardless of the villains getting their just desserts, they still succeeded in making sure that the true heir to the throne never becomes interested in being king by starving him of freedom and knowledge while growing up. So the bad guys still won while the audience is fooled into thinking the Male Lead's freedom is all that he deserved.
Was this review helpful to you?
History & Romance
ROOKIE HISTORIAN GOO HAE-RYUNG (2019) is a really funny and touching Kdrama about a female historian and male romance novelist that both face gender discrimination. I watched this series with my father and it delivered a lot of laughs."Set in 19th-century Korea, a female historian faces gender discrimination but perseveres. She gets entangled with Prince Lee Rim, blurring lines between duty and personal involvement."
Overall, this series was surprisingly meaningful and shockingly good. It was really funny, sweet and compelling. The cast, costumes, sets and aesthetics were really great. Very watchable kdrama for sure.
Was this review helpful to you?
Strong Female Lead !!!!
I absolutely loved this drama for many reasons. But specially wanted to mention female lead's strong character and the screenplay. It's so refreshing to see plot points which showed western influence on the Korean culture. I loved the female lead from run on in which she has a very solid characterization, but surprised to see same characterization in ancient set. Crown prince, his sense of righteousness and his heartwarming smile definitely make us to love the series more. Lastly I am very much in love with the ending of the drama, it's so satisfying to see crown prince become king because he knew the problems of people, he has all the skillset a king is expected to have compared to dowon prince, he deserved the throne and male and female leads living in together without succumbing to the then customs perfectly suited the direction in which whole series was going. Perfect story, perfect screenplay and perfect ending.Was this review helpful to you?
Great Saeguk but the final Episode made no sense
I loved this story for the way it presented Korean history/culture in its interactions with its neighbors and the west and inverted gender stereotypes by making the FL level-headed and cynical while the ML was romantic and optimistic. I loved the political intrigue and tension, the insight provided into the roles of everyone in the Joseon court and bureaucracy. The custuming and cinematography were beautiful which reinforced why I love saeguks. The series was always fascinating and informative.It was consistent in this until the final episode when the writers suddenly could not make decisions about how to end the series. The ending is nonsensical and shambolic and ruined an otherwise interesting series.
Was this review helpful to you?
I happen to watched Rookie because of this handsome evil cha eun woo I find him very talented and so goo hae ryung. Imagined my peaceful life until I encounter again this drama rookie made me crazy again.
The story is very interesting I can't wait for episode 6 and more. Unfortunately, episode 5 gave me goosebumps they goo hae ryung and cha eun woo specially the last part really made me cried.
I dunno if i can still sleep i really have an heart ache. Excellent no wonder this drama can get thr highest rating. Very interesting story and each character. Can't wait for more . Keep visiting on midnight if there's an update.
Was this review helpful to you?
