Diamond among all Gemstones
Red Sleeve really shook me with this great story, where love doesn't conquer all. I am so surprised by the open to interpretation ending, some people find it as happy other as heartbreaking.Usually when we see kids showing leads past is very brief and cringe moment, just to highlight they had somehow of childhood connection. In Red Sleeve even this consumed a whole episode where every scene was meaningful and had major consequences. The side characters were also well developed, I've never found myself fast forwarding a single moment.
Great story, directing and the amazing work of these Korean actors made this Drama one of my favorite. I didn't want it to end, as the emperor in his final dream.
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Bittersweet
It took me several days to be able to write this review. I kept starting and stopping, writing and rewriting, and even thinking I was finished and then deleting it all. This story is an incredible combination of beauty and tragedy, and is a love story that really makes you think about the high price that can come with power and how it affects evrything, even how you love. At one point Deok Im asks King Jeongjo if he had ever thought about what it would have been like had he been a commoner and she not a palace maid - and the thought was so alien to him that he could scarcely reply - for him this tragically lonely life was the norm. He was betrayed and lied to by his best friend, the woman he loved (and who loved him back) tried her best to not be with him to avoid losing her freedom, and he had to be wary even of family members. Not an easy or happy life, despite the power and comforts a king had. As their love story unfolded and finally came to it's eventual consummation I was ripped in half - the sweetness of their love is marred by how much she doesn't want all that comes with it - being tied to the palace and unable to leave for the rest of her life is the worst thing that could happen to such a free spirit. As she said goodbye to her younger self I bawled.I really appreciated how much of the lives of court ladies this drama portrayed. Seeing them having fun together, working together, being friends, and even the gossiping, scheming, and organizing into a cult gave them a lot more depth than is usually shown to the people who work in the palace.
The fact that this story is a fictionalized version of actual people and an actual love story makes it even more beautiful and heartbreaking to me.
This is definitely a drama worth watching, and a story that will linger in my mind.
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The last scene of the last episode confused me
All the episodes were good except the last one . I was waiting for their love story to start and from wher it started bit was the second last episodes . If this is real based story then I will complained to God ,why he punished him this way ,since childhood he did good , whatever he had done he did for humans then why his end was painful. If it is a fiction . Then not happy with the story because end is sad .Now I was confused to see the end , was she dead or it was his dream or in second episode it had shown that he had was sleeping on her lap and suddenly wake up and had shown he had seen a bad dream but he didn't tell about the dream but at the end same scene they had shown that he suddenly woke up and he had a bad dream in which she died so what is this it was a dream ,or his dream had come true and she died . This confused me alot.
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Stressful but you’ll keep wanting more
In my spare time, I lowkey write reviews in some secret websites just to express as-of-the-moment hyped emotions. As I always tell my students, its best to capture it raw. Lol.So My thoughts are all over the place and I don’t really have much time to write a decent review si I’m just going to leave here my fascination of The Red Sleeve. This may be a mess as I don’t have all the time in the world anymore to organize my thoughts 😂
First off, iIm borrowing 500 days of Summer’s tagline— this is not a love story. This is a story about love. This is a historical fiction based on the novel of the same name. I might read the novel if time permits since I usually love comparing text and media. Anyway, I won’t spoil those who havent it watched it yet. So I’m merely sharing my thoughts on this masterpiece but wont be going over the details. Again, it’s certainly not a romcom and I don’t know why in the world Netflix tagged it under kilig. Some bits yes, but as a whole, nah. I grieved. What absorbed me the most is the thought provoking message of the themes presented kn the story. There’s actually a lot to talk about. The fl to begin with is such a revolutionary role. And again, she’s a real person. She really existed and was rightfully glorified by the script. There’s also a lot of action in it, politics, rebellion, friendship, culture, ideals, and many more. But what drives the whole story is the steong depiction of The push and pull of love and duty. If fairytales taught us that love conquers all, TRS showed the bittersweet reality of choosing love and the consequences that come with it. Most dramas with boss-servant couple easily taught us that to be swayed by the former is the ultimate goal, as if it’s where all the good stuff will start happening. but here it’s quite the contrary, It acknowledges the ugly truth of being chosen by the prince charming is not that charming after all. The story also questions man’s capacity to exhaust all means to get a hold of love despite knowing well that that there’s an eternity of doubt and sacrifices that follow. There are so many questions to ask after the last episode. Was it all a dream or a memory? Did the main characters gain or lose? And going back to “love”, which face of love is the strongest of all? Is it the love for oneself? Filial love? Patriotism? Loyalty to the system? Did love change them or they manipulated love as they wish? it ended ambiguously. It wasn’t happy nor sad, but borderline depressing. lol.
I’ve watched a lot since my pregnancy to either keep me awake or lull me to sleep, from anime to movies, c, K, and JDramas, jumping from one genre to another. I’ve seen a lot and I would say this is my number 1 drama this year. They specifically call this type of kdrama saeguk. I’ve seen classics of my time like Jewel in the Palace, Jumonh and Hwang Jininbut didnt really like the platform back then since I’m too young for some serious stuff. I like watching hollywood period dramas though just not Korean in particular so I would say this is a first taste for me. I’m more familiar with the Japanese, planning to watch at least one Chinese if I feel like going after their standard 30+ eps, but I like to have them three compared soon.
So I dnt know if Saeguks are really riveting as as this one since they hold the magic of true historical events. But I hate how the show haunts me more now that I’ve finished it. The plot, the characters’ portrayal, their character development and the conversations they carried out, they all linger. The exchange of lines also got me so hooked and I was always waiting for the caption, thinking about how would each character uniquely deliver their words. I recall one review from MDL, the last few episodes are more on tell than show and I find it truly captivating as if I’m reading from a novel. I have read many reviews on Tumblr too and I like how there are so many angles it could be viewed from. I’m four years late to react so I’m also afraid that my thoughts might appear copied elsewhere. I could have joined reddit discussion too if time’s being gracious. Anyway, what I just want to finally do is to bring this in the classroom to end my TRS fever. I wonder how many of the students I’m about to meet in my class are already or would be interested to discuss the elements of this drama. I hope they would be reminded that love is not all about chocolates, roses, butterflies and kilig— it’s more like rose water abs and will DearDiary you. Char. Got those from a Tumblr review haha. So many hilarious remarks over there than MDL but what’s funnier is that I’m crying bc this is just so messy 😭 typed all these while breastfeeding my little one haha
don’t know why in the world Netflix tagged it under kilig.
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A bittersweet series
So many emotions were flowing after watching this series. Loved the wardrobe, scenery, the cast, the acting and the pacing. You get the typical drama in terms of palace rules and etc but what makes this one different is that the FL unlike most we’ve seen in historical dramas didn’t want any part of the palace haram. While other would pa she preferred freedom. What I liked most about this series was the ML acting the acting. It was amazing. ML definitely has some skills. Although the chemistry wasn’t magnified I believed that his acting made what chemistry existed wake up a bit.What I disliked about the series has nothing to o with quality and everything to do with my genre preferences. I didn’t like that it was a bit sad. I also disliked the FL persistence to resist her own feelings so much. After a while I got annoying. This went on for 90% of the drama. We only got a few happy episodes near the en and then not so much.
I would say that is was a bittersweet series. It’s worth the watch but if you’re into a smiles and happy ever after proceed with caution.
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A Masterpiece but Heartwrenching
A masterpiece of acting and writing. No doubt about it. From beginning till end, this is cinematic gold. No wonder it’s ratings have been through the roof.If you love historical dramas, you can’t miss this one. It fills its episodes with so much history and the unique culture of Joseon. It’s captivating really. I feel like I didn’t just watch something, but I learned too. Not only that, but this captures the intrigue of the court better than most dramas. The plots and betrayals kept you watching each episode in anticipation and fear haha.
The chemistry between the leads is literally unbelievable. There were many moments I had to rewatch scenes. I only wish that she would have truly opened her heart to him.
But, in the spirit of an honest review—and this is simply personal—the final episode left my heart shattered. Doing some research, I found they stayed true to the lives of the two main characters, but I wasn’t emotionally prepared for such a heart-wrenching finale. To be honest, I had to skip through some scenes to keep from bawling. The ending itself was also odd to me, but I will admit that it brings the series to a satisfying end.
My heart couldn’t quite handle the reality of the story. To see her fight his love so long and then to suffer greatly when she finally gives in? That was a sucker punch to the gut.
But, objectively speaking—because I want to write an honest review—even the pain made for an excellent and realistic melodrama. It accurately depicts the struggles of life in the palace, not sugar-coating for the sake of a happy story.
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The ending ruined it for me
I literally stayed up until the next morning watching. It captivated me from the beginning. I wish she had become his concubine from the beginning, and she then the other concubines would be jealous because love trumps everything. But that was not what happened.The King's grandfather irritated me because he never trusted his grandson's choices. He treated him like a child. This was before the dementia. After the dementia, it got worse. Finally he accepted that he couldn't rule.
I loved it. I believed in their love. I could feel the sexual tension each time they looked at each other or touched. It was beautiful until the last episode. What a letdown.
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Not bad for watching ,good acting
Start with very lame behavior, scenes that have a very clear cause but they even wonder about it make me feel annoyed,,in the last 2 or 3 eps, make me feel heartbeaking and sadness,, full of emosional from the castHow can the royal side not know that the secret chamber was made in Courtlady Cho's room? ,, and how can hongdongro not realize that it is very easy to be caught committing a crime in a place like that? Even though he thought the king would forgive him, but he shouldn't have done such a stupid thing
ENDING
In my opinion, the crew might want to end the story of the original history, but they want to give a different ending to this love story, and want to make a happy ending, the best way is to reverse the scene in that way...
What do you expect from a historical story from a true story? Moreover, the story of the 2 drama characters chosen does not have a very satisfying ending,,,
At first I thought it was a happy ending because they (the crew) would end the story (last eps) until the birth of their child, but in the last eps it went straight to 4 years later
Not very bad for watching,i dont like when they talking about the event that JUST mention in this drama because not all people watching know about that event even it's from real history,they should explain a little about that they want to talk about,,
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beautifully shot and acted but loses steam
This is beautifully shot and you can see how high quality the show is. The premise is interesting - it's based off real historical figures (I saw the memoir on my Goodreads). I was curious how this might have been dramatized and adapted. The real lady Ui-bin Seong was only known to history by her role to the king: her pregnancies, her children, her title as harem wife and her death. On the other hand, we have a full story of the king's life in childhood, politics, etc. The king's life is also very messed up and I wondered how they were going to zoom in to this one part of his life story and romanticize it.However, the drama pleasantly surprised me by adding a feminist element. This is a story about love when it is complicated by power. It's about what love means to a man vs a woman.
As much as I enjoyed these themes, I found their back-and-forth "be my concubine / I love you" and "no I'm my own woman" to be quite tedious. The drama started out very strong and it is very well-acted (especially Lee Junho) but the increasing politics started boring me around episode 7/8. Had to drop this.
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It was just that good
This was so good that just when I thought that k-dramas stopped producing masterpieces after writers such as Park Hae-youn, Yoon Ji-ryeon and Lee Woo-jeong set the standard, I watched this and changed my mind. There are good dramas and great dramas. This surely falls in the latter category and now unfortunately the wait begins again, until I find another great drama that leaves me with this much awe. I think the last time I loved a historic drama so much was during Queen Seon Duk, when I was still a kid. The Kingdom series was also amazing and this is definitely in the same category of great cast, great writing, great direction.Was this review helpful to you?
WOULD I COMEBACK HERE TO DECIDE AGAIN ABOUT THE REWATCH VALUE?
For now, I don't think it is worhy to watch since, I just finished watching it. Is it worth to watch? Yes since it is just 16 episode and focused on the story, but sadly, I didn't had the chance to fall in love with the character because for me it was fast paced. I love the plot, I actually love the ending. Beginning excites me, the middle gaved me hope, the ending was mixed but I am sur eit doesn't excite me. Yes the history must be done, still, it hurts to see those. The optimism of the 4 girls friendship is still there yet it brokes my heart, there are times I want characters to act in a certain way cause it frustrates me, but wait, I'm not a director or writer or something, I'm a person who should appreciate the story of what I'm watching. I'm okay, I can't say it is one of the best but we will see, we never know if we actually miss a story.Was this review helpful to you?
Different style
I didn't watch like this story.After watching this drama my ıdeas changed about the palace's life.This drama different the another korean's palace drama.The actors are really good acting their roles.And the writer really have different thinking style .I watched thıs drama after KİNG THE LAND and I really didn't know the main man actors real good acting like this role. I could suggest you must watch this drama.Was this review helpful to you?
