beautiful love story in Joseon.
Wow, it was perfect in every way. Even though it is a long drama, not a single episode was boring. The acting was great, as well as the production.The storyline is awesome, even more heartbreaking as the love story between the king and the court maid is based on a true story. To think about it, life inside the palace walls was basically a game of survival and politics, and not really living.
I loved their interaction at the beginning, as it was fun to watch. Their interactions made me giggle.
It was heartbreaking to watch the relationship between the king and the crown prince. They are family, but also the ruler and his successor. Later on, San will find out that it is hard to make a decision, especially when many lives depend on it. His journey was very hard, and he had to get through so many obstacles, so it was great that he had one person he could share all his worries with inside the palace and rely on. The last episode broke my heart. My eyes could not stop watering.
*****Spoiler*******
He must have been so in love with her, as he waited for her acceptance for 15 years, and she refused him the first time. If anyone else had done that, the result would have been death.
I cannot imagine how hard it must have been for him to lose his son and, a few months later, his beloved wife.
After I finished the drama, I did some research about the king. He had more wives, but he only visited them on the days that were set, while he visited Uibin almost every day. He also personally wrote an epitaph in which he stated that she is the only one he loved.
He built his sons and Uibin's tombs next to each other and planted almost 30 thousand trees. After her death, he became a workaholic and did not take care of his health, and passed away before his 50s. And it was the beginning of the end of a great era. Sedp politics were ruling the country, corruption was everywhere, and the people of Joseon were suffering. So it was the last good era for the people for a few centuries. If you think about it... if Uibin had agreed to become his concubine at first, everything would have changed, and his son would have ruled the country after him, and history would have been different. Well...it's all.just speculation.
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What I really like the most is that it talks about Deok-Im the female lead rather than the king which with other dramas, it's always the king who is the center of the story especially historical dramas. I really like Deok-Im as a character and the friendship between the court ladies is really really well portrayed.
I also like that the storyline really does connect with how history is stated but then also has given a chance to the watchers to have their own interpretation of the ending. I really cried a lot watching this drama. Recommended.
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Amazing acting and chemistry
This was a well-written story and the acting was amazing. The only reason I did not give this a 10/10 is because of the ending. I didn't like how in her 'heaven' she didn't get to meet her friends like she promised. She spent most of her life devoted to the King and had to spend her afterlife that way too which to me was sad especially because she asked him not to 'find her' again. For most people, this won't be an issue or something that made them sad as them being together in the afterlife is an ideal ending but for me it was sad because it signified her never being able to have the freedom she truly desired. Anyways, this is a great watch.Was this review helpful to you?
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This is after all, my own take after watching the drama. Basically the first part of this drama is excellent.
The actor are amazing and the action is well mixed with other moments so you never get bored.
Now the second part, I dislike how they throw away in 5 minutes at least 2 plot points that were really interesting.
But Ok, maybe they needed more episodes to solve the final plot point which is, after refusing to become the royal concubine for ages, why did Duk Im say yes?
The second part is not as good, as it turns grimmer and grimmer. But it presents a very modern idea that I did not expect to find in a historical drama: power imbalance will never lead to love.
Duk Im has to let go of who she is, and what she believes, and therefore she becomes unhappy. So for almost all of the last part, Duk Im as a character is a melancholic, except for a few happy moments, queen.
The drama takes a really brave moment deciding not to give them a happy ever after, but a "I loved you, but I should have loved myself more". The writers didn't let Duk Im relent, she, until the end, was clear. She may have loved San, but she wasn't happy.
And then we arrive to one thing I really didn't like, what I want to call "The producers ending". The ending for me kind of contradicts the whole tone the drama took.
I would have loved it more if at the end we are transported to the first time they both meet in the palace grounds or somewhere else, but when San is about to call her, he remembers her last words, and she lets her walk away. I think this would have shown a better character evolution of San that the ending of this drama.
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if i wanted this much emotional hurt, i would call up my mother
I wanted to like this show.I really really did. And part of me does, the part that is trying to separate my own personal feelings from the objective opinion i hold towards this show.
I'm going to just dive right in here to my objective opinion regarding the show.
OBJECTIVE OPINION:
It's a good show, nay a GREAT show even. I love sageuks and it takes a lot for me to not like a sageuk. This show did have me under the impression that it would be a rom-com-dram, but the comedy was dropped pretty quickly after the first 2-3 episodes. Not a problem, just an observation. i would much rather they drop the comedy than to try and keep it up when the tone of the show has completely changed.
The show does not hold back on its characters and it really hammers in the idea: a good king does not make a good man. Yi San is proud, he is arrogant and he is stubborn. Born to privilege and with it coming certain obligations, Yi San is not under any impressions that he wouldn't make a good king. He has good intentions, and you know his actions stem from a good place within his heart, but time goes on and you think: how can a man be a good leader if he's not a good man? Perhaps the two are not so interconnected as one would think, but you see YS as a man who wants to help the people, but he is selfish, he is greedy and wanting and perhaps it is as a result of his upbringing - denied a father, abandoned by a grandmother, all but ignored by a mother and abused by a grandfather, there is little love in his life and he would be starved for it if he knew what it tasted like.
Enter stage left: Deok-im.
I loved the plotline of her not knowing he is actually the crown prince and was very disappointed when they abandoned that very early into the show because it would have been a way to establish a foundation for friendship the way Love in the Moonlight had. But she has this information pretty early so whatever was placed down as a foundation for friendship is too weak to withstand the weight of knowing so it cracks and crumbles to nothing. Where Deok-im used to call him out and stand up to Yi San, now she is meek and obedient like all other palace maids. She does not talk back, she does not stand up to him or call him out on his behaviour. She exists only to serve and she does so because there's nothing else in her life she can control.
And this is what drives Deok-im: she will control whatever she can, what no one else can, be it her heart or her thoughts or the way she reads and writes, they will not take these from her. She will obey in every other single aspect of her life, but she will control what little she can because if she can't, then she may as well not even be alive. But as time goes on, that list of what she can control grows smaller and smaller until there is nothing else left except her heart because YS wants every single part of her, parts of her Deok-im cannot bear to part with.
Deok-im is the mirror image of almost every young girl in the world at this time: she is subject to the control of others. She cannot marry because she serves the royal family, her body doesn't even belong to her as court ladies all belong to the king, she cannot leave the palace whenever she wants, and she cannot even speak her mind for fear of punishment or death. But the one thing Deok-im can control is her feelings and she will always control her heart even if it means hurting herself or others. She calls it a small act of rebellion, to never tell YS she loves him in return even knowing that it hurts him, even knowing that it hurts her. Because YS has effectively taken all other aspects of freedom from her - his love is suffocating and he doesn't see it. He is unable to understand DI and why she does not want to be with him, he believes that her choosing her freedom over him means she does not love him at all, not seeing it just means she cannot give up herself to give to him.
Despite this, YS still makes her give every part of herself to him and he selfishly holds onto her even after her death. His love is shown as possessive, as controlling and greedy and smothering - he wants DI all to himself, to deny her to even be free because to be free means to not be with him.
I put off watching the last episode for a long time and it was like a bitter pill watching it. I don't even think i can say it was bitter sweet, nor can I say that it made me feel that the emotional constipation was worth all these episodes.
Which leads us into:
PERSONAL OPINION:
I didn't like it. I really didn't like it. I normally don't care about shows being, how you say, emotionally nihilistic but this show really took the cake. As I said, the show completely abandoned the comedy in favour of the more serious tone which I commented on being a good choice, but now we're left with constant plotting and scheming and emotional conflicts left, right and centre. It's exhausting and frustrating, I don't even have the energy to explain it.
The romance I felt was poorly executed because they did not take advantage of the plotline of DI not knowing YS was the crown prince. They should have held onto it a bit longer to establish a realistic friendship because what we were left with was not a friendship - it was a servant obeying the whims of a master and that master desperately trying to chase after that earlier friendship they had but knowing it was gone. I could never fathom WHY DI fell in love with YS; he wasn't funny, he wasn't kind, he wasn't exactly oozing with charisma. He certainly wasn't boring, that's not what I'm saying at all, but how he acted towards her made him just... there wasn't nothing to like about him. It's even shown that she still sees him as the man he was before she found out he was the crown prince, and perhaps she continues to hold onto that because the real YS is unlikeable at best, and detestable at worst.
At least on YS's end it's evident why he loves DI so much, even if he portrays it poorly. Because YS is a great Crown Prince and becomes a greater King. He's just not a good man to DI. He's a selfish lover and he dismisses her own agency because he wants her all to himself, he is physically incapable of understanding why she cannot love or be with him and ultimately the only reason they do end up together is because he gives her a harsh ultimatum.
Deok-im just felt like a side character in her own story most of the time. Maybe it's to reflect the fact she isn't even the main character in her own life, let alone a side character in the lives of others. But it seems that even despite wanting to live as herself and have freedom, every single thing she does is for the Crown Prince. Every major action is done to aid the Crown Prince, the only thing she really does for herself is deny saying that she loves him.
God, and let's talk about that shall we? Because as I said, I really could not buy that DI loved YS, like at all. There were times i even doubted she did until another character was like "you love him, don't you?" and she would nod and say yes but I would be sitting there like "??? You do?? Since, uh, when?" The best I can describe DI is that she is passive, she doesn't go and kick ass or cross dress or get up to shenanigans. She just doesn't really do much besides help the Crown Prince and... well that's it. It feels as if she exists only for him and it feeds into YS's feeling that he deserves her, that he almost /owns/ her.
And by all intents and purposes, he did own DI. But he never could own her completely. And I can't help but think: would he have felt that he needed to resort to force if DI had simply tried to explain to him her feelings? Because there is NO communication between these two. Perhaps it's the show trying to say "ohhh look he loves her so much he's desperate to have her in any way he can" but it just doesn't work. DI can't even articulate her feelings to the man she loves apart from one instance that I'm trying hard to recall. I believe it was her saying that she did not love him and that her life as his concubine wouldn't be happy because she would deny him his """right""" as the king and she would be sent away to live the rest of her life alone and in humiliation. But the two can't even TALK to one another about this because DI never bothers to corrects YS's assumptions about her feelings, thus leaving YS to believe he's right and he just bulldozes over DI with his assumptions.
There's no common ground, there's no equality. YS can take whatever he wants from DI and she is helpless to stop it. DI's love for him feels shallow and at time non-existent and for half of the show, i genuinely thought she didn't have any feelings for him at all.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I trudged through 17 episodes and I came out feeling absolutely nothing. I didn't cry at the ending because I knew the show has based on history. I didn't laugh or cry for like the last 10 episodes at all. The show was exhausting, that's the only way to put it - it would have been better if it abandoned the romance altogether because it was the source for all of my frustration. There are times the romance felt forced or out of place, and it's no fault on the actors, they did the best they could with what they had.
It really felt like the show almost forgot about the romance for the first half of the show and then realised they had another 5 episodes with no bad guys or plotting so they needed something to keep the show moving along, in that the romance in the beginning existed as plot for the second half of the show but because they were too focused on the first half of the show, they forgot about the romance until they needed it.
All I can think of to round this up is: Scarlet Heart did the tragic romance better and if that is what you're looking for, pick that show instead of this one instead.
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Regal romance, dignified sorrow—The Red Sleeve leaves a lasting impression
I have been hesitating to watch this drama as I already knew from the get-go how this will end. But, despite my concerns, I’m glad that I gave this a try.Since most of the reviews here have provided the gist of what happened in this drama, I will spare the regurgitation and get straight to what I deemed are the strengths and the weaknesses of this drama.
As most have most have pointed out, the acting of both leads stood out and I completely agree. I have watched both Lee Jun Ho and Lee Se Young before in their much newer works, and I am amazed that Lee Jun Ho is even the same person as acting as Gu Won in King the Land. Not to say, that his performance in King the Land was shabby, it’s just his acting here was so much better. I probably could say the same of Se Young in TSPMC, and perhaps it’s the testament more of the directors and writers of The Red Sleeve, who gave them both a worthy vehicle to showcase their full range of talents.
The rest of the cast also benefited from the strength of the script, and the guidance from those at the helm. Supporting characters are as complex and vital to the plot as the main characters, with no one feeling unnecessary. Everyone had their own role to play in the bigger picture. I especially loved the character of King Yeongjo, and the actor that brought His Majesty to life.
Speaking of plot, it’s intricate without being confusing, and I loved how the team handled the political intrigues without putting the romance on the back-burner. Also prominent in this drama is how friendships are being portrayed. In spite Deok Im’s rise in status, she still held the friends she grew up with, in high regard. They worked together despite their conflicting views and lay their grievances aside to support each other.
I have a few reservations though, that prevented me from giving this a full mark.
Firstly, I am wondering why they showed the funeral procession of the late Royal Noble Consort Yeong, and the Head Court Lady Jo’s heavy emphasis to Deok Im, on how it was an honor to die within the palace, if this was not to be reframed in the last episode. After not-so-subtle hints about this importance, I would have expected a similar procession to be shown at the finale.
Secondly, if the drama were to base a lot of the events on Korean History, despite some liberties they have taken to embellish on the romance, I didn’t see why they would omit one of the most important tidbit that actually happened upon Lady Seong’s death: the 26,000 trees that King Jeongjo planted in her graveyard that later became a well-known park in modern day Korea.
Thirdly, I’m not sure whether it’s heavily influenced by historical facts but the “forgiveness” of Hong Deok Ro, didn’t sit well with me. Granted that Yi San thought it was Deok Ro who saved him once when they were children, but that favor has been long repaid throughout the course of the drama, and is not a “hall-pass” to commit numerous atrocities. Many people have died for less serious crimes, and this guy just gets away with it and even be roaming the streets to live out the rest of his life.
Other than these small shortcomings, the Red Sleeve is a beautiful tale of perseverance in the face of adversity, and a love that spans decades, regardless of social class.
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this nearly destroyed my mental health ?
In Korea during the second half of the 1700s, Yi San is an aloof and perfection-loving young prince. His father’s killing haunts him, although it leaves him in the position to take the throne once his grandfather – the cruel and ruthless current king responsible for Yi San’s father’s death – dies. He has resolved to become a benevolent monarch who will reform the law when he eventually takes the throne, but the way his father was killed has scarred him emotionally.
At court, he meets a young woman named Sung Deok Im. Yi San falls in love with her and tries to convince her to become his official concubine. But Sung Deok Im is strong-willed and free-spirited. She is also intelligent enough to understand that becoming a royal consort to the future king is a prestigious role, but one that would restrict her freedom and likely bring her little in the way of joy. But Yi San’s love for Sung Deok Im is true, and she starts to understand that forming a union with him could ultimately benefit his troubled realm.
(Source: Viki)
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My Biggest Heartbreaking ?
Sebelum gue bisa move on, gue akan ngomongin drama ini keseluruh penjuru dunia ??? Coz i do really LOVE this drama, the acting and chemistry is amazing, and each episodes always keeps you anticipating karena dari posternya udah keliatan cuy mc nya kaga tatap-tatapan???? LIKE CMON, btw I love how they focused on the patriarchal society that existed in the time rather than focusing solely in the romance aspect. The characters are so well written ❣️this is my biggest heartbreaking kdrama setelah Moon Lover 💔 The soundtracks are beautiful to hear, salah satu favku Duk-im Bubbly Girl and im still listening to it now ☺️🤍 i hate to say it but i dont recommend to rewatch this bcause, THIS IS HURTING ME A LOTWas this review helpful to you?
I'm not a fan of historical dramas and I watch this just because of Junho BUT...
Yeah... I'm a Hottest (a fan of 2PM) and I started watching this just because of Junho without expecting much. I know it's too early to write a review when just 2 episodes were aired but I want to express that those 2 episodes preceeded my expectations. Firstly, I was amazed by the cinematography in episode 1 where the two child actors walking through a stream and a road lit by a series of laterns on the way to the house of the noble court lady. Those two child actors did great jobs. I'm glad that their childhood scenes are shown at a fast pace without much complications and cruelty. The acting of Lee Junho and Lee Se Young and their chemistry is great. I definitely didn't expect comedy in this drama but the two leads are effortlessly funny and adorable. I feel episode 2 is at a little bit slow pace but still I enjoyed it. The storyline itself is interesting so I hope more interesting plots in coming episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
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The first 9 episodes are worthy of a 10!
The first 9 episodes are worthy of a 10! However, starting with episode 10, the story becomes unrealistic and starts to drag.What I do like, is the first 9 episodes of this drama; the female lead is not a damsel in distress, but is rather quick-witted, outgoing, and smart. I like the chemistry between the male lead and female lead characters. I also, think the supporting actors and actresses did an outstanding job acting.
I'm currently watching episode 11 (the 50 minute mark), and I'm debating whether or not, I want to continue to watch this drama. What were the writers thinking, when they wrote episode 11?
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Emotions: Anger
I was going to give this a low rating when I became angry with the writers in the last two episodes. I mean crap, you have me focused for 16 episodes with everything that was good, loving, fighting, protection of others... and you do a left turn into traffic run a red light hit pedestrians. The Pedestrians would be those who are watching this KDrama. I mean WHYYYY??? WRITERS... why did you have to go there? I'm in tears not because of the Drama... I'm crying because you left me out in the rain with no jacket on and it's freezing. The two main leads who played the palace maid and the Crown Prince... Lee Jun Ho OMG, he is fine as he wanna be... them muscles, those abs... He was so convincing in this drama, a very skilled actor. Lee Se Young who played Sung Deok Im was also convincing when she was in her role. Right now, I am mad at the writers because I was going to give this a 10 just for keeping my focus, and you kicked my focused self to the curb.Was this review helpful to you?
One-sided love and annoying FL character
I really like Lee Jun Ho in this drama and his role, Yi San, fabulos interpretation. I also really liked Lee Deok Hwa's performance. Very beautiful story that combines reality with fiction. The screenwriter did a spectaculor job. I feel so much sadness, compassion for Yi San and how much he loved her, but was alone in this one sided love. For me the FL character was soo annoying, she didn't love him, did not trust him. She is annoying, and her ambitions were just a fantasy in that world. She was smart but not inteligent. I feel that if she accepted from the begining his proposal all history was diffrent, as many liked her so much and the real life was diffrent in Joseon. Sometimes Lee SeYoung acting is soo fake... at the begining I like her character but with each episode I start to dislake her... I still like the drama, the funny moments, but the lovestory is heartbreaking. I recomanded but I will not rewatch.Was this review helpful to you?
