The Red Sleeve

why did they add the last episode?

I really love each episode, asking myself what would the next episode be? looking forward to seeing romance. looking forward to new characters. Looking forward to changes of character's personality because usually if the drama occurs in old era, the characters really interest me and it did not disappoint me. Even though the story showed "push and pull" of their love story, a slow burn, I really love how the love story went. The question is, why did they add episode 17 in it if the main character would die in the end? If in ep 16 should be the last one as it showed a happy ending. What really interest me is in ep 17, the last episode. The drama wants us to think if "that" really happened or it was just all a dream? The drama is telling is us that-- it's up to us. Just think of it, the king had a bad dream. ;)

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Watch it yourself - only you can decide if The Red Sleeve is as great as it seems

While I gave it 10 stars I have seriously mixed feelings about it as the story plays with your emotions like a cat toys with anything it catches. Never killing it outright, just toying until the prey exhausts itself.

It was a tragic love story with a surprising and consoling ending. So I forgave the writers for the difficult choices they made to present it. And in all honesty it was a thousand times easier to watch than Goblin and a much better ending than Scarlet Heart. So with that in mind, The Red Sleeve was more satisfying.
Not everyone watching it will have my opinion, so I do highly recommend it as a must watch. I put it off a really long time because of opinions I read. But there's nothing like seeing it yourself.
And do watch it right up the very, very end - don't blame if me you don't.

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Drama Masterpiece!

First of all, thank you South Korea for giving me an age appropriate thirst trap (and amazing actor) in Lee Jun-ho. Secondly, thank you to South Korea for making me a heart shattered romantic and teary eyed mess for two shows in a row. I watched “Red Sleeve” right after finishing “My Dearest” and I’m wreck (in a good way).

This would absolutely be a perfect 10 if the writers hadn’t included one unnecessary plot point. Being based on a true story there were a myriad of ways to insert tension get the story to where they needed it. I don’t have words to describe this but if you’re a true romantic at heart, who enjoys mature connection and understands that love simply isn’t always enough you should watch this one. Ignore the comments that nothing happens and they hate the female lead. Her behavior does get hard to watch especially as your heart breaks for them both but if you understand her why you’ll be in tears for them both.

I feel like I started crying between episode 11 and 12 and cried every episode until the end. But at the same time I didn’t want it to be over. I loved the imagined ending the writers gave us, our hearts needed the respite. But hopefully there is a writer out there creating a modern day love story for them. A story for their third lifetime where they meet in Hyochang Park and finally get what their story lacked - more time (after he obeys her wish in the previous life).

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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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The Red Sleeve (2021) - one of the best dramas I watched this year. Maybe this year is the year of historical dramas because I really enjoyed this drama. Though at first I felt weirded out with the effects and I think it was fast paced in the first episodes but as it goes, it becomes better. I like that the chilhood parts was not drag out too much.

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.

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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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If Only

If only she did not get married to the King, if only. But, fate has decided for her, in what ever corner she turned to, she will end up to the King. then, she chose the King after so many flirting attempts.

Little did she know, she turned into a different woman. No more smile, no more laughing. She only sat in her chamber all day long, without her friends, but court maids.

Undeniably, The Red Sleeve is such a great series and I enjoyed my time in watching it. I did cry a lot because of how painful and pitiful it is to be the female lead. She deserved the love, but she also deserved her life as a normal people. If only she did not get married to the king...

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So Unique, So Brilliant!!

When I started watching this series, It seemed like it was going to be good, and that we'd see a good tale taking place during the Joseon Dynasty ... but something happened along the way as each episode got you deeper and deeper into the story. The magic that Jun Ho, Se Young & Deok Hwa created was brilliant in every way. Se Young gives us such a great role as Deok Im, and Jun Ho showed what an unbelievable talent he truly is. His powerful performance steals every scene he's in.
The series itself is really in three parts, watching Price Yi San create the relationship with Deok Im, watching the king deal with a mental break down, and then the years that followed Yi San after he becomes the new king. Each story bleeds perfectly into the next chapter as you follow it through.
One thing that made this stand out to me was the death of San's grandfather, The King. Not just witnessing him die from dementia, which was unique enough, but watching the transfer of power from one King to the next. Cleaning out all the dead King's belongings, bringing in all new stuff to suit the incoming King. Normally we never see that happen, so it seemed rather interesting to watch. Deok Hwa, who usually plays an unlikeable character, was fantastic as the elder King, the grandfather.
Episode 12 is definitely the pinnacle episode of the entire series. From that point on, you need a seatbelt to stay strapped in for the rollercoaster ride that begins. As you go from episode 12 through 16 you just can't help being mesmerized by the great writing and acting ... and just when you think you have it all figured out, episode 17 happens. As the finale began, it takes you completely by surprise, not matching up with anything you anticipated. The first few minutes into it, I started to become somewhat disappointed and annoyed, watching all these hours just to lead up to this??? but that quickly changed, and the finale really delivered a powerful conclusion. The acting in this final episode is some of the finest you'll see.
Applause to a great great series. Extremely entertaining, worth watching again!

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