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 review may contain spoilers
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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Love the women empowerment yet a little slow
If you're looking for a drama with historical background with a poetic touch, beautiful costumes, a fight to reform the old conservative mindset and a hint of action? This drama is perfect for you.Its a little slow but it fits all the 20 episodes perfectly. What pulled my attention was the costume design and the details put into each were just so refreshing and totally seem as if a lot of thought was put into it. The drama is visually and aurally mesmerizing but the storyline isn't that impressive. There were a lot of situations where i could predict easily.
However what pulled me towards this to watch every was the amazing performance of Park Eun bin. Her character involved a lot of emotional burden and she executed it perfectly and definitely expressed that women are capable to do anything.
Yes I watched this because of Rowoon but the romantic plot didn't really catch my attention.
Okay but I fell in love with Choi Byung Chan though (He's one of the reasons that I dont regret watching this XD)
Hence I would say if you just want to pass time, feel some action and inspiration, maybe a little bit of comedy and a cultural history of korea you can give it a watch!
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overall view of the drama
The theme of this drama is about love, so ideally it should run at 16 episodes with a saeguk genre. With two 20-ep saeguk drama this year, I don't know how KBS is going to present the year-end awards. Problem with the king’s affection, to me, is the production. If they change or add characters from the manhwa, they might as well modify the storyline. The first 2 episodes are excellent, and it started getting slow and repetitive in the middle. I’ve lost count on the number of repetitive lovey-dovey scenes(memories). If they doing a 20-ep drama, the production team could build up a plot on bringing down the evil grandfather which would be very interesting. They are lucky that they have Park Eun Bin to hold up the drama with her acting. Her chemistry with Rowoon is the main attraction that draws audience into the drama. If the viewers cry with them, then they are doing a good job in playing out their characters. I didn’t watch Rowoon’s works but I heard good reviews about him, and I am impressed as a new actor he acts very well with his eyes and his voice. Saeguk drama can be quite restrictive in expressing emotions and that can be a test for the actors/actresses. I remember years ago, kim soo hyun in embracing moon, he also acted very well with his voice. I do hope Rowoon will become a versatile actor as I see that he has a lot of potentials. At least, he doesn’t play safe and picks up the idol-style dramas! And, I am very looking forward to Park Eun Bin’s next drama playing an autistic lawyer!Back to the king’s affection, I only want a happy ending for the couple!
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Romance Fluff
First, there's potential to the story. Second, the cast is good which is why I became more and more frustrated as the episodes piled up. I dropped it at ep 14 and went to YT to see the last few minutes of the ending.It is meant to be what it was drawn as; a comic romance. The entire drama revolved around the two main leads getting together and trying not to be caught. The problem is, the environment around them didn't try very hard to be an obstacle. I cringed every time they were together in the last few episodes I watched and concluded romance dramas definitely isn't for me. The knowledge that it isn't possible for the two main leads to get together so easily makes it so much harder to watch. More so when the FL is cross dressing, a Crown Prince and a King later.
Royalty is always stringently protected, there is always an entourage and there are always bodyguards. More so for crown princes. I would have preferred the drama take on a serious tone, better written and directed to show the intellect, creativity, talents and skills of the FL to plan her way through the obstacles around her and how the ML supported her through his abilities. That the relationship between her and the ML is subtle and yet powerful. This would have made it more interesting, imo.
As it is, the potential is wasted, more so with a good cast for this drama. They're not fully utilised.
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The King's Affection?
I'm sure the title was something different in Korea. It's not as fitting to the show: The King's Secret, The King's Throne, The King. There are so many other titles, but I digress on the header. There are similar role-play surprises and innuendos regarding sex (male/female). The show is a plus for the gender-fluid community, for sure. It's not as funny as Mr. Queen and possibly more grey, but it's worth a shot watching.I added Mr. Queen as a recommendation, but it was removed. Go figure.
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Great watch!
Even though it's not up there with Mr. Queen, it was a great watch and I looked forward to new episodes every week! ROWOON is so cute to look at and I love his non-conforming male behavior. I think he played a bit more of the feminine role here but it complements the female lead who has to play the male role! I felt the plot is unique and interesting. It's simple as in other than the villain we already know, there's not a lot of misunderstanding or evil side schemes that comes between the major evil scheme. There are some minor flaws in the plot but what drama doesn't have flaws? All the supporting characters played their roles well. The ones you should love and the ones you should hate. The dad and male lead had a complex relationship but it worked out. The supporting female characters were lovable. I enjoyed the last episode as it was true happy ending, not a half-@$$ed 5-min cut of an implied happy ending.Was this review helpful to you?
4th time
I for one loved this drama enough to watch it for the 4th time. I will probably watch it again. It's a great story and I loved all of the main actors' role in the drama. It entertained me, made me laugh and made me cry. I am an incurable romantic.Watching Korean dramas is something I started watching about 6 months ago and just love the majority of what I have viewed. I watch them every day and binge watch when a drama really catches my interest like King's Affection. The first time I watched it I binge watched. Dramas I really love I will normally watch them numerous times since I have to read the English subtitles and will normally miss something. I always watch the behind the scenes as well. To me it personalizes the actors. Great Job!!
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Everything about it is perfect
I cant describe how much I loved this drama and enjoyed every single moment of it. The storyline and plot are so well-planned that even when I rewatch it I can figure out more and more things about the story. I fell in love with the actors acting and how well they got into the characters and the way they expressed their emotions. The King's Affection is and will always be in my top 1 favorite series of all time, and trust me, I've seen many kdramas and series in my whole life, but this one hits different. Simply amazing.Was this review helpful to you?
One of the best worth watching Historical Drama
Am very satisfied with every single aspects of this wonderful drama. Personally historical is my favourite genre. Thanks to Netflix for taking its streaming rights because of that we got an amazing visually grand historical drama. The story was very interesting from the Beginning, when i first read the plot i thought this will probably follow the same pattern of love hate and love triangle boring patriotism and politics till end. For love triangle there were several people in that cycle, but i desperate to watch mainly because of my favourite actors Rowoon and Park Eun bin.
I don't enter into the plot because you can read it on mydramalist website, but in short a girl pretending to a king and she has to live her life with this secret, sounds very interesting and so as the drama also very beautifully narrated with a good screenplay. 20 long episode, i don't felt any dragging at all ( binge watching experience may different). After every episode by episode it kept going very nicely. Eun bin was nailed it with her outstanding performance. It's not an easy task to transform into a men, but her appearance was quite impressive, There was so many characters and the screenplay is well balanced. Also not much love triangle, but still there some. But they give less space for that which was good actually.
Even the finale episodes were very satisfying, all the emotional moments with some beautiful osts played a big part to make this drama worth watch. Highly recommended if you r a historical drama lover. I enjoyed a lot.
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Storyline
We found the plot/storyline to be well thought out with unexpected plot twists. The idea is very original, as it includes popular tropes but also includes situations/tropes that you haven’t seen before. We also thought the characters had extremely good character development. Especially the main characters.
On the other hand, we think it is quite unrealistic that the main character is able to keep her gender hidden for 10 years. But if you can look away from this, it does not ruin the experience of watching the series.
Cast/acting
We thought the chemistry between the main character and her love interest was very good and the progression in the relationship is well executed. Eun-bin Park looked convincing as a male, which is good as this could have made the series kind of awkward if done wrong. The actors also executed their characters development in a convincing manner.
Music
The series has a nice soundtrack that fits the atmosphere of the different scenes. However, the music is also forgettable and is not something we would listen to afterwards. It is mostly standard K-drama music that is classic for the genre.
Rewatch value
We would watch this again for the chemistry between the main characters and the great acting and emotions. However, we would not watch it again for the storyline as it would lose the emotional impact of the plot twists. It would be a better rewatch if you wait a while until you have forgotten some of the plot points.
Overall
It is a very good series that we recommend watching, especially to new k-drama watcher or k-drama watchers who wants to see something different.
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