Hello All,
This is my first time posting to MDL, so I hope you will be kind to any mistakes or errors on my part. I need help! Can anyone help me identify a 1-season Historical K-drama (Joseon era?) It's possibly a C-drama, given the pachinko played later in the series, but more on that later. First, let me state that there are many similarities to 100 Days My Prince. However, it is not! The ML is the youngest prince in the royal family. He's sickly due to the result of a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting he received on his nose as a young child in the royal court. However, an enhanced sense of smell offset this & which makes him an excellent cook as well. His mother, a coutesan, was the favorite of the king, and she played a gayageum, a plucked zither. One day, the string broke & the king lost interest in her. She might have died as a result of poisoning by the queen or a rival concubine; I'm not certain.
Soon after, the ML was challenged, along with his 2 or 3 brothers, to show their martial prowess to their father. One son picked up a large metal cauldron, and the other smashed some bricks with his fists. Another brother might have leaped around in a Wuxia flying display. The ML instead engaged in a weird chicken-martial-arts dance, and his father dismissed him after being insulted by the display. Palace intrigue ensues, and the ML prince is forced to flee with his personal retainer. An assassination plot brews, and the ML is eventually chased down and cornered on a small boat by the FL. The FL is everything the ML is not. Strong, confident, a fighter, and a martial artist. The FL is also a royal princess of a royal house that blames the ML's family for the death of some of her family. (Her parents?) In any event, the grandmother dowager of the FL tasks her with killing the ML crown prince. The ML and FL struggle on the boat in a big lake, and both fall overboard and get amnesia. They are rescued by the local townspeople, who have no idea who they are. The ML slowly regains his memory to comic effect, hilariously fearing that the FL will regain hers and kill him. The ML tells a whopper of a lie when he tells the FL that they were getting married before the boat accident and that she was mad about him. Eventually, the ML gets a job as a courier for the nominal town leader after smelling a banned powder in some delivery packages. The powder causes zombie-like convulsions to those exposed, but no one is killed & they all recover.
The township lies at the nexus of the neighboring kingdoms' boundaries, making it a hub of trade and commerce. Nominally, the township is headed by a man who has a courier service that eventually employs the ML. The other prominent townspeople are a pimp with a whorehouse, a restaurant/inn owner, and a gambling hall owner. The FL sometimes serves as a bodyguard or mercenary-for-hire while trying to regain her memory. She goes to a female apothecary, who gives her herbal medicine to improve her memory, whereas the apothecary's husband wants to perform trepanation on the ML to restore his memory. She has a bad temper and is a crazy, ill-tempered gambler. She flips panchinko tables more than once in the gambling hall. The other two main characters are the courier's sons. One mysteriously appears first dressed up in Buddhist Nun garb, having been kicked out of a Buddhist convent. He can't seem to commit to a particular martial arts style fully, & his younger brother is overeager to take over the courier business but lacks the serious intelligence & wisdom to run it. The younger brother eventually has a pinky finger cut off by a rival town official's gang member. The assailant wears a pig mask, but the younger brother still recognizes him to humorous effect.
Eventually, we learn that the assassination attempt on the ML was orchestrated by one of his brothers & not his father, the king. The ML eventually reconciles the two houses, creating peace, and the king reconciles with his son, recognizing his worth. Oh, and lastly, there is a pug named Chicken Wing. He belongs to a morbidly obese female assassin in the series.
Well, that's about all I can think of for now on the series. 90% sure it's a Joseon-era K-drama rom-com I saw last year streaming. Where? Haha, I don't remember, of course! In conclusion, I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could help me out! Gamsahaeyo!
Thank You, Matthew H.
