I May Watch These Historical Kdramas
When it comes to period dramas, the Chinese make them the best. If I want to watch something non-Chinese, I look for Japanese period shows. Korea barely comes to my mind. A personal opinion that I have after looking at majority of the Korean period shows is that they are of 2 kinds:
- The new fusion saeguks that I have 0 interest in. These are the worst. Disastrous. Badly written. Low effort. I hate them the most after makjangs. They give off the impression that the makers don't give history any respect at all. The costumes are laughably bad and highly inaccurate (I see a lot of Chinese styling and clothing instead of Korean when it's not Joseon). The plots are all the same, and that would have not been an huge issue if they were not so poorly written. All in all, the worst asian period dramas I have come across. These will be not seen in the list at all
- The older serious saeguks that at least put in some effort while making. While they by no means outdo Chinese period shows, they have interesting plots. The costumes are still inaccurate however (Empress Ki being biggest example). The downside of being old is that at that time, Koreans did not have good quality cameras. Also, it seems often that budget was quite low for making these. Not a major issue for me since plot matters the most. The only thing that stops me from watching these is that in Cdramaland, dramas with same themes have been made much much better and have more historical accuracy. My preference lies towards China more too.
Since period shows from Korea are not of very high priority to me, I decided to make a separate list for them. I would pick up these when I have finished watching all my desired to watch Chinese period shows. I don't even know if that day will come or not.
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1. Jewel in the Palace
Korean Drama - 2003, 54 episodes
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2. The Painter of the Wind
Korean Drama - 2008, 20 episodes
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3. Six Flying Dragons
Korean Drama - 2015, 50 episodes
Looks like a Korean wuxia mixed with actual history. Quite interesting, but I have a lot of wuxia and action period cdramas in my list that are of higher priority.
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4. Hwang Jin Yi
Korean Drama - 2006, 24 episodes
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5. Dong Yi
Korean Drama - 2010, 60 episodes
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6. Queen Seon Deok
Korean Drama - 2009, 62 episodes
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7. Empress Ki
Korean Drama - 2013, 51 episodes
Looks entertaining, but I would have to leave my brain before watching this one. Too many inaccuracies, mistakes and examples of poor writing. China does these shows wayyy better. It's not even a problem of the year it was released in, as Zhen Huan by China (and many more like Palace of Devotion, Yong Zheng Dynasty...so on) was older than this. How they managed to make Yuan people wear Han clothing without getting ridiculed at the time of release is a mystery to me. Might be because Koreans don't really care about history I guess?
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8. The Nokdu Flower
Korean Drama - 2019, 48 episodes
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9. Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People
Korean Drama - 2017, 30 episodes
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10. The Princess's Man
Korean Drama - 2011, 24 episodes
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11. Tree With Deep Roots
Korean Drama - 2011, 24 episodes