Sageuk Lover

https://x.com/ggonigone/status/1890379515416760776?s=46
https://x.com/dal_moonbit/status/1890545929557578119?s=46
Moon Chae Won’s film Gory: A Horror Tale coming in the third quarter of this year (2025). This means the movie will come between July and September 2025.

some things will not make sense until you watched until the end, there's more to the story than meets the eye.

Yeah, I want to see her in a pre-Joseon sageuk as well.

It's not really a unique drama, but I enjoyed watching this. Due to the chemistry of the couples, plus the fact that I love Han Ji Min in general, I'm gonna give this drama a 9.0

https://x.com/ggonigone/status/1890379515416760776?s=46
https://x.com/dal_moonbit/status/1890545929557578119?s=46
Moon Chae Won’s film Gory: A Horror Tale coming in the third quarter of this year (2025). This means the movie will come between July and September 2025.

I'm so annoyed these kpop actresses get roles and their dramas are always the ones on Netflix, meanwhile they won't even do it to Moon Chae Won's dramas (Flower of Evil only put to Netflix months after it aired, and they didn't even bother with her latest drama Payback). It will only be a mirale if Moon Chae Won's sageuk dramas Princess Man and Painter of the Wind are put on on Netflix and even bigger miracle if she gets a female centric sageuk role that is aired on Netflix the same time it is showed in Korea.

It's boring some of the time but I guess Seyoung picked this drama as she wants to play a female lead overcoming trauma. I do like her chemistry with Na In Woo during their good times together (though I'd imagine her and him would have been better in romcoms, my impression of them in The Red Sleeve and River Where the Moon Rises are that they could do fun and comic things together, these dramas are not comic shows in general but they excelled in comic scenes with their costars here). Both of them acted really well in this drama. I wish I could rate this an 8.3, I don't want to give an 8.0 but 8.5 feels to high.

Regarding his (SJK) wife, some people are actually bashing her thinking she's marrying him for money (these are the same people who can't get over DOTS couple divorce).

I think Koreans being "racist" has something to do with them being an isolationist country during Joseon Dynasty. The rest of the world were starting to connect with each other starting the 16th century (start of age of exploration, colonialism, discovering world is round), meanwhile Joseon was the hermit kingdom, it was specially suspicious of foreigners that are not East Asian. Hence, I think it's the reason they as a people only connect to people similar to them.

Throughout the drama, you’ll see the growth of the characters. They’ll make decisions but wise and unwise, according to their best knowledge at the time, it’s how they grow and develop more.

you have to watch at least until Episode 4, that’s where the action really starts. plus you’re not really gonna like this if you like your sageuks either light or kpop heavy.

I wish she didn’t do dramas hiatus either but maybe she chose to do movies after Good Doctor since she had 3 successful dramas back to back from 2011-2013, she may had wanted to build her name as a movie actress after her successful dramss. If she had better movies instead of the ones she did in 2015 and 2016, she would still get great offers. Look at Son Ye Jin, she rarely does dramas but her success in movies made people still excited for her drama comebacks

She didn't take hiatus after Good Doctor, she took on a short movie titled Awaiting in 2014 followed by Love Forecast and Mood of the Day films in 2015 and 2016 before Goodbye Mr. Black. I really didn't like her two movies, I wish she took on another historical big budgeted movie like her 2011 film War of the Arrows which brought her a lot of awards.

I wish this wasn’t real. I want her to come back to acting

Gosh I hope she can still get new projects. I really wish she had taken a female centric role after Innocent Man.

I know the genre of this drama of course, it's just them being together reminded me of them being in black comedy dramas.

I’m sure he’s not someone who likes the others suffering, but it was pretty normal back then that a lot of societies have slaves. Are you saying everyone back then is bad? He did try his best to save the Joseon people to help some of them return too (I forgot exactly how). He just especially noticed Gilchae’s suffering since he knows her personally and loves her

He's in love with that one woman, it only makes sense he feels especially caring for her.

I will hate this list if Moon Chae Won does not appear!!! She should be in top 3 to be honest, she did nothing wrong and is very talented but why does she not get good female centric roles?? Showing only 2 projects in 4-5 years (when she's scandalfree) is just so wild. Those with confirmed projects to be released this year (especially if they are the main roles with exxpected large screentimes and shows are likely to be in netflix shouldn't be here to be honest).

If you love this drama and crave for outstanding melodrama sageuks with a strong focus on romance and chemistry here are my suggestions:
=> My Dearest Part 1 (https://kisskh.at/733821-lovers) and 2 (https://kisskh.at/755309-my-dearest-part-2). It's the same drama but they divided the 21 episodes into two parts.
=> The Red Sleeve (https://kisskh.at/61399-dress-sleeved-red)
=> Empress Ki (https://kisskh.at/7114-empress-ki). More female centric but female's romantic attachments to two male leads are a big highlight
=> Damo (https://kisskh.at/1117-damo)

Lots of people don't comment this drama I'll recommend as this is from 2011, but I feel that everyone who loves My Dearest need to watch The Princess Man: https://kisskh.at/2591-the-princess-man. It's also a sweeping historical romance with the main romance strongly affected by the political happenings of the show (female lead's dad wants to takeover the throne from his brother and nephew while male lead's dad support the aforementioned brother/nephew, this makes the parents of the leads enemies). Strong male and female leads. Not only will you cry for the main couple (1st male lead and 1st female lead) but you'll cry for the second couple too (2nd female lead and 3rd male lead, as 2nd male lead is a rival to the 1st male lead). Characters aren't perfect and can be a bit naive in the beginning, but they'll develop into strong characters. If My Dearest has a male lead who'd die for his love for the female lead, it's the female lead in The Princess' Man who'd do it for him. Plot is engaging from the beginning but the action/story really escalates at around episodes 7-8 (of 24 episodes). It's one of the fave sageuks of many who have love sageuk dramas since at least the early 2010s!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQqNBTvMC3Q
Fan trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcKZ3-jbtxM (bgm is from the drama)
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__aSOxEio4o
OST/BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnhyiAFpqYY
Fanvid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiZz8EEiplo (all the bgm used for this video are from the drama as well)
Fanvid of second couple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMbHwvIGKSs