✒ ⛩️ Prince of Analytics VS Prince of the Body Snatchers °8.3° °Excellent°
What's between 1 & 0? 🌌Infinity?
Is our world all there is? Is this timeline the only one? TKEM explores the possibility of parallel universes. It opens dark and ominous. Ep1 is jammed packed, and arguably confusing. Stick with it, they pull it together well.
“LT Jung “Tae” Eul! I finally meet you!” Gon is elated. Who's this lunatic? Tae is irritated. This weirdo has no permit for his horse and then she learns that he has no 🆔! He doesn't have money (those strange bills with his face on them do NOT count).
“This is recorded in memorabilia of the three kingdoms. In the spring of the year 682, King Sinmum received a bamboo flute from the Dragon King of the East Sea. When the flute is played, enemies would retreat, diseases would be cured, rain would fall during droughts, the rainy season would end, the wind would stop, and strong waves would subside. Seeing its powers, King Sinmum named the flute Manpasikjeok.”
So says the blood speckled suspect (Lee Jung Jin of The Liar and His Lover & The K2 is uncle / Prince Geum). He is being questioned by police. The criminal is 70 but looks 20 years younger. He claims it's because he took over ownership of the flute. Time goes slower for the owner. His half brother, the king, didn't believe in the flute or its powers. Geum did. Brother didn't know the flute could bring the world to him. To be exact, different WORLDS. This detainee freely admits he killed his brother. There's no remorse showing. There's no emotion at all on his countenance, other than, perhaps, self-satisfaction. He's just reciting facts. Cold, bitter, terrifying facts. ‘I did expect that, one day, my nephew would face that legend too.’ To him it's no different than reporting that the sky is blue.
TKEM is a 2020 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute episodes. I watched this show early in my Asian programming addiction - before I was doing reviews and taking notes. Many things went over my head because I was a noob, but it left me with a good impression. Lately I've been revisiting my gateway Kdramas,to see how they flow, now that I'm an intermediate level watcher. One reason that this show is NOT a good selection for a Kdrama newbie is that it's intricate and nearly confusing. There's different worlds and the timeline gets warped as well. That's a lot to follow for one who is familiar with the setting, and it could be too much for one who is not. Many of these characters exist in both worlds. Some of the primary characters’ doubles were killed off leaving only one of them, but there's still quite a few doubles, and many actors have two roles to play. Compounding the confusion is that Kim Kyung Nam, as officer Kang Shin Jae, and Woo Do Hwan, as both Jo Eun Seop & Jo Yeong, look similar. (Many people looked the same to me when I first watched Kdramas, while now, very few do. My eyes, as well as my inner-sight, needed time to adjust. That's just the way the human brain works). Mr. Woo's characters are polar opposites and don't seem like the same actor is playing them at all. Between those 3 characters, Shin Jae and Jo Yeong act more alike than the two roles played by Mr. Woo. (As an aside, his Jo Eun Seop almost steals the show. He is 80% of the feature’s smiles). There's double sets of parents in the mix, too. So, this is for intermediate Kdrama fans.
After a brief intro we are taken to The Kingdom of Korea, 1994. This Korea is ruled by a king.
The show takes us back to the fateful night that Prince Geum murders his brother. He was in the process of murdering his nephew when an intruder (in sneakers, jeans, and a hoodie, no less) breaks it up. Prince Geum flees. The Flute was cut in half in the ruckus, and each Prince has a half. Young Prince Gon was also left holding Tae's work 🆔. It was issued in 2019. What's it doing in 1994? As Prince Geum flees through the woods he discovers that the flute opens gates to other worlds. He stumbles into the Republic of Korea.
Geum's aware of what the flute can potentially do, and he's no dummy. He quickly pieces together that he's stepped into an alternate reality. He runs into his family's doubles in SK🇰🇷. They're living a poor existence in this timeline. His other self is a wheelchair bound mute. This other self has the same DNA, which is perfect for Geum to fake his own death in /his/ Korea, the Kingdom. Geum murders his 🇰🇷counterpart. He offs the entire family, including his nephew'sdouble. He saved his nephew's mother for later; he has uses for her. That's just the kind of guy he is. Back home, they now believe he's dead because a body washed up with his features and DNA, though there were anomalies, such as a deformed spine. As a dead man, he can now work from the shadows without looking over his shoulder.
20 yrs later, King Lee Gon is participating in competitive rowing when he sees something familiar: A person in a black hoodie, black jeans, and sneakers. That's a sight he hasn't seen since he was 8. He gives chase, but the stranger escapes. How could that be the same person who rescued him years ago? How could they be wearing the same clothes?
He pulls out a souvenir from the night that defined his life - a police badge for detective Jung Tae Eul, born 1990. Nothing adds up here. Not yet. Spotting and following that hooded “white rabbit” a second time leads Gon to a gorgeous bamboo forest and the gate to the Republic of Korea. And to Jung Tae Eul, LT of the Seoul Metro PD.
The flute is a conduit that opens a portal to other worlds. It takes a person first to what is effectively a transfer station (TS). It's a non-world of pathways and pools, where there is no air or atmosphere, and time passes differently. We will later learn that since the flute is cut in half, most of its abilities are not functional. It allows the transfer of the two Royals between the kingdom of Korea and the Republic of Korea on a lateral, or real-time timeline, but they aren't able to go to any other worlds or any other times.
When either he or uncle Geum enter this TS area, everything in both worlds stops. Only Gon & his uncle are aware of what's going on. They can grab raindrops suspended in the air. Uncle has been hanging out in that TS, literally killing time, which moves exponentially faster there then in the real world. 4 months in TS realm, for instance, is 20 years on earth. It explains why Prince Geum doesn't look like he's aged.
The worst thing, though, is how Uncle has been switching people between the two worlds. He's been allowing his cronies who took part in the failed coup to escape justice and set up a nice life in 🇰🇷 by killing their Republic counterparts. He's also been recruiting people from the Republic🇰🇷 to work for him. He offers them a better life in the Kingdom. He's replacing the people around the king with his own agents! Gon pieces together that Uncle's been hanging out in the Republic, so he comes over often to investigate. He would come over anyway. He's in love with Tae. He's been enthralled with her since he was 8 and looked at her as his savior.
Every time he leaves the castle, Court lady Noh has a fit. The entire royal residence is in a state of royal flux! They really hate their routine being messed with. The king is slowly building up trust in the Republic, which is no easy task. When he arrived, he declared himself a monarch, and he was laughed at as a lunatic. People are starting to accept him. Tae couldn't fully accept it until she visited the Kingdom herself. In order to get that far, she had to trust Gon enough to go to that gate and then walk through it. Gon is persuasive! At one point he must switch out Eun Seop for his own bodyguard. Woo Do Hwan is marvelous at completely opposite personalities and also doing a blend: During the switch, one has to try and act like the other, but they don't fully pull it off. I'm actually in awe of his performance. Tae & her crew sink deep into this mess as well because Uncle is in the Republic committing murder & other crimes.
Lee Min Ho (Boys over Flowers-8.3, Pachinko) is the King, Lee “Gon”. Mathematical minds are a relatively rare thing. A mathematician with the soul of a romantic is even more rare, and that's who our King is. Kim Go Eun (Little Women, Cheese in the Trap-7.7) portrays Jung Tae Eul & Luna. (They just had to give Luna, a criminal, darker skin than her Republic counterpart with the same DNA, sigh. I shake my head at your ridiculous notions about skin tone, East Asia). Jeon Moo Song is Prince Yi Jong In, next in line👑. His first credited work is from back in 1981 and he didn't start in acting until he was 40, Kang Hong Suk (Chicago Typewriter) is the new detective on the force, Jang Michael. Played for a bit of comic relief, they start questioning him, at first believing he's a gangster when he arrives for his first day of work. He dresses alittle flamboyantly, but he has the heart of a teddy bear - And a poet. Kim Young Ok (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2, Dear My Friends) plays the King's primary caretaker, Lady Noh. This actress is so cute. Her earliest credited work is from 1957. Maybe she has a Manpasikjeok: She's almost 90 and she looks like she's in her 70s. She was around 82 when this show was being filmed. Screenwriter Kim Eun Sook is no rookie, with hits like The Glory, Descendants of the Sun-8.3, Mr. Sunshine-9, & The Heirs-7.3. Directors: Baek Sang Hoon, brought us DOTS, Jung Ji Hyun directed Twenty-Five Twenty-One, & the GREAT Yoo Je Won gifted us with Oh My Ghost-10.
The plot is pretty good! It's inventive, exciting, & intelligent. It works up to ep14, which is very exciting. Ep15 provides a bit of a breather. The opening credits are gorgeous. Of course, he'll rescue her on the White Horse. To neglect that would be malpractice.
This show is elegant. Prince Geum walks around like the grim reaper the entire time. He appears mythical - mythically evil. It's a nice touch. According to KKday the two meet at “An unmissable spot in Seoul, Gwanghwamun Square is a national landmark across Gyeongbokgung where the statue of King Sejong the Great - the fourth and most respected king of the Joseon Dynasty who invented Hangeul, Korea’s writing system - stands right at its center.” The iconic forest, Ahopsan Forest in Busan, is privately-owned. It “has been featured in famous period K-Dramas including Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, 100 Days My Prince, and Ruler: Master of the Mask. It is also open to tourists looking for an escape to nature.”
The action is great! There's a couple excellent fight scenes. Most impressive is a rescue scene in ep11. In ep12 we get to look at it from a different perspective. The optics are beautiful and it is crazy romantic. With only half a flute, Gon gets trapped in 1994. He has to hang out in TS for 4 mos to go forward 20 years. He makes a couple tourist stops on the way and meets Tae at age 5. He visits her at a couple points in her life. He asks her to be nicer to him when they meet again in Busan. It's freakin wonderful.
Ep16 does what too many Kdramas fail to do: Give us a satisfying wrap up. The very end isn't really an end. I have mixed feelings about it, but it's just a state of stasis. Let's just say that they have the best dating life ever. Ever ever ever.
QUOTES🗣
Where there's fate, there are no coincidences.
Open all the doors of the universe to return to me.
IMHO〰🖍
📣8.3 📝8.4 🎭8.5 💓7 🦋5 🎨8.5 🎵/🔊7.8 🔚5.5 🤗6.5 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡6 😅3 😭5 😱3.5 😯3 🤢4 🤔5.5 💤0
Shazams: Please Don′t Cry by DAVICHI
Age + Language: PG-13 at a minimum Rated TV-15: Parents Strongly Cautioned.
Re-📺? I've already looped around
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Romance with Royalty, or something like it
Crazy Love-7.8,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
99 days with the Superstar-7,
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Oh My Ghost 10,
Rookie Historian-7.6,
Cheese in the Trap-7.7, ♡Saimdang-8.5,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
The King's Affection-8.3,
My Mister 9.5,
🎎 -
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Mr. Queen 8.5,
My Sassy Girl 8.5,
Saimdang 8.5,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Mr. Sunshine 9
⚡/🚀 -
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Tomorrow with you-7,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing),
Tunnel 8.5,
Awaken-8.7,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,
Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Heirs-7.3,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Find Yourself-8.9,
Hidden Love-7.8
Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5
Is our world all there is? Is this timeline the only one? TKEM explores the possibility of parallel universes. It opens dark and ominous. Ep1 is jammed packed, and arguably confusing. Stick with it, they pull it together well.
“LT Jung “Tae” Eul! I finally meet you!” Gon is elated. Who's this lunatic? Tae is irritated. This weirdo has no permit for his horse and then she learns that he has no 🆔! He doesn't have money (those strange bills with his face on them do NOT count).
“This is recorded in memorabilia of the three kingdoms. In the spring of the year 682, King Sinmum received a bamboo flute from the Dragon King of the East Sea. When the flute is played, enemies would retreat, diseases would be cured, rain would fall during droughts, the rainy season would end, the wind would stop, and strong waves would subside. Seeing its powers, King Sinmum named the flute Manpasikjeok.”
So says the blood speckled suspect (Lee Jung Jin of The Liar and His Lover & The K2 is uncle / Prince Geum). He is being questioned by police. The criminal is 70 but looks 20 years younger. He claims it's because he took over ownership of the flute. Time goes slower for the owner. His half brother, the king, didn't believe in the flute or its powers. Geum did. Brother didn't know the flute could bring the world to him. To be exact, different WORLDS. This detainee freely admits he killed his brother. There's no remorse showing. There's no emotion at all on his countenance, other than, perhaps, self-satisfaction. He's just reciting facts. Cold, bitter, terrifying facts. ‘I did expect that, one day, my nephew would face that legend too.’ To him it's no different than reporting that the sky is blue.
TKEM is a 2020 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 70-minute episodes. I watched this show early in my Asian programming addiction - before I was doing reviews and taking notes. Many things went over my head because I was a noob, but it left me with a good impression. Lately I've been revisiting my gateway Kdramas,to see how they flow, now that I'm an intermediate level watcher. One reason that this show is NOT a good selection for a Kdrama newbie is that it's intricate and nearly confusing. There's different worlds and the timeline gets warped as well. That's a lot to follow for one who is familiar with the setting, and it could be too much for one who is not. Many of these characters exist in both worlds. Some of the primary characters’ doubles were killed off leaving only one of them, but there's still quite a few doubles, and many actors have two roles to play. Compounding the confusion is that Kim Kyung Nam, as officer Kang Shin Jae, and Woo Do Hwan, as both Jo Eun Seop & Jo Yeong, look similar. (Many people looked the same to me when I first watched Kdramas, while now, very few do. My eyes, as well as my inner-sight, needed time to adjust. That's just the way the human brain works). Mr. Woo's characters are polar opposites and don't seem like the same actor is playing them at all. Between those 3 characters, Shin Jae and Jo Yeong act more alike than the two roles played by Mr. Woo. (As an aside, his Jo Eun Seop almost steals the show. He is 80% of the feature’s smiles). There's double sets of parents in the mix, too. So, this is for intermediate Kdrama fans.
After a brief intro we are taken to The Kingdom of Korea, 1994. This Korea is ruled by a king.
The show takes us back to the fateful night that Prince Geum murders his brother. He was in the process of murdering his nephew when an intruder (in sneakers, jeans, and a hoodie, no less) breaks it up. Prince Geum flees. The Flute was cut in half in the ruckus, and each Prince has a half. Young Prince Gon was also left holding Tae's work 🆔. It was issued in 2019. What's it doing in 1994? As Prince Geum flees through the woods he discovers that the flute opens gates to other worlds. He stumbles into the Republic of Korea.
Geum's aware of what the flute can potentially do, and he's no dummy. He quickly pieces together that he's stepped into an alternate reality. He runs into his family's doubles in SK🇰🇷. They're living a poor existence in this timeline. His other self is a wheelchair bound mute. This other self has the same DNA, which is perfect for Geum to fake his own death in /his/ Korea, the Kingdom. Geum murders his 🇰🇷counterpart. He offs the entire family, including his nephew'sdouble. He saved his nephew's mother for later; he has uses for her. That's just the kind of guy he is. Back home, they now believe he's dead because a body washed up with his features and DNA, though there were anomalies, such as a deformed spine. As a dead man, he can now work from the shadows without looking over his shoulder.
20 yrs later, King Lee Gon is participating in competitive rowing when he sees something familiar: A person in a black hoodie, black jeans, and sneakers. That's a sight he hasn't seen since he was 8. He gives chase, but the stranger escapes. How could that be the same person who rescued him years ago? How could they be wearing the same clothes?
He pulls out a souvenir from the night that defined his life - a police badge for detective Jung Tae Eul, born 1990. Nothing adds up here. Not yet. Spotting and following that hooded “white rabbit” a second time leads Gon to a gorgeous bamboo forest and the gate to the Republic of Korea. And to Jung Tae Eul, LT of the Seoul Metro PD.
The flute is a conduit that opens a portal to other worlds. It takes a person first to what is effectively a transfer station (TS). It's a non-world of pathways and pools, where there is no air or atmosphere, and time passes differently. We will later learn that since the flute is cut in half, most of its abilities are not functional. It allows the transfer of the two Royals between the kingdom of Korea and the Republic of Korea on a lateral, or real-time timeline, but they aren't able to go to any other worlds or any other times.
When either he or uncle Geum enter this TS area, everything in both worlds stops. Only Gon & his uncle are aware of what's going on. They can grab raindrops suspended in the air. Uncle has been hanging out in that TS, literally killing time, which moves exponentially faster there then in the real world. 4 months in TS realm, for instance, is 20 years on earth. It explains why Prince Geum doesn't look like he's aged.
The worst thing, though, is how Uncle has been switching people between the two worlds. He's been allowing his cronies who took part in the failed coup to escape justice and set up a nice life in 🇰🇷 by killing their Republic counterparts. He's also been recruiting people from the Republic🇰🇷 to work for him. He offers them a better life in the Kingdom. He's replacing the people around the king with his own agents! Gon pieces together that Uncle's been hanging out in the Republic, so he comes over often to investigate. He would come over anyway. He's in love with Tae. He's been enthralled with her since he was 8 and looked at her as his savior.
Every time he leaves the castle, Court lady Noh has a fit. The entire royal residence is in a state of royal flux! They really hate their routine being messed with. The king is slowly building up trust in the Republic, which is no easy task. When he arrived, he declared himself a monarch, and he was laughed at as a lunatic. People are starting to accept him. Tae couldn't fully accept it until she visited the Kingdom herself. In order to get that far, she had to trust Gon enough to go to that gate and then walk through it. Gon is persuasive! At one point he must switch out Eun Seop for his own bodyguard. Woo Do Hwan is marvelous at completely opposite personalities and also doing a blend: During the switch, one has to try and act like the other, but they don't fully pull it off. I'm actually in awe of his performance. Tae & her crew sink deep into this mess as well because Uncle is in the Republic committing murder & other crimes.
Lee Min Ho (Boys over Flowers-8.3, Pachinko) is the King, Lee “Gon”. Mathematical minds are a relatively rare thing. A mathematician with the soul of a romantic is even more rare, and that's who our King is. Kim Go Eun (Little Women, Cheese in the Trap-7.7) portrays Jung Tae Eul & Luna. (They just had to give Luna, a criminal, darker skin than her Republic counterpart with the same DNA, sigh. I shake my head at your ridiculous notions about skin tone, East Asia). Jeon Moo Song is Prince Yi Jong In, next in line👑. His first credited work is from back in 1981 and he didn't start in acting until he was 40, Kang Hong Suk (Chicago Typewriter) is the new detective on the force, Jang Michael. Played for a bit of comic relief, they start questioning him, at first believing he's a gangster when he arrives for his first day of work. He dresses alittle flamboyantly, but he has the heart of a teddy bear - And a poet. Kim Young Ok (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2, Dear My Friends) plays the King's primary caretaker, Lady Noh. This actress is so cute. Her earliest credited work is from 1957. Maybe she has a Manpasikjeok: She's almost 90 and she looks like she's in her 70s. She was around 82 when this show was being filmed. Screenwriter Kim Eun Sook is no rookie, with hits like The Glory, Descendants of the Sun-8.3, Mr. Sunshine-9, & The Heirs-7.3. Directors: Baek Sang Hoon, brought us DOTS, Jung Ji Hyun directed Twenty-Five Twenty-One, & the GREAT Yoo Je Won gifted us with Oh My Ghost-10.
The plot is pretty good! It's inventive, exciting, & intelligent. It works up to ep14, which is very exciting. Ep15 provides a bit of a breather. The opening credits are gorgeous. Of course, he'll rescue her on the White Horse. To neglect that would be malpractice.
This show is elegant. Prince Geum walks around like the grim reaper the entire time. He appears mythical - mythically evil. It's a nice touch. According to KKday the two meet at “An unmissable spot in Seoul, Gwanghwamun Square is a national landmark across Gyeongbokgung where the statue of King Sejong the Great - the fourth and most respected king of the Joseon Dynasty who invented Hangeul, Korea’s writing system - stands right at its center.” The iconic forest, Ahopsan Forest in Busan, is privately-owned. It “has been featured in famous period K-Dramas including Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, 100 Days My Prince, and Ruler: Master of the Mask. It is also open to tourists looking for an escape to nature.”
The action is great! There's a couple excellent fight scenes. Most impressive is a rescue scene in ep11. In ep12 we get to look at it from a different perspective. The optics are beautiful and it is crazy romantic. With only half a flute, Gon gets trapped in 1994. He has to hang out in TS for 4 mos to go forward 20 years. He makes a couple tourist stops on the way and meets Tae at age 5. He visits her at a couple points in her life. He asks her to be nicer to him when they meet again in Busan. It's freakin wonderful.
Ep16 does what too many Kdramas fail to do: Give us a satisfying wrap up. The very end isn't really an end. I have mixed feelings about it, but it's just a state of stasis. Let's just say that they have the best dating life ever. Ever ever ever.
QUOTES🗣
Where there's fate, there are no coincidences.
Open all the doors of the universe to return to me.
IMHO〰🖍
📣8.3 📝8.4 🎭8.5 💓7 🦋5 🎨8.5 🎵/🔊7.8 🔚5.5 🤗6.5 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡6 😅3 😭5 😱3.5 😯3 🤢4 🤔5.5 💤0
Shazams: Please Don′t Cry by DAVICHI
Age + Language: PG-13 at a minimum Rated TV-15: Parents Strongly Cautioned.
Re-📺? I've already looped around
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Romance with Royalty, or something like it
Crazy Love-7.8,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
99 days with the Superstar-7,
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Oh My Ghost 10,
Rookie Historian-7.6,
Cheese in the Trap-7.7, ♡Saimdang-8.5,
That Winter, The Wind Blows-7,
The King's Affection-8.3,
My Mister 9.5,
🎎 -
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Mr. Queen 8.5,
My Sassy Girl 8.5,
Saimdang 8.5,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Mr. Sunshine 9
⚡/🚀 -
Flex X Cop-8.5,
Tomorrow with you-7,
Sisyphus 8 (give it 2 episodes, ep1 is confusing),
Tunnel 8.5,
Awaken-8.7,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,
Romance junkies only -
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Heirs-7.3,
C🇨🇳: Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine,
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
Wait, My Youth-8.4,
A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5,
Find Yourself-8.9,
Hidden Love-7.8
Consider a Chinese 🎎/🔮 romcom: The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8, Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9, Love and Redemption 10 or Japanese romcoms: Maid Sama 10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4, or Toradora 8.5
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