Knavery

It's a tough one. There are so many endings for the writers to look at. I'll say they'll go happy but I'll list the endings that have been spawned so far down below.

If I could put the novel and TV show endings into categories it would be:
1. Tragic and brutal ending
2. Happy ending (it has its flaws but it is a happy ending from the characters perspectives)
3. Ambiguous (modern day ending)
4. Show breaks fourth wall and you hear the director and production team barking orders about scenes, telling off the two leads. It was weird for sure.

Given fan outrage at some of the endings I've listed... I'll go with happy ending. Not sure how they'll achieve it if they want to stay a little bit true to history but whatever...

From the descriptions of the novel down below it feels like the show could have been better. I appreciate not wanting the male lead in a polygamous relationship with more than one wife where things are harmonious. It definitely feels a bit weird in the 21st century and A Step Into The Past is probably the last TV show we'll see portray polygamy in a serious (and harmonious) way but I feel like the drama really suffered because it moved away from the novel and could not figure out where to take the relationships of the various characters.

I don't necessarily think sticking to the novel and being faithful was the right decision... just that they should have dealt with Xinyue and the Crown Prince in a better way. I think they should have just moved on from the one of those two characters to move the show along. Like the Crown Prince or Xinyue is killed off or sent to the border or something. But instead the plot of the show revolved around the two of them. It wasn't terrible but it made the plot a little shallow.

All in all I enjoyed it but I really like the concept where the male or female lead time travels back in time and has to adjust to life.

Depends on your definition.

First things first - the show for the first half is set primarily in the capital city so you don't see much action or many fight scenes.

Now that being said, she is the granddaughter of a famous general so she has fighting skills and they are shown off every now and then. She can hold her own against anyone and on a good day she can beat anyone.

The first half of the show is more of a contrast between her and traditional young noblewomen of the time. Ban Hua is outspoken, her contemporaries are soft spoken. Ban Hua will go out alone and meet a man, her contemporaries would see that as scandalous.

I think if I had to describe her for the first half of the show it would be "free spirit". She can get embarrassed, sad, upset, mad and make poor decisions. Some might call her character childish (I wouldn't, I'd say she's a teenager and that's probably how old her character is in the show/novel). But I suspect the back half of the show that will change dramatically. The show is still running but I suspect the last 20 episodes we're going to see a much more serious and determined Ban Hua and much less of the fun 'free spirit' Ban Hua. In some ways she is like many male lead characters in wuxia adventures. They start off as free spirited, they make friendships and then events unfold and they inevitably make the choice to stand up for what they believe in and become more serious.

I found the first half of the show a fun watch. She's not a stoic and strong female lead but I'd say she's strong. She will put herself out there, she'll encourage others to try things and do things. She's not afraid of saying what she thinks in most circumstances.

Could be interesting. It's got Kim So Hyun so I'll always give anything with her in it a try.

The plotlines of this show have to be up there among the dumbest ever. You can tell the writers struggled to get to 27 episodes. It should have been like 10-12.

The cards for the main characters are really well done.

They focus more on the murder case in 1913 than getting home. So it's more murder mystery in 1913 than the leads figuring out how to survive in 1913 and return home.

I enjoyed it, it's not great by any means.

6 more episodes to go. I'm really surprised at how faithful they've been so far to the original material and Chinese drama.

Yang Zhi Wen reminds me of Janice Wu with her facial expressions. She's animated and because Chinese dramas dub everything - it's important to be extra expressive and she does a good job at that. I'm only like ~10 episodes in but enjoying it so far.

Thanks for this. I watched season 1 and I think I remember it but I'm not entirely sure I remember stuff right so a recap to start season 2 should be enough.

I don't see how a show like The Mentalist can be done successfully in a Korean adaptation without it being so different I wouldn't think of it as an adaptation.

Looks like it could be fun. I'll check it out.

I'm surprised they've been fairly faithful so far to the spirit of the novel & Chinese drama. Korean stuff tends to be a lot more tame and safe but they haven't shied away from much yet. And the fact it's doing so well will help allow future directors and writers to take risks in the future. Here's to hoping the last 8 episodes keep it going.

The problem is a lot of us watched it years ago and it was kind of a "whoa this is different from Western TV" moment... you now have a lot of people who were introduced via other KDramas that were... lets say vanilla romance stories. And then you have other groups which kind of obsess over male leads (kind of like the male lead in this show obsesses over the female lead) who like a male lead with a younger look than Hyun Bin. I still think it's a decent option as an 'intro' drama to someone who knows nothing about Asian dramas and who doesn't come from the Kpop background of fawning over the boy bands.

I think I agree with those saying it hasn't aged particularly well, some of the performances were wooden, the male lead is sometimes abusive, the female lead is violent, the mother is a soap opera character, etc... but it still holds a place in my memory and I can still come back to it and enjoy it. I like that they bodyswapped and I think the leads did relatively good jobs mimicking each other so you could believe the plot of the show. I liked that there was character growth. Sure the male lead was arrogant about his life but he began to change as he lived as a poor, working class woman.

He's in the body of a woman and there's a different brain and body chemistry going on. I suspect the writers will go along your lines but I wish they wouldn't.

Just really underwhelming directing IMO. I never really got invested in any of the characters and the first 15 episodes or so involved a lot of depression and moping by one of the characters. And I feel like that kind of got committed to memory and I just didn't care anymore about any of them.

So at the halfway mark this is a so-far-so-good for me.

They seem to be implying there are sexual feelings and maybe romantic feelings that Mr Queen has for the King. I hope they don't go back on this with more flashbacks... lets remember the actual Queen did everything she could to avoid marriage and as of right now we assume she attempted to kill herself by drowning.

It's important to remember kings aren't necessarily powerful. There are dozens of examples in Europe of kings being puppets of foreign nations, being puppets of powerful men.

He was installed as a boy likely by the most powerful clan/family of the time.

Japan is a great example of this. For hundreds of years the emperor was a figurehead. The power and decisions were made by the strongest warlord/clan of the time. Eventually an emperor gained power, respect and approval and that lasted for a while until post-WW2.

Soul or voice? I don't mind if they have less of Mr Queen's inner thoughts as long as it's still implied there's a masculine streak to the character but it's a fine line to be walking and with Kdrama's history of being super safe I do worry it's going to be "oh the queen is a woman again and everything is fine" as opposed to a character reflecting on their own sexuality which I think is more fluid than what you see traditionally.

I'll give anything with Kim So Hyun a chance. She's a great and expressive actor.