PrettyCarEye

Great! Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll give it a go.

I hear you guys. JYH is an ANNOYING actress, which is exactly why I have completely blacklisted her now. She behaves like this in literally EVERY drama, but shockingly, for me, this was where I found her most tolerable (just barely). Maybe because I liked the male lead and the overall excitement of the show, but to me she wasn't half as horrible as she was in Unexpected You & The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop. In fact, there was a point in Tailor Shop where I skipped all her scenes and the only reason I kept watching was because of the cute supporting couple. The problem though is that she's often paired with some pretty decent leading men (Lee Dong Gun, Lee Jin Wook etc) so I suffer through her subpar acting and childish behaviour because of my appreciation for them. I'm so glad she's going to be a mother soon because now she'll be regulated to playing non-romantic roles from now on, according to the weird (sexist) nature of Korean show-business that says mothers aren't sexual beings anymore once they pop out a kid. SMDH!

Korean dramas are corny like that, but did you watch the rest of the drama? Don't judge a book by its cover with so little evidence. The actress who plays the female lead is a dud -- really one-dimensional with little real talent for the craft--but this is actually where she puts in a tolerable performance (and yes, I'd agree that's not saying much), plus she's definitely of age. If you had given it a few more episodes you'd have seen that. Her relationship with the male lead certainly did not give off any Lolita vibes. In fact, you're the first person I've come across to have said this and I suspect it's because you made an (incorrect) split-second judgement based on that one scene. I'm not attacking you or anything, just pointing out a fact. Song Hye Kyo & Song Joong Ki looked far more like siblings in Descendants of the Sun, along with the numerous other 'noona romances' out there where the leads so often look like mother & son that I'm unable to take the drama seriously (I Hear Your Voice, Witch's Romance ... to name a few). It's not that I mind noona romances in and of itself, but a woman should never look older than her man (even if she is in fact older than him). It sets a bad precedence for the dynamic of the relationship later on down the line (imo).

Koreans don't know how to appreciate other cultures without it turning into crass appropriation and/or negative stereotyping. I hope this doesn't turn into another Man Who Lives To Die.

I rated it a 1 as well. Could not believe they made him rape her. WTF??? How in the world the writers could have thought that was romantic is beyond me. I was so disgusted with him! Love Test was a lot better.

Complete trash. Sexual assault & rape ain't romantic!

Glad to hear it. I'd love to hear your final thoughts once you're done watching. I don't think you'll be disappointed. This woman is a real badass. One her best lines (imo): 'I'm going to send you back to the Sillimdong ghetto where you came from ...'!!!

Hanazawa Naoki, it wasn't a bad drama for me, and most of the time, for my own peace of mind, I overlook a lot of the sexism I see in Asian dramas, but it was soooo blatant in that drama. It irritated the hell out me and resulted in the drama losing a lot of points for that.

Ok, I just saw that you dropped Golden Empire at E4, so you never got to see the amazing development of the story and characters. No wonder you thought the female lead was incapable. Trust me, she's not. Not by a long shot! You made the assumptions you did in your comment above because you didn't watch the drama long enough to get a full understanding of her motives. I dare say if you give this drama another chance and watch it to the end, you might be very pleasantly surprised! This woman is by far one of THE best female leads in dramaland ... and I say this as someone who was not rooting for her in the drama! I was rooting for someone else, but recognized & loved her for the powerhouse of a woman that she was. You need to pick this back up! If you do take my advice and resume the drama, do NOT read the spoiler I wrote above!!!

I hear you on the sexism in Asian dramas, but as you noted this drama is one of the few dramas with an intelligent and shrewd female lead. One of the best, if not the best, I've ever come across in an Asian drama. I loved her even though I wasn't routing for her character to win.

I think you may have misunderstood her reasons for marrying the male lead. The marriage was a business deal ... she was alone against the vultures in her own family & she needed an ally, someone on her side. The male lead needed a way into the family to seek his revenge against them for ruining his life.

Yes, she needed someone in her corner, someone she could rely on to back her up against the pack of wolves in her family and help her protect her father's legacy (perhaps she even had a small hope too that they could fall in love down the line & be a real couple). However, the 'help' she needed wasn't because she herself was incapable, but because 1) she needed someone in her corner (whether you're a man or woman, you need an ally ... usually in the form of a spouse) and 2) she had other interests & had no desire to partake in the corrupting ceremony of high stakes business.

Remember that she had a deep love for classical literature and wanted to be a professor. She had no real interest in running the company. She entered the race for the Golden Empire because she saw that her greedy, morally bankrupt family members were trying to overthrow her & ruin the company her father built and she had to stop them, by any means necessary.

So she married the male lead, not suspecting that he had his own vendetta against her father. She thought as her husband - even if in name only - he'd be loyal to her so she could leave the company in his hands and pursue her love for literature as a professor, but then she found out that he had his own plans to oust her, take over the company & marry another woman (Seol Hee).

As she was forced to take over the company, even though it's the last thing she wanted, she clearly demonstrated that she had the brains and brawn to fight ... and win.

She & her husband became enemies and she single-handedly crushed his plans to orchestrate her downfall. Once in the game, she became a warrior on equal footing with her uncle & the male lead in the fight for the golden empire ... to the point where she became the very beast she vowed not to be because she too like the men had to resort to immoral, corrupt & wicked behaviours to secure 'the throne', so to speak.

I think the writers did an excellent job of making sure she wasn't given any special treatments as a woman. She had to get her hands dirty, she had to make some tough calls, but in so doing, she used her wits and business acumen to keep the vultures away and she won. She won.

When I read your comment I immediately thought of Hanzawa Noaki, which is kind of like the Japanese version of Golden Empire. In that drama, the female characters were written exactly as you described ... incompetent & pretty much kicked to the sidelines (I remember griping about this in my own review of the drama). However, I think Golden Empire raises the bar a great deal when it comes to giving us a powerful, shrewd & capable female lead.

Tell me about it!

Complete trash. Sexual assault & rape ain't romantic!

How does this end?

Nonsense.

Welcome to the club. We're all here wondering the same dang thing! :p

A completely charmless & annoying actress. Plays the same nauseating, goody two shoes characters in pretty much every drama I've seen her in. Irritating asf in Unexpected You, barely tolerable in Nine & constantly wanting to punch her in the face in Tailor Shop, where she was particularly bad (and I am NOT a violent person). Blacklisted, this time for good. I had blacklisted her prior to watching Tailor Shop, but decided against my better judgment to give this drama a chance because I liked Lee Dong Gun -- and I kept watching it for the adorable supporting couple -- but never again. I'm washing my hands of her. No more 2nd chances.

Actually, that's not true. The father died from cardiac arrest before the surgery could be performed. If he had lived, Gi Pyo would have given him the kidney. It was just a twist of fate that the old man died before that could happen & Gi Pyo used the opportunity to lie to & blackmail Yun Shil into marrying him.

Sadly, she passed away before filming could be completed.

Tell me tf about it! As if life isn't already full of death and cliffhangers...

Normally, cute, sweet looking guys like Hyun Woo do absolutely nada for me, -- I like my men lean and hard looking -- but I gotta tell ya ... this kid is totally charming. He's sooo cute, with really sweet, expressive eyes & the most beautiful smile! You just want to hug & kiss him all the time! Love, love, LOVE him jn The Gentleman of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop and I totally get why his lady love in that drama was so utterly besotted with him. Despite myself, I have fallen head over heels for him too!

Great topic. You forgot to mention the censorship when it comes to physical intimacy. A lot of those idiotic stone wall, wide eyed kisses and stiff intimate reactions is in large part due to censorship. And why even a man without a shirt on is cause for the entire population to be scandalized. While this article is only about South Korea, I find it interesting that pretty much ALL kinds of sexual intimacy, even just a simple french kiss is censored in SK (on TV at least, movies are a whole different kettle of fish), but in China (for both TV and films) anything is pretty much allowed as long as the camera doesn't pan below the waistline.