mivale

Thank you for taking interest in me. Did you find me through Two Weeks? I think our tastes are a bit different, but I'm always glad to meet other drama fans.

Okay, I just finished episode 20.

A few episode ago I was a bit worried it will get boring with Kim So Young plotting again and again and the queen besting her, but then the prince came back and things got interesting again. I can't believe it has been 9 years already! I liked how the main character actually felt some connection with her daughter, I wonder if she cares for her "son" as well. At the end I found myself realising that despite all the suspicion and intrigues prince might die of illness after all. It would be kind of awesome twist if he did. I was recently thinking that Cruel Palace had surprisingly few torture scenes for a court drama full of intrigues and then I saw the last 3 episodes.

I think Sa Illa from Empress Chunchu did, but otherwise you are right - they never do. XD

I'm a bit behind at the moment, but I plan to catch up over the weekend. I'll let you know then.

I know Iljimae is rather popular, but for me personally it was an ok drama and I preferred The Return of Iljimae (not a sequel, but a different take on the legend). For me the first part of the series was rather hard to watch because of the secondhand embarrassment - the main character was just too silly for my taste before he got serious. It doesn't mean it was a bad series or that you would not enjoy it.

It takes place about 40-50 years later and the queen is the only common character. Prince Bongrim's (the other prince in China) grandson is the king. Jang Ok Jung is traditionally depicted as the bad concubine who plots against the innocent queen and she shows up as the antagonist in Dong Yi, but in Jang Ok Jung Live in Love she is a sympathetic character. She meets with the king and they fall in love, but her lowborn status makes things hard for her again and again. At first it weirded me out that they made her a fashion designer (LOL what?), but it started to feel more and more like a historical drama and I love how it isn't a simple love story or just the bad guys constantly plotting against the good guys and how politics play a big role.

Yeah, historical kdramas are full of historical characters and events with artistic liberties of course. What happens to the crown prince from Cruel Palace seems to be one of the favourite subjects, I've seen at least 3 dramas that mention it. I saw that the current drama Jang Ok Jung is on your to watch list. It's so weird to think that the older dowager queen there is the young queen from Cruel Palace. Her personality seems somewhat different.

Yes I am. It's a great drama so far. It has such a grand feeling about it and it's interesting how they made the main character a villain so fast. With so many episodes to go I hope they will do new interesting things with her.

Hi, glad to meet you I was happy to see you are a fellow sageuk fan. I have little experience with using this site for anything besides keeping my lists, so I was surprised when you noticed me.