I wish they didn't go the cliche route with the slight romance by putting the spoiled girl and stuck up guy together…
Tbh it’s disappointing if the FL really ends up with her mentor. In the original, what especially made me like their mentor-mentee relationship was that is was completely platonic.
I like how WYW is the main focus of the drama, not many recent dramas focuses mainly on the FL like how EAW does (it’s refreshing seeing the FL being the title role character of the drama). The only other recent k-drama that I can think of is ‘Anna’.
Edit: Another recent k-drama would be ‘Yumi’s Cells’.
I liked how the drama showed WYW having sensory overload…especially since it’s reminding that autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder (another example of a neurodevelopmental disorder would be ADHD) and not a mental health condition. Although neurodivergent people can have mental health conditions like depression, etc.
I liked this weeks court cases a lot more than last weeks court cases in ep 9 + 10 (I feel like they could’ve been written much better; this is not me bashing the drama since it’s a drama I really like; the only part I really liked about ep 10 was seeing CSY go on dates + the romance w/ WYW and LJH developing.)
Drama setting: 17th century; set after the time of the successful Qing invasion of Joseon in 1636-1637. Qing invaded Joseon in order to get Joseon to break ties with the previous Ming dynasty + since Joseon did not want to recognize the Qing. Aftermath, Joseon recognized the Qing dynasty + broke off all ties with the Ming. Joseon became a tribute state to the Qing.
Many women were abducted during the Qing invasion (this was shown in the kdrama ‘Tomorrow’) which is why the grandma is traumatized from the invasion.
For those who want a complete 100% adaptation, it’s best to read the original novel or watch the American or British drama + film adaptations (there are so many).
A bit off topic ; did most women during Joseon Era commit suicide after husband’s death ? Even if pregnant or…
“A widow whose husband died before her would be applauded if she stayed single until her death and it would be even more honourable for her if she followed after her husband by committing suicide or starving herself to death.”
“The virtuous woman award or yeolnyeo (열녀) was intended to set a good example but the situation got worse in the late Joseon Dynasty, where the widows would kill themselves after their spouses’ deaths to be acknowledged as virtuous women, a title that would bring great honour to both family sides. It reached a point where a woman betrothed to a man would commit suicide if her husband-to-be happened to die before the wedding took place.”
After seeing live comments on episode 1 on Viki if a medical practice similar to CPR really existed during the Joseon. I found this article about CPR (obviously not 100% like how CPR was established in 20th century Europe) existed during different Chinese dynasties including the Qing dynasty for a long time. Since Korea and China have been neighbors for a long time and traditional Korean medicine has been influenced by traditional Chinese medicine before (plus countries exchanging medical knowledge/practices w/ each other throughout history), it’s possible there was a medical practice similar to CPR during the Joseon dynasty.
(If you search ‘Joseon’ in the 2nd link or click on the 3rd link, articles about medical practices/history in the Joseon dynasty show up for those who want to know more).
Edit: Another recent k-drama would be ‘Yumi’s Cells’.
Many women were abducted during the Qing invasion (this was shown in the kdrama ‘Tomorrow’) which is why the grandma is traumatized from the invasion.
Yeah, I couldn’t find an article in English about CPR in Joseon dynasty specifically but it would be interesting to read about.
“The virtuous woman award or yeolnyeo (열녀) was intended to set a good example but the situation got worse in the late Joseon Dynasty, where the widows would kill themselves after their spouses’ deaths to be acknowledged as virtuous women, a title that would bring great honour to both family sides. It reached a point where a woman betrothed to a man would commit suicide if her husband-to-be happened to die before the wedding took place.”
Source
https://thetalkingcupboard.com/2014/06/15/women-of-the-joseon-dynasty-part-1/
More interesting articles below
https://pdfhost.io/v/pee4YKow2_Widows_Position_and_Agency_in_the_Late_Chson_Dynasty
https://ijkh.khistory.org/upload/pdf/6_05.pdf
https://rdcu.be/cSZzE
https://www.koreamed.org/SearchBasic.php
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Joseon
(If you search ‘Joseon’ in the 2nd link or click on the 3rd link, articles about medical practices/history in the Joseon dynasty show up for those who want to know more).
https://twitter.com/kbs_drama/status/1554639172610445312?s=21&t=G47cGtoioQVWn62YLoc05g