Atmospheric Excellence
This drama pretty much knocked everything out the park. The OST and BGMs were fantastic setting the atmosphere right everytime, the acting was great - the suttle attempts at humor were actually funny. And in comparison to most dramas in this genre there was no use of fictional/fantasy based creatures/ powers (gumiho,demons etc).The story structure was wonderful you'll grow to love the characters and hurt, when they hurt. The emotion displayed in acting was fantastic. Would highly recommend if you are into this genre.
However, just stay unbiased i would like to add this drama is historically inaccurate - and one of the characters (dong joo) had a fringe in the joseon era which is a bit strange but fitted into the plot etc
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This review may contain spoilers
I know it's too early to write a review since I've only seen the lastest 8 episodes but judging from these episodes, this drama is a must watch!!! You won't regret it.Beautiful actors ✓
Beautiful Historical costumes ✓
Great comedy ✓
Ehemmmn muscles + abs ✓
Drama ✓
If your a Kim Fan✓
This is the type of drama you will enjoy watching with the family. Plus I can't stop gushing over how gorgeous Nokdu is! She looks so good! As a woman, she's so pretty I feel jealous of her ????????
The long haired Jang Dong Yoon will be forever embedded in my memory. So add this to your list guys! And enjoy laughing and fantasizing over it
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This review may contain spoilers
Must watch
The story is well written and executed, the hero who wants to live and protect his dear ones, the female lead who want to kill the king, the SML who wants to be king and marry FL by all means, king who wants to be king and protect his seat. This all begins when a shamen predicts that on a particular day the king will be overthrown by a boy who is born on a particular day. Unfortunately, the queen gives birth to prince on the same day that the shamen told.. to protect his throne he orders to kill his own child!! Then the cycle of hunting the boy begins.**SPOILER**
The SML is also born in the same day as the ML and he overthrows the king.
Lastly its a happy ending, SML lets go of FL so that she can be with ML and overall its happy ending.
Not to mention there are hilarious moments which are to watch, the first half is comedy and it gradually moves to serious plot where king gets to know that his son is alive and so on .
If you start watching this show u will watch till the end.
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Don't miss it !
Who said sagueks can’t be fun to watch? If you leave out the royals and their various conspiracies to sit on the throne, there must be still somewhere a story worthwhile to tell, set away from the palaces and closer to the common folk. Tale of Nokdu does have its fair share of royals, albeit far far fewer from the other shows, (where we are presented to the king’s numerous wives and offsprings), but all that surprisingly takes a backseat to a jovial screwball comedy for its first half. Nokdu, our titular character (an endearing Jang Dong Yoon) finds himself at a widow’s village after he follows the assassin that attacked his family back at his island hometown.To find out anything further, he has no option but to dress up as a widow and enter the village. In an era where gender duties and definitions were clear cut and specific, it thereby becomes instantly hilarious to watch Nokdu wiggle in and out of embarrassing situations. The show takes its leisure time (here) to let us and Nokdu bask in the absurdity of the situation, as he tries to escape from bathing together with the other widows, or trying to hide his ripped muscles and the very clear absence of breasts, or just trying to carry out a proper conversation with the other women.
He quickly realises that just putting on a dress, and changing one’s voice doesn’t make one a woman, and while he might be stronger to help out with chores that require physical labour, Nokdu is subsequently also exposed to the hardships faced by these widows after their husbands passed away, all of which led to the creation of the widows village in the first place.
Parallelly with all this, runs the story of King Gwanghae (Jung Joon Ho), whom we are exposed to through some bits and pieces in the first half, but as the show approaches the midpoint, and Nokdu finds himself embroiled in something larger than he anticipated to be, the show smoothly transforms into a political drama. With a tight screenplay, well adapted to the shorter, half an hour runtime, and some effective plot twists, the drama remains just as engaging.
To be truthful, Tale of Nokdu isn’t even much of a political drama as it is a family one. The whole plot is the result of the decisions that King Gwanghae makes as a newly crowned king and father. A family living in exile, a son in search of his biological father, and henceforth, his identity, a daughter living every day in anguish, planning to exact revenge on the man who killed her entire family — all characters suffer because of one man’s fear of a future predicted by a shaman.
Just like in the Grand Prince, the show explores the moral dilemmas of the Royals in respect to usurping the throne, except here that decision has already been taken, and the consequences suffered. Nevertheless, we are constantly (in the second half) exposed to the King’s various emotions, as we watch him turn into an enraged fool, clinging onto every thread of power left and a lonely man, whom everyone has turned their back on. In the end, it is sadly the fool that wins.
The king’s excessive stubbornness is exemplified by Nokdu’s big-heartedness, especially in how he, even after finding out his origins, never once abandons (or thinks of abandoning) his adoptive family. There are moments where he hopes to be accepted by his newfound family, and is even ready, to forgive them for their actions, but once it is made clear that there is no place for him, he immediately closes the lid on that tiny glimmer of hope.
Kim So Hyun is marvelous as Dong Joo. Her character was quite interesting, one that is at constant crossroads of what she is expecting from herself. I particularly liked how she is allowed to operate and execute her plans all by herself, her narrative never once intertwining with Nokdu’s narrative. It was something that she had to do on her own, and though it is an easy guess on what her plans are and the reason behind them, I still teared up when she finally reveals them to Nokdu.
Special shoutout to child actress Park Da Yeon. She was absolutely hilarious as Aeng Du!
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This drama is very well written and tight. There's appropriate amount of cuteness and enough background on the supporting characters to not be annoying and draggy. The usage of flashbacks are well executed and the ending was wrapped up nicely.
Acting/Cast
When the chemistry of the actors come through to the audience, it shows how great an actors' capabilities are for the audience to be able to see and feel what they are projecting and how they tell a story. I believed the characters' feelings for each other, the pain they experience, joy, annoyance etc. I only watched this because of Kim So Hyun but noticed Jang Dong Yoon instead. Another actor I've added into my "to watch out for" list.
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#TheTaleofNokdu (조선로코 녹두전) Review:
1) 9/10.
2) I really enjoyed Act I. Act II was more like a heart-pumping one.
2) Loved how the characters performed their roles. I was rooting for them all actually.
3) It's been years since I last watched and let myself be enticed by a Historical KDrama (I'm not really a fan of it but the culture is rich).
4) I like the concept of this one. The Crown Prince Who Will Never Be King.
5) No screenshots. It was hella beautiful. 소휸씨~
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Balmy, intense love
This is one korean drama where the hero really beats the heroine in terms of beauty. This is one kdrama replete with both witty and soulful dialogues, moments, events, scenes. The mood/ tone of the drama dramatically swings to and fro from hilarious to epic.This is one of the very few kdramas in which the hero is presented as a perfectly balanced all-rounder, romantic, mature, decent, daring, adventurous person who is cute and naive as a little boy at the same time! This is one korean drama where the main leads though placed in an ancient era have quite modern minds, attitudes & approach to handling things.The story puts the audience in a light-hearted mood because it has the right combination of gravity and humour. There are two twists in this fast-paced tale.
The only annoying thing is the way the female lead keeps pushing back the male lead( initially) without telling him the full truth. Yet, her attitude takes an about turn in the latter half of the series. She even ingeniously saves his life and the way she does it makes one moved to tears. The last two episodes are epic. In fact, all episodes equally engage the viewer because something gripping or humerous is presented in each one. The ending is perfectly happy with no unnecessary glitches.
One of the osts, "scar" is really worth listening to, as it captures the essence (main theme) of this drama.
There are no unnecessary tragedies, complications that usually drags the plot development of a drama mid-way. Even side characters are given room for possibilities. Actually, "tale of Nokdu" can be viewed more as a tale of positive possibilities. Humour is one of the top wow factors of this drama.
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Entertaining
*The story was captivating and truly touched my heart. What drew me in the most was the male actor's outstanding performance. He portrayed two sides of his character effortlessly: one, a stubborn, restless, curious, and determined man, and the other, a soft, gentle, and kind lover. The female character complemented him perfectly, and their bond felt natural and deep. At some point, I found myself emotionally connected to the male character, wondering how much one person can endure. I really wished to see their complete family, perhaps even their children.I also admired the actor who played Cha Yool Mu / Grand Prince Neungyang—his portrayal was flawless.*
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Never get tired of watching kdramas like this.The setting and the plot of this drama was really awesome.I'm gonna watch the full episode until the end. Though I finished only episodes 1 to 9 and I'm still waiting for the rest of the episodes.Hope that you could watch this too! You will never regret watching this kdrama.
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This review may contain spoilers
I don't think I have ever watched a drama that went from something light to full on Game of Thrones, but still kept a very sweet and silly romance between the two main characters.When I saw previews for this drama, I was extremely excited for the whole thing to come out so I could binge it, and I was honestly not disappointed whatsoever. I loved how to was sweet and silly, but also very dark. This also goes for the characters.
If I could describe this drama in a few words, I would say that it was about two young people, Nok Du and Dong Joo, who come from completely different backgrounds, but are brought together with some kind of relationship with the King. I was told before watching this drama that the two mains had such amazing chemistry, and I am happy that this wasn't over-hyped. They both did an amazing job, and it was cute seeing how they were with one another vs the person they were trying to hide from people in order to get their "revenge." Without giving anything away though, I think it was also one of the things I didn't enjoy about this drama - how the audience knew that we were getting that classic kdrama troupe where even though the mains looked completely in love and happy, the fact that they never truly opened up about their "alter-egos" that were seeking revenge, that this wasn't their "final stop." That there would be a conflict and breakup coming soon because they didn't want to let the other person know who they really were. But I can say that I did love how when they both found out (same time or different times, I'm not telling), they were shocked, but ultimately decided that their love for one another was greater than their revenge, and the only real reason why they thought about breaking up, was because they didn't wan't to hurt the other in their revenge plot (where they could potentially loose their lives.)
Also, this might be a very unpopular opinion, but I was in love with Cha Yool Mu . His smile, demeanor, and his desire to ultimately carry out Dong Joo's revenge (as well as his own) and take care of her for the rest of his life. Yes, I completely ship Nok Du and Dong Joo, but if Cha Yool Mu didn't go for a "non-traditional" approach with his plans, then he would have been a great contender.
I loved how everything played out and absolutely loved the twists and turns in this drama as well as the villain. I was never bored while watching this, and only skipped some days because I got busy this past week that took me away. But I ultimately gave this drama a 9/10 because it annoyed me so much that it took until episode 20 for them to finally fully commit, or really for Dong Joo to, but even after "fully" committing, she still kept things from him. Keeping her revenge plot is whatever, you can wait a little down the road for that one, but she never told him her family history, even if she had to keep a little detail away. I love how they were in love with the person they were in that moment, but Dong Joo never opened up about her past or upbringing to Nok Du, which came off extremely suspicious. At least Nok Du opened up a little about his island life and at some point they were both living with his master and daughter, but Nok Du was completely in love with this girl who never wanted to share a single detail about her past with him. I also was so confused of what we were supposed to think of the King. I get we are supposed to hate him, but there are some intimate moments between him and Nok Du and Dong Joo, where I almost thought that he might have a change of heart and become a good king. And we kind of got that, but it was so hard when he obviously had an anger management issue where he would kill whoever got him mad, like he was straight out of Game of Thrones. His ultimate downfall was not realizing who to trust, but also (hand in hand) identifying when people he was close to started to go against him. He knew that he fell of course as being the King he wanted to be 20 years ago, but he was blinded thinking that they would always be by his side, even when he was become a terrible dictator. I thought his ending was very predictable, and I think he also thought so as well where he accepted his fate long ago. Plus, homie was so wrapped up in the prophecy's fate that he did ZERO researched and pinned his downfall to one person. He was extremely narrow-minded and stubborn that even though he knew that he was in the wrong, he was too stubborn to change his ways, and was like, "well...we are already at this point...let's just continue." I thought it was rather annoying. Also, even though I am happy with the ending we got, it was a little anti-climatic. I don't think that the characters knew what would happen after they got their revenge because if the King's son didn't want to rule when the King died, who would have stepped up?
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One of the best shows I have ever seen!!
STORY: Alright, I'll get to my main point right off the bat on why this is a 9.5 and not a straight up 10. I found the story really interesting and fun to follow along with. The main problem I found was that the romance didn't add anything to the plot what so ever. If the romance wasn't there, the plot would have stayed the same. Or who knows, I am one of those people that likes action more than romance. Don't get me wrong the romance was fine and someone who likes it would probably love it, I just didn't. Don't let this deter you from watching this amazing show! I am not giving any spoilers (or will try not to) but I really liked how the story was in 2 parts. It wasn't just the same thing throughout the whole show. One half of the show focused on one thing and the second half focused on another.
ACTING/CAST: This got a 10 because of the awesome acting and awesome casting!! There were some roles in this story where it would be quite the difficult character to pull off yet was performed extremely well!! Great acting!
MUSIC: 11/10 would recommend - If I could give this an 11 I would. Just the background music was amazing! It really fit well with the scenes and provided so many extra emotions.
REWATCH: Really fun show, now that I know all of the plot twists it would definitely be an interesting rewatch ;)
OVERALL: I this has got to be one of the best shows I have seen! I have given this a 9.5 out of 10 really just because of the romance and I didn't get the ending I wanted. I really wish it ended differently but sometimes it's for the best. It's not like it was a bad ending, I just wish it went a different direction...
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