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Must see for refreshing plot and humor but drags in the middle
Such a refreshing plotline. The comedy had me dying laughing. The chemistry between the leads is amazing as well. I'd say the beginning third and last third really make the show. I almost stopped watching in the middle because the show was getting bogged down by the politics. The humor that made the show so charming went away for a bit, and we didn't get enough time with out leads which is where the show loses major points from me. However, it picks back up around episode 13, and I was absolutely hooked again until the end. Definitely a must-see drama in my opinion because the humor is impeccable and the plot is so refreshing. I don't recommend for a one-sitting binge though because of the dragging.I loved that the "female" lead kept their eccentricities until the end. The actress did an absolutely phenomenal job depicting a man's consciousness inhabiting a woman's body. The mannerisms were so on point and was such good observational humor about men's mannerisms. Jang Bong Hwan in the Queen's body was my favorite character in the show hands down.
I wish that they perhaps consolidated some of the villainous characters so there would be less villains but more flushed out into 3D beings. I think it would have given our main characters more screen time, would have prevented the drama from dragging in the middle, and made the court drama more engaging. The villains are quite two dimensional and don't have a backstory to enforce their motives. Their motives are also very generalized to "money and power." For me, that's the most cliche part of the show is the villains. Even when Concubine Eui and Byeong-In become bad guys for a period of time, their characters lose all dimension to fit their villain roles.
As for the ending, I'm not sure I could have reasonably expected anything different. I knew going into this drama that by the end they would try to make it as heteronormative as possible, given how the LGBTQ+ community is viewed in South Korea. Also, most Kdramas don't usually have stellar endings so I'm giving it a lot of leeway. I hope in a time where the LGBTQ+ community is more accepted that they will remake this drama so we can get all the love scenes and the ending that Jang Bong Hwan and Cheoljong deserve. The only great thing about the ending is when the Queen visits Byeong-In's grave and tells him "you found me again even when I was hiding"... Oh my god that hit me right in the feels and was the perfect scene that encompassed their relationship.
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An ending can make or break a drama
The ending broke it. I wasted my time watching this queer baiting travesty. If Korea needs the most straight ending possible, then give me a reason to root for the straight couple. They could have done more to make So Yong likeable and grateful.I regret watching all of it.
There wasn't much of a plot. You watched it for Bong Hwan and his crazy antics as So Bong. Bong Hwan was the real star of the show. I'm still bitter about the ending. It was queer baiting at its worst. All the development and the progress for what so the main character is usurped last minute to have the most straight ending possible? I wouldn't have minded had Bong Hwan been reunited with the reincarnation of the king.
It was fresh. I came in thinking this was an inclusive drama where gender isn’t important and that love could be inclusive. It started off bumpy where I found the acting to be too overreactive for my taste. But it grew on me. It had everything you wanted out of a kdrama: love triangles, crazy in-laws, a love story, and a strong cast. It was refreshing having a love story starring a dude. Again I don’t see what’s taboo or revolutionary about that. Bong Hwan who initially cared about escaping back to his present grew to care and love the people in his life as So Bong. He was able to earn his place thanks to him being himself and utilizing his skills as a chef. He even formed his own squad. But the main crux of the story is how the king falls for him. CJ and him start as enemies but become friends and eventually lovers. You watch as So Bong earns CJ’s trust. Their love story was essential to the plot. I was engrossed.
But all the character development and character consistency is thrown out the window in the last forty minutes. Imagine where the main character is usurped last minute due to plot convenience. The writing is overall horrific. It was never established but So Yong is Bong Hwan’s past life. Otherwise why would So Yong pass out and loose pulse because Bong Hwan wakes up in episode 7-8? Again inconsistent writing.
All that hard work and character development was gone. Bong Hwan is barely redeemed or in the picture in the finale when he was the real hero. So Yong who has stayed dead for 19 episodes swoops in, doesn’t even thank Bong Hwan, and takes credit for doing nothing. So Yong literally utters: “He’s gone.” B**** Where were you!? Why didn’t you take a bullet for your man? Why didn’t you bury Byeong In yourself?
This isn’t an episodic drama by any means. Meaning an ending will make or break the drama. It was so bad. I can’t rewatch it.
Total waste of my time.
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This is my first historical drama, so i didn't expect to like it even tho I love the cast. But damn, i was loving everything right after the first episode.
For me, the main point of the drama is the cast. Sometimes, i forget to pay attention to the story (even tho, the story is really interesting), and just stare at their reactions, such a talented cast. The main reason why i started this drama, was Shin Hye Sun. I've watch most of her dramas and she never disappointed. No matter if it was a main role or a support, she always stole the spotlight for me. But here.... this is more than i was expecting. Her acting is insane and she better receive some awards for it. She matches her actions perfectly with the inner voice of CJH, is like they're the same person. Insanely good acting.
But another big surprise was Kim Jung Hyun. While his role may seem way much easier than SHS one, he's doing a really great job playing a dumb king, while his eyes really talk for his real personality. There's no need to say anything about the supporting cast, we all seen him before in dramas and we surely love them. So many talented people.
The story :
While i laugh, i really laugh a lot and is one of the most funniest dramas i ever watched, is not just about that. The stories behind the queen, the king, the concubine, all of them are so interesting. I find myself laughing a lot one minute then crying when the flashbacks with the queen appear. I didn't skip 1 minute for now, in 6 episodes. The story doesn't feel draggy at all, everything is well paced. The writing, the directing, the music, everything is high level and I'm happy that it's getting more and more attention in Korea.
I hope it can maintain the high level, for once, I'm happy that we getting 20 episodes, as long as they have enough story for it.
If you're not into historical dramas and don't know if u start it, trust someone who never watched historical before and loves it. You'll be in love after first episode. Enjoy ~
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Bittersweet ending?
Its been some time that i was this invested in a story, and was this keen on binge watching and finishing it as soon as possible.This drama had a fresh approach to the tried and tested storyline by having a unique twist. But what really drives the story to its excellence is acting by the leads especially the female lead. Its a kind of performance that can make any average story charming.
Writing in this drama is really good, especially in how it handles sexuality( to a certain extend ) and there were some really smart choices in story telling that i really enjoyed. Story was simplistic enough and never felt too draggy.
Then why a low rating ?
Straight out of the bat i will say that i was majorly let down by the final episode. I felt all the good writing and execution felt flat in this final episode. The major reason i feel is beacuse it felt rushed. Its almost like they wanted everything to fell into place within the final episode and in doing so a lot of character decisions felt unearned. By character decisions i mean the sudden soul change in the final 10 minutes without dealing with any consequences it may bring up. I can easily understand why people are frustrated by it. When you spend this amount of time rooting for a character and understanding someone and suddenly writers decide to just do something that feels like an afterthought.( we are supposed to assume a lot to make the finale work in my opinion which i think is bad writing)..
If they could have drawn out the last episode to something bigger (2 episode maybe?) they could have made this work. Some of the storylines introduced for jokes felt unnecessary and avoidable. Politics involved is simplistic, but a bit stretched in my opinion. Music was just meh overall. (Overusing one song mainly)
I dont want to be someone reactionary with the rating i did really enjoy it overall....
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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I loved the premise of this show so much. I have watched many other fusion sageuk with time travelling as the plot but I have never come across a 'male to female body swap' kind. This was something new to me and I was very interested in how the story will follow. This had a very good quality of humor and heart.Everyone in the cast did an excellent job. I am in awe of their effort and performance in here. Bias aside, because Shin Hye Sun is one of my all-time favorite Korean actresses, she nailed this role perfectly. I truly believed she has a man inside her body. In that specific scene where Jang Bong Hwan has left the Queen's body, through her magnificent acting, I already knew JBH is not there anymore. Another outstanding performance is from the Kim Jung Hyun. I know he is good but I didn't know that he is THIS good. All the other supporting characters too. May it be for comedy or drama, they did amazing.
The music was also well delivered. No music is overplayed and we can hear quirky music when it's comedy time and we can hear a heartbreaking music when it's a sad scene.
Now as to why I didn't give it a full 10 mark is because I was hoping that JBH would stay inside the Queen's body. I don't actually disagree with how it ended. I think it ended perfectly as it was and no cliche reincarnation thing happened as it always does with these kinds of dramas. Of course, me hoping that JBH stayed in the Queen's body is a personal feeling. I am aware of the possible outrage it may cause because it will in a way be BL-ish and general public (esp in Korea) would not be very welcoming of the idea.
JBH inside the Queen's body for a happily ever after is my greatest 'what if' & I think it's kinda tragic that the King wasn't even aware that he fell in love with someone else (a MAN trapped in a woman's body at that!) and not the Queen herself.
Still, my greatest 'what if' did not diminish the great happiness this series has given me. I will still highly recommend this to anybody.
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Very comedic yet maintains a serious and engaging plot
9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2020/2021 South Korean Historical Romantic Comedy with paranormal elements. There are 20, 70-90 minute episodes. It is also known under the web comic name "Go Princess Go".
In the modern age Jang Bong-hwan (Choi Jin-hyuk) was a star chef at the Blue House until one of the dishes he made was dangerously sabotaged and he was nearly arrested. While escaping arrest he falls into a swimming pool and wakes up to find himself not only in the Josean era but in the body of a woman. And not just any woman but a woman who, in days, will become Queen. Queen Cheorin (Shin Hye-sun) somehow wound up in the lake and part of Bong-hwan's goal is to get back to the lake and get his former self and life back. Only one problem - the lake was drained after the incident under the Dowager Queen's order and she is not immediately willing to refill it. Luckily Bong-hwan/Queen Cheorin is able to use her cooking skill to win favor with the dowager to get the lake refilled. Bong-hwan had not heard good things about King Cheoljong (Kim Jung-hyun) from the history books and figures he will be easy to manipulate. However, it seems there are reasons why history recorded him as a weak king and a prolific womanizer. Things are not all they seemed from history and Bong-hwan/Queen Cheorin have their work cut out for them to sort through the mess and make it back to the future. There is more to King Cheoljong than meet the eye and keeping your friends close and your enemies closer seem to be the rule of the day for Bong-hwan. Will Bong-hwan be successful in returning to his own time/body and will the sparks that fly between King Cheolijong and his curious and spirited wife become something more?
I laughed so hard in the beginning of this. His horror at being in a female body coupled with him trying to submerge his head in every bit of water to “get back” was funny. spoilers***
At first I really liked her cousin as second guy as he seemed sweet and caring but his character got darker as time went on to the point I no longer wanted to see her with him. The historical information the chef knew about the king was interesting. According to the modern time history books he was not a very good king and was only interested in women. Queen Cheorin originally found that she was supposed to be only there as a convenient marriage to keep a power structure in place and the king was not at all inerested in her because she was associated with a very corrupt and powerful family. The king’s love interest in the beginning was his concubine and since the queen was now actually a man in a woman’s body she was perfectly fine with him directing his attention elsewhere. Ironically the fact that she was so disinterested in him was something that piqued the king‘s interest. The queens somewhat bizarre behavior and interesting antics wound up endearing her not only to the king but to a lot of the palace servants as well. I liked how the relationship between the king and the queen evolved over time and each character had a lot of character growth and development throughout. There were some truly villainess and evil people in the palace and they were constantly after the king and also the queen to take as much power for themselves as possible. In fact when they discovered the king was not the convenient figurehead they thought he was it became their goal to get rid of both the Royals. The queen discovered why the king was the way he was and that in reality he was very capable and working behind the scenes to try to take down the evil and corrupt family behind the royal structure. The entire series held my interest from beginning to end. The only thing I did not like was the chef left the queen‘s to return to modern times and it felt like the queen was not fully the person the king had fallen in love with. Also now the chef is back in modern times and you assume he returned to his previous lifestyle which did not seem all that good. It felt like you spent a long time getting to know the queen who was a combination of the girl and the modern day chef and even though they tried to illustrate that she still remembered a lot of how he was it still did not fully seem like the same person. To me it felt like both the king and the chef were cheated out of a relationship they developed. Since the he was in a she body then it wasn’t like a male to male relationship it was like a female to male relationship with a female that just happened to be a little more masculine in her thinking. It seemed to me that they returned him to modern times leaving the body fully to the queen just to avoid any to male to male overtones. Love is love so I did not see any gain from having the queen changed at the last minute to being only partially what she had been when the queen king fell in love with her. The chef’s return to modern times also meant he could look at history and see it changed but that would have been obvious even if he stayed in the past. Overall it is still very good and I would highly recommend it as one of the funniest and most engaging Korean dramas.
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Comedy with a huge drop of boringness and sillyness
I will make this short:– the comedy was pretty good
– all the characters were dumb and acted silly, which made the action look bad; why are always the screenwriters making the characters dumb and silly to make comedy?
– the actors where kinda good but made their characters too exaggerated
– the plot wasn't worthy and changed a lot from the original version(i recommend that version to watch)
– THE QUEER BATING that was SO wrong the whole time and made me feel confused AND super uncomfortable to watch the relation of the king and queen
– the side story is just a big NO, and i say this as a writer myself; they made the side story as a bonus for the story which it was stuffing to make the "plot" "interesting"
– when the king tried to kill the queen that night and she found out about it, she moved on TOO fast, like, dude, he tried to frigging kill you
– the king's "laugh” – what on earth was even that?
– and i will compare here the female lead with my female lead, LiWu, that went into the same situation by transmigrating into another time: Soyong when she arrived into this era she tried to throw herself into any water she found to kill herself and go back into Bonghwan's time, while my female lead, LiWu, tried to settle there till she will get recovered in 21st century and learn more about the place she was thrown in and find how did that happened and why, even if she was very confused when she got there and met the male lead who was from the same time and transmigrated in the same way as her with two years before she came
– to the screenwriter: you can make comedy through the dialogue and clumsyness, not through exaggerated characters, dumb characters or silly characters
– it felt like American Pie: just as bad.
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As someone who loves the time travelling theme, I knew that this would be right up my alley so I was very excited to watch it. Overall, it definitely went beyond my expectations and had the right amount of not only romcom elements, all the steaminess of the boiling hot palace drama blended perfectly.
For starters, I won't lie, I honestly found Bong Hwan as So Yong so annoying. Like, seriously. If he learned about Korean History from his mom and had etiquette school and all, he should probably have an idea of how to act well. I didn't like how edgy he immediately was as So Yong, but I eventually warmed up because of his confidence and pride; which literallyyy shook the whole palace because it was unbecoming of someone, let alone the queen herself. Bong Hwan as So Yong's playful and carefree attitude definitely painted the palace in beautiful colors, but of course a child painting on a tattered wall won't be enough to cover how ruined it is.
This tattered wall of course being the palace itself, embroiled in many different acts of red tape and inhumanity brought on by the court ministers. In midst of this, a puppet king rules over, with not much left to say under the regency of the Grand Queen Dowager. Seeing the walls she and other key antagonists built crashing down through different circumstances was just so satisfying, making the dramatic elements feel like that perfect tinge of saltiness you detect when eating anything salted caramel-flavored.
As for the romcom aspect, I love Shin Hye Sun so much!! She absolutely NAILED her role here, especially with the clear distinction
between So Yong and Bong Hwan. I also loved Kim Jung Hyun's differing sides of his character. The comedic relief moments were splendid, and I like how Young Jae from B.A.P is such a wildcard character here and he showed his acting chops pretty well. All the side stories played out very well too, and I like how well-developed each character was, each leaving a lasting impression on me and played important roles to the intergral story.
Anyway, as I end this review, I'll say I can to compare it to a burnt lasagna. Lasagna, with all the delicious layers, but with a slightly bitter, crisp cheese topping.
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The best K-drama
I loved this. She was funny as the Queen and strong. Her acting was superb. I loved him as the King. His character was weak at first. It was a pleasure watching him grow strong. Their romance was sweet. Watching them fall in love, I felt it as I fell in love also. Hilarious after they made love for the first time. The finding out about the pregnancy funny. The guy playing Byung-in was excellent, I hated him. The Dowager Queens hated them. Loved Lady Choi and Hong Yeon and the Ma-Buk. The whole show was superb. Now I have to find another equally as good.Was this review helpful to you?
What an absolute tour de force by Shin Hye Sun
I just keep coming back to this gem and every time I'm more impressed by the FL actress' piece of physical comedy in this drama. Comedy is such an underrated genre, but so hard to master. I keep appreciating her command of her body and mannerisms in this drama more and more each time.Other actors do a good job and obviously the director was on the A-game. But Hye-Sun just owns this so much I've written my first review to sing her praises. I can't not and can say no more.
Slay, (Mr )Queen! Love. Recommend.
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Martin Lawrence's 'Black Knight' Meets the Joseon Era
A womanizing chef from the current times ends up falsely accused of attempted murder while working at the prestigious Blue House presidential residences. A man who prides himself on his masculinity, and abundant sex life, he is fit, more than a little narcissistic, and self-indulgent in many ways. While trying to flee from being arrested, he ends up cracking his head in a disastrous incident and when he wakes up, he is in the body of a young woman, thrown back in time to the Joseon era. The young woman is none other than the soon-to-be King's Consort, and when he awakes as her, it was shortly after what many assume to be an attempted assassination. Can he outwit those around him to live long enough to make it back to his own body before another attempt on this young woman's life is made?I have never watched a K-drama with so much love and intent before. I loved this so much. Top-notch acting, and while being ridiculously hilarious, it still had a serious plot to follow. It was beautifully created and was a wonderful show to watch. I'm particularly fond of the beauty and style of the show. It was tragic, rip-roaringly funny, powerful, and so touching at the same time. I am beyond glad that I had the opportunity to watch this show and I would suggest that others watch it as well. I kept putting it off, and I am so glad I finally watched it when I did! This gender-bender experience brings so much to the table and is worth every moment watched!
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