The Red Sleeve (2021)

realistic surprisingly hooked must watch

This drama got me. That's a clear - MUST WATCH
I'm starting being afraid of the ending of this masterpiece. Because actually in the real-past history she died 33 years old in the 10. month of her third pregnancy with her unborn child in the womb from liver cancer and he was so deeply sad touched that this romantic relationship (his ever only beloved woman) become sad history afterwards by his actions in grieve.

Sometimes you really ask yourself, how can live be so cruel. He lost his father due to being executed by his grandfather, he later lost the only woman he ever loved due to liver cancer and he lost his son with her, the young crown prince by sickness at age of 4 and even his unborn child with this woman, whom died in its mothers womb together with her.

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Get lost in the Red Sleeve

Not a fan of historical or costume dramas. it's not my genre. But this one hits different. I've only watched 4 episodes, but something about this captivating prince and this court lady has got me hooked like no other. The prince: his husky, sexy voice, the curls of his mouth with he sheepishly smiles, and commanding yet comedic demeanor. The court lady: her confidence, her charisma is very satisfying to watch, Their chemistry so far gives all the butterfly feels that's borderline electrifying. All other support characters are pretty standard, nothing to write home about. But watch for the main leads as they light up the screen.

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20 Hours Wasted

I must start by saying that I am not a fan of historical dramas so I might be overly critical, but this was not good at all, in my opinion. There was some impressive acting by the male lead and some beautiful attire, along with some noticeably good acting by some of the side characters, which made the drama remotely tolerable (and I do mean remotely); but the overall plot was lost and not cohesive because the show dragged on too long. Some scenes were unbearably long, with minutes of the lead actors just staring at each other and saying nothing. This could have been wrapped up in 8 episodes; even 12 would have been much better, but no way should this have been 17 episodes. The episodes were extremely long and filled with flashbacks of things that had just happened. It felt like they were just trying to prolong the show. Also, some things were just baffling such as the age of the prospective concubines. These were literally babies... like, were they even childbearing age??? I get that historically, girls were subject to be married off extremely young, but the way these young girls were embedded in this story seemed distasteful. Nothing sexual was shown, but just the idea of this grown man and these little girls was off putting. There was a lot that was just not explained or seemed to be just dropped into the story, such as the female lead having a tattoo that tied her to the crown prince, or that her father at one point worked for his father and several other things that just seemed thrown in. I like the female lead in general, but this role did not do her any favors. I know she was trying to hide her feelings for the prince by not showing emotion, but she clearly loved him, so her lack of emotion felt more like bad acting. The male lead pressed her constantly on whether she loved him. I guess that is because he was so insecure given the way he had been treated, but it was tiring to keep listening to this; it didn't have any impact. And the ending was just confusing. If it had wrapped up showing that the male lead, who had become the king, made changes to the laws of the land because of his love for the female lead, who eventually became his concubine, that would have been better. I assume that was implied, but there was plenty of time to show us what happened without us having to infer anything; yet, the show ended without closure... a final twist of the knife after almost 20 torturous hours of slow-paced nothingness. I can't tell you what the climax to this story was. There was nothing but a flat line during this whole drama. Each episode was well over an hour long and the last one was almost two hours... I just cannot believe how bad this was. It was highly recommended by a fellow drama lover, and I can't wait to see her again to tell her how bad this was. She literally begged me to watch it and said it was her favorite historical drama. I don't know what people like about this show. I can tell the production value was high, but I still don't know what they were trying to produce.

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Exciting and beautiful

If you haven't started watching Red Sleeves, you are missing out on a wonderful historical drama! I am enjoying the storyline and the beautiful costuming and scenery. The vivid blues and magenta/pink colors add to the ambience of the scenes. The music also expresses such depth of emotion to me. The actors, both children and adult, were well cast. To me, the feelings of the characters shine through the actors' expressions and actions. Even the secondary characters are showing such depth. I am especially enjoying the banter between Court Lady Seo and Kang Tae Ho. Looking forward to more episodes!

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Memoir and not a drama

The screenplay and the drama style pretty much felt like a memoir rather than a drama. A memoir of two people, the king and his court maid. The pacing was good, for me, I didn't mind the squeezing of too much plot in last 2 episodes. As the anticipation of MC getting the girl made the pace of narration go slow but when he gets the girl, time flies by.

I really liked the king's character and how he develops and adapts over the years. As for the courtmaid, she was not your usual heroine but strong and smart. There are one or two disappointing moments I had. One, when the MC strangles the FL, maybe he was crown prince and maybe she had no authority but it was sad to see her do nothing about it. Two, she was indecisive for so long about committing to MC, maybe that part could have been explained better and not dragged on.

Story wise, sometimes it did feel what was writernim trying tell, some moments were there just for filler and scene building. But I'm not complaining because this was good story which didn't sugarcoat the king and courtmaid's love and their consequences.

Overall, sometimes bitter and sometimes sweet but that's the way with life too, isn't?

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Radiant with elegance

When watching saeguk, has I mention in my similar review with this genre, very important to get hooked at the first episode. And this drama intriguing since the start. A wonderful overture.

Music score is beautifully weaved in each scene as dialogue fluently acted. The actors : child and adult, both deliver fantastic rendition of storyline. You can sense joy, heartbreak, tears and sorrow so intense.
This drama is a fairytale which crosses the boundaries of courtship.

Production this flawless makes you looking forward each episodes with excitements. It is fresh and breezy. Delightful almost like something new but old.

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watching this was my biggest mistake

It was my biggest best mistake ever. I can't stop crying but this drama broke me in the best way possible. Wow... I'm actually so fucking stunned.
i never write reviews but I had to for this one. No drama has ever made me hate and love the world so much before. The acting was insane, the plot was hooking, and most of all, it was so sickly real. It all felt so damn real and it still does to this moment. Everybody was so sick for making this drama. I do think that Sung Deok Im could have communitcated better, it would have spared me and our dear king a lot of heartbreak, but nobody could have done the role better than her actress, truly.

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An ending that disappointed me...

DeokSan's story was beautiful, emotional and exciting until episode 16. Why did they make an episode 17? This drama so touched my heart. I thought it would become one of my favorites but the ending spoiled my feelings.

I am extremely disappointed with this ending. San suffered so much in life, did it take so many years to get Deok Im as part of your family, for in the end their son, she and he died? Really? I wasted my time for nothing.

The truth is that I started this drama not knowing that it was inspired by a real story and that story didn't have a happy ending. But I still think: why not give the drama a happy ending when in real life they couldn't have a happy ending? That's why I've been so disappointed

And another detail that disappointed me was that Deok Im died without telling San the love she felt for him.

That final scene was not a happy ending. It was them getting back together after they both died.

It really was a great way to start my 2022: a drama with a tragic, sad and disappointing ending. (This line contains irony)

Although the end of the story didn't please me, I can't help praising everyone's performance, especially Junho and Seyoung, the cinematography, the OSTs. Everything was incredibly wonderful.

*Before they say that the actual story that the drama was inspired by had this ending, that's not to say that they need to do exactly the same thing in the drama.

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beautiful love story in Joseon.

Wow, it was perfect in every way. Even though it is a long drama, not a single episode was boring. The acting was great, as well as the production.
The storyline is awesome, even more heartbreaking as the love story between the king and the court maid is based on a true story. To think about it, life inside the palace walls was basically a game of survival and politics, and not really living.

I loved their interaction at the beginning, as it was fun to watch. Their interactions made me giggle.
It was heartbreaking to watch the relationship between the king and the crown prince. They are family, but also the ruler and his successor. Later on, San will find out that it is hard to make a decision, especially when many lives depend on it. His journey was very hard, and he had to get through so many obstacles, so it was great that he had one person he could share all his worries with inside the palace and rely on. The last episode broke my heart. My eyes could not stop watering.

*****Spoiler*******



He must have been so in love with her, as he waited for her acceptance for 15 years, and she refused him the first time. If anyone else had done that, the result would have been death.
I cannot imagine how hard it must have been for him to lose his son and, a few months later, his beloved wife.
After I finished the drama, I did some research about the king. He had more wives, but he only visited them on the days that were set, while he visited Uibin almost every day. He also personally wrote an epitaph in which he stated that she is the only one he loved.
He built his sons and Uibin's tombs next to each other and planted almost 30 thousand trees. After her death, he became a workaholic and did not take care of his health, and passed away before his 50s. And it was the beginning of the end of a great era. Sedp politics were ruling the country, corruption was everywhere, and the people of Joseon were suffering. So it was the last good era for the people for a few centuries. If you think about it... if Uibin had agreed to become his concubine at first, everything would have changed, and his son would have ruled the country after him, and history would have been different. Well...it's all.just speculation.

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The Red Sleeve (2021) - one of the best dramas I watched this year. Maybe this year is the year of historical dramas because I really enjoyed this drama. Though at first I felt weirded out with the effects and I think it was fast paced in the first episodes but as it goes, it becomes better. I like that the chilhood parts was not drag out too much.

What I really like the most is that it talks about Deok-Im the female lead rather than the king which with other dramas, it's always the king who is the center of the story especially historical dramas. I really like Deok-Im as a character and the friendship between the court ladies is really really well portrayed.

I also like that the storyline really does connect with how history is stated but then also has given a chance to the watchers to have their own interpretation of the ending. I really cried a lot watching this drama. Recommended.

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Amazing acting and chemistry

This was a well-written story and the acting was amazing. The only reason I did not give this a 10/10 is because of the ending. I didn't like how in her 'heaven' she didn't get to meet her friends like she promised. She spent most of her life devoted to the King and had to spend her afterlife that way too which to me was sad especially because she asked him not to 'find her' again. For most people, this won't be an issue or something that made them sad as them being together in the afterlife is an ideal ending but for me it was sad because it signified her never being able to have the freedom she truly desired. Anyways, this is a great watch.

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