ok so i really went in thinking this was something when it was entirely smth else lmao but i didnt expect to enjoy it sm?? the main character so rang is a swindler who is conning people through marital fortune readings when marriage is forbidden. so ofc she gets caught and is brought to the royal prison when through twists and turns she meets the king and the king takes a fancy to her. thus starts the journey of the king who is being conned by so rang into believing she could channel his dead wife's soul into her. over time we uncover a lot of more mysteries and this dead soul bringing thing is absolutely not the main focus of the whole drama. we see who the fmc is fr and hoe everything about her is made public.
honestly i loved the drama mainly cuz the leads were funny af. not to mention the mytery tension was so good every episode i would be like they are so close to the truth this will end in the next ep but wahla another one went by without me realising.
the first half is a bit slow but imo the second half makes up for it. this was an awesome watch unexpectedly
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Fun!
So fun! This drama manages to cleverly mix comedy with an actual plot involving conspiracy, murder, and corruption.All the good characters are likable. All the villains are deplorable. ML and FL have really good romantic chemistry and are so much fun together. I normally don't like love triangles, but I didn't mind this one because it didn't drag out the romantic tension too much and settled who was going to be the endgame couple relatively fast.
Even though the drama was short with only 12 episodes, the pacing was good and the story wrapped up nicely. The acting was awesome. Kim Young Dae and Park Ju Hyun are both really good actors and have amazing onscreen chemistry.
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Better than expected ;)
Actually I had no expectations starting this drama. After the first episode, I seriously wanted to drop it, but decided to just give another few episodes a try. I’m glad I did, because it started getting wayyy better after episode 3.The storyline became more engaging, more intriguing, more mysterious and more anxiousness to solve the mystery!! Don’t have to worry about nasty love triangles here, but it steered more towards scheming, betrayal and conspiracy theories to get to the throne! The chemistry between both leads were mediocre I would say, I was actually rooting for SML ;);)
Kim Young Dae acted the same way he did for Shooting Stars, there wasn’t much variety in his mannerisms or skill. Park Ju Hyun was good playing the quirky / funny side of her character, but I felt she didn’t pull off the serious/ emotional side. I liked Captain Lee shin-won!! Who is the 2ML (spoiler: and am kinda sad he didn’t get the girl)
I skipped most of the scenes with the two funny guys who were protesting the marriage ban, and the scenes with the author/ painter and the shop assistant. Didn’t feel it added anything to the entire plot or storyline. The last few episodes were quite exciting and it’s a good thing this drama is only 12 episodes.
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It was not very good in my opinion
It was decent, fine. The romantic tension was okay, but I felt like it was lacking. The villains were just bad, the one lady was more bark than bite she could literally not do anything and the guy acted like he was asleep the entire time. Neither one of them had any depth or back story. I have no idea why they were doing what they were doing. Side characters were fine, I didn't totally dislike them and at moments I even kind of liked them. I never figured out what was up with the crown princess, did she love the king or did she not? I also have no idea why they kept her ghost alive, like were they trying to drive him crazy enough to abdicate? The last episode was good but a bit drawn out, some things that happened just for dramas sake had zero consequence later on or was resolved very quickly and at the end of it left the thing that happened pointless to the story or character growth. All in all not bad but I've seen better.Was this review helpful to you?
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No sustainable serie.
Such a superficial stupid pointless series. What I don't understand is how it could score so high by MDL. Gets annoyed by being forced to waste time watching when you want to watch many other good series. Incomprehensible. How is MDL's scoring based? Dropped after 2 1/2 episodes. Although I would have liked to see a costume series of that category, it was not possible.Many series that MDL has recommended have been good, but this one feels so childish and pointless acting. I try to find what the creator of the series wants to convey to its viewers. Can't find any.
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Witty and refreshing
This was a surprisingly amusing drama, most of the times historical dramas don't have that feel, they have some moments here and there and that's about it! Right from the first episode, you're invested in the story because the characters are so likeable; loved the chemistry between the leads, funny in their own way. A thing I really enjoyed was the not rushed ending, we had an entire episode, not 10 minutes.The acting was great!
Music was good, the usual for a Korean drama OST.
My rewatch value is 8; it was really good, I wasn't expecting it to be that good!
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Cinderella raises again, Mod Joseon© style.
This show started well. Feels like a bit of fast paced romp and the FL is a dynamo. A couple of tropey meet-cutes later and we are well on our way to a love triangle. The fact that the competing ML's are handsome is a definite bonus.The first few episodes certainly lives up to the premise and it was loud and whacky with a good dose of irrelevancy. There is a mysterious dark plot involving the usual palace intrigue (is there any other type?).
I realised we have a bit of a problem around the half way mark though. We seemed to have run out of story. There has been confessions, kisses, murders and rejections. The antagonists are already known, and their motivation made obvious. Umm, that is supposed to happen later, right?
What we ended up with is a draggy middle. The love line got complicated but not in a good way. The antagonists play merry hell with our leads, but it is the same plot going around and around. It is watchable because the writer-nim planted swoon worthy moments here and there so that we are given little sugar hits. Even so, it doesn't totally distract us from some awkward narrative. The inconsistent tone and pacing makes the Show feel out of sort. It is now leaning much more towards a melodrama than before. Rose tinted glasses are firmly in place.
The energy level does pick up somewhat towards the end. The queen selection process is interesting if a bit stilted. Finally, the main plot reach its conclusion. There was not a lot of surprises, but the resolution is satisfying.
Soon enough, the HEA ending slots into place, and we give thanks. Speaking of the ending, the final episode is total fan service. It was high-jinks all the way. No holds barred. It was so kooky that at one point, the show include scenes shot tiktok style and employed various modern motifs. That is most unexpected and immersion breaking. Some might think that the show has "lost the plot". It is entertaining if you roll with it but it is also a little jarring and breaks stride from much that went before. The ending is certainly filled with feel good moments. It is hard not to spark joy after watching that. :)
In terms of acting, the FL carried the Show. She is the focal point and she gave us her all. The ML's are mostly in her support. They do have the occasional dramatic or heartfelt scenes which are appreciated.
Consider the show is only 12 episodes long, I was hoping for a more intricate and novel plot. There are odd flashes of originality but the bulk of it is based on yet another retelling of the Cinderella trope. It is entertaining and watchable but it fails to reached its full potential.
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Pretty alright? Nothing too special but not bad
The only reason I started watching this was because of the ml, I really liked his performances in Moon in the Day and Shooting Stars, ironically I forgot his name? Anyways as I mentioned there was nothing too speical about this drama, the comedy was great though. But there was a lot of historical innaccuracies that kinda ruined the whole vibe for me, I couldn't take some scenes seriously because of that. And personally I didn't like how informal she was being with king for some reason, like even when they didn't know eachother that well she was treating him like herbest friend of 20 years?? Idk it was too unrealistic for me. But it was funny sometimes so I'll give them that. This drama was pretty random as well, was not expecting all of these seggsual jokes it was surprising. And don't remind when they started playing Kyrie Elaison I was so caught of guard I burst out laughing like a donkey. The actors were great tho, so any imperfection wasn't from their part, did'nt pay attnetion to any of the OSTs so that should be saying enough. I don't think I'll be rewatching this but who knows ??♀️ Moral of the story, wouldn't reccomend this to people who focus and pick on details, and to people who get bored too easily, cause it could be pretty uneventful at times.
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I like the way the king had been portrayed
After a very long time I had seen a king who was not helpless though he was sat at the seat of power . I had seen many historical drama in which though the king had power to do anything he wanted but as he was a king he had to work under so many rule .He under the influence of his father who had given him partial power ,who made him sat on thrown but he (father) had whole control.Here king took his decision under his will but I had seen some dramas where king was cruel and he took decision according to his will then he had never listen to whomsoever was.
I like the way the king had been portrayed and the way his grandmother took decisions which were for his benefits.
Chemistry between the leads were amazing .
I liked the acting of the each supporting characters . A big round of applause to them .
I know it was a fiction based story so in real life good king sometimes remain in the position of helplessness.
I liked the story as well as acting but story didn't has much .
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i really liked the chemistry between the two main leads i liked the whole story it was nice and cute but a little bit dragging to catch the villains
i liked that the end was happy for all parties
what i didn't like about this drama
1st* the sick insisting to put rainbow characters in the events
which was totally disgusting and there were no need for it at all
2nd* the story of the second ML didn't convince me at all during the end
3rd* i felt so sad when i discover at the end that the King's secretary was rainbow i used to like him so he was so funny
except these little disgusting parts of rainbow characters during the drama i really liked it
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Lighthearted and worth your times
This drama is one of the dramas that gives me what I want. I want happy ending, comedy and all the villains get fitting punishment for their evilness. Ofc HEA for both FL and ML is a must but if there's other couple, I am rooting for them too. Which I am very very grateful that they gave 2ndML and 2ndFL happy ending too coz they both deserve it.The Male Lead which was King Yi Heon was a passionate person that we can see really gave it all for the one he fell in love. So it started how he was so heartbroken and sad for the late crown princess. And he needed someone else to come in his life and shake him up. Here came the Female Lead which was So Rang, a woman with hidden past, a trickster that disguised as a matchmaker to rake in money but her over confident landed her in trouble with the King and so she tried to get out of it by any means possible. Well what started as claiming to be possessed by the late crown Princess spirit ended up with falling for the King... Along the way she decided to help him in order to help Joseon's citizen to end the marriage ban of 7 years mind you. I love that she was truthful to her feeling and did not dive into his arm when she could, like the opportunity was there. She decided, she deserves better and she demand it. She didn't want to be the other woman's shadow.
Also big shout out to unsung hero 2nd ML, Shin Won, we can see how amazing he was, he really was there for her, yes he did love the FL but tragedy happened and he accepted that his feeling wasn't reciprocated and along the way he stay loyal to her and the King.
The veil addition to FL's hair ornament at the end kind of a no for me though.
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light hearted, funny
I enjoyed it overall the leads had good chemistry I felt like the story had a few plot holes and unnecessary plot points and I thought the love triangle was not needed too but I’m biased because I don’t like love triangles. it’s was really funny though which is always a plus for me. I wished they had developed the friendship between the king and the second lead a bit more rather than just making them fight over a woman I wished they had a different conflict between them that helped pushed the story and also bring about character growth for both of them , personally I’m tired of the two friend fighting over one girl trope , I think we need to let that trope rest a bit, but that’s just my two cents on the matterWas this review helpful to you?