Chsh263
USA
This review may contain spoilers
Good but could have been done better
I had to read a bunch of other peoples reviews to contextualize my thoughts. I agree with the this doesn’t work as romance take.They should have the romance be a side story. Because if romance is main story we almost always expect a lot of heartwarming ooooooo moments of which there were very few if not non-existent.It’s a horrible love story.
Love can be complicated and not have a happy ending. But one should feel like wow they really loved each other but life happened.( I got this feeling in Mr sunshine) here the FL feminist concerns are not dealt with appropriately because she never admits she is in love. Multiple things can be true at the same time. This drama did not know how to handle that. They can have been truly in love and shown it and still have shown all the tragedy and reluctance to conform.
The point at which the FL decides her love mattered over her concerns is treated pettily when it should have been the cornerstone of the show. The point in life where one decides what matter most. But they didn’t give the FL agency to portray this because they had it happen via her getting dragged back to the palace instead of making the choice herself. The asking and being rejected over and over makes the story seem immature. When they got married she seemed sad allllllllll the time. So it adds to the forced to do it narrative.
I don’t know how historical interactions between king and concubine were but if the King waited for years for this concubine instead of forcing them to marry him when he could have. I think it is safe to assume this was a very mature relationship with mutual respect. I expected the post marriage interactions between the King and concubine to be more meaty and less slave and master like. We needed more dialogue. We needed to see the FL retain her fire within the marriage and see her wrestle with her desires, duties and constrains. Instead she just became a wilted flower after marriage. The traits they had us believe made him fall in love with her at the beginning completely disappeared post marriage. So their love becomes unbelievable the story falls apart at the end.
Love can be complicated and not have a happy ending. But one should feel like wow they really loved each other but life happened.( I got this feeling in Mr sunshine) here the FL feminist concerns are not dealt with appropriately because she never admits she is in love. Multiple things can be true at the same time. This drama did not know how to handle that. They can have been truly in love and shown it and still have shown all the tragedy and reluctance to conform.
The point at which the FL decides her love mattered over her concerns is treated pettily when it should have been the cornerstone of the show. The point in life where one decides what matter most. But they didn’t give the FL agency to portray this because they had it happen via her getting dragged back to the palace instead of making the choice herself. The asking and being rejected over and over makes the story seem immature. When they got married she seemed sad allllllllll the time. So it adds to the forced to do it narrative.
I don’t know how historical interactions between king and concubine were but if the King waited for years for this concubine instead of forcing them to marry him when he could have. I think it is safe to assume this was a very mature relationship with mutual respect. I expected the post marriage interactions between the King and concubine to be more meaty and less slave and master like. We needed more dialogue. We needed to see the FL retain her fire within the marriage and see her wrestle with her desires, duties and constrains. Instead she just became a wilted flower after marriage. The traits they had us believe made him fall in love with her at the beginning completely disappeared post marriage. So their love becomes unbelievable the story falls apart at the end.
Was this review helpful to you?
