I’m so watching this rom-com sageuk.

As someone who enjoys dressing up in corsets and hoop skirts for Renaissance fairs, Colonial days, and Civil War reenactments, I always look forward to indulging in a bit of time travel in my kdramas. I get excited over historicals but I avoid melodramatic and overtly political sageuks.

Fair warning: if this kdrama 100 Day My Prince involves more than a gallon of fake blood, I’m not going to blog about it. I never did like gore. I like my sagueks done in the same way as my omelettes: light and fluffy.

In preparation for this upcoming show (premier night: Monday, September 10), I went through my list of sageuks to review what I like and don’t like historical shows.

They’re not in any particular order.

1. Arang and the Magistrate (starring Shin Min-ah and Lee Jonki)

I couldn’t resist Shin Min-ah’s cuteness in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho so I followed her here. I liked the premise of an amnesiac ghost coming back for justice, but the length of the show (16 episodes) was the plot’s natural enemy. The story shouldn’t have been drawn out for more than 12 episodes when it could have been condensed into 8.

The scenes with the gods, for instance, were superfluous. They had no value added to the plot. And I assumed they were meant to attract the fangirls of Yoo SeungHo for increased ratings.

Likewise, the witch plot was overblown. I knew there was a connection but the mystery could have been revealed in three episodes – tops! – instead of dragged out interminably. Really! I nearly died of boredom from the show and joined Arang in her ghostly expeditions.

Lesson: I like cuteness in my female leads.

2. My Sassy Princess (starring ‎Oh Yeon-seo and Joo Won)

It was an excellent remake of My Sassy Girl that made Jun Ji-Hyun the IT girl. I applauded the sageuk because it did away with much of the crude and abusive actions of the girl towards the guy – which back in 2001 passed off as feminism. In the original movie, the couple’s relationship was dysfunctional where the girl played by Jun Ji-Hyun was the aggressor and the guy played by Cha Tae-Eun was the battered codependent. In the remake, there were many scenes that were cleverly adapted from the original movie but the princess was a lot less mentally disturbed and unstable.

My only complaint was the ending was ending was rushed.

Note to kdrama scriptwriters: you really shouldn’t send the girl away to study and bring her back in the half hour of the drama. That’s awful pacing. If there’s going to be any departure, set it at the beginning of the penultimate episode so we can anticipate the happy reunion and happily-ever-after at the beginning of the last episode.

Lesson: I like smart and sassy heroines but sassy doesn’t mean cruel.

3. The King’s Love (starring mononymous idols, Siwan and Yuna)

Good effort but epic fail. Of course, the second lead didn’t get the girl. He knew that he must atone for the rest of his life for coveting the King’s girl and he knew that he couldn’t be seen after his staged death so he exiled himself to a solitary life as his last act of loyalty to the King. The King – and this historical king, in particular – loved but one woman in his life and she became his steadfast concubine. The problem with this kdrama was that it credited its viewers with too much intelligence to understand its nuances and subtleties.

Lesson: A forced kiss is a form of sexual harassment. #metoo

4. Moon Embracing the Sun (with Han Ga-In and Kim Soo-hyun).

Watching the King keel over in guilt and grief when he realized who the shaman was made gazing at Han Ga-In’s mole on her nose the angst worthwhile.

Lesson: The marriage of the King to a Replacement/Proxy Queen is tolerable because the marriage was never consummated. He was never unfaithful to his first love. This is a significant issue to puritanical viewers like yours truly. lol.

5. Goong.

Still prefer the second male lead over the Crown Prince.

Was turned off by the Crown Prince’s tsundere-ness and got exasperated with his girlfriend trouble. Was I really going to enjoy watching him date his ex-girlfriend in Thailand while his Queen entertained some pudgy British royalty back at home? It made her look like a doormat.

Lesson: An asshat is an asshat. There are limits to acceptable tsundere behavior.

6. Love in the Moonlight (with Park BoGum and Kim YooJung).

PBG’s effeminacy was distracting. But I brainwashed myself that his character was similar to that of Sir Percy Blakeney from the book The Scarlet Pimpernel who pretended to be a weak, foppish, aristocrat while he was in fact daringly rescuing French citizens bound for the guillotine. Except there wasn’t any nefarious plot in this kdrama. Or was there? I wasn’t really paying attention to the plot. 

To my cynical eyes, this sageuk was one long lovefest for PBG. It would have been more intriguing to watch if they had partnered him up with an “ugly” actress like Park Kyung Hee instead of KYJ.

from pinterest

 

Lesson: I’m a shallow visual person. The pastel cinematography worked for me.  I stayed longer than I was inclined to because everything was so bright and pretty.

7. Sungkyunkwan Scandal (starring Park Yoo Chun, Park Min Young, and some cute guys)

Sigh. This could have been on my go-to rewatch list if it weren’t for that toilet scandal of Park Yoochun. The ending used to be one of my favorites.

Lesson: Please no distracting news of sex-escapades for the lead actors in a sageuk.  One of the reasons I like sageuk is the restraint. We know the hero has fallen for the girl but he can’t touch her. Any hint of carnal desire is suppressed or expressed in chaste kisses and side glances.

8. Faith (with that guy and an ahjumma)

Watched it for Lee MinHo but the ahjumma ruined the romance. It was already hard to watch because of the Goryu setting (more sombre than the Joseon period) but the lead actress was such dead weight. She lacked youth and levity to counterbalance LMH’s Warrior Look. #truth

Lesson: I don’t like watching unni-dongsaeng relationship. Especially when the actor looks aged and mature like Lee MinHo.  Kim Hee Sun really looked awkward doing aegyo for him.

9. The Night Watchman’s Journal (starring Jung Il-Woo and ??)

I can’t remember what it was all about. Just remembered it had Jung Il Woo and supernatural creatures.

Lesson: I’m into sageuk for the romance.

10. Mirror of the Witch (starring Yoon Shi Yoon aka Yoon Donggu, and a cute underaged actress)

Stopped halfway because of an overseas trip. Thank goodness! I would have been miffed because the heroine died young and hero died a shriveled-up but famous bachelor.

Lesson: Never trust amateur scriptwriters. And never trust Yoon Donggu to pick good scripts. (Just kidding!)

11. Seven Day Queen (starring Yeon Woo Jin and Park Min Young)

Didn’t finish. I didn’t understand why I should put up with an 8 week long angsty drama just to know what transpired in a short-lived but happy marriage of 7 days between a king and a queen who couldn’t be together. It didn’t compute.

I think a more creative approach to the ill-fated love story was to write about the queen in exile writing in her diary and reflecting on what happened during those 7 days spent with him.

Each week (or every two episodes), she would reveal a bit of the backstory or a crisis in the palace, and how it affected her day and how she and the king resolved it. Then, the following week, she would pick up where she left off and expose another political intrigue which cast a shadow on their marriage, and how they as a couple overcame it. Over the course of 7 weeks, or 14 episodes, the story of her short but HAPPY life in the palace would be disclosed as she writes in her diary.

All the episodes would fit together like pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle. If the queen had been happy during that brief stay in the palace and if she and the king had been prevailing despite the hurdles, then why was she in exile now?

Then, on the last week, for episodes 15 and 16, when the last piece of the puzzle is revealed, the viewers would see the big picture.

Hahaha. It would be a challenge finding a reason why a couple in love would willingly choose to live apart.

Lesson: I don’t like melodramas.

12. The Ruler’s Mask (starring Yoo Seung Ho, Kim So Hyun and Yoon So Hee)

I dropped this. Wanted to continue it for Yoo Seung-Ho but couldn’t stand Kim So-Hyun’s character here. Too goody two shoes.

Plus, I detested the set-up between the two lead females. It was too obvious that the heroine was going to be saintly, virginal, medicine woman. Like Yeahhh. That’s ALWAYS a good feminine job. She tends to the sick, nurses the elderly, mothers little children, and cures illnesses with herbs.

Meanwhile, the anti-heroine was a spoiled heiress to her grandfather’s cabal. She was the sageuk version of an evil, greedy, devious, opportunistic, Fortune 500 female CEO.

Ha! I’ve been a career woman long enough to recognize when my kind is being targeted by these misogynistic tropes.

Lesson: I like bitches because I am one.

That’s all I can remember for now. What about you? What sageuks have you watched?

 

 

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