Before I begin —
Veteran readers of this blog know that I don’t do recaps. If you’re looking for a faithful account of the events in a drama, then you’ve come to the wrong place. You should decamp to Dramabeans, Dramamilk, and other drama recapping sites.
Here, you’re getting MY unabashed interpretation of the plot. I call it madcap with the emphasis on the first syllable “mad” because I’ve got crazy mad theories. New lurkers and new posters like to waste their time arguing with my analyses. I say don’t tire yourself.
My stance is take it or leave it. Use it or don’t use it. Stay if you’re happy or go if you’re not. There’s always a fire escape for anyone wanting to exit in a hurry. Just don’t let the door hit you where the “good lord split you” on the way out. Okay?
Let’s continue then…
From what I read, this Kdrama is based on a Chinese novel which was made into a Chinese drama called, “Go Princess Go” in 2015. Also from what I read, the ending of this Chinese drama was a mess. Apparently, the ending, as found in the original novel, didn’t get approval from the Chinese censors. So the script underwent three different endings.
Here are my sources:
http://allsynopsis.blogspot.com/go-princess-go/ending
http://allsynopsis.blogspot.com/2016/01/go-princess-go-novel-ending.html
http://allsynopsis.blogspot.com/2016/02/go-princess-go-third-ending-recap.html
https://dramapearls.com/2019/07/15/go-princess-go-chinese-drama-review/
https://jasminechaitea.blogspot.com/2016/01/go-princess-go-episode-35-ending.html
Based on these blog posts, I gather that there were four different endings: one from the novel, two from the drama, and a follow-up ending after the fans’ uproar. Here’s what I learned about the four finales.
One, the novel.
Based on what I read from allsynopsis’ blogspot, I view the novel’s original ending as the most objectionable.
Here’s the gist. The couple has been happily married for 20 years, when the hero/emperor dies while riding on his horse. His son, the Crown Prince, inherits the throne. His wife, now a former empress, mourns his death for two months. He suddenly reappears as a commoner. He reveals that his death was staged to give them freedom. The reunited couple escapes the palace to live a quiet life.
This ending is deemed satisfactory by many readers, including those who are into “BL” or “Boys Love” romance — because hey! The male soul didn’t have to return to the present time and vacate the Empress’ body, and he got to be with the Emperor for the rest of their lives.
I object to this ending for obvious reasons:
One, somewhere in the modern world, there’s a comatose male body missing his male soul.
Two, somewhere in the alternate world, there’s a male soul who annexed a female host body and appropriated her faculties for his survival.
Three, the female has been played like a chump.
Do you get now why I cannot support this ending? The misogyny is insidious. The female host lost control not only of her own body, but also her soul, consciousness and will. Where’s the original Empress?? She was erased when the male soul usurped her place, and took over her body for good.
This “take-over” is all justified in the name of… looooove.
Nice try, writer. Give her body and soul back.
I wouldn’t presume to know why the Chinese government disallowed this ending, but to me, this ending was half-baked and reeks of sexism.
Two, the drama’s alternative endings.
Based on what I read from the blogs, the drama’s three alternative endings appeared to be a big “middle finger” to the Chinese Ministry of Culture (or whichever agency that decided to nix the original ending).
To me, the screenwriter dramatically killed off the couple in a fit of pique.
On his wife’s birthday, the emperor prepares a heart-shaped, rose-filled area as a birthday surprise. She goes out to admire it. But while standing on top of the roses, a sword magically appears out of nowhere and stabs her in the abdomen. The emperor runs over to her side but it’s too late. She dies in his arms. Then, assassins surround him and stab him ala-Julius Caesar’s assassination. He too dies. The couple rests eternally on a heart-shaped, rose-filled bed as soft, downy, pink petals cover them.
I’ve never seen a more dramatic bull’s-eye before.
Mind you, the variations in the ending came AFTER the couple’s deaths.
In the first variation of the ending, the heroine – or rather the comatose man – finally wakes up in the hospital. He leaves the hospital bed and goes to the pool where he drowned the first time. He jumps in and finds himself transported once more to the alternate world. He reappears exactly in the same place where his soul was last killed. He wanders the empty grounds and reimagines the lovers together again.
I think this is the fanciful way of saying that the comatose man regained consciousness but preferred to live in his dreams.
If you want to watch it, here’s the YT video of the first ending.
In the second variation of the ending, the heroine – or the comatose man – wakes up, too. He’s distraught and runs the hospital corridor calling out the hero’s name. He then meets a doctor who looks like the emperor.
Whether the two men hook up or not after this meeting is for romantic fanfics.
The third and last variation of the ending (sorry, I couldn’t find the clip on Youtube) supposedly came months after the drama ended.
According to the allsynopsis blogspot, the hero and heroine are together as a couple in the modern world. A director orders the couple to get off the set and kiss elsewhere because he’s about to start filming. They kiss in the middle of the street.
If ever this third and last version actually does exist, I think the message here is that everything that happened in the Cdrama was just a figment of imagination. The hero and heroine are just actors playing the role of Emperor and Empress, and that life is imitating art when the two of them fall in love, too, at the end.
The drama becomes meta.
You might wonder what’s my point here? Why the heck did I bring up “Go Princess Go”? Are these spoilers?
BTW, this is one reason I’m not a recapper. I’m not obligated to warn you of spoilers. (evil laugher here)
Well, I believe that the fate of Jang BongHwan, the chef who was trapped inside the Queen’s body, had been revealed in the beginning moments of this kdrama.
The interview gave it away.
BongHwan: Even the most vicious beast does not bite the human that feeds it. It wags its tail. Since I first started cooking at the age of 13, my dream was to enter the Blue House no matter. I shall become the person who feeds the strongest. Well, that’s how I became the chef.
Interviewer: As you mentioned, you have become the Blue House’s youngest chef.
Bonghwan: The first.
Interviewer: Excuse me?
And then, BongHwan was seen in action in the kitchen.
He was told by a Chinese aide that the ambassador was allergic to fish bone. He cockily replied that if he was told one more time, he’d make sure that the ambassador was served fish head. The female interpreter then had the unenviable job of filtering his words to diplomatic standards. Still, he continued with his wise-guy comment, “Is he Qin Shi Huang or something?”
BongHwan: (explaining to the Interviewer) “Fishcakes were made because of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Emperor Qin Shi Huang abused his power so much that, despite eating fish every day because he loved it so much, if there was a single bone, he would cut off the head of the chef who made it. Every day, chefs would die, but a new chef that started working thought he would end up dead for sure. He was lost in despair as he absentmindedly cut up the fish on the cutting board. Then, eureka! He was very lucky.
Note: If you want to know what happened next…
According to legend, a chef chopped up the fish with a knife. He saw that the fish bones were also chopped up and were almost nowhere to be found.
So he rolled the chopped fish into dumplings and made soup, which he brought to Qin Shihuang and got quite a satisfactory evaluation.
This way of cooking spread to the folks and fish cakes were born.
BongHwan: (continuing his interview) You might be wondering how a person could kill another over some food, but it’s not just some food. A properly made meal could open up the most guarded heart. You might even call it the most charming bullet in the world. So this is the mindset I have when I cook in the Blue House. “Cooking is politics.”
Interviewer: Since we’re on the topic, let’s hear some stories that everyone is most curious about. For example, what are some secrets about the Blue House?
BongHwan: Before that, let me make this clear. My name is off the record. And I will get paid in cash. Okay?
And then, Bonghwan was seen in action again. A different kind of action. He was kissing the female interpreter in the kitchen as the Chinese ambassador was about to get pricked by a fishhook. Then, men in suits came in search for Bonghwan. He believed he was being called before the ambassador to be given praise for his culinary feat. He sauntered out the kitchen to meet them.
My four take-aways from this conversation:
1. BongHwan’s ambition to become the chef at the Blue House is eerily similar to the Queen’s ambition to become the queen of the palace. In Ep 3 at 12:02, the Queen told ByungIn about her dream when he found her crying in the rain on the eve of her nuptials.
SoYoung: The dream that I have been dreaming since I was young is coming true tomorrow. My dream was to become the queen. My dream will come true tomorrow. Tomorrow, my dream will…disappear.
ByungIn: What is wrong?
SoYoung: I am scared. Orabeoni. Living…living is too scary.
ByungIn: Your Royal Highness.
SoYoung: Don’t call me that. Just for today at least, call me by name, so that I won’t forget myself. So that I don’t let go of myself.
ByungIn: What could you be so scared of?
SoYoung: I am…not me. I lived all this time thinking that I was me, but I wasn’t. There is nothing that is not a lie.
ByungIn: You are SoYoung for sure. You are someone I have watched for a long time and secretly loved, my precious person. I won’t let you go. I won’t forget you.
He then kissed her, and she allowed him. The obvious assumption here is that she permitted him to kiss her for comfort and for redress of her hurt emotions. Ever since she pleaded with Cheoljong to love her, and he responded by looking at her with hatred, and turning his back on her appeal (Ep 2 at 42:06), she dreaded her wedding. Her dream of becoming a queen was about to happen, but along with that dream came the realization that he was in love another one, and was marrying her for political expediency.
Do you see the similarity?
The Queen, Kim Soyeon, found herself embroiled in the creation of a Joseon monarchy totally controlled by the Kim family. She was the choice of the Grand Queen Dowager to be Queen as they were both members of the Kim family.
However, the “Other” Queen was a member of the Jo family. She wanted one of her own relatives, Jo HwaJin, to be Queen. But Jo HwaJin was relegated to the role of Royal Concubine, and she could only be promoted to Queenship if Kim Soyeon was removed.
So, there was power struggle which mirrored the power struggle in the kitchen in the Blue House. Chef BongHwan found himself in a scandal involving the globalization of the Korean cuisine. The Blue House’s Chief of Staff wanted his own man, Boo Seungmin, to be synonymous with Korean food. So he conspired to get BongHwan fired from the job with the fishbone incident.
To me, the Chief of Staff is like the “Other” Queen pushing for Queen Soyoung’s ouster so her family member, the Royal Concubine Jo HwaJin could step in power.
I think SoYeon and BongHwan found themselves swept in political intrigues they were unprepared for.
2. “Cooking is politics.”
Before the body-swap, BongHwan appeared to be apolitical. For example, he was unaware of the corruption in the food services suppliers going right underneath his nose.
BongHwan: The matter of the fishhook was resolved as having been caused by a hand-caught fish. I took the responsibility for that, and was fired. So, what more is there?”
To me, he didn’t protest his firing. He gave up too easily.
Police: Circumstances of corruption in the food service suppliers have come to light.
BongHwan: So how much?
Police: It’s been happening for two years, so it’s quite a bit.
BongHwan: And the circumstances point to me?
Police: Who says that? It’s just for an investigation as a reference.
BongHwan: Ah, you really suck at acting.
Police: Why don’t you open the door now?
BongHwan: Detectives, as you may well know, can a mere chef do something of this scale at the Blue House? Boo Seungmin, that’s jerk’s been a sous-chef all his life, and has worked in the Blue House kitchen the longest. He is a deep-rooted evil. I’m telling you that jerk colluded with someone higher up and is framing me now.
Police: Sure. Sure. That’s why we are telling you to come to the police station and explain your side of the story.
BongHwan: (to himself) I was wondering why go that far just to get me fired but there was this, too? To go this far, it’s only possible at the level of the Chief of Staff. It’s not possibly Chief Han, is it?
He sounded naive and gullible.
It didn’t enter his head to suspect backroom deals in the business contracts that the Chief of Staff was overseeing for the Kitchen’s accounts. Hopefully, when this body-swap is all over, his experience working in the kitchen were valuable items, like milk and oil, would teach him to be vigilant about fiscal mismanagement and abuses in the Blue House.
Moreover, prior to his body-swap, Bonghwan disliked giving in to the whims of the political figures like the Chinese Ambassador.
I believe it was after his body-swap that he learned to craft meals that would not only satisfy hunger, but could also persuade powerful people like the Grand Queen Dowager to do things his way.
In a sense, he began “food activism” with the Grand Queen Dowager.
He promised her the “Fountain of Youth” – the foodie version. He convinced her that she’d look young forever if she ate his cooking. But in exchange for his delicious, healthy, and rejuvenating meals, she needed to refill the lake with water.
His body-swap adventure had changed his outlook towards cooking merely for cooking sake. He could see now how a well-planned course could be used for political games.
3. To me, the fact that BongHwan could sit down and grant an interview about the Blue House suggested that the police were no longer chasing him for the corruption, and that the public was now interested to hear more of his insider’s stories about the Blue House.
The Interviewer could be doing an exposé with him after he himself survived a wrongful accusation of corruption. The public would want to hear more of the backroom deals done by the government, and BongHwan would be a likely media darling.
But he also told the Interviewer that his name was off the record, and he wanted to be paid in cash.
The casual manner in which he made his demands known tells me that he’d gotten used to the wheeling-and-dealing in the public eye. He was now used to the maneuvering whether it was in politics or with the media.
4. BongHwan corrected the Interviewer about being the youngest chef.
When the Interview pointed out that he was the youngest chef of the Blue House, he corrected her and said, “The first.” The Interviewer didn’t get that. His interjection didn’t make sense because there were plenty of chefs at the Blue House.
To me, this was an indication that BongHwan already returned from the body-swap with Queen Soyeong. He called himself “first” because he was referring to the time when he challenged the Head Chef. He was alluding to his being the first Queen, and the first woman, to be the head of the Royal Kitchen.
If my hunch is correct that BongHwan’s interview is a sign that he returned to the present time after his body-swapping ordeal, then there’s hope that the messy ending of “Go Princess Go” won’t be repeated in this Kdrama.
That’s also why I dislike it whenever BongHwan damages Queen SoYoung’s reputation with his lack of manners, engages in hedonistic activities, entangles himself in palace affairs, and cares more about the concubine Jo HwaJin’s welfare than he does his host body, Queen SoYoung.
For me, if he will eventually return to his life as Chef Jang BongHwan of the Blue House, he needs to make sure that he does not injure Queen SoYoung, or through his INACTION and carelessness, allow Queen SoYoung to come to harm. To me, it’s just fair that he respects the identity of Queen SoYoung as distinct and separate from his, as long as he’s just temporarily borrowing her body and consciousness.
*****************
edited 12/27/2020. Because my grammar is atrocious. Sorry. English is my only 7th language after Klingon, Elvish, Dothraki, Michif, Taa, and Pig Latin.
@packmule3, I am so happy that I read your analysis. It was so helpful that you included the various endings to the Chinese drama on which this drama is based. Mr. Queen need not follow suit because this adaptation centers in Korea. That leaves the ending wide open to possibilities and your anqlysis about Chef Jang BongHwan’s return to his body makes so much sense, given the contextual clues. We do know that the actual queen has at least one incident of returning to her own consciousness while Jang is sharing her body. I have hope that we’ll find out what her actual story is before the end of this drama. I also think that because the two souls shared a body, that chef can somehow meet a reincarnated queen in the present. One thought is that because they’ve shared a body, they can both benefit from taking on the knowledge each has as well as their moral centers. I am hoping that the real queen is ethical and has more to her than just embroidery skills. And I also hope our womanizer chef becomes aware of his misogyny and becomes more sensitive to women’s needs and personhood. I want to know more about our king too. It looks like they’re hinting that there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye. There are so many ways this can go, but It would be nice to see an enlightened monarchy with the royal couple being a true partnership in helping the people and not stealing rice. Looking forward to seeing how this all pans out. The one thing I do know, is that Mr. Queen is not a piece if fluff.
Aaahhhh Packmule3!! Thank you for writing this! ❤❤❤❤❤ Ha now I am more intrigued! Looking forward to next episode 😁😁😁
I wanted to watch this drama, just for shin hye sun and kim jung hyun’s chemistry. But sadly, BL stories are not my thing. Also I did not understand why they have to swap a woman’s soul with a man in the first place for the story. There are already so many other contents that would be enough for the whole period of the drama. I never found body-swapping dramas so much interesting, that’s why I couldn’t start more than one episode of secret garden. But even there the respective leads go back to their bodies so it was still okay. Here it seems quite convoluted and I don’t understand how they could just forget the queen whose soul is missing. Why a man has to enter a woman’s body to fall for a king, that again is beyond my understanding. That was also the reason oh my ghostess left a sour taste in mouth, cause the chef in real fell for the ghost character, while the main female lead was such a boring persona.
A pass for me lol. I did not quite understand though if you mean you are favoring this drama. 😀
@pm3, thanks 4 the heads-up! ‘Go Princess Go’ is the sort of Cdramas I avoid either becos of their predictable-loose plot or messy endings or both. Hopefully this Korean remake will do better. Yr analysis here is reasonable, n yes, also the soul-story of the original Queen should be account for.
Nearsea!!
Same here! I didn’t like “Oh My Ghostess” too. I thought the guy was really in love with the “ghostess” not the host-body. I have to rewatch that again.
Yes, same with Secret Garden. When you think about it, that set-up was gross, too. The guy (Hyun Bin’s character) must have been touching the feminine parts of his host’s body when he was taking a shower or using the potty. Gross.
I’m watching it because Shin Hye Sun’s portrayal and Choi ?? (whatever his name is) voiceover.
So far, I’m underwhelmed by Kim Jung Hyun. It’s the Queen running the show for now.
The story is convoluted but I hope the ending isn’t. I’m crossing my fingers that this doesn’t end like that IU kdrama. What’s the name again? Moonlight Garden? Scarlet Throne?
Yes, 2uke! Same here. Hopefully, this Korean writer would be able to clean up the messy Cdrama.
But be prepared to have a messy ending, too. like that “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo” (there! I found the title) made by Lee JoonKi and IU. That was also a time-travel Chinese film made into a Kdrama.
We’re seeing more of the Queen-to-be SoYoung’s perspectives in Ep 5. Seems like she wasn’t really mean, but decided to act in outrageous fashion when she entered the palace so she could be passed over as Queen. I think she was actively seeking to be disqualified as Queen when she found out that she was to be used as a pawn to get back at the King, and the King didn’t like her.
We shall see….
I didn’t watch Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo or the Chinese film adaptation but did enjoyed the 40-Ep historical Cdrama Scarlet Heart. The ending in the original novel of the same name was more lamentable? (idk, it’s not exactly tragic) but in the Cdrama, the FL dead in the past then came back to live n met her lover lookalike in modern time—to give audience a ‘happy’ ending, which to me seemed lame. I was more drawn to the historical story of Kangxi’s nine sons competing for the throne in the drama.
Okay, I’m off to watch Mr Queen Ep 5 now. Yes, the FL definitely stealing the show here.
As with many historical dramas I get lost with the names and which side of the political party the red/blue dressed official is loyal to. As such, I overlooked so many of the details and enjoyed it more for entertainment sake. I keep wondering how the will resolve this whole body swap thing because the Mr.Queen is obviously not going to fall in love with the King, (they better not). But it seems like Mr.Queen is making the King think twice about the original queen’s intentions, that she is not like the family who is conspiring against the king. Thanks for connecting the present and the past together that it makes sense. I was sure there was something up with all the politics in the blue house and the palace.
I am hopeful about the ending! I have watched none of the Cdramas nor Secret garden but Scarlet Heart’s ending was tragic… did they not figure how she was going to go back to her present life? Probably having a Mr.Queen instead of Mr.King makes it such that he wouldn’t fall in love with the king/queen.
I also have to agree FL is stealing the show…I’m going off to check out her other dramas! This is the first show I’m watching her in.
Thanks for your analysis! I enjoy reading your critical analysis on the various dramas. I usually come to them with some sort of inability to articulate my plot uneasiness, and I usually find a thought piece here that helps.
My spouse recently joined me on my drama watches, and Mr. Queen is the next one he picked out. I already watched episodes 1-4 before he made this decision, so now when I rewatch them, I will have some background info to point out, as the history/political piece of the show is pretty substantial, and I’m sure I missed some of the nuances early on.
I dislike when Bong Hwan is disrespectful of those he hopes to leave behind. However, I though him quite a self-absorbed jerk when alive, so it would have surprised me had he suddenly changed into someone who was empathetic; especially since he can’t know if the queen will ‘come back’ to the Joseon time even after he leaves. I think episode 5 showed him changing in small ways – how he listened to the little girl’s story, for example.
Thank you for these endings. I hope that none of the previous 4 happen here. Especially, since the ‘queen’ has a male psyche, how is it that ‘she’ would fall in love with the emperor and all that it entails?
For the rest, I hope for what @Old American Lady wrote so thoughtfully.
Hi all, I like some of the gender bender stuff but find that most of the K Dramas I’ve watched with that involve women disguising themselves as men/boys. Empress Ki comes to mind and the woman is always pining for the hero. A couple of exceptions are Secret Garden, Kill Me Heal Me and Tales of Nokdu, where the man disguised as a woman trope does not last long. I guess that has some Korean cultural reference. I also think that other Asian dramas do more of this;the Phillipines, Japanese and Thai dramas come to mind. With K dramas it also seems that the sexual references involve some kissing (in Kill Me Heal Me, there was mental illness. In Secret Garden the two protagonists switched bodies and in Nokdu,The protagonist had feelings for the girl when he was still a man and was mortified by any ohysical contact with the male antagonist and the guy with the crush on him in disguise.
So I don’t think our present day chef is finding pleasure in being in a female body. He still is a male chauvenist as seen in his reaction to helping choose the new concubines. However, I think he’ll be learning some hard lessons about the treatment of women and his own responsibility in ill treatment. That’s why I hope that his consciousness returns to the present day where he becomes more sensitive to women’s needs. i also want to see one of my new favorite actors, Choi again, if truth be told. You can now call me Dirty Old American Lady….
I am staying for the queen. I want to know what is gonna happen to her and will she get back to her body or will BH help her in any way now that he can see the king is in love with someone else and that the queen tried to kill herself. I am not fond of a king role in many sageuk when it involves his love story because as always, the queen or his other love interest will be the common casualty. Plus he keeps concubines. 🙄 I dropped Queen of 7 Days. I almost drop Flower Crew for similar reason. Luckily Mr. Matchmaker got the girl.😅
I will see how it goes. This is my second drama of SHS. Her first role that I watched didn’t leave a good impression on me. Mostly because of the role itself.
miracle23,
re. those concubines
I like what Bonghwan said to the King when he tried to kill Bonghwan/Queen in Episode 4. He called it “legal adultery.”
(slow clapping from me)
BongHwan: Bastard. Even if you’re crazy over another woman, how could you try and kill your own wife? How can you call yourself a human being? Jo HwaJin was your concubine anyway! Is legal adultery not enough for you? Did you have to try and kill your wife?!
I like that this accusation was coming from a supposedly “impartial” third person. Of course, the king thought Queen SoYeon was speaking but it was actually Bonghwan, expressing his distaste and censure for the King’s attempted regicide/uxoricide.
I like it whenever Bonghwan chastised the king for doing the Queen wrong. Like in Episode 5. I’ll post my reaction on the blog.
I’m interested to see what Jo Hwa Jin’s secret is that she doesn’t want revealed to the king. I don’t think she or the real queen were bluffing. Am awaiting subs now.
I like when Bong Hwan tells the king off, too. -Although it’s legally different, I’m not sure that legal adultery is too far off playing the field for his own pleasure, as he had done. I think BH is starting to accumulate some wisdom.
@pkml3 Thanks for this. I have only watched the first 2 episodes, and then I stopped and didn’t feel like I wanted to continue. I can’t put my finger on ‘why’, only that I was not as heartily amused by it as I ‘need to be’ in order to want to watch it. Somehow it did not engage me and maybe, worse still, something about it (don’t know what) annoyed me. Mr Q’s cavalier and self-seeking attitude might have had something to do with it. I will guess that future episodes will depict him/her as developing a more rounded character and be a bit more sympathetic, but I do not seem to have the patience to watch this for myself.
Happy Watching to All who are watching this!
Thank you @packmule for providing us with your analysis and also the endings of Go Princess Go. I planned on watching that one because I was so curious of what’s to happen between the King/Emperor and Mr. Queen. The plan is scrapped now. How in the the world could this playboy in the queen’s body end up falling for the Emperor? 😂. And the ridiculouos amount of endings (three! They had to make 3, oh my gosh).
Well, I have faith that Bonghwan will NEVER fall in love with the King! But I hope he would start to act for his host body’s interest. He already get an idea of what happened to SoYoung I think, like he now knows that SY didn’t want to be queen because the King’s not interested in her and also because of all the politics in the palace. On the other hand, yes SoYoung could have jumped to her death for reasons stated above but the secret which Jo Hwajin has knowledge is her tipping point.
I’m looking forward to all the secrets to be revealed. As well as the Queen Dowager’s intentions.
I haven’t watched ep 5 and 6. Will do tonight with sn. So I am skipping comments and will reply soon! 🙂
Packmule3, haha yes, I felt it was awful that the ghostess did not receive any recognition from the male lead.
I can totally understand haha. Shin Hye Sun is such a great actress, and I can imagine her nailing the part to the T. I am curious to see how it ends. 😀
I watched the 6 available episode and could wait to finish them and come here and read what you’ve written about it so far.
With Start-up I couldn’t watch it while it was airing, only binged it afterwards, and there’s so much to read about it.. anyway…
It’s interesting to read about the Chinese version and the novel, I am surprised the queen and kind end up as a couple in all versions. Because they do end up in a love story even if in some they die and in others in the end the queen/chef returns to the present day.
Usually with kdramas we all know (except people in denial like JP’s fans in StartUp) who the main couple is and that there’s going to be romance there (even if they don’t end up together) but here as I kept watching I had zero clue on where this drama is going, and if it’s even going anywhere in terms of romance.
BH has zero interest in the king or any man, he’s not gay and am not sure why he’d suddenly switch and end up attracted to the King ??
And his womanizer ways don’t seem like serious stuff at all. Him with the concubine for example.. it doesn’t even bother me, I think the main purpose of those scenes is to act as comedy. That’s the only way I saw them at least so I haven’t thought to take them seriously and be bothered that he doesn’t care about what he’s doing to the real queen’s reputation with his dumb flirting.
It feels like just comedy, like, look viewer how dubious this person acts, this person who is female only on the outside and is trying to woo this other woman who misunderstands all his over the top advances as the queen being more cunning than she previously thought.
I’m writing my comment here because I want to say something about the Boy Love thing. I’m a super gay friendly person but it’s unclear to me what message a love story between BH and the king would say.
Because for me it would mean that if you’re a boy in a girl’s body you don’t get to keep your sexual preferences but end up somehow attracted to the sex the body you inhabit would normally be attracted to.
So… still unsure where the Korean version of the story will go.
But’s it’s tons of fun to watch
Your episode one analysis really does makes sense.
Am wondering about “host” bodies. In this drama there’s a soul exchange. The bodies remain intact. So brain cells, muscles,organs remain.The queen would still have a uterus and have her periods. our chef would also have his genetalia. If logic was used, there would be memories stored in the queen’s intact brain cells that could be called on. The same could be said for B’s memories. It’s like muscle memory. I hope the writer uses this logic to recall why the queen wanted to take her life. I’d like to see the melding of new soul and old memories to aid in the resolution of this drama. Would like to see real queen have a baby prince with the king-hate that a princess doesn’t count. And I’d love to see the souls returned to their respective bodies with a kicker of a reincarnated queen meeting our chef who truly loves her. That’s my fantasy. Will be curious to see how this is handled by the writer’s.
I know there’s a disclaimer at the start of the drama that this is all fictional but…
The real King Cheolgong had no surviving heir.
The King reigned 13 years, died mysteriously, likely killed by the Kims, was survived by the Queen who became Dowager Queen for another 14 years.
That’s the “skeletal” history. The writer could flesh out the drama with more details.
But I do wish he didn’t reference any royalty. That would have given him leeway with the story.
I saw that. The history sites referencing King Cheolgong all read like a tragedy, not only for the king and his progeny, but for the country as a whole.
I’m coming here after watching the finale and you were spot on! Wow! I didn’t pick up on the little nuances of the beginning, but it makes a lot of sense now. Personally, the ending didn’t sit right with me and I have seen many reviews stating the same opinion.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
******************
edited and reposted comment on the Finale’s Open thread
–pm3
Hey there, @ shapelessbuns (I hope you’ve been exercising during this quarantine, lol).
I’m moving this post of yours to the Finale Open Thread to avoid spoilers. 🙂
LOL @pkml3 I like your name @shapelessbuns. Thanks for the spoiler. I didn’t want to watch this show, but I wanted to know if in the end the souls got back into the right bodies. So now that I know, I’m happy. (I should take up exercising too!)