Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency (2019)

I'm not gonna lie saying this: I decided to watch this drama because of the big amount of comments saying that it was a "No-No".
A lot of people dropping it and stuff like this.

So, I just got curious and decided to give it try.
Once finished it, I can tell that it wasn't THAT bad. I mean, I was expecting something definitely worse
(I prepared myself for the worst).
It wasn't a masterpiece but it was decent. I liked it.

The way writers built each character in a different way, with a different (and sad) background was really a good idea.
I liked that.
Still, I can understand why people lost their interest in it: there was no development. This is 'cause writers preserved it for a big finale. But I'm gonna talk about this later.
I think that another problem was Soo's character. He was so marginal, kinda meaningless. The writers weren't able to let viewers get attached to him. They could have worked so much on his character...
Talking again about the plot development.
The problem was this: the whole drama IS in the LAST episode, basically.
I'm serious. It was like the writers put all their ideas there. In fact ep. 16's finale was SO rushed. It's really a shame. This could have been a lot more interesting and entertaining and there could have been a different development of the story itself, but also of characters and their relationships.
A lot of WASTED POTENTIAL.
(OST awesome. I really liked it).

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I started this drama because I was missing Kim Min Jae. Yep, that was the reason I decided to give this drama a chance. The plot didn’t particularly sound appealing but I’ve been so lost in the Chinese historical drama world that I decided that this Korean drama could be a welcome change while still feeding my hunger. LOL IKR WTF WAS I THINKING. I thought that with Min Jae, I could make it through anything, even if I didn’t make it through Goblin, Hit The Top, or Tempted. Mmm maybe he picks shitty scripts? I dunno. Add Seungyeon as the lead and I thought at the very least, the acting would be decent because they’re both very capable young actors. Thus, I set out on my journey with this drama.

While I didn’t find the first few episodes to be atrocious, I did find them a tad boring and not like what I thought this drama was supposed to be. That being said, I wasn’t immediately turned off and kept watching. This was also due to my innate need to be petty and continue this drama because all the Seo Ji Hoon stans were mad that Min Jae was the lead. Ji Hoon did look sexy as fuck as the locksmith, so I can understand.

However, after those first 4-6 episodes………..

I have said previously that I am a fan of messy plots as long as they are entertaining. The problem here isn’t that it is necessarily a messy plot, but rather something that manage to be stagnant and arduous. There was the overarching theme/storyline that we know is there, but we’re riddled with so many other things that even though it all connects, I am just left with a feeling of why should I give a fuck. And sure enough a fuck I did not give. It sucks to say, but this is straight up fifteen episodes of buildup with a shitty unsatisfactory payoff. The tensions of the political aspect was never felt. I never felt like there was any fear in anything and I felt that maybe the writer wanted there to be more than sixteen episodes? There was this idea of “a marriage case per episode” that I found interesting, but then that disappeared. It was like everything was expected to be serious and not serious. But honestly, that is to be expected considering they literally had a scene where they played ‘It’s Me (Pick Me)’ and the women were ‘auditioning’ to join the crew.

I am having a hard time figuring out what the saving grace for this drama is. A part of me wants to say it is the romance, but I am not completely convinced. Like in the moment the scenes were all great and romantic, and I think it was due in part to the chemistry between Seungyeon and Min Jae, but it wasn’t particularly memorable. I also didn’t like the constant miscommunication between them. To me, it was so contradicting to see Gae Tong, not just tell Ma Hoon, “Yo! I wanna be a noble lady for my brother, not Soo!” I know that she didn’t tell him sooner cause she thought he would send her home, but like that was definitely contradicting to what we’ve seen of her personality. Oh silly me, I forgot that women become timid, fragile, babies when we fall in love.

Since it’s not the romance then surely it must be the characters, right? RIGHT. Yeah no.. Definitely wasn’t that at all. While everyone did a good job with what they were given, I cannot stand dramas that try to come off as modern and progressive with their female characters because that ends up being the complete opposite. We have our female lead who got coerce into this marriage with her childhood sweetheart simply because he was there and like family. She then moves on to fall in love with a guy who was nice to her, maybe four times. There was Ji Hwa , who honestly could’ve been so much more than they designated her to, and I even thought they were going to do that, but talk about zero character growth. And of course, the Queen Dowager was a moron and the palace maid who died for no reason, but to increase Soo’s man pain. I won’t give a thesis lecture on the issues with the portrayal of the females in this drama, but like if you wanna be tropey, stick with being tropey and don’t try to do something else because it comes off as insincere.

I suppose now we’re left with the music and I mean, that was about as expected. A few songs stayed in my mind after each episode, but that’s because of stockholm syndrome. After completing all sixteen episodes, I just felt relief that it was finally over and maybe I can see Min Jae and Seungyeon again in something else.

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A well-written story of love, drama and suspense.

A well-written story that will keep you entertained until the very end. Flower Crew has drama, suspense, comedy, political intrigue, and romance that will make your heart flutter. Sometimes I read a negative review, and I wonder if that person even watched the same drama. So many people skip over and fast forward through episodes, then try to write a review as if they had some hidden awareness. Don’t make that mistake; every episode in this drama is essential. The story is well written, each episode building up to a grand finale. Subplots are all completed, nothing left to the imagination.

The acting was fantastic. Gong Seung Yeon’s portrayal of Gae Ddong/Yoon Su Yeon was the backbone of the drama. From the first episode until the very end, she pulled each character into her circle of excellence. Kim Min Jae as Ma Hoon matched well with her, as did the other ML Seo Ji Hoon, who played Lee Soo/Kim Soo, the King. In addition, dual villains kept everything exciting and provided enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The romantic story was perfect, with the flow of love between FL and ML building up the entire drama. If you feel sorry for losing ML, that tells me you didn’t watch the whole series. The chemistry wasn’t blazing, and the kisses were average, but the romance was over the top—a match made in heaven. Two people pushed together by fate find love under the most difficult of circumstances.

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" Flower Crew : Joseon Marriage Agency " had a strong start. The young couple was cute and a delight to watch, as well as the agency, which had interesting characters to crew it. Each character was unique and entertaining, especially Park JiHoon's character, who had a nice twist in the end as well.

The big twist in the begining was pretty good and it kept things interesting until everyone could figure out what had happened. However, the drama started getting boring after a while. The romance, especially the love triangle, was just predictable and it didn't have the intensity to make it great. The couple didn't have chemistry as well. The drama, in addition, stopped showing cases for the flower crew to pick up and they mainly focused on the making of the main character into a lady. Plus, the leading lady's character was annoying from time to time.

So, overall, five out of ten.

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Nothing in this depressing midevil tale tries to be original. Well, there is that techno Kpop dance.

Flower Crew is a huge mess of a series. At it its core it is the same vying for the throne Joseon story that Korea just keeps making on repeat. It dresses itself up as a cute comedy of an all male team of matchmakers, but doesn't deliver on that premise. The opening scene is the death of the king followed by an assassination of the prince. Now lets pan to some small town where a lonely peasant girl is breaking her back trying to earn enough money to both survive and hire someone to find her enslaved brother who has been missing since she was a child on the run.

And there it is folks, a comedy for the ages!

This tale follows the point by point checklist of what a Joseon story should possess.

1) Politicians vying for power and trying to overthrow the throne: Check
2) A King with no power who must figure out how to out maneuver the politicians that surround them : Check
3) Peasants caught in the middle of the political fray that will decide the fate of the story: Check
4) An entire subplot about consolidating power by wedding the king to his queen: Check
5) A queen dowager with her own plans for the kingdom: Check
6) A courtesan house that features all the secrets and information of everything happening: check
7) A love that is against all odds and hangs in the balance as everyone plays their cards: check
8) The big bad has a single swordsman assassin that does all their evil wetwork: check

Oh but again, this is a comedy not a drama. Did we tell you that?

For the first few episodes the show actually tries to pretend it is a comedy and not just a stale Joseon tale. The matchmakers actually do some matchmaking. There are attempts at comedy. The shows always has a sound effects laden soundtrack roaring with cat calls, dinging bells, kazoo glides, and other zany noises to say, hey look, this is funny. You should laugh now. And there is enough slow motion tripping and falling into peoples arms and long stares to fill up 30 minute You Tube clip collection video.

And then our second male lead is taken to the palace, crowned as king, and held against his will......and the story never looks back.

Character wise you get a handful of stock archetypes. Our main male lead Ma Hoon (Kim Min Jae) is the stoic soft hearted intelligent nobleman with a tragic backstory. Our second male lead is Lee Soo (Seo Ji Hoon) a noble kind lovelorn blacksmith son who ends up the secret bastard of the now dead king. Our female lead Gae Ddong (Gong Seung Yeon) is a tough as nails ex slave who will do anything for coin (except sex stuff). This is our triangle and this is where we will spend the bulk of our time. For the most part you can like and love these three. They mostly always error on the side of good, and remain heroes for the length of the series run.

That can not be said for the rest of the cast. Our second female lead Kang Ji Hwa (Go Won Hee) has not a single redeeming quality. She is one of the females that will vie to be queen. Along the way she will beat servants, sell of slaves, break promises, degrade our core characters, and help in a plot of attempted murder. Yet the story will still make her the love interest of one of our Matchmakers Do Joon (Byeon Woo Seok) as the second couple of the series. In doing so it basically assassinates Do Joon's character in his willful blindness to accept the monstrous things Ji Hwa does, and love her anyway. Why any of the rest of the cast have anything to do with him by the end is a bit of a head scratcher.

Though you also have Go Young Soo (Park Ji Hoon) as our final matchmaker and likely the most problematic character of the series. Designed to be the comic relief, his character is basically there to annoy everyone. He attacks the female lead constantly. Is jealous that our main lead Ma Hoon is giving his time to someone other than him. (There are lots of references that he may be gay and in love with Ma Hoon. And Ma Hoon seems okay with that and loves him back as much as he can which is kinda cool). Yet, the character will ultimately be given the most backstory of anyone with horrific flashbacks of his time before becoming part of the Flower Crew. This back story has lots of lifting to do, as it is meant to explain is superficialness and justify some horrible actions he will eventually take.

Everyone else is evil and there to do bad stuff.

I will say I never forgive any of the characters, the story doesn't give me time to, nor give the characters enough remorse over their actions to warrant it. There is a lot of betrayal. There is more gore than is to be expected. And there are fight scenes that look like they were made by a high school film class. Which makes for a very lackluster affair. Even more odd is the choice of the soundtrack, which oscillates between love ballads, kpop, and techno, in a Joseon period historical show. There is even a dance number to the techno as the flower crew tries to hire a female to join their ranks. It is definitely the last straw on any viewers looking at this series as anything of weight or noteworthiness. This is not a trend I can get behind Bridgerton!

In the end, this series is utterly and easily forgettable. It isn't good at anything it tries to do. As a Joseon piece it is repetitive, derivative, poorly constructed and a joke in historical context. As a comedy it is tragic, depressing, horrific, and serious. As a romance it falls limp and asks us to ship a side couple that viewers will have a really hard time getting behind and rooting for. While I do like the two main male leads, both doing excellent work here in acting while also being attractive hunks, that is really the only praise I have for this. I could have done without every wasting my time here. 4.5/D/ 2 1/4-stars. Flaws far outweigh the strengths here. Outside of a few bright spots little enjoyment really exists.

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Another kdrama that has recieves negative feedbacks and then one time I saw its trailer on ABS-CBN (local tv in PH) and I find it cute so I just give it a try. First few episodes was funny and cute and then the story gets very interesting on the rest of the episodes. Not a common story for me. This drama is not that bad at all. But I had a Second Lead Syndrome to KING SOO hehehe... I like him more to be with Gae Tong because I can feel the sincerity of his feelings towards her. Matchmaker Ma is also good looking and I also got kilig on how he express his feelings to Gae Tong... Sorry But CHOOOONAAAH (jeonha) has more qppeal to me hahaha... ????

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"Let Us Share Each Other Fortune and Misfortune" (Ma Hoon, English sub)

The low rating seems due to the poster, trailer, and synopsis give us a false assumption of a light fluffy romcom drama about Flower Crew marriage agency attempt to transform a plain looking street girl to become a noble lady since the King wants to marry her. Although there are plenty of fun scenes but this drama also reveals dark features of social class issues, political struggles, multiple enemies, complicated schemes, several deaths, cruelty, betrayal, deceptions, and riot.

STORY - Since the synopsis is misleading, I rewrite it below:
Flower Crew is a famous matchmaking agency in Joseon era, operated by 3 handsome noblemen: the refined and intelligent leader Ma Hoon, the carefree playboy Do Joon, and the lively fashionista Young Soo. Kim Soo, the son of a village blacksmith, requests the agency's service to marry his best friend Gae Ddong, a former slave, whom he is in love with. Unfortunately, on the wedding day, the groom and his father mysteriously disappear, and soon after that the bride is hunted down by assassins. Out of pity, Ma Hoon took Gae Ddong in. To pay off the wedding expenses she works as an apprentice for the agency, and with the crew she finds friendship and love. What starts as a simple wedding plan become complicated, when Kim Soo reappears as the newly crowned puppet King of Joseon. The crew and Gae Ddong's life are at stake, because the King still wants to marry Gae Ddong despite of political struggles he is facing.

This drama compels me to do a quick research about social status and marriage issues during Joseon era our lovely characters are facing. There are spoilers below so please do not proceed reading if you want to see some surprises straight by watching the drama.

SOCIAL STATUS AND MARRIAGE ISSUES - The royalty and four social classes during Joseon era:

- the royalty - King Lee Soo. Since he wants to marry Gae Ddong but he can only marry a noble lady, The Flower Crew has to manipulate her status to be a yangmin. Outside the noble class, women from lower status can only become his concubines.
The king's marriage is arranged by Queen Dowager through tight selection process. Yoo Soo Yun gets chosen as the other candidates are disqualified, but King Lee Soo releases her by granting her permission to marry another man. Without the royal letter, she has to stay unmarried forever.
After the riot, the Queen Dowager status is stripped off so there is no longer any female royalty elders to conduct the selection. In the end King Lee Soo can choose any yangmin, that's how he gets many marriage proposals from noble ladies.

- the noble class (yangmin), right below the royalty. Consists of the scholars, heroes, and top level government positions.
Their family trees and identities are registered by the government. Ma Hoon owns the noble registration book.
Ma Hoon and Ji Hwa are the real yangmin. Do Joon was a yangmin before but due to family issue his status is moved down, possibly to a cheonmin. Young Soo and Yoo Soo Yun are fake yangmin. Young Soo gets a noble name from Ma Hoon since the real Young Soo emigrate abroad Joseon never comes back. Yoo Soo Yun gets a noble name from Ma Hoon since the real Yoo Soo Yun is deceased but never registered by her father.
Noble ladies actually suffer more stricter lives than women from lower class, due to the Confucianism rules. As a yangmin Ji Hwa will become a possession of her future husband, therefore she insists to at least choosing a nobleman to marry. Her only candidate is Ma Hoon, whose father is at top government level than her father at the second, but since Ma Hoon rejects her she moves up her target to King Lee Soo.

- the middle class (chungmin) - the white collars.
The Flower Crew agency is a chungmin business, therefore the Head of State Councilor/Ma Hoon's father, the Second State Councilor/Ji Hwa's father, and Ji Hwa despise their work as lowly jobs. Ma Hoon picked the office location in the alley, as the business equal for any social class to request for marriage arrangements.
After the riot, the Ma family and the Kang family are stripped off their status, and all their assets are taken for the country. There are possibilities the whole familes are eradicated too, but since Ma Hoon and Ji Hwa helped the King during the riot, they are given amnesty to live and are only moved down to chungmin. Therefore we see in the last episode that Ma Hoon told Gae Ddong that he is nothing and has nothing. We also see Ji Hwa lives in a modest house in the outskirt of town while doing business for survival helping people taking state exams.

- the commoners (sangmin) - the blue collars.
The blacksmith Kim Soo is a sangmin, who can marry Gae Ddong as she is a cheonmin. At first, Ma Hoon rejects his request several times, because commoner's wedding ceremony is simple and Kim Soo may not have much money for the marriage. However he insisted and promised the queen hairpin inherited from his mother as the wedding payment, that Ma Hoon took the job.

- the outcast (cheonmin) - slaves, kisaeng, dirty job workers, street entertainers.
Gae Ddong and Chil Nom are run-away/former slaves and Gae Ddong's brother Kang is a slave. Kim Soo saved her from slavery by telling her captors that she is his wife. She becomes a free cheonmin doing any kind of jobs.
Chil Nom was saved by Ma Hoon, and when Ma Hoon finds out that Chil Nom has sense of fashion and style, he recruited the boy to be a matchmaker instead of a servant and gave him a yangmin name. He is very proud of his yangmin status and berates Gae Ddong at first, although they were from the same boat.
Do Joon is a cheonmin due to impoverished family. He lives at the kisaeng house and plays music to entertain in the street. Ma Hoon recruited him to be an informant for the business, therefore by profession he is a chungmin. At first, Ji Hwa thought he is a carefree chungmin and does not want to take state exam to be a yangmin, but he cannot take it to move up his social status. Only the King can grant him a permission letter to be able to take the exam, hence moving up his social status.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS DRAMA:
(+) No dragging scenes. Subplots and many side stories make this drama interesting to watch, as we cannot guess what the next scene will be.
(+) Superb editing to bring all the important and not so important scenes together on a thrilling ride
(+) I learned about the social class differences connecting to marriages in Joseon era
(+) I learned about the traditional Chilseok holiday and Jiknyeo and Gyeonwu folklore. I will not talk about it here, but check out the link below if interested:
https://asiasociety.org/korea/chilseok-traditional-korean-valentine%E2%80%99s-day
(+) Stunning cinematography. The ones I love especially are romantic scenes where couples are standing on a bridge. It has symbol of Chilseok mythology mentioned above
(+) Beautiful OST. Here is the link in Youtube to listen to the songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0-rlc5kig
(+) Gorgeous costume, especially Young Soo's clothing
(+) Outstanding make up, especially in the scenes of filthy and bloody Chil Nom

ACTING/CAST
I have not seen all five actors/actresses' other dramas so my evaluation is only based on this drama:
(+) Character Ma Hoon is probably the perfect groom criteria, he has everything: handsome, nobleman, powerful family background, intelligent, resourceful, independent, business savvy, well-spoken, calm, compassionate, open-minded... what else? Interestingly, some comments stated that Ma Hoon is outshined by other characters due to his stoic expression and quiet demeanor. I briefly saw actor Kim Min Jae in Goblin but cannot judge his performance from a guest role, but I think Kim Min Jae is just nailed the Ma Hoon role.
(+) Character Gae Ddong go thru many role transformations: a runaway slave, an ill-mannered tough street girl, a forlorn jilted, a matchmaker newbie, a woman in love, a fake noble lady, and finally a woman of dignity. Actress Gong Seung Yeon brought up every stage of Gae Ddong flawlessly, from a woman crying poor-me to a woman with inner strength
(+) Many said that there is no chemistry between Ma Hoon and Gae Ddong, but I think they have a natural chemistry that grows based on the roles and the drama plot. The ones who saw the BTS scenes witnessed that actually the leads were comfortable with each other. But the story line does not let them to be close to each other easily. It starts with disliking each other from Gae Ddong faking a bride and spreading bad rumors about the agency, to a strictly business related since she becomes a real bride of Kim Soo. Their genuine relationship starts after the cancelled wedding and their feelings bloom once Gae Ddong becomes an apprentice. Still, the return of the groom pulls back their relationship to a teacher-student relationship, especially from Ma Hoon's side, and the obligation to save the King and country. Their chemistry (though pretty obvious), are more thru eye contacts, gifts, encouraging words, and caring acts than hugging and kissing (which there are evident).
(+) Actor Seo Ji Hoon is perfectly chosen as Kim Soo or King Lee Soo, that many shipped for Soo-Ddong coupling than Hoon-Ddong coupling, and get Second Lead Syndrome because of it. The role also goes to many transformation from a blacksmith-in-love, to a concerned and lonely Lee Soo, a broken-hearted Kim Soo, and finally a wise and smart king in the end.
(+) I have thought that the role Young Soo is just a merry-maker similar to Yong-Ha in Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Little that I know that the story written for Young Soo's past is very painful and terrifying, worst than Gae Ddong's past. Actor Park Jin Hoo, despite of his flower boy look and K-idol background, acted amazingly as the fashionista with PTSD, possibly is perfected his long acting career as a child actor.
(+) Character Ji Hwa is interesting as she is a rebellious noble lady who goes against father's will and has her own ambition to go to the top position. Actress Go Won Hee did a great job portraying an elegant yet mean lady, proving that she can take either protagonist or antagonist role in her acting career.
(+) Although in my opinion actor Byun Woo Suk's performance is not as outstanding as other characters, but his Do Joon role pairing with Ji Hwa as the second couple is interesting to watch due to their different social status and Ji Hwa's ambition to marry someone better than Do Joon like Ma Hoon or the King. Besides, what else to say, just watching this gorgeous tall guy with long hair playing music (piano in Joseon dynasty, everyone???) while flirting with girls is a guilty pleasure by itself
(+) The silent war and bickering between the Head State of Councilor and Second State Councilor are delightful to watch and added to the ever increasing thrill. Outstanding jobs for veteran actors Park Ho San and Jung Jae Sung playing the antagonists.

WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT THIS DRAMA:
(-) Second Male Lead Syndrome for sure because Seo Ji Hoon's handsomeness and acting
(-) There is no or a very little character growth for Ji Hwa from bad to good. She still wants Gae Ddong to die in the last scene when Do Joon asks where Gae Ddong and Young Soo are. She probably does not change her mind because of her love for Do Joon or his words, but more of smart thinking that by telling the fact she will be saved if her father's rebellion fails. but the writer does not give enough time for Ji Hwa to undergo a tsundere transformation adequately.






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Flower Crew is a show that, to me, exceeded the sum of its individual parts. I was immediately hooked after reading the premise and couldn't wait to begin watching. Despite being initially disappointed to find the story not going where I wanted it to, I really enjoyed it and think you might too.
(Also, my first review. Not sure why I thought this drama would be a good starting point or why I'm doing this at 2 AM.)

Story: 8
The story breaks down into three parts for me: the romance, the Flower Crew's jobs, and the political intrigue.
The main love line is very sweet, a little cringe... oh and there's real kissing *gasp* Scandalous. There is a love triangle but I never felt overly concerned by the second ML. There is also a second love line that was very interesting to watch play out.
The Flower Crew's jobs serve primarily to introduce you to the members, their skillsets, their relationship dynamics, etc. I was a little saddened that this format died off once we knew more about them as I would've been totally down for a season of episodic matchmaking.
The political intrigue was by far the weakest element and while I understand it is a staple of saeguks, I wish the screen time devoted to it was considerably less. This is not to say the intrigue was ridiculous and nonsensical, but should highlight how much I enjoyed watching the Flower Crew help their clients (and themselves) find love.

Acting/Cast: 9.5
aka "Why I (usually) keep watching kdramas".
Kim Min Jae as Ma Hoon: Plays your "cold ML waiting for his warm FL" to perfection. And if you've never heard his speaking voice before... You're in for a treat. There were times I felt his character was overpowered but other times the opposite so I guess it balances?
Gong Seung Yeon as Gae Ddong: Down on her luck, headstrong (lol), and just lovely to watch. She delivered one of my favorite love confession scenes in recent memory and wished I was on that bridge with her.
Seo Ji Hoon as Soo: played a very sympathetic ML adjusting to a radically different reality. While I didn't love the politics, I would like to add that I really enjoyed watching Soo learn how to navigate the relationships of the court and especially his real talk with the eunuch.
Park Ji Hoon as Go Young Soo and Byun Woo Suk as Do Joon: entertaining characters played very well. Any scenes with the complete Flower Crew were scenes I loved. A minor complaint is that we got Do Joon's backstory quite early on but Young Soo's didn't come in until the last quarter or so.
Go Won Hee as Kang Ji Hwa: loved LOVED her character. I admired her conviction when it came to her life and the sacrifices she was willing to make (and not make) in order to achieve her goals.

Music: 8
This is going to be disappointing for people expecting to find real insight here, but I'm not one of those people who pay a lot of attention to the OSTs. I'll usually categorize them as "bad" if they break my immersion (One Spring Night), "good" if they don't (Hotel del Luna), and "amazing" if they're Goblin or My Mister. This was good.

Rewatch Value: 6.5
Once you reach the end of this road and you know how to get there, much of the excitement is lost. I could see myself rewatching some of my favorite scenes (the confession) but I don't think a full re-watch would happen anytime soon.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Hope you enjoy the show :)

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I think the cast is the best part since it provided us some new good faces without forgetting the veterans. The chemistry really got me. It is difficult for me to stop reminiscing the story even after finishing it so I decided to watch it again. The kilig feels it gives to the viewers is too much. I swear this is gonna be somewhere on top of my recommended drama list.
I really loved that one of my bebe bois, Kim Min Jae starred this drama. He really deserves the lead role. He gave so much justice to the character. Additionally, it is Gong Seung Yeon everybody! The gorgeous actress, she made me call her Gae Ttong for real haha. Love the cast so much and the story!!

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I loved it idc what people are saying

Holy shit. I am SHOOK AF at this show oh my god. It's traversing so many issues with such stunning sincerity I'm really impressed. Obviously this show does not reflect "historically accurate norms" but set against Joseon era, I'm shocked at how well they explore themes of classicism and feminism. Gae Ddong's status as a slave should not afford her any freedom nor power, yet the privilege of power is something she crosses over easily simply by knowing her own self worth. She didn't take power with brutality and violence, she wasn't given power and had to be beholden to someone for the gift of power, Gae Ddong understood that she had it all along. Power is not something you can take, it's something you have. Statesman Yun giving Gae Ddong his daughter's name was a gift of love, not a power play. Meanswhile the King seeks to attach his entire identity and self worth to the idea of a person. Hoon did not believe in love but it was not romance that he had to learn, it was a lesson in being able to care for something even though it might bring you grief and pain. It's such a great way of showing people as their honest selves. Once you strip away imposed roles and the frills, people only just have themselves and how much they love themselves is how much they can love other people.
I also love Statesman Ma's candid acknowledgement of Hoon's inability to know when to stop. I love that he's still trying to "take" power and struggles to keep above his enemies. No one player has all the cards, everyone is just struggling. Gae Ddong is the only one who is free of these plagues. She cursed her misfortune but really, her one thing was to find her brother and now she is free.
They also dip into ideas of gender, class and trauma and I'm like "thank god SOMEBODY did it!" - the way period pieces portray violence is like, nobody ever is affected by it (the actual violence itself, not just losing somebody) and for Young Soo to be the one is just the best.
I love, love LOVE it when characters arcs reflect bigger themes and concepts and their stories are what drives the narrative. Ugh love it so much I want to write a goddamn report about this show.

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Just my opinion...

I know I'm going to get heat, but I REALLY disliked this drama. Kim Min Jae - I've loved him in everything I've seen him in, but what the heck? What was it for me, lack of chemistry? Bad writing? I don't know, but the secondary storyline certainly was more interesting than the ML and FL.

Add to that, in historical garb all the men look alike, and all the women look alike. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what was going on. I will be the first to admit that historical dramas are not my "go to" but I have watched a couple that I've really liked.

This drama had entirely too many episodes, apparently to fit in all the unnecessary ancillary storylines that they felt the need to inject into it.

In closing, even though I didn't like it, I'd say give it a try. Maybe I was in a bad mood while watching it, maybe all that satin was giving me some kind of trauma, maybe the beads on the hats made me think of abacus, which made me think of math, which sent me off the deep end. Remember, it's just my personal opinion.

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