Empress Ki (2013)

This review also appears on: https://frommelbtoseoul.wordpress.com/2020/04/23/review-empress-ki/

Empress Ki is yet again another drama that I had started during the time it was airing but never followed through to the end. I think a large part of this is because it is a 50 episode drama and I found I couldn’t wait every week for 2 new episodes. My patience was being tested and, admittedly, I failed to pass the test. Now that all 50 episodes are available on Netflix, it made the viewing experience so much better. The fact that I finished watching the entire drama over 4 nights says a lot about how engrossing Empress Ki is - at least for the first 40 episodes.

True to any sageuk (Korean historical drama), Empress Ki is an epic rollercoaster ride, that depicts the ever struggling political landscape of the time period and the power conflicts that occur within the palace. To put a little more context to this drama, as I think it is important, and makes it the viewing experience a lot more understandable and interesting - Empress Ki lived during the Later Three Kingdoms period, having been born in Goryeo. At the time, Goryeo had already been invaded by Mongols and the custom introduced was to send Goryeo ladies to Yuan to serve as concubines to the Mongol emperor. The drama remains fairly accurate in regards to the era and political landscape depiction. However, the timeline and overall story offers viewers a much more dramatised retelling of Empress Ki’s life.

Disregarding historical accuracy and judging this as just a drama amongst other historical dramas, for me, Empress Ki was one of the better historical dramas I have seen. It has been awhile since I’ve watched a sageuk and one with more than 20 episodes, and it made me realise how much I missed watching something in this genre. There was everything I wanted to see from a sageuk. The background story behind Seungyang made me grow attached to her quickly and root for her to win. It’s hard not to like her as a hero with her badass attitude and ability to outsmart her oppositions. As soon as you start the drama you know that she becomes Empress Ki, but the desire to know how she rises from such a difficult childhood is what kept me watching through the first 10 episodes. From there, the remaining important characters also grew on me and I kept watching to see, not only whether Seungyang was bound for a happily ever after, but also what was to happen to them. The drama contains a number of conflicts and plot twists that kept me on my toes, and the fight between the good and the bad drew me in emotionally. It’s never easy to sit back and watch these kind of historical dramas because those who are bad, are really bad, that you want to watch to the end to see if justice is finally served for their evil deeds.

I basically flew through the first 40 episodes due to being so invested in Seungyang’s storyline and the conflicts within the palace. However, after episode 40, I found the drama started to drag on. I felt like we had reached the resolution required for the entire series and would have been content with the drama ending then. Instead, Empress Ki kept playing out the political and power struggles, specifically within the palace between the same people. I grew rather frustrated seeing the storyline go in circles, as it gave me an uneasy feeling about the future of Seungyang and the Emperor of Yuan - the two characters in the drama who I really cared about. Sometimes dramas want to do too much and it does become too much to endure. Still I did, skipping through some scenes, which honestly didn’t affect my understanding of the plot. Despite thinking the last 10 episodes weren’t totally necessary, I did really enjoy the last episode and the way the drama ended. It left me feeling somewhat fulfilled and was the only episode that made me cry. Maybe that’s why I felt satisfied upon completion.

I do think that Empress Ki was still worth the watch for the 40 episodes that I thoroughly enjoyed. A large part of this was how exceptionally well the actors played their characters. I loved the different sides of Empress Ki that Ha Ji Won portrayed, from a kick ass fighter to an intelligent and somewhat cunning concubine. She was an absolute vision when she became a concubine as well. I also grew to love Ji Chang Wook pretty quickly through this, maybe not so much for his character alone, but more so for his acting abilities.

If you are an avid sageuk fan and have not seem this yet, add it to your list. You’re bound to find yourself also rooting for Seungyang and appreciating her story as well as her growth. If you’re not huge on political plots and prefer romance based historical dramas, there is a strong romance focus but might not be enough to override the political aspect for your viewing.

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Great story, captivating drama

I binge-watched it almost.
Ha Ji Won - 9.0 for acting. At moments I would expect more drama but still impressive acting.
Now Ji Chang Wook - I hated his character for poor acting, driven from lack of personality development which is writer's fault. I feel the drama would've benefited more from a more composed, matured emperor towards the end. There's very little manliness added and Ji Chang Wook's acting did not emphasize that.
Generally we are looking at a strong, smart, courageous empress and her even more admirable first love (King of Koryo) caught in a love triangle with an even quitter, coward emperor.
Towards the end, the empresses heart will lean towards her emperor but since there was no character development for the later, it feel illogical.
The plot is captivating, the cliff-hangers will keep you watching episode after episode. Around ep. 35-45 it will get more boring as the Main original conflict is over and the writers build up the story for a second conflict but it never reaches the impact of the first part. Everything is then wrapped-up in 2-3 last episodes leaving a feeling of " what was all the work through-out the last 12 episodes for?"
The ending is sad so it may leave you frustrated as such sad events towards the end were an opportunity in my opinion for actors to show the climax of their acting and characters, but instead it feels like a tentative to end the story abruptly and get over with it.

So: Reasons to watch:
- Ha Ji Won,
- Joo Jin Mo - Greatly acted, the role fit him like a glove, and OMG he so Over-Played Ji Chang Wook [but again the character and writers helped here... In my opinion]
- Story - line.
- Beautiful scenes
- Amazingly good portraying of dramatic emotions of two lovers that are destined to go separate ways.
- If you're into a sad romance - this is one of the best examples available.

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Powerful story, great actors

Let me start my review with the first thought I had after the last episode was finished: What a disappointing ending. 51 episodes of fights, intrigues,betrayal, death and grief - for this? I don’t need necessarily an happy ending but I hoped for justice for Seung nyang and Ta hwan after all they (and the viewers) had been trough.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the drama. To describe my feelings about it I need a German word: Hassliebe. It means you feel love and hate at the same time.

„Empress Ki“ is an impressive and epic drama. I was addicted from episode 1 on. There was always something that kept me on the line, especially if Seung nyang really will fall for this childish Ta hwan and what will happen to Maha when his identity will be revealed. But there were also times I couldn’t stand the drama anymore and I just wanted it to end. Every intrigue and every fight was followed by another - accompanied by battles, killings and penalties. It was to much violence for me. For the last part of drama I just skipped this kind of scences.

The cast was really great, but the most amazing job (for me) did Ji Chang wook to portrayal the unstable character of Ta hwan between fear, insecurity and delusions. Unlike in other historical dramas this crown prince/emperor is such a weak person who tries to be a real ruler but never overcomes his feeling of inferiority. A special place in my heart has the character Tal Tal. He seems to be the only good person in this show who tries to do the right thing without to care about money, power or vengeance.

My conclusion to “Empress Ki”: a powerful story, sometimes a little bit repetitive, big emotions, great actors and a good but not memorable OST.

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The Story of a Powerful Woman

I don't use to write reviews but I felt like this drama deserves one. I was a bit skeptical at first, not knowing if the story is worth enough to watch so many episodes. I've heard opinions about this drama from some of my friends, saying that it's not great. And because of that, I postponed watching it for almost 5 years. Meanwhile I've been studying Korean and Chinese language, culture and literature at university, and to be honest, I feel like if I've watched Empress Ki earlier, it wouldn't have hit me so hard. The depht of the meaning portrayed by this story is hard to understand if you don't have the least of knowledge about these cultures. But I can promise you this drama is worth watching. It submerges you in a world governed by love, dignity, desire for revenge and power, all in the name of justice. It tells the story of a woman from Koreyo who gains power by becoming the empress of the Yuan Dynasty, and so she is able to protect her people from both countries.

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Wow! What a masterpiece! Where should I start from?!
The ACTING was amazing especially Ji Chang Wook. Almost all actors did their best to portray their character. I could deeply feel for each of the characters, even the worse evil ones. The strong point about this drama was that except Wang Yu, none of the characters were idealized. Each character had its own reasons and attitude. Nobody was completely right or wrong. Even the reasoning and arguments of main evil character seemed logical sometimes. Except Wang Yu, each character had interesting and exciting aspects and time to time you may have different feelings about them.
* Wang Yu was too perfect from the first second to the last and this made his character boring. Actually they should have left some space for him to develop.
* Empress Ki was really, really admirable. The strongest female character I have ever seen in dramas. She was a perfect warrior as well as being extremely wise and very attractive.
* Emperor is the character that distinguishes this masterpiece from a lot of dramas of its type: A very weak and hopeless character that at last becomes strong and wise. A really great and amusing character development that also shows how great was Empress Ki that had such an intense effect on him.
The STORY was really great, almost never got bored because each time another surprise came and I got shocked. It included interesting and intelligent plots and there were a lot of times I said "WOW! How could they ever think about such a plan?!". Empress Ki's plans and efforts were really impressive. It assures you that she truly deserves such a high position.
The ROMANCE was really intense and complex. Until the last episode I was not sure about Nyang's true feelings. That made the romance part really exciting. The weak part of a lot of romantic dramas is that after leads find out their true feelings, it gets boring and you just wait for the potential happy ending.
I believe that before strong romance, close friendship should happen and deep love without personal interactions and close friendship is just a fictional subject. To summarize, individuals should spend a lot of time with each other for the love to grow and get deep. This drama confirms my opinion.
Even if the romance is not the only and most important part of the show, but you will watch a satisfying and intense romance that makes you think about the emotional interactions between the leads.
The MUSIC was good and satisfying but not perfect. Actually after Moon Lovers I hardly accept drama OSTs as perfect.
About the REWATCH value, this types of dramas that are highly based of unanticipated incidents and you mostly watch to see who would win the struggle this time, rewatching is not a usual desire. I would also not rewatch it completely but because of the complex romance I will watch scenes with interactions of main leads for the second time.
The ENDING was wonderful one. Now I feel it's not important if ending is happy or sad, it should be meaningful. Not a simple and ridiculous happily ever after ending and not a sad, awful and what-the-hell-has-happened one. A really satisfying ending. For whom is hesitant to watch because of the ending I strongly recommend to try it.

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Extremely well produced

This was a Korean version of grand settings and fabulous costume, and smoking hot actors and actresses. The story was well written and the acting was superb. The drama was intense with moments of humour to lighten the tension. It invoked a whole range of emotions - anger, suspense, sadness, laughter, romance, joy... It featured betrayal and loyalty, love and hatred, and jealousy - the common emotions in life. It was almost like the drama Nirvana in Fire but with the key strategist a woman (a slave girl) instead of a man (a former general).

The story centred around Empress Ki who became the empress in the Yuan (Mongolian) dynasty which ruled China and Mongolia. Although of Korean descent, she rose from a tribute slave girl to the highest female position among the Yuan nobilities. Many of the characters in the story existed in history, but of course the story was twisted to make it highly dramatised - otherwise who would watch it.

The story was very well woven together and very complicated. The story centred around Ki Nyang (the empress), Emperor Toghon Temur of Yuan and King Wang Yoo (Korean King). The Korean King struggled to keep his throne while the Yuan are scheming to take over the kingdom to make it part of the Mongolian empire. Emperor Temur grew from a frightened teenager living in the shadow of his ambitious regents to become an emperor who won the respect of the various feudal lords and commanded an empire. In the middle of it all was their rivalry over Ki Nyang's love.

Empress Ki (Ha Ji Won), Emperor Toghon Temur (Ji Chang Wook), King Wang Yoo (Joo Jin Mo), Tanashili (Bake Jin Hee), Dowager Hwang (Kim Seo Hyung) and Tal Tal (Kim Ji Han) were all smoking hot. What particularly left an impression was Kim Ji Han (Tal Tal). Although he was only a support actor who spoke very little during the drama, he left a strong impression. Instead he spoke with his facial expression - the disbelief, suspicion, concern for the empress (with perhaps a hint that he was in love with her as well but never expressed it)... He was dashingly handsome, certainly the most handsome of the lot, and acted his part with dignity and carriage. In this drama, he was a strategist and general who was calm, collected, knowledgeable, observant, inscrutable, intelligent and rather scheming. It's a pity I did not see many of his dramas where he was the lead actor, listed in mydramalist.com. Hope to see more of him in lead roles in outstanding dramas in future.

Of course, like a lot of dramas, some parts were a little unrealistic - for example, the Emperor on intercepting love letters between King Wang Yoo and Ki Nyang did not confront her. If he had, the entire scheme of the cunning would fall apart. What husband would not say anything and suffer in silence, much less an emperor.

Watching Korean dramas is a refreshing break from Chinese dramas - there are some distinct differences in the way things are interpreted and approached. But you have your eyes glued to the TV so as not to miss the subtitles.

If you know the Yuan dynasty history, they were eventually driven out of Southern China by the Chinese, and Emperor Toghon Temur ruled during this period. Although the story centred around Yuan and Korea with China being left out of it mostly, you should expect what the ending would likely be.

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Right away from the start, they go BAM BAM BAM!

Empress Ki follows a Goryeo woman's journey, forced to leave her homeland (Korea today), who becomes the most powerful woman of a Yuan Empire (China today). Her love is torn between two powerful men of both kingdoms. A story about vengeance, lust for power, loyalty, sacrifice, the blurry line between good and evil, the ugly side of human nature and lastly one woman's quest for justice.

The short verdict to the drama that embroidered me with fantastic emotions:
The pacing is exceptional, will captivate you all the way through, trust me. It has amazing cinematography, love triangle, glorious acting, OSTs and all elements that granted me a million feelings while watching. This drama is one of the most impactful sageuks I've watched so far!!! No skip-watching, no boring scenes... nothing, just enjoyment and excitement through the whole drama! They know where to go and I immediately was along for the ride.

I am utterly in love and honored to have witnessed characters that made me feel all there was to feel and more, to whom I gave standing ovations: Ki Seu Nyang, a true leader; charismatic, smart and unpredictable. Ta Hwan, totally emote with such depth as I got goosebumps witnessing his fear, anger, rage, and him being deranged while still exuding his burning passion. Danashiri, the ultimate villainess who is multidimensional, intimidating but also so endearing. She’s a character on another level, who despite being stronger than our heroes, also showing the fragility of being human.

Regardless the divisive opinions around it I applaud the ending. It's a drama depicting realistic human nature, there's no idealistic changes in the characters' personality. That is the beauty of Empress Ki.

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Epic, heartbreaking story

After a long time of breaks and pauses, I finally finished watching this drama. It was adventurous and thrilling to be a part of Seungnyang's journey to becoming the empress of Yuan. She was powerful and clever when it came to making strategies. Ha Jiwon truly understood the assignment!!

It was heartbreaking to see how almost everyone in the drama dies. I also had a major second lead syndrome while watching the drama. Wangyu and Seungnyang were just made for each other!! It was funny because I would oftentimes curse the Emperor whenever he shows up and tell him to shut up T__T

Yon Feisue was one of the best characters out there. I was literally crying my heart out when I saw her die T__T I also liked the presence of the Empress Dowager. She was so charismatic and her character was played out excellently!

The soundtracks really suited the drama. It was hard to pick a favorite because all of them were beautiful. So far, my favorite one is Park Wankyu's "The Wind."

All in all, this drama is truly epic! Although it's a bit lengthy, no single episode will bore you at all. To those who plan to watch this drama, I just have to remind you how tearjerker this drama is and how it's riddled with so many plot twists :)

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I am rarely ever so wrapped up in a drama and its characters.

This was my first long sageuk that I watched and to those that are scared away by the length I can say that this drama never dragged at any point. The pacing was really quite excellent up until the end, where I actually felt that it was a bit rushed.

I will talk about the characters first because they are the reason I enjoyed this so much. If you want to watch a drama about happy characters who make admirable choices and lead happy lives this is not your show. These characters are all full of flaws and there were numerous times where their actions infuriated me, and yet all the actions that they took were believable in the context of their situation. Seung Nyang is fiercely independent and is difficult to read at times, but her stiff, cold attitude is part of why she is able to survive in her circumstances. Wang Yoo is your typical heroic knight character, but he gets more interesting as he takes on a more active part in the political drama. And Ta Hwan--I must say I was impressed by Ji Chang Wook's acting, and that he was more than just a very pretty face. Ta Hwan is actually quite a pitiful character and could easily be disliked for his foolishness/uselessness/delinquency--call it what you will. Yet I could sympathize with his character. He is a victim of the vicious characters around him who are all vying for power, and many of his faults can be attributed to his upbringing in that toxic environment. All these characters do despicable things, but in the end I came to adore almost all of them. I actually liked the other characters more than the 3 mains. El Temur is such a superior antagonist and he was a huge part of why I enjoyed the story.

Which brings me to the soundtrack--the soundtrack is epic, which is appropriate for a historical drama. El Temur's theme was my all time favourite leitmotif.

Visually, this drama was astounding. They chose a vivid colour palette for the scenes within the palace, which was quite pleasing to watch. This was definitely a high budget project.

As for the storyline, I realize this drama received a lot of criticism for not being historically accurate. I will just review the storyline that the writers have given us. The political intrigue drove the storyline forward, and kept me interested throughout the entirety of the show. Only a few aspects bothered me. One of which were the cheesy loveline scenes at the beginning. One thing to keep in mind is that these characters generally do not have healthy, equal relationships. I would not watch this show looking for great romance. That being said, I did enjoy watching the intricacies of the relationships. The only other aspect that bothered me was the last story arc that I felt could have been better explored--they were nearing the end of their 51 episodes and I felt they tried to pack too many elements in. Even so, I was quite satisfied with the ending.

Having said all that, this drama had me on a rollercoaster of feelings throughout its length, which I actually didn't feel to be so long in the end. The complicated collection of characters and the interesting storyline pulled me along.

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My favorite Drama

This lengthy drama is well damn worth it. Even though it is long, it is not boring at all (i binged watched the 51 episodes in a week or so).
But the length of it is actually really nice, because the characters are very well developed, to the point that they are not stuck in their general theme and evolve alongside the story.
You follow their fails, success, concessions, and change of character throughout this wonderful journey.
I'd say that the actors are all really really good, except for Joo Jin Mo, who has a more tight role to play (he still does a honourable job).
The main character is exceptional : Ha Ji Won plays her role in a very convincing manner and her character is so cool because of her.
I'm so baffled by the whole Empress Ki experience, that i'll most likely rewatch this favorite drama of mine.

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MORAL of the story ... Revenge does not bring happiness or contentment!! Overall I did enjoy this ... It is an 'epic' however it's a kind of Korean 'Telenovela' (soapy) ... I thought the three MC's did a wonderful acting job as did many others of the cast & great to have a consistently strong determined FL ... the pace was relentless (that was both good & bad!) So many plots so many characters so many bad guys ... I don't know how people lived in those times tbh (especially women) Yes there was some love I enjoyed the bromance too between the King's group ... Some humour which was great It mostly wasn't boring but for me a LOT of frustration ensued I certainly enjoyed the first 30 episodes more than the last 20+ ... It did go from sublime to ridiculous ... Firstly it was waaaay too long ... too much faffing about with merchants ... counterfeit currency ... Eagle House ... Mining town (yes all part of the story) but all those scenes could easily be condensed down Secondly ... I hate my intelligence being insulted ... I'm happy to suspend disbelief for certain things of course but when for instance Yang is giving birth at the same time as Tanashilli (fake birth) even though they are MONTHS apart ... & Yang gives birth to a healthy full term baby ... Sorry that was too much for me ... Things like ... All those crates of gold (the fund) are unloaded from the Grand Councillors house in no time even though that would be impossible without anyone seeing (especially with TalTal's arrival imminent) & the weight & volume of it all ... Again nonsense! ... Transcribing all those text books by hand in one night LOL! The many many times they had chances to kill bad guys & let them go (usual plot fav) The way these dramas have the same bad guys coming back again & again & again (CDramas do it too) The plots were just never ending & too much ... We start to go around & around ... There is not enough time given to the rare happy moments for us to enjoy ... We just leap into another plot & crisis more death & sadness I could go on & on ... I hated the fact that the script writers got to the end & then just killed off most of the characters left even though they had gone through 51 episodes avoiding death & traps & plots (good guys & bad) To kill Tal Tal just on a whim for the 'story' with no good reason especially was unforgiveable!! He was my fav character & the King for that matter Didn't make sense! ... There were still people who knew the secret & the Emperor was dying so why kill Wang Yu?? Just pure jealousy that's why Using Wang Yu's love for Yang against him! He couldn't help but be vinditive He enjoyed it You could see it in his face... & don't get me started on the bad hammy acting & those stupid villains maniacal laughs ... haha OMG

I knocked off an extra star for the LUDICROUS story line that Golta the Emperor's eunuch was the leader of Eagle House! with one of his personal body guards as his assistant ... I literally laughed out loud at that ... & the fact that although they could find out anything mostly neither Yang or Wang Yu could uncover his identity & that he was the leader ... What? ... Just use spies!! ... Isn't that what they usually do? Don't insult me script writers ... & Yang didn't notice the King was ill or being poisoned Really!!? SMH

I must be the only one who didn't like the Emperor character & I don't know how she could 'love' him like she did Wang Yu ( I mean she forced the situation completely so I didn't buy the 'love' thing)... Well-acted but totally unlikeable character ... Childish selfish controlling abusive unstable paranoid ... I don't think it was 'love' It was obsession with him He latched on to the first person who showed him kindness ... No woman I know would stay with a man like that Yes at times he could be sweet loving funny BUT mostly NOT ( I know he had a hard time) but no excuses ... I liked Yang better with the King ... Handsome Stoic Honourable Kind Intelligent Loyal ... Yes he could be 'cold' perhaps but his heart was filled with all the good stuff Great expressive eyes ... I actually shipped her with the King or my lovely Tal Tal ... He would've been a good partner
So would I rewatch? NO ... (I'd rewatch Tal Tal scenes) but not the rest ... It's not the best ever for me

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