Il Re e la Spia (2024)

It captured the meh

As with many sageuk dramas, the setting, pageantry and historical references hook us in. The plot and characters sustain it. Unfortunately, this series is patchy in the last two and its quality suffers.

The first few episodes are nicely done. The idea of the FL being a baduk master is novel, but it has its own narrative issues. Regardless, it set up the meet-cute of the OTP. We are left with no doubt that the romance of our leads is the corner stone of this drama. This is problem #1.

As with many Korean court dramas, the FL ended up having to cross-dress just to get access to the ML. The FL is just not convincing as a man. It also hamstrings her performance. There are moments of animation but it mostly feels wooden.

Unsurprisingly, the main theme is standard issue palace intrigue. There are the odd twists, but they are mere ripples in a mill pond. All the classic courtly characters are there. Both good and evil. The veteran actors turn in solid performances but this is bread and butter for them.

The run-of-the-mill political shenanigans is problem #2. We run through several backstabbing plots as expected. Each time we arrive at a flashpoint we’d get our hopes up. Is this the turning point? Will we see some major realignment? Alas, after each bump, the show would settle back to a long period of doldrum.

Other than the romance and political maneuvers, we must contend with a simmering revenge plot. Unfortunately, this has issues as well. So much time and energy have been devoted to this but at the 11th hour, the protagonist found out that it is all a misunderstanding. We knew this all along so . . . Doh.

Obviously, the evil characters are going to get their comeuppance. However, just like the muddled revenge plots, the righting of such wrongs took its sweet time. Everyone knows who they are but other than much gnashing of teeth, not a great deal happens and then everything happened. By then, I'm past caring.

As I mentioned before, romance of the leads is key. However, their chemistry is questionable. Their skinship mostly leaves me cold. Their first kiss is good but I challenge anyone to feel excited after watching their last kiss in the finale. Go on, watch it and tell me I'm wrong. I double dare you!

Thankfully, the acting of the ML steadied the ship. He was 10 times more animated than the FL and his acting is next level. However, he can't compensate for every shortcomings of this drama.

In the end, the series is watchable but there is nothing new. There are the odd highlights. The ending is a bit ponderous. You’d think an HEA ending is a given. Not so fast, chingu. It is as if the writer is having a bet each way. I have no idea why you'd do that at this late stage. It does reflect on the drama as a whole.

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Lack of reason overshadows credibility.

It's a good series to watch overall. I congratulate the production team and director, except for the scriptwriter. Particular attention was paid to the clothes, I congratulate this team twice. Other than that, the script had too much nonsense. First of all, it was not believable that our Badukçu Girl went to take revenge on the king with the same face and the same clothes. Even though the king said he would kill you, he did not. Afterwards, I had to punish you, and after a certain period of time, he sent his guards and asked them to save him. However, for some reason, this happened right at the time he was going to be killed. Badukçu fell off the cliff. The baduk maker's own servants find him and save him. This is also very interesting, you are there at this exact moment and are rescued. Then this girl of ours comes for revenge, wearing the same clothes and the same face, and appears before the king. He's making plans to kill her. Do you think it's believable? I think no. Nobody understood why this screenwriter did this. In addition, those who betrayed were rewarded instead of being killed. It was ridiculous. Our lead girl could neither be a man nor a woman. Caught between two games. His acting was next to nothing. So it wasn't there. It was just an empty image. However, Jo Jung Suk performed phenomenally. He may have been crushed under it. I don't know, but I didn't like the actress. Apart from the male lead, Choi Dae Hoon who plays the King, Park Ye Young who plays Lady Gong, Queen Mother Jang Young Nam, Hyun Bo. Yang Kyung Won, Lee Kyu Hoe who played the Prime Minister, Guard Kang Hong Suk, and Child Prince Choi Ye Chan were good actors that caught my eye. Apart from the script, it was a successful production. The scriptwriter has done a shame on the series. I couldn't feel the love in the series, I couldn't get the emotion. It's actually a love story, but it doesn't seem to have happened. Looks like it had a happy ending...

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a rant about veneers

This drama started with a geart story, good plot, amazing characters wit personalities, however i think it fell off at the end. The ML is an amazing actor, I've been a fan for a few years and he embodies royalty like no other, perhaps a little too self-righteous. But the FL feels a little boring, not to mention her crying is weird, like she's trying to look pretty no matter what. And i don't mean to criticize her looks but does she have veneers? i know it's kind of a trend lately, she looks way too modernized to be in a historical setting.

Something about historical dramas that i personally don't enjoy are open endings, it feels like there's more to the story but it is already finished and I'm waiting for something else to happen because the story kept building up. Did they really end up together? Does the King forgive his mother? Does the crown prince ascend the throne? Did the king choose a Queen? they kept bothering him about that even i wanted him to choose one.

But what i really liked about this drama was the ost, I feel like all TVN productions always excels in soundtrack songs

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Great production, well-casted ML, disappointing script

final personal review:
wow, I must say I am disappointed beyond anticipation. great start, questionable middle and absolutely dull end. There are great visuals and production which makes so hard not to watch. But the screenwriters were either replaced of completely abandoned any effort somewhere around the end of the first half. The characters are unrelatable (that is the kindest way to put it) and the story absolutely holds no coherence whatsoever. Now to the actors, Jo Jung Suk is probably holding the thing somewhat together, the rest is doing also well considering the script they have to work with. But I am sorry to say this ,but the FL should've gone to somebody else. She has no connection with rhe camera - and thus the viewers ( I've noticed this about the actress in the Bride of Habaek deama as well unfortunately) , she seems to be washed out by anybody else in the picture with her, and she seems very weak even in scenes where the character shows strenght.
So for the actors I think kudos are due to jo Jung Suk and honestly even Mrs Jang Young -the maniac queen was quite concicing . As for the characters Captain Joo is still my favorite as well as the mature crown prince. Sleazy ex-fiance-wannabe made nice chatacter arc taht didn't feel too forced, so that was quite good.
Overall the first episodes set the expectations hight either for political side , romance or revenge drama. I feel like the final product delivered neither, I wouldn't mind the melow political finish had it been melow from the start , as they managed to rile everything up in th wforst half, the second fell quite short. As for the romance and revenge, it felt like there was none. The main couple became so boring I couldn't even bring myself to be curious about their ending together. Both love and revenge plot seemed to peak around episode 8-9 and after that it was diluted more and more.
My finalnconclusion is, that the drama should be renamed "Captivating scenery" instead, as the viauals are really the most captivating thing about rhis drama from viewers' perspective.

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Captivating The King Failed to Captivate Me

Before I start, what the %&@* was up with the ML's beard ?

I started it because I am a lover of the historical genre and I was interested in seeing how they planned on writing a fictitious animosity between Qing and Joseon. Now, I am fighting to see a reason why I should even continue this show. I must be a masochist because watching the FL act gives me a headache when without subtitles you can't tell if she is angry, sad, confused, upset, or in love. She only knows five looks to consult from her acting playbook. The writing is just abysmal at best. The side characters have less screen time and have shown more dimension to their characters with their acting. This goes for the royal family members and Court Lady Jo.

It started strong and then the foolish ploy to get revenge just lost me. I am a big lover of revenge plots but it seems like the FL can't seem to get her head out of her ass for one minute. Her anger at the king makes no sense when for one it was Myung-Ha who faked the confession, secondly, he was not even the one who let her father go to the Great Qing. Her reason for revenge is not because she thinks he is corrupt, her pride is just hurt. She was surprised that a newly crowned King did not lose common sense when tasked with exiling her.

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JJS overshadows SSK as the king completely however this drama still failed to captivate me

aigoo...I just spent some time writing a review, but then my laptop shutdown and I lost it T_T so I'll sum it up into a few words:

what I liked:
- production quality (the clothing, backgrounds, lighting etc. were nice compared to recent period idol dramas)
- JJS as the male lead. I've seen him in the King2Hearts and think his acting and portrayal of yi in was very believable
- park ye young as court lady dong. I've seen her in hometown cha cha cha and didn't know she was good at sageuks! she looks like a different person! In fact I think she should've been cast as the female lead instead!
- the veteran actors, who acted the court ministers. although the bad uncle guy looked like every other bad guy in these dramas, the older actor's acting was good and as expected
- the actor who played the grand prince (kid)
- I actually liked seeing that actor from crash landing on you in here as one of the shady ministers
(thinking....what else I liked lol)
- I liked when I realised it wasn't worth my time and dropped it...T_T

what I didn't like:
- so I may sound like a broken record, but shin sae kyung really wasn't the right choice for this drama. I don't think she's a good actress. As someone who's seen a few other historical dramas that are so much better, they should've picked someone who could've played the part better!
I've seen snip bits of her in rookie historian and I think she looks okay in idol drama but not in a more serious drama filled with more experienced actors! she looks so out of place! whether she's sad or happy it's unclear most of the time, because her acting is so stiff and she looks likes she's crying most of the time or about to cry. she also shakes her eyes around too much.
- the "romance" was so unconvincing! I felt bad for JJS who was really giving his best, but the female lead made the kissing scenes awkward and I didn't feel much chemistry between them..
- the pacing. tbh from episode 1 I was waiting the whole time for the male lead to find out about her identity! I didn't really care about the rest of the plot and when he finally finds out in episode 7 I think I was happy but then the drama just went down the drain.
- the female lead's character was really badly written
- the cross-dressing was nonsensical and made us and the other men look like idiots. also..she was initially dressing up as a "man" to save captives from Qing by earning money with playing Baduk/Go, but it never actively showed her freeing anyone and also does she have power to free anyone?
- the bad writing
- female lead's revenge plot was weak
- I liked that the music wasn't a bunch of kpop like in idol dramas, but I feel like they could've put more effort into the instrumental OST because that's sometimes what tends to carry these historical dramas

Overall this drama is pretty forgettable and such a waste of like 12hrs of my life!
After a while I wondered why I was even still watching it

also I just remembered something which makes the female even more stupid! why'd she want kim myung ha to help her when he was the one who wrote the false attestation?!

also I thought myung ha was better than the female lead because he could actually act lol, but overall this drama isn't the best. maybe it's better than others, but meh

but all that to say, would this drama have been better if SSK weren't the female lead? maybe, but I guess we'll never know...

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Three Games of Baduk

After reading some of the other reviews here,I realized that there is a serious lack of critical analysis and thinking going on with some of the reviewers. They miss the point of the Title and of the significance of theBaduk games being played. The King and Kang Mung Woo play the games on an actual board and they play tge game in the court. The King is acknowledged to be a genius player and by the nature of the game that means he is highly strategic and many moves ahead of other players and the members of his court. The viewers are not always let in on the moves he is going to make until it is time to make them. The same is true of Mongwoo. Some reviewers accuse her of not having any plan just because they are not shown it or because they are simply unaware of it. In the game of Baduk,a player can not have a fixed plan because their moves are dependent on the moves of their opponent. They can only have a goal and be able to spot opportunities for action as the other player leaves them. They seize on those opportunities and build on them. Therefore,their plans are always fluid. Such Mong Woos moves. The King moves in the same way. He is surrounded by power mongers looking for any opening to grab more power for themselves. Particularly. The Director and Dowager,who see him as a puppet. The Director is playing his own game of Baduk as he seeks to hold the same power as a King.

This is a drama of subtlety not one of high jinks drama and action. The actress who plays Ming Woo is supposed to be a cypher. She can’t afford to let anyone read her,not even the King. So she. Does not give away her thoughts or feelings. She could never enter have entered then palace with thoughts of toppling the King if she had not mastered her own body language. It is clear that although she loves the King in spite of herself,she does not trust him. Her love is not whole hearted because of her earlier experience with the King. Each time she begins to trust him,she overhears or is told something that makes her shut down again. All of this makes her game appear to be erratic.

One thing she is very clear on,is the King’s ability to play Baduk and be many moves ahead of everyone else. So,she knows she is walking a tightrope with him. He is aware,too,that she may betray him but loves her too much to send her away. Each of the buduk players ,the King, Mong Woo and the Director play with each other and against each other. It is like a subtle dance as they engage and disengage. Too bad that some it was lost on many viewers who need straightforward characterizations and plot to follow a story.

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"Captivating the King" took me by surprise from the get-go. As someone not particularly drawn to political struggles for the throne, I entered with cautious expectations. Yet, from the very first episode, it managed to ensnare my attention in a way I hadn't anticipated.

This series is about our FL disguising herself as a boy, fighting for a noble cause while navigating the twist and turn of love. Meanwhile, our ML is in a power struggle fighting for the throne. They bond through an Asian chess game called go.

Initially skeptical, I found myself drawn to the performances, particularly that of SSK. Her portrayal of the lead character's inner turmoil with teary eyes, captive my heart each time. I mean who wouldn’t be in the exact same position in front of the man they love but they cannot reveal their identity? Witnessing her growth from her previous roles, especially post-"Run On," was a delight in itself. The chemistry between the leads, which was intense and emotional, had me on the edge of my seat, emotions swirling as her gender was exposed and their relationship unfolded.

While the series excelled in many aspects, there were minor imperfections that caught my attention. Some scenes felt slightly stiff and awkward, especially the part where he grabs and hugs her, the angle just felt off. Also, the abundance of side characters like the senior court maid felt unnecessary and could have been streamlined for a tighter focus.
On a personal rating scale, "Captivating the King" lands at a solid 7.5 for me. It's been a while since a K-drama has captured my interest so thoroughly, and SSK's performance only adds to its allure. However, deductions were made for the repetitive nature of palace politics and hidden love between a female disguised as a male.

In conclusion, I'm eagerly rooting for SSK's continued growth and eagerly anticipate what future projects hold for her. "Captivating the King" may have its flaws, but its ability to keep audiences invested and chemistry between the leads is undeniable.

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Lots of intrigue, little romance, terrible plot shortcomings

The story and the supporting characters are totally contradictory and illogical. The actors are excellent, but they can't make up for the shortcomings of the plot.
Political thriller, crime story, family drama, least of all romance and relationship development between the leads.

What bothers me about MDL is that you have to write at least 500 characters. I don't have that much to say, nor do I have that much time. I'm just writing this to get to 500 characters.

I also don't understand the negativity against FL. I like her a lot and think that she's a good actress, just like everyone else.

The inconclusive plot is really the weak point here.

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The main actress ruined the show

Shin Sae Kyeong (SSK) ruined the show. With a good actress, even the most ridiculous plotlines would've made the show exponentially better. SSK just can't act. She has one facial expression and her mouth is always open. If the sound was on mute, we wouldn't known whether Mongwoo was happy, sad, horny, or constipated. She had no personality and her face always looked the same because of SSK's stiff acting. Half-way through, it was impossible to ignore her overbite and teeth always showing. I don't blame the actress because it was the director's or producer's, or whoever was in charge, responsibility to manage her and to tell her to keep her mouth closed. I am absolutely flabbergasted that they thought her mouth being open in every scene was ok. Even Jo Jung Suk, being the superb actor that he is, couldn't save the show. When one person spills his heart out and the other one just stares blankly, it completely kills the chemistry and any romantic mood.

Let me emphasize that the gender bender/cross dressing trope is ridiculous and outdated. It is also very suspect. Dramas where a man is trapped in a woman's body and has a romantic/sexual relationship with another man get ruined by bad endings because the producers try to make them less gay. But, apparently, it's not gay at all to have a man liking a woman pretending to be a man. Totally not gay, because he is actually a she, right? Not really, considering that the guy who is having a crush thinks he is interacting with another guy and keeps questioning his own sexuality. If the show was set today, poor king Jinhan would be erratically taking internet quizzes to convince himself he was not gay.

The king should've found out that Mongwoo was a woman after she came back from the dead to eliminate any bias and identity crisis. This is not to mention that SSK was completely unconvincing as a man, as most women are. There were plenty of opportunities for Jinhan to find out early that she was a woman, like when he grabbed her hand and commented on how delicate it was. His ridiculous conclusion was that she was from a rich family, instead of questioning her gender. Any sane person at that point would've already had a pause, but the writers insisted he remained in the dark to drag the tension out for as long as possible.

The revenge plot was also nonsensical. They spent half the show talking about revenge and not doing anything. It was unclear why they even wanted revenge and what the king did for them to seek revenge. Mongwoo was portrayed as an intelligent person, but her motivations were very narrow-minded. I have no idea why she disliked Myung Ha. All he did was love her and wanted to marry her. Even forging the confession letter was done to protect her from being tortured. It seemed that she judged people's character based solely on their ability to play baduk, which made her very shallow and elitist.

Overall, bad acting, stupid tropes, and a boring and badly written plot make this drama a hard pass.

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Disappointing Finale

Though I enjoyed the show for what it was, and the ML is a personal favorite, and the acting of most of the other characters was top notch, I was a little bored at times with this dialogue heavy and slow-rolling series. There was so much reading of the subtitles only for them to not have actually said much to advance the story, that I just felt weary after each episode. I can't say much one way or the other about the FL. She just seemed stuck on one expression, and frankly looked way too feminine to be convincing as a man, no matter how hard I tried to suspend disbelief. If they are going to keep making shows about women convincingly dressing as a man in the Joseon era, they ought to try with someone taller than 5'4" and a little more body presence than the fraily built supermodel types they keep casting.

Episodes 14 and 15 were quite good, so I was expecting some good wrap up of the main "problem", but alas, they just wouldn't do it. The finale was either rushing you through time with narratives from side characters, or plodding through nonsensical scenes from the leads. It's absolutely unclear why she'd be avoiding him, the queen dowager's issues never get resolved, the maidservant clearly has a crush but we never see anything come of it, and the overarching dilemma never gets addressed at all - how will they reintroduce this person as a woman who the king wants as his queen. I mean, sure, the villains getting their due was interesting and all, but the woman dressed as a man issue was the main point of interest and I feel emotionally ripped off by them not properly tying that up.

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