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Set in 2 parallel worlds, one in the Kingdom of Korea and the other the Republic of Korea. Lee Gon, the present Emperor of the Kingdom of Korea sets foot on the alternative universe of the Republic of Korea. He comes across a familiar face, Detective Jung Tae-Eul, whom he recognizes years ago, during his father’s assassination. Lee Gon assumes that this woman saved him from the wrath his uncle Lee Lim, who assassinated Lee Gon’s father. Overwhelmed with curiosity, Lee Gon tries to discover the complexity of the parallel universe, by going back and forth between the two-parallel universe.The writer, Ms. Kim Eun-sook never disappoints. Her works contains a perplexing, yet imaginative series of dramas which makes it more appealing to her viewers. Similarly, The King: Eternal Monarch (TKEM) was one of the series that keeps you guessing. In the beginning of the series, it seemed ambiguous and overwhelming, with all the plot holes and the use of flash backs. Nevertheless, episode by episode, the series was slowly unraveling. Every problem I had with the show was answered, and the ending was well-written.
I grew fond with the series’ characters, especially with Captain Jo Young and Jo Eun-Seob’s characters. Woo Do-hwan has portrayed both the characters with the charisma and humor, I think many will also approve of this. Unquestionably, Woo Do-hwan has a remarkable acting skill. Moreover, I also liked the character of Prime Minister Goo. She presents someone who’s underprivileged. But because of hard work and ambition, she became successful. However, because of her ambitions, she became too greedy.
The problem that I have with this show is that it lacks accuracy in telling the stories of the different characters. For example, Captain Jo Young, as a child, was a bubbly and a loquacious friend to Lee Gon. He also explained as a child, that his father was close to Lee Gon’s father. I wondered if maybe there was more to this relationship, between Lee Gon’s father and Captain Young. More so, I even pondered the character development of Captain Young as a child and as an adult.
Another problem that I faced was, there was a lack of connection between the relationship of Jung Tae-eul and Lee Gon. Their relationship should have been more solidified. There should have been more of a connection, and how their feeling progressed over time.
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Great cast, loved the acting but shitty writing though. Huge fan of Kim Go Eun but damn girl talk about overacting or could be the poor script writing. Not a big fan of Lee min Ho but i warmed up to him in this one. He seemed more mature and the hairstyle was better.
The plot was just too confused. I mean why were they riding horses when they had cars? !Who brings a sword to a sword fight when guns exist?! What exactly was the villains motive? Eternal life or multiverse domination? Eitherway his motives were unclear.
Too many plot holes and too much advertising.
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- the love story "the main theme of the drama"
- the time slip cuts
- parallel dimensions should have to be mentioned a lot before "not just in the last 3 eps" it simply confused viewers
- it does had to have at least 20 eps to finish it without any hole to fill
- really rushed
To be honest I lost my interest in ep 8 but I kept watching it only for Lee Min Ho he was such pleasure for eyes so I thought to finish it just to see him and it was a great decisione. Well I can't say I hated the drama, it was passeble but they could do a better job
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Updating on every eps!! Must Watch FR!!
Now there's 6 episodes of this drama that had being aired and we have to wait for another 10 episodes to actually understand the whole story. As that being stated, this is my review for these 6 episodes so far.**The storyline**
I just want to say, the storyline so far is SUPERB yet is still complicated! Viewers had to develop a lot of braincells to understand the story so far but i'll just say, the storyline is amazing eventhough they're trying to put a lot of stories all together. As episode 6 have been aired, we can clearly see that this story is PROGRESSING REAL QUICK!!! Ep 6 is literally an episode that is showing us the ship of our main leads is sailing beautifully!!! Also this episode shows how great is King Lee Gon as the way he managed to take care of Corea from a war with Japan. Also this story tells about time travel as being showed at 1994, Lee Gon being saved by a mystery person and the person left Tae-ul's police ID that was issued in the year of 2019. the person's figure somehow seems like a guy so it can't be Tae-ul who's time travelled.
Other plots leave it to you guys to figure it out.
Also, as of right now, they're showing that each character has their own important storyline and somehow it'll be connected to both worlds (Tae-ul's guy friend seems to be connected to Corea)
And the same person in both world will also have some kind of connection i guess (?) Just like the scenes where Eun-seop touching the iced drink, he feels hot (because Captain Jo touched a hot coffee)
**Cinematography**
The cinematography is SPECTACULAR!!!!! I mean, everything is beautiful. In episode one, you'll be shocked just by watching the scenaries, bamboo forest, building etc.
And if you ever imagined how South Korea would be if they're under monarchy, this is the drama. The modern monarchy in Kingdom of Corea seems so real and amazing!!!
There may be some criticism towards the structure of Corea's palace as they said it resembles Japanese buildings. Also the editing of the "time zone between 0 and 1, the place between the 2 universe".... seems lack of editing but it looks just fine.
**Cast/Acting**
Let me tell you this; judging from the list of actors, their acting will sure amazed us. The fact that they accept the offers by playing two characters already shown how confident they are in this drama. Also, the main lead, Lee Min Ho.. the king of kdramas alongside with Kim Go-eun, praised for her incredible acting!
Not to forget, Woo Do Hwan... we're looking forward to see more of his charms through this drama and of course the bromance between him and our Minho. In republic of Korea, he seems to use that specific dialect, maybe Busan Satoori i don't know but I LOVE THE DIALECT!! As for now, the duality of his characters is FABULOUS!
**OST**
So far, the OSTs are Awesome!!! Right now there's Zion.T and Hwasa, their voices is sooo beautiful. Also Kim Jong Wan and Yongzoo, both have beautiful voices!!!!..
Later on we'll have Davichi and Ha Sungwon for OSTs,, i cant waitttttt....
For the OSTs too, i'm very looking forward to hear more and it would be fantastic if Punch or Yoon Mirae also can sing for this drama...
**Rewatch Value**
I didn't think about this yet. I'll wait until the the last episode to finally give an answer.
Okay, thats all my review for this drama!! I'm sorry if you find this review is not helping at all T.T
If you haven't watch it yet, watch it NOW!!!!
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The cinematography in this drama - AHFIAHUGF its sooo good. The scenes are very well artistically shot and the aesthetics and the composition in each scene is very interesting.
I really enjoyed the pace of the first episode - it was fast, kept me on the edge of my seat and left me wanting more. I like that they slowed down the pace for the second episode and spent more time in exposition and fleshing out characters. They're giving friendships, relationships and romance some time to grow - something that I think is important to fantasy thrillers because so much focus is put on the fantasy exposition or the thrilling chase that the romance feels almost forced. So I am glad that they are taking the time to show the little things that matter -like the lingering gaze between the leads which make it more convincing that KGE's character, who normally is too sassy to care about him, has the build up to turn and help LMH.
Speaking of, I love the characters a lot. Kim Go Run does spunky chic so well - that is my #goalz. Lee Min Ho is the king of classic regal romance so I couldn't have thought of better actors for the characters. And thank god Kim Go Eun is not a 19yo (sorry Goblin that was truly one of my biggest qualms)
KES has always shined with her bromances and the start of this drama has me convinced that this one won't be any less. The supporting characters have some traits of their own which in my opinion is important to showing the difference between the two worlds so I love that they have been thought about lol. I do like the prime minister a lot (as of now at least please dont be heartless woman please please). But stay tuned to find out if I feel the same later.
THE OST IS MAGICAL. HWA SA's ORBIT HAS BEEN A CONSTANT ON MY PLAYLIST EVERY DAY. And the song choices are phenomenal.
I do however have 2 things I wish they did differently. In the first episode it was hard to keep track of the jumps from one world to another. While this was bound to happen, I think Signal did it a lot better imo. Once they picked a time they stayed there for a couple of scenes. In The King, I was getting whiplash from skipping from one world to another every scene. That might not be a problem anymore (the second episode was better) so maybe I won't have that problem lol. Also Signal had the older timeline is sepia and newer in white light setting which made it easy to tell which time we were in. If The King did something like that it might help? Unclear. The second thing I wished was if they made the first episode slower paced - did the exposition there and then hit us with fast paced suspense filled episode that leaves me wanting more for the following week.
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once upon a time there was a king...
first of all people...i had such a high expectation for this one...like i went to search for the most high quality version of this drama...such a disappointing drama.story: the horrible plot of this story contains useless messy storylines. a king whose family was killed by the hand of his own uncle for the sake of getting the throne. a girl out of nowhere comes and saves him with his team and drops her id card. The Ridiculous part is that he falls in love with her just because she saved his life, he doesn't know her or doesn't have any clue about how she is or who she is, the first time he sees her he is like:"i love you" WHY? WHY DUDE? so many plot holes everywhere. the villain is ruthless for no reason..he does a bunch of evil things for absolutely no reason...if i wanna point out all of them i should write an essay.
acting/cast: lee min ho is a good enough actor, he fills what he lacks with his handsome face(i like him regardless) but go eun is not a good match for him imo. visually and chemistry speaking, i didn't like them as a couple one bit. she had better chemistry with the second male lead here imo. the only outstanding actor here was woo do hwan...he pulled off his character in a VERY EXCELLENT way. i liked the second leads as well.
music: amazing music and OSTs.
rewatch value: if you like lee min ho and woo do hwan then go for a rewatch whenever.
overall:unfortunately this drama had zero interesting plot line and i only kept watching for woo do hwan and lee min ho. gave it 3/10 for those two ^^
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Kim Go-eun’s reaction in the series is very realistic, you cannot expect her not to be taken aback when someone talks about being a king and a parallel universe. It is very normal reaction, she would doubt him. She is simply amazing! Minho is superb in every scene, obviously he is the absolute treat to the eyes, but also he amplifies the whole scene with his royalty and cute cheekiness. This character of his reminds me a lot of his character in Boys Over Flowers, both the characters are lovable in their own way. Woo Dohwan is just simply ADORABLE! his simple smile can say so much, or just his one tilt of his head can talk about how irritated he is with the king. There are many stories of each character woven under one umbrella but you need it, because each character has so much depth to them. They all are connected to one another, the story is building it’s momentum and I think it’s going to FANTASTIC! Already 6 episodes down and I have no complain, it superb! Once again, I believe they have lived to it’s expectations, and the show is regal and is the definition of elegance.
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Too much to tell
While watching this drama I felt that the love story isn't that important and that the drama strifes to tell a lot which isn't possible in the given amount of episodes. Like a proper love story for example or more background about some of the characters. Regarding the antagonist's goals I wondered why he invested so much time into useless stuff. First it felt like he wanted to become the king, which was impossible anyway - but why all the chaos just to get a flute? I guess that could've been solved sooner.Further the storytelling tended to be confusing from time to time regarding all the time jumps. Not actual time jumps, but what happened in a previous episodes sometimes only continues at the end of the next episode, so I tended to wonder "what time is it now?". Time was a huge factor in the whole drama and I think it's one of the reasons why the love story seems to be "rushed". I guess the time that actually passed was different from what we watched, so certainly I tended to ask myself as well "Why do you love him now?" or "Why the heck are you crying if you'll just meet again?". Similar in regard of Mrs. Koo who for some unknown reason killed her doppelganger. Seriously. What for? Lots of decisions seems to be just ruthless without putting much thought into them.
Still I liked the structure, I liked the efforts to put some science into it, I liked the music (which isn't always the case, I dislike most korean drama "songs" since they all tend to sound the same) and some of the twists.
On the other hand they showed the darker side as well in my opinion. Just like when the fl is kidnapped and goes on some sort of killing spree or when Lee Gon just slaughters everyone and turns his continuous joke about beheading someone into reality. There were funny moments though and after Mad Dog it was nice to see Woo Do-Hwan again.
I certainly don't regret watching this, but I just felt there could've been more to tell, more reasons to develop (the antagonist kinda reminds me of the guy from "My Love from the stars" - he seemed to have no good reason for anything either, I prefer something more reasonable). I feel like I watched some fairytale now - an entertaining fairytale certainly.
Some mentioned the product placement and I noticed it as well. I mean, I'm used to all Koreans eating at Subway by now, driving Kia and all Chinese using Apple phones. It's just like that. Here it felt indeed a bit ridiculous to hear real advertisement phrases from the characters. So I agree, they overdid it.
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Too many Loopholes and questions, confusing
First, I'm referring to Manpasikjeok as Flute for easier typing.This had the potential to be great but too many loopholes, questions. Episodes 1 to 12 were good even with the unnecessary Jumps from one scene to another. Episodes were understandable even with Sudden switches from Corea to Korea. but from episodes 13 onwards it started to get really confusing especially if you watched 10 episodes in one sitting. It gave me headache to process everything. Too many JUMPS from one scene to another. Maybe bad editing/sequecing. Any websites which can help me understand? Like after the first time LG travelled back to 1994, how was he able to travel from that 1994 to different timelines and get back to the present day with only half of the flute in hand? Plus wearing the same clothes during the whole time. What was the disappearing plant meant when Jung Tae Eul woke up from a nap on her desk? In what time line was it when JTE was interrogating Luna was it before LEe Gon cameback or after? And what's the point of that? Filler? Also I thought they can only travel through different timelines if they have both parts of the flute? LG was only holding half of the flute when he travelled back to 1994 for the second time, he was with Young, since the other half was with Yee Rim. YEE RIM used it to enterthe gate with JTE. Sooo confusing.
What happened to the present lee gon? Like how was he able to travel back to his PRESENT timeline? Did he "steal" the whole/unbroken flute from the 1994 timeline in which he killed the 1994 Yee Rim? If he stole it and brought it to his present timeline, does that mean the "new" 1994 timeline in which he saved didn't have its own flute? The Flute that Lee Gon brought from his own timeline already vanished.
Also when he travelled different present timelines/universes to look for the JTE version that he loved, was he using the Flute from the 1994 timeline? Did he travel through 14,000,605 timelines? Difference between 2020 and 2021 aren't that long, I don't think that's long enough for his search for the correct timeline/universe to Find the right JTE.
Timelines/parallel worlds are complicated.. LEE GON saved his and her timelines but it doesn't mean all other timelines are fixed or according to the fate that they think is right. towards the end they make it appear that "fixing" one timeline fixes all the the timelines/universes. They make it appear so from all the time travels they've been to at the end. Fixed means no BAD GUY Yee Rim.
Since I'm not blinded by my admiration of the Main Leads Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun, i think I can honestly say this was not the best. Good but not great IMO. Great acting but really messed up execution in some parts. Don't get me wrong, I really liked episodes 1 to 12 and the last 36mins of episode 16, they really just messed it up at some parts towards the end. I LOVED every moment/scenes that Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun were together. They were cute. The last 36mins made all better since it's a happy ending for both. They can make you forget all the confusion from episode 13 to 15 and first 44 mins of episode 16
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First, the source material parallel worlds is a fascinating topic, but needs good execution to make it not confusing. The production group should have made the differentiation of the two worlds more obvious.
Second, casting is definitely crucial in all projects, that's why stars are getting paid big bucks to bring the audience in. Sadly, Lee Min Ho looks more suited to action genres like City Hunter, which I enjoyed him in, than as the King, he has the regal presence but failed to bring more oomph to the role.
He's better on the 2nd half of the show, but he doesn't have romantic chemistry with Kim Go Eun at all, and kfans can be very forgiving for plot holes as long as the OTP is sizzling on screen.
Woo Do Hwan & Lee Min Ho pairing has potential, but there was a lack of back story for Yeong aside from being the Unbreakable Sword. But omg Woo Do Hwan. I stan! I probably need to watch all his dramas now. Him playing dual roles, Eun Sup trying to be stoic like Yeong and Yeong trying to be fun Eun Sup is comedy GOLD. He is wasted on all these serious roles. Can someone cast him in a romcom soon, with Kim Yong Ji pretty pls. Why isn't she in more projects?
The support cast is strong from Lee Lim to the Prime Minister, Kim Kyung Nam, esp. is a pleasant discovery from this show. Why did we get so little screen time with Lee Min Ho, Woo Do Hwan, and Kim Kyung Nam on screen, oh the lost potential.
Still, live watching and analyzing Kim Eun Sook dramas are always worldwide kfan events, I enjoyed the parallel worlds, and the concept of having a 'clone' in another world, and figuring the heck out who is who. Hopefully not being a breakout success won't affect the big budget investment on these types of fantasy genre dramas, as they always push the boundaries of what kdramas can be.
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Um...what?
What started out with a great story and premise falls amazingly flat. We are immediately introduced to what seems to be a wonderful plot of fantasy, realism, intrigue, and action, but somewhere after episode 2 this series decides to turn into the average soapy romance of long stares, slow motion wide angles, and a main lead who can't seem to be convinced that his character is real. In all honesty, I was utterly disappointed with this series because it could not deliver what it promised in the description. Is this a case of bad writing, poor casting, or something else? I'm not even sure.But. What I do know is that the side characters carry this show.
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