pips should watch this, jinjja.
At first I thought that it doesn't makes sense because of the soul shifting or whatever it is. Many people recommended it to me to watch but I didn't watch Mr. Queen because just like what I've said, it doesn't makes sense. But man, I was wrong. It was funny from the start that it almost made ROFL! It was another character portrayed by the FL which highlights how K-drama artists handle their characters well. It was well written and they gave justice to their history. I first watched the ML on Waikiki and I thought he can't pull off CJ's character but I was wrong again. He's not attractive but when he played CJ, he became more and more attractive in my eyes. I love how the story goes and I didn't regret watching it. It's nakakagigil at the same time but it's a good thing cause it only means that the characters are effective.I know a lot of people watched this already but gor those who haven't, please give it a try. Worth watching again.
However, the OSTs are not for my liking but it's still okay. For the production, two thumbs up for the team.
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DON'T WASTE YOUT TIME, WATCH THE ORIGINAL VERSION
This "Go Princess Go" adaptation is nothing compared to the original Chinese one. First of all, the main leads. Deleting the sexuality element is totally deleting the whole story and the main topic. FL doesn't know who he (she) is, ML doesn't know why he falls in love and with who he falls in love. The intrigue political scheme is non-existent.There is no balance in comedy and seriousness, it's more like a parody ( when the beauty of the original is in their balance).
The modernity of the topics doesn't exist, it lacks the flavor of a new field.
It's bland, and the actors can't act. She is even not cute and nor elegant or femenine at all. Beauty doesn't exist. Their climb to understand who she really is to reign is deleted. I'm not surprised, when Korea is only able to ruin Chinese masterpiece making them a laughingstock.
The tragedy is 0.
Don't waste your time with this trash and watch "Go Princess Go".
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Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
Like everyone else says, what's with that ending?
Okay, so before I finished watching this show I'd heard that the ending of the series was somewhat controversial but thought to myself, 'how bad can it be?' and didn't actually read any of the reviews - the answer? Very. However, things started going wrong with the storyline long before that, in my opinion...Let's talk about what I liked about this drama first and then I'll go on to giving certain aspects of it a good kicking. First off, the overall acting performances all round - top of the pile, of course, with all the heavy lifting duties was Shin Hye Sun who effectively ended up playing multiple characters (So Yong as an individual and the Bong Hwan-So Yong mixture at its various stages of existence). I was pretty much equally impressed with the acting by everyone involved, from the various members of the royal family through the household staff and on to the ministers. Excellent work all round. Secondly, the initial set-up for the storyline worked really well, with a real 'fish out of water' aspect to it and I particularly liked the fact that the queen's internal monologue was (for a while, at least) in Bong Hwan's voice.
Now the problems - it's all about internal logic for me. When we first hit Joseon, we've got the consciousness of a male modern day individual in the body of a woman of that time, with a male internal voice that works with that, and then suddenly that internal voice changed to a woman's. Was this meant to signify that the queen was now a mixture of both individuals, rather than a (male) consciousness with added memories? If so, that doesn't really come across in the way the scenes are written.
Likewise, in the final episode after Bong Hwan's consciousness leaves the queen's body, it's pretty clear that this is So Yong again, just with a wider vocabulary and a few less shits to give. Poor king, he might have reclaimed his throne but the woman he's come to love over the past 19 episodes doesn't actually exist any more and we don't get any on-screen recognition of this. Meanwhile, what does poor Bong Hwan get out of this? Dude has been through a sexual identity crisis and risked his life, but for what? A warm and fuzzy feeling and that's it.
The only one who's got what they wanted out of this situation is So Yong, with zero recognition of the impact of these story decisions on anyone else. Where was the 'soul' of So Yong all this time? We know Bong Hwan's body was in the hospital, his consciousness was in So Yong's body, so where was she? The story would have been much stronger (and probably less contentious) if more thought was put into how to show her 'return' and also some recognition on her part of what she (and the king) have lost by Bong Hwan's departure, as well as how they were both going to adjust to that going forward.
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A real cure for the heart
I promised myself to write a review for this Drama even before watching the ending, because simply, it deserves that much after all what it gave me.My review contain 2 parts. The first one is directed to those who haven't seen the Drama yet and confused whether to watch it or not after seeing different kind of reviews; people who rated the show 10/10 and others went as far as to give it 1/10 which is complatly unrealistic if you ask me, despite the fact that people taste differ from one to another, but it's unbelievable to have such a huge gap. And so for that reason I didn't classify my review as "may contain spoilers" even though it does because the first part is spoiler's free, so if you didn't watch the show yet you can read the first part BUT not the second.
PART 1:
1- Why I started the drama? I wasn't planing to watch it at all before it started airing because I read the plot and I felt that it's not my cup of tea, a man in woman's body? that's weird, the romance will be weird and the ending will be tragic and I'm not a big fan of any of the main cast, so why should I, but quickly after the first 2 episodes aired, I started seeing many posts and screens and it looked really funny so I said why not, I started it with the Idea that I'll watch the first funny episodes and when it gets boring or dark I'll drop it, as I do a lot recently, and that I don't care about the end because I won't bee watching it maybe hearing about it that's all, but I found myself hooked for 20 episodes not thinking for one time to actually drop it, in the contrary I was longing froward to the weekend and watch scenes from raw before it get translated and think about it a lot during the week, I didn't do that since a long time, I can't even remember when was the last time I was obsessed with an airing drama like this.
2- I'm not going to repeat what is already mentioned in the plot, but I guess the first thing comes in mind after reading it, is "so is this a BL story?" Yes and No it's not exactly gay 'cause we are talking about a relatonship between 2 souls in 2 bodies with opposed sex (I'm talking about the queen and the king's bodies) So if you are into BL, this is not exactly what you used to watch but you certainly won't dislike it, and if you don't like BL's stories as myself, I asure you, you will looove this one 'cause there is nothing wrong about it, after all, as I said it's a woman's body and you will ship 2 souls together not who they are. So if you are hasitating because of that matter, you should stop and start the show, YOU WILL FEEL confused at the beginning not knowing even what to call the queen is it a "He" or a "She" , but in some point, that won't matter anymore.
3- If you are looking for a drama that will make you cry from begining till the end, then stop and go look else where as there is plenty of those, most good historical Kdramas are tragic, BUT if you are looking for a change, the entire opposite of what you used to see in historical's, or that you hate historical dramas because they are too dramatic, too sad, too frustrated, too much injustice and dark. Then you are in the right place, I didn't have that much laugh while watching a Kdrama, or any type of drama for that matter, for a long time, so this one is a cure for every broken heart, the word "boring" won't dare to come out of your mouth as you'll be so busy laughing all the time and the hour will feel like a 10 mins, you'll laugh watching a manly man's soul (a womaniser actally) coming from the present days, trapped in a woman's body and not any woman, it's a married woman, it's THE QUEEN from 200 years ago, you'll be laughing at many side characters that gave the show a strong comedy, not just the good people that are in the queen's side but even the drama's main evil characters, because simply, everyone act funny dealing with our queen's personality.
4- If you hate historical dramas because they are too old fashion, too many rules, everyone is talking and acting coldly, too much formal speechs even between a married couple. Well, our queen was capable of changing all of that, having a wild soul coming from the future inside a palace can do that, you'll see too much running inside the palace not only by servents but royalty as well, you'll see many rules get kicked in the wall, and you'll be hearing the king's name beeing called more than you did in all the historical drama's that you've watched or will putting together,because the name of the king is not something that you can just say it whenever you want, well, you can if you are our queen.
5- You hate when the main characters are royalty because there is too much drama, plots and schemes, and as a consequence, too many misunderstanding between the couple and mostly that's because there is a love triangle made of the main couple who loves each others and a concubine who is trying to separate them and destroy their love, I'm not going to lie and say that we don't have a love triangle here, but it's just not the typical one, it's not 2 women fighting over the love of the same guy but it's more like a circle because they are not completly two women, you will laugh while watching our queen upset seeing the King and his concubine together but just not for the usual obvious reason LOL.
6- looking for a perfect acting with a wonderful chemistry between the main couple, you'll find that here. I don't even remember where I've seen Shin hye sun before (which I regret deeply now I which I could remember her roles because I've seen her in many dramas as side character but didn't even remember in which dramas until I googled it) and I've seen Kim Jung Hyun in CLOY and liked him there too but just not as much as I did here. They both were magnificent SHS will make you believe that there is actually a man's soul inside her and deliver every single emotion her character is feeling, and KHJ wasn't any less than her, he too gave his role justice beeing funny, pretending weakness and stupidity in front of everyone, mysterious and manly. Not just them but everyone in the cast was awesome.
6- you will like how the OST is well fitting to the drama and to the scenes that get played in.
7- You maybe wondering by now why someone will rate this drama with 1-3/10 after all this, it's one simple and huge reason: THE ENDING! what I can say without spoilering it is everyone watched the same ending but not everyone feels the same about it, there is those who may consider it a SAD ending, a HAPPY ending,an UNSATISFIYING ending, a LOGICAL ending, even a PERFECT ending. which answear is the right one? I'll say none, because it's depend on how we want it to end compared to how it DID, because this time, every single one watched the show was hoping for a happy ending, even me who said at the beginning that I won't care about it, but eventually each one had his own definition of that 'happy ending" it's a matter of: did the ending match what they had in mind and heart or not, but whetherway, we can't judge the entire book by the last page of it, I don't regret watching such a wonderful drama and I wished it'll never end more than wishing for a happy ending because watching the journey was a real cure for my heart; I just hope to move on quickly and find something as good as this one soon.
So my final advice; watch the show you won't regret it, enjoy every single episode and judge the ending by yourself.
I'll leave the second part to another day.
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Un serie storica divertente e con scene romantiche "vere"
Non sono una patita di serie storiche ma questa l'ho trovata diversa dalle altre. Ho scelto di guardarla perchè a breve sarà visibile solo agli abbonati con Vikipass pertanto ho immaginato fosse da vedere. E infatti sono stata ripagata della scelta. E' moderna, con una storia interessante, ben bilanciata, con una bella fotografia e sopratutto dei bei personaggi. Il punteggio alto lo merita per i tanti momenti divertenti e per le numerose scene romantiche (non le solite "no touch" koreane e cinesi).Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
A Joseon Era Time-Travel Dramedy
In Mr. Queen (Korean title: 철인왕후), Jang Bonghwan is a sharp-witted, carefree chef working at the Blue House who gets framed for endangering the life of a foreign ambassador. In his attempt to escape the authorities, he falls into water and transmigrates back in time into the body of Kim Soyong days before her marriage to King Cheoljong, who’s known to history as an incompetent puppet king under the control of the Kim clan. The new Queen Cheorin, with his twenty-first century cooking skills and slangs, confuses everybody with his erratic behavior and, strangely enough, captures the heart of his previously unloving husband, who’s not as incompetent or resigned to being a figurehead as he appears.If the premise sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s based on the 2015 viral Chinese web series, Go Princess Go, about a modern day playboy who transmigrated back in time into the body of the crown princess of an unspecified Chinese dynasty. I’ll go into more details later, but in general, Mr. Queen is a vast improvement upon its predecessor, and a drama that more than deserves to be judged on its own merits first.
Queen Cheorin and King Cheoljong Are Made for Each Other
Queen Cheorin/Jang Bonghwan has one brain cell, and it only works for five minutes a day, by the looks of things.
King Cheoljong, one the other hand, is very intelligent when it comes to everything but his queen.
Combined, our protagonists make for a hilarious couple whenever their storylines remotely involve each other. From the numerous instances of miscommunications (“no touching” in particularly invokes a second layer of mirth, as it reminds me of that one Arrested Development gag) to them being horny on main for each other (AKA that scene in episode 17 where they faked public sex), their antics throughout the drama are endless. They’re ridiculously perfect for each other.
They’re amazing characters individually as well. Bonghwan’s lighthearted storyline remained independent from King Cheoljong’s more serious and suspenseful one for much of the earlier episodes. This not only heightened the misunderstanding-based comedic moments, but did the job of establishing them as distinct individuals with personal agendas before their fates lined up later on.
So Many Scene-Stealing Characters
In other dramas, there might be one or two outstanding breakout characters worth mentioning alongside the main leads. In Mr. Queen, everybody fits that bill.
I mean, do I talk about Queen Cheorin’s devoted maid, Hong Yeon, and her weird love triangle between Hong Byeolgam and Kim Hwan, who are two idiots who also have a weird, homoerotic thing going on?
Or Court Lady Choi’s magnificent facial expressions and awkwardly repressed sexuality, and her budding romance with Royal Chef Man Bok, the owner of the most stylish mustache in all of Joseon?
Or the dimensions that make up the Grand Queen Dowager, who’s simultaneously a petulant but adorable old lady and the cruelest, most vain person ever?
Or Jo Hwajin, who defies all my expectations and emerges from the story a better, more confident woman who sees her life extend beyond obtaining King Cheoljong’s love?
Or how devoted Kim Byeongin is to Kim Soyong, and how despite him coming off as pathetic and pitiful in the story, his actions make complete sense when you look at events from his perspective?
Or how terrifying a villain Kim Jwa-geun is despite him literally not emoting for most of the time he’s on screen?
For Mr. Queen, getting through a scene with no interesting characters is not a problem. The drama gives even the minor characters distinct personalities and traits—nobody’s boring!
How Mr. Queen Improved on Go Princess Go
A large part of why the original Chinese web series, Go Princess Go, blew up as it did was due to its abysmal costumes and set designs, as caused by budget and time constraints. That, contrasted with the series’ sharp comedic timing, abundant pop culture references, and an actually good story exploring the taboo themes of gender and sexuality, made it the viral hit it was.
Mr. Queen lost none of the humor—only adapted it for a Korean audience—and improved on everything else.
This drama is visually stunning. Everything is flawless, from the female characters’ hair ornaments, to the food, to the clothes, to the designs of the sets, to the cinematography, to the performance of every actor. The production quality is top-notch, and the team behind it deserves all the accolade for it.
Mr. Queen basing its story on a real life king from Korean history also added a sense of inevitability for the audience. I spent a good chunk of the drama wondering if our protagonists can overcome fate, or if we’re doomed to an unhappy ending. Having historical context really helps newcomers unfamiliar with the culture of Joseon-era Korea too. (Relatedly, a disclaimer about historical accuracy at the beginning of a drama does wonders. Why China can’t just require time travel dramas to have that instead of banning the genre altogether is a mystery to me.)
The Gender Question
Perhaps Mr. Queen‘s most notable contrast to Go Princess Go is its handling of Jang Bonghwan’s identity crisis. In Go Princess Go, the main character’s identity crisis is purely a gender-based one. The Original Good no longer exists once Zhang Peng transmigrates into her body.
That is not the case in Mr. Queen. Kim Soyong, as it turns out, remained dormant within her body when Jang Bonghwan takes over. Remnants of her muscle memory, her actual memory, and her behavior bleed into his personality. They become one person during the duration of his stay, and the drama is both better and worse off for it.
Making Kim Soyong a part of the equation serves a lot of narrative purposes. She’s not only there to provide a mystery for Jang Bonghwan to solve, but she’s the key to several plot points and story elements crucial to achieving satisfying and guilt-free pay-offs, most notably, those related to her father and Kim Byeongin.
Her memories and her personality blending together with Bonghwan also drives his story along. Without them, he’d be happy just living out his days as the queen of a country instead of doing what he needed to do to change the course of history.
Lastly, having her back wraps up the story nicely in some ways, given that it all started because of her figurative wishes. In the beginning, she kills herself over love, happiness, and freedom, all of which she could not have. In the end, through Bonghwan’s guardianship of her body—and he is like the guardian angel she never asked for—she gets everything she wants.
Where this deviation from Go Princess Go fails on a story-level boils down to a simple question: Who did King Cheoljong fall in love with, Jang Bonghwan or Kim Soyong?
This is a question with no real answer. The sad truth is, he never knew either of them. He came to know Jang Bonghwan in the context of Kim Soyong, and Kim Soyong only after Jang Bonghwan has colored King Cheoljong’s experience of her with his personality. Although both inhabitants influenced each other, they’re separate people at the end of the day. The way Mr. Queen chose to end their bizarre, three-person romance is probably the most disappointing aspect of the entire drama.
In the context of the real world, Jang Bonghwan’s identity crisis being a crisis of personality allows the drama to gloss over a huge part of what made Go Princess Go so controversial and interesting in the first place: gender and sexuality. Every one of Queen Cheorin’s feminine inclinations can be explained by the presence of her original self in the body. Jang Bonghwan’s attraction towards King Cheoljong? Kim Soyong caused it. He didn’t really love him, at least, not in a gay way. That was all Kim Soyong. When their inner voice switched from male to female? Kim Soyong. There’s no bisexuality or transgenderism here. No, sir!
Uuughh….
I get it. South Korea is conservative. I don’t blame the team behind Mr. Queen for this decision. Still disappointing though.
Final Rating and Recommendations
Do you want laugh-out-loud antics? Subtle jokes and running gags? A protagonist who’s the smartest idiot alive? A romance interwoven with political intrigues? A plot that builds just right? Then Mr. Queen is twenty hours of your life you’ll not regret.
Based on the viral 2015 Chinese web series Go Princess Go, Mr. Queen is a improvement on its predecessor in almost every way. It’s a fast-moving, whip-smart, and utterly addicting series about transmigration and time travel with a talented cast, wonderful set designs, and great costuming. I cannot say enough good things about this drama.
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Funny
I liked this drama. It was very funny. Shin Hae Sun's acting is phenomenal. I loved how she potrayed the Mr. Queen. Her acting made this show great.The story was confusing, but I think I may have missed some key details.
For some time I was confused on what was the ledger. Why was it so important? I'm still currently unsure who the dowager ladies are related to. I also think the ending could have been better.
But overall, this show is one of my favorites! The chemistry was off the charts! I was always eager to see scenes with the king and the queen, and I had a fun time watching it.
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The K-drama that got me into K-dramas
The K-drama that got me into K-dramasThis show is amazing, totally worth the hype. I used to watch k-dramas casually but this drama is what got me into this world.
The story is amazing I love the acting, the innovative soundtrack and "queer" factor that we don't usually see. You should watch it if you are up to a great laugh, good music, and a bit of romance.
Just go for it.
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Worth the watch!!!
This kdrama was sooo good. Everything was perfect from the music, casting, acting, story to ending. I have read a few theories about the ending that I loved, for ex. that the guy from present and the women from the past have the same soul, he is a reincornation of her, and the women neesed help from her future self, cuz she was strugleing. Thats how the kdrama now has a happy ending. The ml from the past still loved her, both od them, cuz thsy are the same person, sharing the same soul. This kdrama was a 10/10 for me. I loveeed ittt.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
Perfect Ending
Human consciousness is a mystery. I think this drama played with its concept masterfully. A human being is a soul and a body. It is not a human being if it is just a soul or just a body. Kim So Yong was a human being. Jang Bong Hwan's consciousness was sucked into Kim So Yong—a human being; a body and a soul.The Queen's most important decisions was driven by Kim So Yong's genuine emotions and authentic memories. The King did not grow fond of Jang Bong Hwan and his beloved dragon, he loved Kim So Yong the Queen.
With this perspective, I think the ending was a masterpiece.
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Brilliant writing and acting!
1,000,000 stars! Hands down one of thee best drama I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen them all! Lol The writing is absolutely brilliant! It’s so smart, witty and absolutely hilarious! Never forced!I never once questioned the storyline or plot because everything flowed beautifully. No throw away episodes or fillers. Every episode was gold!
Shin Hye-Sun should win every acting award for her role as Kim So-Yong. She was absolutely phenomenal!
I wasn’t into the casting of the king at first but he proved me wrong a couple episodes in. Kim Jung-Hyun was the perfect person for the role of king. The Queen and King’s chemistry is absolute fire! Come to think of it... Her chemistry with everyone she acted with on screen is absolute fire!
And the queen and king’s supporting cast were brilliant! Their comedic timing was impeccable! I can go on and on about this drama. I laughed, I cried, I squealed with joy! I was so invested in these characters that I didn’t want it to end! I haven’t enjoyed a drama like this ever. So much so that I paid for a Viki pass to watch it and it was worth every dollar!
I’m hoping there is a sequel because this cast is phenomenal together!
I definitely will be looking for other dramas by writers Park Gye-ok and Choi Ah-il! As well as director, Yoon Sung-sik. Those 3 and this cast and crew really are a dream team.
I don’t ever watch dramas twice but I would totally watch this again and again. Brilliant!
Highly recommend it!
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Quite frankly, I haven't enjoyed myself this much in a long time!
This series was amazing. I watched two episodes every week and would feel empty as soon as the episodes finished playing. The actors have all done an amazing job and the two leads have an undeniable chemistry. Episodes 1 to 19 were impeccable and I enjoyed every minute.There have been much debate regarding if the ending was a good ending or not. I'll allow you to form your own opinion when you watch it. According to me, it left me very displeased, but since the series overall was so incredibly good, I'll give the sotry a solid 9.5.
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