Dress Sleeved Red (2021)

Good as a political drama but subpar in terms of romance genre!

After seeing the ratings, I had high expectations for it and to a certain extent it had paid off just not in the way and in the genre it had promised to deliver. I am happy there were other reviews that had pointed out exactly what I had wanted to say. Still, I will try to express in my own words how I felt about this drama. I had dropped it in the beginning of Episode 15. And whatever plot spoilers I had gotten from the reviews here, it seems dropping it was a good decision.

I must admit I am not a huge fan of historical dramas,especially those centred on romance. I had chosen to watch this because I had been truly impressed by Lee Junho's acting and also the dramas that I had seen previously, which he had chosen to work in.

And I must say, it had a promising start and build-up. I was truly absorbed in the past world of the royal household that they had showcased. I appreciate the production value for succeeding in creating the perfect ambience for this heavy tale. I must mention here the first episode itself. It was the perfect exposition for me. And the acting by the younger versions of the leads(especially the female lead) was impressive and set the perfect tone for an epic tale of romance.

But, it was the romantic genre that this drama failed in despiteit being promoted as so. What it succeeded in was in political drama. I am quite impressed by how well the writer tried to write the intrigues within the royal palace, especially the very essential role the women of the household(including court ladies/palace maids play in it) and how they had been a silent force behind crucial royal orders and kingmaking. The moment the plot around politics ended, the plot lost its track completely. Romance was almost a side plot and it should have been so till the end because it was the least compelling portion of it. And by the end, it seemed to almost hinder the story ultimately crushing it with its weight. I certainly wouldn't have rated it this low had not the romance plot involving the same two people become the focus in the last few episodes. Now, don't get me wrong. For the first few episodes, both aspects of the drama had worked wonderfully in tandem with each other. But then the love story started to drag out which made it stale like an over-chewed chewing gum. And it became the most dull element to watch in the episodes.

Another aspect that the plot and the writing succeeded in after three episodes or so was building the character and story of the male lead. It was his journey to ascension of the throne that kept us captivated as the story moved on keeping in with his relationship with his grandfather. Till then, the female lead's choices made sense as well because she had reasoned out that there was a lot to be done in order to help him ascend the throne to care for other sentimentalities. In fact, the male lead's strengths and vulnerabilities were wonderfully fleshed out. And obviously Junho's acting fully delivered it with a very humane touch. His scenes with his grandfather and the scenes with Deok Im in the first few episodes were touching. He acted well till the last episode I watched. Its just that the writing fell off. The writings after he became the king was very weak and very convoluted and confusing. Its as if the writers had many plots in their head but they were not given the desired number of episodes to work with so they decided to break up the plots into pieces and made a mush out of it. That's the problem with KDramas. But that's not for here and now to discuss.

Its the same thing with the characters, moreso with the female lead. They started off pretty impressive. As somebody else had pointed out, the female lead's background was hardly explored. But that can be justified given this story dealt with the royal palace. And her life in it was pretty well explored I believe. But a truly wasted potential for who could have been a really strong female lead as it grew annoying towards the end. Like her actions were at times ridiculous. Emotions and motives behind them elusive to me at least. The male lead took some time to bloom as a character. Not too long. Just first few episodes. But again, towards the end, I felt he became a little too desperate to the neglect of other duties he had. He's sometimes contradictory but given the situation and his own position, it might make sense. To be honest, I had wanted better for him. Like by the middle of it, I just wanted a different female lead who would have similar virtues to Deok Im but would perhaps be committed in love for him. Like an all-consuming love. Unconditional one. That's the kind of love he deserved after everything he went through. The chemistry fell off unfortunately. I couldn't see any spark between them or even any comfort or warmth between them. I think at one point he might have had more chemistry Hong Deok Reo(another wasted potential character) and even the Captain of the guards.

Why I dropped it? I could see the direction it was going for. And its one which is unnecessarily angsty and just not my type of plot.
Its a shame. Because this could have been a good political drama with many emotional layers to it. If you want me rate it as a political drama till the episode of the old King's death, I would give it a 9 or 9.5 probably. To me, it was very impressive. Obviously, as I had said my experience with historical dramas is limited to 100 Days My Prince. So it might not be the most reliable rating. But as a romance drama alone, I might rate it lower than I am currently rating it. I didn't want to give a low rating for a Lee Junho drama. But given the somewhat misleading rating this drama had gotten compelled me to write this in a way!

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