![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Korean TV: Queens, Kings, Attorneys
Wednesday, 12 July 2023 13:30More Korean TV series watched.
Mr. Queen
So much fun! A male chef from the modern era is in trouble, and falls into a pool from a building. Somehow his mind is transported into the body of a woman - a Joseon eras queen! - from 200 years before as she was drowning in a lake. He/she now has to navigate the palace, being a queen married to a dull king (played very well by Kim Jung-hyun) who loves his concubine, with palace politics (clan and family rivalries), a mystery (who wanted to kill the queen?), and a palace cook who doesn't like interference in his kitchen. Shin Hye-sun plays the role amazingly well, with some very non-feminine or Joseon-era attributes and mannerisms, and she makes the character so likeable. As an actor, she's apparently nicknamed "the diction fairy" because she has such precise language. I don't know Korean, but you can hear how she can speak at machine-gun speed with perfect clarity. This series was just amazing; I couldn't wait to see what would happen next, and I was wondering exactly how the series could end.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Woo Young-woo is autistic, and raised by a single father (coincidentally, the same actor who played the father of the queen in Mr Queen, and the father of the lead in the series I'm watching now, Still 17). She has a photographic memory, and graduated top of her class as an attorney, but can only get a job through a connection of her father's. She has to now be involved in legal cases, while navigating company relationships. The majority of the episodes focus on a single legal case each, often with some very topical and interesting backgrounds, but there's an overarching story involving romance, and her parentage. She's seen as weird by many colleagues and clients, but some get to like her despite her obsessions (whales!) and limitations (doorways!). I found this really insightful with respect to autism and related struggles, and Park Eun-bin, playing the title role, got a whole stack of awards for her portrayal of Young-woo.
The King's Affection
I then watched The King's Affection because Park Eun-bin, from Attorney Woo, played the lead role too. She plays Dam-i, the twin sister of the new crown prince in the Joseon era. Twins are seen as ominous though, so she is ordered to be killed at birth by the king, her grandfather. Her mother manages to keep her alive, though, and as a maid, comes back to the palace in her lower teens. The prince meets her and realises she's almost a mirror of him, so they occasional swap places when he wants to get out...until he is murdered. Dam-i has to take his place, and become the prince, and one day the king in his place. Years later, her first teen love, played by a talented Rowoon, re-enters the palace as her royal tutor, and he starts falling in love with her, not knowing that she is a woman. There are politics, of course, murderous family members, and the ever-present fear that she'll be found out and executed. Also a growing romance, and changes in the lives of all around her. Park Eun-bin carries this off so well; as a young man, she's short and a little androgynous, and beautiful as a woman, and so very, very different from her character in Attorney Woo. Such a great show.
Currently I'm watching Still 17, which is about a woman (played by the amazing Shin Hye-sun from Mr. Queen) who comes out of a 13 year coma after being in a bus accident as a teen.
(ML = Male Lead, FL = Female Lead)
Mr. Queen
So much fun! A male chef from the modern era is in trouble, and falls into a pool from a building. Somehow his mind is transported into the body of a woman - a Joseon eras queen! - from 200 years before as she was drowning in a lake. He/she now has to navigate the palace, being a queen married to a dull king (played very well by Kim Jung-hyun) who loves his concubine, with palace politics (clan and family rivalries), a mystery (who wanted to kill the queen?), and a palace cook who doesn't like interference in his kitchen. Shin Hye-sun plays the role amazingly well, with some very non-feminine or Joseon-era attributes and mannerisms, and she makes the character so likeable. As an actor, she's apparently nicknamed "the diction fairy" because she has such precise language. I don't know Korean, but you can hear how she can speak at machine-gun speed with perfect clarity. This series was just amazing; I couldn't wait to see what would happen next, and I was wondering exactly how the series could end.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Woo Young-woo is autistic, and raised by a single father (coincidentally, the same actor who played the father of the queen in Mr Queen, and the father of the lead in the series I'm watching now, Still 17). She has a photographic memory, and graduated top of her class as an attorney, but can only get a job through a connection of her father's. She has to now be involved in legal cases, while navigating company relationships. The majority of the episodes focus on a single legal case each, often with some very topical and interesting backgrounds, but there's an overarching story involving romance, and her parentage. She's seen as weird by many colleagues and clients, but some get to like her despite her obsessions (whales!) and limitations (doorways!). I found this really insightful with respect to autism and related struggles, and Park Eun-bin, playing the title role, got a whole stack of awards for her portrayal of Young-woo.
The King's Affection
I then watched The King's Affection because Park Eun-bin, from Attorney Woo, played the lead role too. She plays Dam-i, the twin sister of the new crown prince in the Joseon era. Twins are seen as ominous though, so she is ordered to be killed at birth by the king, her grandfather. Her mother manages to keep her alive, though, and as a maid, comes back to the palace in her lower teens. The prince meets her and realises she's almost a mirror of him, so they occasional swap places when he wants to get out...until he is murdered. Dam-i has to take his place, and become the prince, and one day the king in his place. Years later, her first teen love, played by a talented Rowoon, re-enters the palace as her royal tutor, and he starts falling in love with her, not knowing that she is a woman. There are politics, of course, murderous family members, and the ever-present fear that she'll be found out and executed. Also a growing romance, and changes in the lives of all around her. Park Eun-bin carries this off so well; as a young man, she's short and a little androgynous, and beautiful as a woman, and so very, very different from her character in Attorney Woo. Such a great show.
Currently I'm watching Still 17, which is about a woman (played by the amazing Shin Hye-sun from Mr. Queen) who comes out of a 13 year coma after being in a bus accident as a teen.