The King: Eternal Monarch

The King: Youngoneui Gunjoo (Eternal Monarch)

I was quite disappointed about this drama in the beginning because the show includes too much product placement advertising. It was very distracting when I watch the show for the first time so I was almost about to give up to watch the whole episodes. 

Besides, the main characters are not really my styles. As I have watched many dramas of this writer Eun-sook Kim, I know her writing style enough by now. So I wasn't expect it would be charming for me. Funny thing is that many people, who agree with me, still watch her dramas. Even though most people who don't watch her dramas still know about those issues. 

Therefore, I could say, interestingly, her dramas have always been popular in Korea.

Objectively, Min-ho Lee and Go-eun Kim both look all right and they have experienced being on the previous dramas of Eun-sook Kim. Although, personally, the main actors are not my favorite, to be more honest, the look of Min-ho Lee fits in well with his role the King of Corea in the drama, I think. They both are well known for their previous character in the dramas of Eun-sook Kim, so that was one of the important points for people to watch their changes in acting. But, indeed, it seems not working very well in that way. Their new characters couldn't get over the shadow of previous ones and didn't show any specialty or difference from them, either. Unfortunately, that helped to lose this drama's reputation. And this time, there were so many critical and cynical feedbacks and reviews from its start. Even I, who have not been kind to this drama, felt it is too much. 

Surprisingly, I didn't give up watching it and it is going to make its end soon.

The reason I hadn't given it up is that I found its storyline is very fascinating. The more the show went on, the more I felt interested in the story. This drama has two worlds at the same time. One world is another's a parallel world in the drama. It's a very complicated setting so I had to watch it again to understand the big picture. It is funny that when I watched it again I felt the product placement advertising in the drama isn't interrupting me like the first time. As the advertising seems still ridiculous and hilarious from the context, I have felt like being afraid of getting used to it. 

Anyway, let's go back to the fantastic story! The brief summary is as follows; Dae-han-min-gook (South Korea like now) has a paralleled world called Dae-han-je-gook(the Kingdom of Corea which has a different history without the Japanese colonial period). Lee Gon(Min-ho Lee) is the King of Corea and he had a tough childhood losing his father because of his uncle Lee Lim(Jeong-jin Lee)'s ambition to succeed to the throne. Lim plotted treason and tried to get the broken legendary flute called Man-pa-sik-jeok, which solves all the worries of the country in the Silla Dynasty(57BC - 935AD). The flute was cut in two pieces by accident during a rebellion and that has affected Lim and Gon on entering the two worlds. The two worlds have been messed up by Lee Lim crossed the two worlds with Man-pa-sik-jeok. Lee Gon, the King of Corea, recognised Lim's stratagem and also crossed to the parallel world, South Korea. During coming and going between the two worlds, Gon meets Tae-eul(Go-eun Kim) who is believed to be a savior in his childhood. After that, they both stand against Lim to put the parallel worlds right.

Most characters have two different lives in the parallel worlds so most actors have to perform at least two different identities. Especially, the actor Do-hwan Woo who performed both of sub-characters Jo Yeong & Jo Eun-seob had to act his additional performances pretending each other in the parallel worlds, so indeed total of 4 characters in his own ways. The rising star, Do-hwan Woo has never disappointed me. Rather, he has turned on his charm through this drama much more with his unique actings. It could have been a new challenge for him but I think he has been carrying it really well. Although his role doesn't seem as much important as the main characters like Gon or Tae-eul, it definitely brought fun to the drama and made him and his characters indispensable.

From now on, only 3 episodes left to the end. And it looks like going to make a sad ending. I wonder how all the characters will carry on to the end. There must be some reasons but the drama could have been much better if there was no product placement advertising issue. If you concentrate on its storyline, especially the parallel world, you couldn't disagree with me! You will find yourself watching it once again?