The King's Woman (2017)

Despite some issues I had with this drama, it has so thoroughly captivated me that I can't give it any less than 10. The biggest issue I had is with packaging manipulation, obsession and the desire to completely possess someone as love. I did see pure love in this drama, especially during the initial episodes of the drama, but not from the character that we are supposed to see it. At times, it was very difficult to me to root for the "main couple" and sometimes it was even difficult for me to say who the main couple should be.

The King's Woman has a beautiful cinematography. I enjoyed looking at every scene in this show. The costumes, fight scenes and the shots in between are magnificent and often very powerful. The atmosphere is sometimes conveyed by the amount of light and the color of clothes that the people are wearing. The more carefree the characters can be, the less make up and bright colors we see. I really liked it. I also liked the music that went with it.

I thought that the story was swift and quite engrossing. I typically lose interest in shows that are longer than 20 episodes, but this one is different. Not a single episode dragged for me. In a nutshell, it is a historical drama with a love triangle (square?) type of situation, except that all of the characters involved seemed well developed and multidimensional. People change their feelings in this show because their situation changes and their motivation is governed by internal logic. Both men and women can be righteous or manipulating. This show has a high level of betrayal, revenge, possession, love, devotion, assassinations and intrigue, but people are not vile without a reason. Their motivations might be convoluted, but not impossible to understand. The show did a good job showing that in politics and in the palace you really can't trust anyone. One thing that I really liked at the beginning of the show was the balance of sad and lighter moments. Unfortunately, the show got progressively darker in the course of time. After episode 30, it becomes really dark and the viewers get the ominous feeling that things can't go right for everyone.

I can't say whether I am a fan of the ending or not. All in all, I was not surprised by it given everything we knew about the world of the King's Woman and the people involved.

I gave it a very high re-watch value because of the beauty of the shots. I already re-watched some of the episodes because I simply enjoyed seeing them again.

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Charming Couple with Chemistry

Personally, I really enjoyed this drama and I even re-watched it a couple of times.

I come back to this drama periodically to get my fix of Vin Zhang. He is truly handsome and manly. I like this height and built. <3

I think that the ML and FL act well and have very good chemistry in the show. I find the FL pretty and the ML very handsome. ML is such a fine actor. He showcases his acting prowess through how he can be power-hungry and cut-throat and yet, he can be obsessively loving and protective when it comes to his darling lady love. When he loves, he loves hard. e.g. My heart fluttered whenever he became crazy and searched for her desperately whenever she was not in his palace / by his side.

The plot is intriguing and engaging enough for me to ‘chase show’ (and to come back to it when I need my fix of Vin). Everything comes together in that the plot lines are well-linked and everything is wrapped up well.

What I liked a lot:
- explosive chemistry between female lead and male lead is definitely present
- strong and manly male lead who fits the role of king well; seriously, he can act so well
- feisty female lead who is smart, pretty, capable and endearing
- plot that is intriguing and engaging

What I didn’t like:
{spoilers}
- so many deaths
- a lot of bloodshed
- so many people do not get their ‘happily ever after’ and I’m a sucker for happy endings so I’m not pleased
- a lot of scheming

Anyway, this is a very watchable drama!!

Excellent acting!! Interesting plot that makes you want to find out what comes next. Highly Recommend!! <3

Most significantly, ML is a total charmer in this drama (despite his 'toxic love', obsession with FL and whatnot). Enjoy this drama to delight in seeing ML on your TV screen!! <3 What a man! Team King all the way!

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Vin Zhang so cool....

One word for this drama. Wow... I've never been more enchanted by Vin Zhang. Vin Zhang here is so cool... At that age played this kind of role & be this good is really something.

One thing this drama plot is not conventional, where the male lead (ML) is a good man. Here is the opposite the ML is the bad guy in the drama. Seeing how the ML never change until the end is really something, usually they became better or good man in the end. How the ending of this drama also really perfect. The ending gives me chill...

I also like dilireba here. She's not acting cute like her usual drama. In my opinion she and Vin Zhang give their best performance here.

I also like the romance between Gongsun Li / Lady Li and the king / Ying Zheng. How the hate became tolerance and eventually became love. The acting between dilireba and Vin Zhang also very supple, because they already in a lot of drama together so no awkwardness here.

But sometimes the more i think the darker this drama became. When we really want to take time to ponder the plot its actually the psychological condition where the victim became depend with the kidnapper, sometimes they became 'fall in love' with the kindapper ^_^.

So if you looked for drama that different from usual drama plot watch this. This is a very good drama to escape from boring plot. If you also looked for romance, this drama also offer that to you, enough romance but not too overwhelm. If you fans of dilireba and Vin Zhang of course you have to watch this drama, give you new perspective to them. ^_^

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A bit conflicted storyline.

First I d like to say as a non Chinese speaking person I was really sad at the subtitles being small, white, and barely readable. Plus no music lyrics were translated in this series nor signs, etc which I feel gives a viewer a better effect and understanding for the series effort made by all involved. I love knowing the signs on the buildings. Call me crazy but it all goes into the entire effort of the production. That being said I would like to next say I love Bin Bin in everything he does, even as a bad guy role, but honestly in this series I feel like he carried the entire series and was the good guy. I didn't like the little crybaby role of Jing as he just couldn't get through life, drinking, whining, even Han did better in moving forward in finding a path of action to feel alive . I felt Jing didn't deserve any woman he was so conflicted. I was very interested in the historical aspect of this drama but will have to look it up separately to see what was real. I am aware of the concubine issues however and how the politics of them became extremely out of control at times and eventually subdued and changed. (I think..,? ) Anyway I did not like Dal in this role, but I did not even like the female lead created for this role at all. It was extremely unbelievable. The king has this sweet memory of who she was and how she protected him but in the action she seems unaware of who he is and treats him pitifully even though choosing to go live w him to save her lover? I just didnt even find this believable. Also the sleeping together stuff. She slept w both guys but do we know if she really could be carrying the Kings child in reality and not Jings? She is so naive in general just unbelievable and then running away w/o her child. ,??? No way. Bad mom. Again not believable plus getting a soldier killed and her maidservant beaten etc. How could she not know this in these times if the king was so awful. Then comes back and tries to kill the king w a hairpin. Again I'm rolling my eyes thinking really unbelievable. How much hate and vengeance when she could have just stayed w Jing. And her reasons were like blah blah blah I have no brain. So between this crazy stuff and Jing acting even less interesting in character I really focused even more on the Kings good attributes and the harem soap operish drama scenes of the mean girls club like effect which were really funny and enjoyable to a point. I wanted to see the Dowager cut off FL s hair in prison Lol. I felt she deserved it based on her brainless behavior. Plus in real life I'm pretty sure she would have gotten worse. Also her maid comes back w no scares. C'mon people slashes across the face make scars even w the greatest of medicines. I think it would have added even better drama for the maid and Han to keep their slash scars to seal the effects of FLs selfish behavior. Plus scars on the face show great character in drama roles ...Ok anyway ..... lol . I will continue to watch this to the end only as I would like to see who lives and dies and if lil Tian really becomes a good man due to the King who seems to be the only sensible person in the lead roles. It sure wouldn't be Dil who is always full of hate and seemingly not kind or gentle with any nice redeeming qualities shown thus far. She also is a liar. Hypocrite. Calls everyone else a liar while she lies. This is why I can't buy into her character in general. (I do like her as an actress in general though, just not this character role) ...Just nothing there to like plus far too many blank face looks which shows lack of depth. In closing I absolutely loved, loved the costumery, clothing, hair, settings, and the visuals, the fight scenes and the elders cast in those drama. Fine acting there. It was all very beautiful, enticing and great work there. I loved the dress Dil wore in her sword dance. Beautiful!! The look backs get boring and tedious, had to scroll past the umpteenth time of seeing the same ones over and over again. I do like the storyline in general despite the FL s just not making any sense overall .
Ok so the ending was a joke. I mean really?? FL just made no sense, had no loyalty and ruined everything she touched. She was the bad person. Not the king.

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Story/ Entertainment:
It’s pretty good. I mean end credits/ opening credits songs, really tell you all the story and plots. And it is kind of that love story we are pretty much seen a lot. But they way story carries out is not bad. It’s still entertaining.

Cast/Acting:
Acting is good. So if you have good looking actors and actresses who knows how to act, that helps a lot with this type of story. I like most of the cast in this series, they are pretty good in most TV series I have seem them.

Production Values:
I actually like the productions.... set/ costume.... they are pretty good as well as actions/ camera movement...


Expectation:
Just dont think too much about it. It’s not a bad series.

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Recommended solely if you are a fan of the actors or like historicals.

This has been on my ptw list since I joined mdl 2 almost 3 years ago. It wasn't like I was putting it off but I just honestly kept forgetting to watch- it's not bad but not all that great.
My 2 issues is the story got laggy. This could have totally been cut to 30 POSSIBLY 40 episodes which could have made the story more impactful. The other issue is character development wasn't really there which to me means crappy writing.
One good thing about these historicals are the sets and costumes which this obviously had- A1.
The acting was... idk how to describe it. Like not the best but not the worst either. I've seen several of Dil and Bin Bin's dramas and at this point it's the same thing just different characters- there's no range and even though they aren't terrible, I would like to see a different side to them.
Overall I enjoyed it even though it got repetitive and I would stop paying attention during some scenes but it's to be expected with these long dramas.

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Childhood sweethearts cum fellow disciples Sun li and Jing ke gets separated when the Qin emperor hunts down the beautiful Sun li and makes her his concubine. The power struggle of the harem and the palace politics are also the main themes apart from the Qin emperor 's ambition and effort in unifying all states into one.

Dilaraba played the part of concubine Sun li beautifully. The ruthless emperor Ying Zheng played by Zhang bin bin , Jing Ke played by Liu Chang (found him smoking hot) , the sweet gentle eldest senior Han shen who supports Sun li in all her decisions played by Li Tian - all were awesome.

Loved the title and ending songs.

I watched till episode 14, put it on hold for months because I found the story dragging and boring. After a few months, I watched the remaining episodes and thought would put it on hold if I found it dragging. But from episode 15, I watched it non stop and even if the story gets dragging a bit somewhere in 30s episodes and in early 40s episodes, I completed all 48 episodes. What this means is story is predictable in between but it was not boring enough to put it on hold for me, hence I was able to complete all 48 episodes.

Will Sun li be able to survive the power struggle and politics of harem and the Palace? Will she be able to assist the Qin emperor Ying Zheng in his ambition in unifying the states? Will she fall for the emperor or is her heart still with Jing ke? Will Ying Zheng love Sun li's baby as his own or the baby just a means to keep Sun li by his side? Watch the drama to find out.

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My Review:
This story is a palace love and intrigue set in China. It is the fictional account about the History of the first Emperor. Who was an arrogant, bad tempered, insidious, vicious, ruthless, cunning and obsessive tyrant and more negatives. He did everything to get his own way after he had been bullied during his own childhood. He abducted the woman he desired and held her captive cage like in his palace enticing her to fall in love with him. He trusted no one and continuously put the family under stress because of his distrust. His main love interest is intelligent, warm, compassionate, caring and and all round wonderful woman and yet he treats her terribly. She tries so hard to to be the woman he needs but in the ends he betrays her again and again and then finally she tricks him into killing her and hopes as she dies that this would teach him the lesson that he needs to be a great King. Parts of this movie is so totally sad but often you don’t cry but feel furious about the circumstances of what is happening. The lead actors do a wonderful job acting. Zhang Binbin being the main reason I started watching this his portrayal of this unlikable man is epic and keeps you watching despite the cruelty and violence and the contrast of Dilraba Dilmurat is supreme. She is everything he is not. Loved her martial arts skills. The fighting is much like a well coordinates dance routine and keeps you mesmerised. There is an unexpected twist at the end but you feel it coming and think yeah I thought as much. I love the costumes and much of the scenery and settings. I recommend that you watch this and stay to the end it will still your heart and stir your mind and senses and make you feel grateful that you live in this day and age especially if you are a woman. The end just justifies everything according to myself.

I’m watching this again and it even better. I may have sped through some unsavoury parts coz I couldn’t handle it but now I know whats going to happen I can relish the end and accept the middle.

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this kind of genre is my favourite, alpha male lead with possessive persona chasing our badass female lead with a sprinkle of love triangle however this drama was so typical that i got so bored and stopped watching it. all the events in this drama was so predictable but that dosen't mean i didn't enjoy the kissing sceneswhich were alot than what i had imagined by the way.
the acting skills with our actress Dilraba wasn't that impressive there were some scences where i was yelling to the screen "really, that's it!! " i was so dissapointed on the other hand actor Zhang vin he did deliver the typical alpha male but i don't like it when the role is alpha and ruthless but weak when it comes to his woman i find this quiet hard to believe. the plus point in this drama was that i really enjoyed the martial arts fights scenes

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