Affection (2021)

This was awesome, the perfect drama for Xmas time: funny, sweet, romantic, intriguing, the whole package. I admit, my main interest in this was Rowoon as Jung Ji Woon but I was also glad to discover Choi Byung Chan and through him Victon! Nice!

My favorite thing was that for a big part of this drama, many of the characters actually really thought that Lee Hwi was a man. Jung Ji Woon when he fell in love with her among them. After some initial bi panic, he just went with it. Or Shin So Eun, when she realized that Ji Woon was in love with the king - there was no horror or disgust, she was just sad that he loved another. The overall reaction was mostly "you love someone else, not me" and not "you love a man" which honestly hit the right spot with me.

Also, poor Ji Woon's father, a killer that he was, mind you. The crisis that he went through, just imagine it. First, he finds out that his son is the king's beloved - a shock in itself - followed by the fact that his son is the king's beloved! What must've gone through his head... "Either my son is into men... or I made a serious blunder 10 years ago!" Ha!

Wonderful drama. It really, truly hit the right spot. Lovely...

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King of Crossdressing Dramas

Finally, a crossdressing drama where the actress playing a man is actually believable as a man. I've seen quite the amount of crossdressing dramas and 99% of the time it's just a female in male style, but Park Eunbin is that 1%. From the stance, voice, expressions, down to the mannerisms, she perfectly embodies the role.

At the same time, the drama doesn't pretend like she's a perfect male. They acknowledge that the prince is feminine. They showed the fl naturally developed manly gestures but she can't help but be feminine. It fits to the narrative that no matter how hard she tries, she can't hide her feminine qualities that would eventually lead to suspicions. And Park Eunbin understood the assignment. She effortlessly shifts between two different identities while depicting the fear, pain and grief that both characters hold. She did great portraying the prince and princess both physically and emotionally. I have nothing but praise for her.

As a historical drama, fl is strong, smart and the hero that drives the plot. Most fl's are not as privileged as they are usually just the love interest that every male character likes or a damsel in distress that everyone has to save. Here the fl has the higher status and is in a position to be involved in political matters as a crown prince turned king. And this is also one of the rare sageuk where the king's children aren't scheming, fighting or killing each other for the crown.

As a romance drama, Park Eunbin and Rowoon as the leads have good chemistry and the reverse cliché was very entertaining. The ml being good with books, medicine and gardening, while the fl being great at hunting, fighting and swimming. The leads work so well both in romantic scenes and comedic ones. So the romantic and comedic scenes are actually sweet and funny, not cringey. The fl being the hero and the ml as the love interest was refreshing.

Lastly, I love the things they kept from the webtoon and the things they changed for the drama. The death of the real crown prince, someone everyone wanted to protect being the one who ended up dead, was ironic. The highlight of the drama, the reveal of the secret was tastefully done. And the ending, it was proper and clearer than the webtoon. It wrapped up well.

Overall, Park Eunbin's acting alone makes this drama worth watching. Her 25 years of experience was evident in this dual role, acknowledged by KBS Drama Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and Korea Broadcasting Awards. It was good to have her back in a historical drama, and Yeonmo was definitely worth the wait. Long live the King!

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Love the women empowerment yet a little slow

If you're looking for a drama with historical background with a poetic touch, beautiful costumes, a fight to reform the old conservative mindset and a hint of action? This drama is perfect for you.
Its a little slow but it fits all the 20 episodes perfectly. What pulled my attention was the costume design and the details put into each were just so refreshing and totally seem as if a lot of thought was put into it. The drama is visually and aurally mesmerizing but the storyline isn't that impressive. There were a lot of situations where i could predict easily.

However what pulled me towards this to watch every was the amazing performance of Park Eun bin. Her character involved a lot of emotional burden and she executed it perfectly and definitely expressed that women are capable to do anything.
Yes I watched this because of Rowoon but the romantic plot didn't really catch my attention.
Okay but I fell in love with Choi Byung Chan though (He's one of the reasons that I dont regret watching this XD)

Hence I would say if you just want to pass time, feel some action and inspiration, maybe a little bit of comedy and a cultural history of korea you can give it a watch!

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overall view of the drama

The theme of this drama is about love, so ideally it should run at 16 episodes with a saeguk genre. With two 20-ep saeguk drama this year, I don't know how KBS is going to present the year-end awards. Problem with the king’s affection, to me, is the production. If they change or add characters from the manhwa, they might as well modify the storyline. The first 2 episodes are excellent, and it started getting slow and repetitive in the middle. I’ve lost count on the number of repetitive lovey-dovey scenes(memories). If they doing a 20-ep drama, the production team could build up a plot on bringing down the evil grandfather which would be very interesting. They are lucky that they have Park Eun Bin to hold up the drama with her acting. Her chemistry with Rowoon is the main attraction that draws audience into the drama. If the viewers cry with them, then they are doing a good job in playing out their characters. I didn’t watch Rowoon’s works but I heard good reviews about him, and I am impressed as a new actor he acts very well with his eyes and his voice. Saeguk drama can be quite restrictive in expressing emotions and that can be a test for the actors/actresses. I remember years ago, kim soo hyun in embracing moon, he also acted very well with his voice. I do hope Rowoon will become a versatile actor as I see that he has a lot of potentials. At least, he doesn’t play safe and picks up the idol-style dramas! And, I am very looking forward to Park Eun Bin’s next drama playing an autistic lawyer!
Back to the king’s affection, I only want a happy ending for the couple!

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Great watch!

Even though it's not up there with Mr. Queen, it was a great watch and I looked forward to new episodes every week! ROWOON is so cute to look at and I love his non-conforming male behavior. I think he played a bit more of the feminine role here but it complements the female lead who has to play the male role! I felt the plot is unique and interesting. It's simple as in other than the villain we already know, there's not a lot of misunderstanding or evil side schemes that comes between the major evil scheme. There are some minor flaws in the plot but what drama doesn't have flaws? All the supporting characters played their roles well. The ones you should love and the ones you should hate. The dad and male lead had a complex relationship but it worked out. The supporting female characters were lovable. I enjoyed the last episode as it was true happy ending, not a half-@$$ed 5-min cut of an implied happy ending.

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4th time

I for one loved this drama enough to watch it for the 4th time. I will probably watch it again. It's a great story and I loved all of the main actors' role in the drama. It entertained me, made me laugh and made me cry. I am an incurable romantic.

Watching Korean dramas is something I started watching about 6 months ago and just love the majority of what I have viewed. I watch them every day and binge watch when a drama really catches my interest like King's Affection. The first time I watched it I binge watched. Dramas I really love I will normally watch them numerous times since I have to read the English subtitles and will normally miss something. I always watch the behind the scenes as well. To me it personalizes the actors. Great Job!!

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One of the best worth watching Historical Drama

Am very satisfied with every single aspects of this wonderful drama. Personally historical is my favourite genre. Thanks to Netflix for taking its streaming rights because of that we got an amazing visually grand historical drama. The story was very interesting from the Beginning, when i first read the plot i thought this will probably follow the same pattern of love hate and love triangle boring patriotism and politics till end. For love triangle there were several people in that cycle, but i desperate to watch mainly because of my favourite actors Rowoon and Park Eun bin.

I don't enter into the plot because you can read it on mydramalist website, but in short a girl pretending to a king and she has to live her life with this secret, sounds very interesting and so as the drama also very beautifully narrated with a good screenplay. 20 long episode, i don't felt any dragging at all ( binge watching experience may different). After every episode by episode it kept going very nicely. Eun bin was nailed it with her outstanding performance. It's not an easy task to transform into a men, but her appearance was quite impressive, There was so many characters and the screenplay is well balanced. Also not much love triangle, but still there some. But they give less space for that which was good actually.

Even the finale episodes were very satisfying, all the emotional moments with some beautiful osts played a big part to make this drama worth watch. Highly recommended if you r a historical drama lover. I enjoyed a lot.

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I watched the series, “The Kings Affection” with my friend, as a school project.

Storyline
We found the plot/storyline to be well thought out with unexpected plot twists. The idea is very original, as it includes popular tropes but also includes situations/tropes that you haven’t seen before. We also thought the characters had extremely good character development. Especially the main characters.
On the other hand, we think it is quite unrealistic that the main character is able to keep her gender hidden for 10 years. But if you can look away from this, it does not ruin the experience of watching the series.

Cast/acting
We thought the chemistry between the main character and her love interest was very good and the progression in the relationship is well executed. Eun-bin Park looked convincing as a male, which is good as this could have made the series kind of awkward if done wrong. The actors also executed their characters development in a convincing manner.

Music
The series has a nice soundtrack that fits the atmosphere of the different scenes. However, the music is also forgettable and is not something we would listen to afterwards. It is mostly standard K-drama music that is classic for the genre.

Rewatch value
We would watch this again for the chemistry between the main characters and the great acting and emotions. However, we would not watch it again for the storyline as it would lose the emotional impact of the plot twists. It would be a better rewatch if you wait a while until you have forgotten some of the plot points.

Overall
It is a very good series that we recommend watching, especially to new k-drama watcher or k-drama watchers who wants to see something different.

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beautiful and sad story ..much sad

I really liked the drama! It’s a pity that it ended so quickly, it would have been better if there were more episodes, I think the storyline could have been continued.. after Lee Hyun became a king.
About the actors! Great cast! I really liked the joint game of Park Eun and Rowoon, Nam Yoon, Choi Byung Chana and Yoon Je Moon as well as the courtiers Kim Sang Gung and Eunuch! They all played their roles very harmoniously! They ( directors ) , chose the actors very wisely, I would say it turned out as if it really happened! ( how they played ! So realistic ) Exciting !
Scenario .. it’s sad that they decided to kill a twin and considered it a bad sign, on the contrary, it would be beneficial for the royal court to have twins in case of illness, one of them (since it comes to usefulness to the state and the people)
There are a lot of cruel scenes against children (I didn’t expect this from the script from Jung Seok Jo (the children could have been spared, especially not to kill the twin without figuring out who it really is - king or his sister) and in front of his son.. not very a good example of “serving His Majesty” .. that was really sad .. and how could Jung Ji Woon forgiving his father lately ? (In lasts episodes) I think his father deserved punishment because many innocent children died because of him and people , “to please” Han Ki Jae the king’s grandfather ..
Here is the grandfather (Han Ki Jae), he really wanted to rule, so why didn’t he take the throne himself? Why was it necessary to intrigue and make puppets for yourself if you could already rule yourself and let the twin girl (Dami Yi) and her brother live in peace?!
So many people suffered for him!
And yes, why did his daughter (queen) and even King King Hyejon himself listen to him? In my opinion, a weak monarch who had absolutely no control over the court and was literally a puppet in the hands of his wife’s grandfather..
Throughout the drama, I wondered why Lee Hwi / Dam Yi didn't give up everything and run away? But she could! And she would have lived in peace, then she would have found Jung Ji Woon and they would have been happy.. she didn’t owe it to anyone to become queen, especially to people who wanted to get rid of her. But she coped very well with her role as a king; it must have been difficult to hide the fact that she was a woman for so many years! Even her fear of her grandfather passed over time.
It’s not clear why in most Korean historical scenarios, kings fulfill the wishes of their subjects more than the subjects listen to the king... this is probably another difference from chinese dramas where everyone obeys the king (rather than the king constantly focusing on the opinions of his subjects)
I was amazed by the devotion of Prince Lee Hyun, who knew from childhood that the king was a woman but hid this secret even though Dam Yi loved another (especially his friend)... you need to have strong restraint so as not to harm the person you love and your friend despite jealousy and love.. I admire him! It would be cool to have a “parallel scenario” in which such feelings would be mutual and in the end the queen would marry the prince (unless, of course, this does not contradict blood ties and this is not a brother), well, so that the hero of such a plan would win at least once scenarios))
What was also amazing was that they all - Queen Lee Hwi, Jung Ji Woon and Lee Hyun - remained friends in the end! This is the most wonderful ending!
I also liked the performance of Kim Ga On, a handsome actor and a wonderful performance, it’s good that he was left alive according to the script and he eventually took the side of King Lee Hwi despite the offense towards the late king (although in fact the king’s grandfather, whom everyone obeyed, was to blame).
I didn’t like the “gender intrigue” scene where rumors began to creep in that the king prefers men, it felt like the screenwriter was clearly trying to shoehorn a scene or a hint of bl where it had no place at all! I don’t really understand how there could be bl in korean dramas or a hint of it! Well, this doesn’t fit at all with korean conservatism! Especially in a historical drama where it was even stricter with this than now! There was an unpleasant aftertaste..
Yes, and Dami Yi could have long ago confessed to Queen Noh Ha Kyung that she was a woman and lured her to her side.. and everyone would have been happy and no one would have been offended.. but somehow it turned out strictly, Dami Yi was very careful..
Some things are not difficult to predict or how events will unfold. By the way, I knew that Dami Yi would poison her grandfather! And the pill that she took before drinking the poisoned tea was 100% an antidote that she didn’t know about but which saved her in the end! But her grandfather didn’t expect it, he thought that he would continue to carry out his intrigues on the sly! Well done she!
Of course, I thought that she would have her own army and she would be able to defend her rights without losing the youngest prince, but apparently not in this drama.. it’s a pity for the little one (prince Jehyeon), he was not guilty of anything at all and only wanted that if they left him alone.. the best solution would be not to leave the palace for him.. it would save him..

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Okay, despite the bad reviews I've seen, let me tell you this.
I think the genre most fitted to Yeonmo is royalty and slice of life, with maybe a bit of drama.
We are shown how life is at the palace, how a young royal live their life against the harsh palace and grow up to be a benevolent and wise leader. It is serene, graceful, sometimes intense and filled with delicate schemes.
The cinematography and coloring is exceptional. Yeonmo uses a lot of flower and tree sceneries, bright and warm colors, and takes up a rather slow pace. A lot of the actors and actresses are young and new talents, but their characterization and chemistry are so good on and off camera! It's really refreshing to see.

Also! This is one of the dramas that portrays the purest definition of love. I absolutely loved it, you have to watch and see for yourself.

That being said, I think this drama is best watched one episode or two at a time, not to binge. There are minimal violence, I think, and no adult scenes (if you exclude kiss scenes which every K-drama have). Totally recommended!

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