There had been a similar but older adaptation of King Jeongjo and Ui-bin Seong's love story which was the 2007 drama series Lee San, Wind of the Palace. My mom was a big fan of Lee Seo-jin who was playing as that show's Yi San, so I naturally managed to watch it in its entirety. Hence, I am not that surprised with the development of this current adaptation. Thought it's the same ending, the bittersweet pain remains the same.

I'm confident to say that Red Sleeve is easily one of this year's best asian dramas. The leads are both clever, mature, responsible and selfless. They are a power couple who compliments each other's strengths and weaknesses and are quite self aware of consequences with their every action. It's quite refreshing to see them through each episode. The other secondary characters are also filled with relevance and personality so you will also find yourself liking them as well.

However I do admit that this drama is not without its flaws. Somewhere around 3/4 of the drama, the usual eye-roll inducing Kdrama political intrigue holds the drama plot's reigns and forcibly spoonfeds the viewer of various side characters' resentment and revenge plans which I absolutely don't care for at all. I've seen my fair share of Kdrama and I'm just tired of this kind of plot development at this point. BUT that's just me, I still believe this part of the story might be quite engaging and effective for other people, so don't take my word for it.

Overall, Red Sleeve is worth it,. You ma be able to pinpoint certain elements in this series that are from other acclaimed historical series in the past, but they managed to make Red Sleeve feel unique and memorable at the same time.