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dreamingkdrama · 7 months

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The King: Eternal monarch

Genre: fantasy, romance

Episodes: 16

Starring: Lee Min-Ho, Woo Do-Hwan, Kim Go-Eun, Kim Kyung-Nam, Lee Jung-Jin

Synopsis: In 1994, the king of Kingdom of Corea is murdered by his brother Lee Lim, who seeks to possess a legendary flute that holds supernatural powers. King's 8 years old son (prince Lee Gon) tries to stop him and the flute is cut unto two pieces. Small prince in saved by a mysterious figure and Lee Lim slips away only with half of the broken flute. 25 years later, king Lee Gon is still haunted by what happened when he was a child and the mystery behind the police badge left by his savior. The police badge he held was issued on November 11, 2019 for Lieutenant Jeong Tae-Eul. Lee Gon discoveres the magical powers of the flute and travels to parallel world where he finally meets detective Jeong Tae-Eul.

Positives: I was little bit sceptical at the begining, it was kind of cheezy, rushed, the chemistry between the main romantic duo did not worked for me and I was confused by many scenes that seemingly did not conect with the plot. But it was jus a build up and in the midle of the series the story was a rolley coaster. I was surprised how the writers are able to manage all the time jumps, parallel worlds, all the side plots and characters. The cast was great, the main characters were great, but I would like to highlight Woo Do-Hwan and his dual role, because that was was a masterpiece. Also point's for the charismatic villain.

Negatives: It has slower start, and the plot with timetravelling and doppelgangers can be confusing. I would also appreciate more screentime for the antagonist, he was great, but I think he had much bigger potential.

Conclusion: It was really a fun drama. It has everything from funny momets to really sad scenes where I really cryied (Kang Sin-Jae, I am looking at you). The theme of parallel worlds is not original, but it's still interesting and I really liked how this trope was used in the story. At the beginning, I wasn't a big fan of Lee Min-Ho, but when the plot started to progress, he really showed some acting skills. Also, he is tall and handsome and he really looks very regal. They probably couldn't pick better actor for a king.

Action: 6/10 Romance: 8/10 Intriques: 8/10 Blood: 7/10 Whump: 7/10 Friendship: 8/10 Emotions: 8/10 Humor: 5/10

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nettlestonenell · 2 years

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Let’s talk.

Citizens of the Republic, Subjects of the Kingdom, and Gentle Readers, here you will find Part 3 of a failing attempt to dictate my thoughts during a The King: Eternal Monarch rewatch.

Touching on topics such as:

the Netflix-available trailer review

how looking like you stepped out of a manhwa might harm your career trajectory

other ways in which Netflix destroys my constant-pause viewing style and how to switch them off

Hangul v. Hanja

thoughts on the opening credits

Anyway, back to the trailer. Does this trailer, is the question, does it make me wanna watch this show?

I'll watch it again, it's one minute long and then I'll review it.

Actually, it says god had released demons into the world and it shows us the flute. And it talks about how demons opened up the passage to a parallel world, OK, so my review of the trailer is that trailers on Kdramas are really hard for me because I have to read subtitles. This trailer is full of a lot of quick cuts, and so because of that, I can't really absorb what is generally going on.

And of course, TKEM trailer is gonna be even more confusing because it's babbling on about parallel worlds and doppelgangers and all these other things. It's just too much to keep track of. Obviously, it makes sense to me now because I've watched the show. But in so far as something that would make me wanna watch the show, I don't think that it would.

Now mind you, most Kdrama trailers are not gonna make me want to watch the show that they're for, 'cause once again It's just like my eyeballs are pingpong-ing between trying to see what is going on and reading subtitles. And it's just System overload.

It has really, it has some of the great music. That great instrumental? I'm not gonna know what to call it, but maybe I'll look up what instrumental that is that's playing. [I didn’t] It shows a little bit of that high-level, that elevated cinematography that you're gonna get [on this show]. That's very pretty. And then of course, while I don't know that it fully highlights him, because it does, but I think it probably does highlight him. It shows you LMH and it just brings to mind the quote that I heard, one of the directors said for Gangnam Blues, which was that he looks like he stepped out of a manhwa. [the director mentioned this when saying that quality got in the way of whether he should cast LMH in the role he ultimately got] And I mean, the person that said this, I think it tickled them and made them giggle in the same way that it makes me giggle because I find LMH to just be ridiculously striking on-screen, particularly in TKEM.

And of course, LMH's got all these glamour shots taken of him as if it's the 1940s, black-and-white-Hollywood, where they’d take four days to film an actress’s perfect close-up. So they’d look peak beautiful.

LMH definitely hits all of those notes in this trailer where you might have to just take a minute after watching it and try to, I don't know, recompose yourself, take a sip of water or find your smelling salts.

Someone bring KGE a glass of water, or a cold towel. As shown, her working conditions are egregious.

But if you looked back to the subtitles, it definitely says that the portal is opened by demons, so I don't know. I think I might have to ask. I can't think of her name. I'll have to look it up [@accioecho ] to get in her asks and see if she would translate the word as ‘demons’ when we're looking at the flute, or if that's referring to the Traitor. Who? What are the demons? But then also it, of course, as I say, it said that god had let demons into the world. Does that make The Dragon King of the East Sea god? I mean, he does seem to be a divinity in Korean culture. But as far as I can tell, not having studied Korean culture, there is polytheism at work historically. There are many deities. So, I don't know. Which god are we talking about?

I mean, somebody started us down this path before the Traitor took the wheel

Are we ready to start watching this? Says I've talked 5 pages. And I don't know if that makes me ready to start watching the show or not.

This is a show that I like to watch at night. When it's dark outside. Because for whatever reason, it's a show that makes me feel very cozy. Obviously, your mileage may vary as to whether this show makes you feel cozy, and I'm sure it didn't make me feel cozy when I originally watched it, because how could it?

I will also say that I'm tickled that Netflix has finally added a double thumbs up ability for me in rating the show because that was an issue that I was having that Netflix would always be asking me to rate things and I would think well, you know, I liked it, but did I like it the same as Rookie Historian? No, I liked Rookie Historian just fine. I liked it a reasonable amount. It scratched the itch that I had and I found it a pleasant experience, but I would not put it on the same par as this show which obviously is enough of an obsession that I am now talking to you about it, into a voice dictating word processing program.

If you don't think that every time that I hear the da dong of the Netflix “N” coming up on my screen and think of Eun Sup folding laundry, then you’re wrong.

Additionally, it is not lost on me that this is also the product of Studio Dragon, just like Crash Landing on You. Generally, when I was originally watching the show, I would skip after watching the credits once, I would consistently skip the credits. I don't do that now. I think because originally I was just very anxious to get down to business. I needed to see what was gonna happen on the show. But now I find the credits really enjoyable. They're moody, the music is cool. There's a lot to look at, and so I appreciate it more.

The icon which is, I don't know, the writing that has a clock sunk into it, and the clock is ticking backwards. Other than hopefully I think it means to show that time is not functioning properly, it's not like we really turn time backwards here, is it? I guess you could say that going back to the night of the treason is in a sense turning time backwards, but then we don't have to relive it in the same way, we don't really live through all of that time [again]. Anyway, it I like it. I like the ticking. I know that they use it in a couple of episodes at the end. I'm not sure that they use it in every one. I guess we'll find out [in this rewatch]. But I think it's effective.

Interestingly, although in canon the flute is made of bamboo, I think it's mentioned several times and then also historically the flute, which if you look it up, is a historical item, though no one that talks about it travelling between worlds, but the Manpasikjeok is definitely a historical item, and it is made of bamboo. But the tree that we're shown in the credits. I think is not. It's certainly not a bamboo tree. Is it a ginkgo tree?

Of the [kdrama] shows that I've seen, I feel like this is one of the few shows or possibly the only show that's going to give you both English and Korean for the names in the credits. Is it the Hangul or the Hanja? [I think Hangul] And then a Westernized version and one without hyphens, whichever one that is [it’s neither Revised Romanization or McCune–Reischauer, those would be: Revised Romanization= Gim Go-eun McCune–Reischauer= Kim Koŭn, it’s like a hybrid] of actors’ names. So that to me is interesting [the notion that already with the credits we are being shown that this program is expected to appeal to audiences outside of Korea].

But here's this first shot on the bridge where the bridge is twisted and there's someone standing on the bridge. And then we're seeing at the top of the screen it's, the truth is, it's not like we're seeing the Republic and then the Kingdom on the bottom, because we know that the Kingdom also has very highly technologically advanced modern cities, but it is something that's showing duality where we're sort of seeing a version of ancient Korean architecture on the bottom of the screen,

This is the yellow screen that has LMH and KGE’s names in the opener.

If a person is Korean, some of the buildings, when they start showing specific things they're gonna maybe be notable. We get like an arch, which of course to my Western eyes anytime there's an arch I think of L’Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which obviously this is not, but I assume that it might be a significant Korean landmark.

(also it morphs into another arch)

And then we end on an image that I just adore with all my being:

You've got the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin in the background at Gwanghwamun Square, which I was familiar with before, when I truly watched (not that first time when I gave up)-- I was aware of that square because of Memories of the Alhambra where people are like fighting in it when they're fighting in their altered reality.

But this, this image I really love, so I paused Netflix and I like this image a whole lot where she's opposite him on the horse. And there's the reflection in the water. And it's just beautiful.

What doesn’t it tell you about this show? There’s reflection, calling out the parallel worlds in the water, but also Lee Gon’s side is bluer, Tae-Eul’s is yellow/orange, they’re in opposition to each other. We’re in Seoul, the wind has JTE’s coat but not Maximus’ tail. Lee Gon not only looks white knightly/kingly, he’s seated on a very tall horse, elevated from JTE who stands on the ground in her very regular trenchcoat. The leads are not on equal footing.

The image is epic, showing the type of story we’re going to get, and the high quality of the cinematography to come is also teased by it. It is, as GBBO would say, an absolute showstopper.

I could talk about it for a long time, probably, but this brings me to this annoyance that I currently have with Netflix that I don't know that I can stop, and that is when all they want to do is slap these advertisements over a paused image.

I like the paused image. I wanted to see it, but I can't see it, because now you're telling me I need to watch Hi, Bye, Mama. And this is not like much time elapses as I'm sure you know. If you watch Netflix, before this pops up, this pops up Kaboom almost instantly. And I don't know if that's 'cause they don't want me to take a screen grab of it. I mean, I'm watching it on my television so I wouldn't have the ability to do that anyway. Maybe i need to get down into the Netflix settings and see if there's some way to get rid of this but boo i hate it.

For me at least, these advertisements popping up are newer. I used to spend time like trying to look in the reflection [of the image] to see if things were different, of them standing on the square, looking at each other, but I have not been able to discover if anything is different. I I think it's the same. I think that it's the actual reflection of what we're looking at, but you can never be too sure with this show, 'cause this the show has got a lot for you to look at on reviewing, as I'm sure you know if you're willing to still be reading six page in.

[PSA:: Here’s how I found you can turn off those image suggestions that pop up when you pause Netflix:] There's a way to turn them off.

Account page, scroll down to the link for "test participation"

Once you are in the test-participation page, simply toggle the button to "off"]

...tbc..

Good news! In the next post we’ll actually start the show!

#tkem #tkem meta #the king: eternal monarch #the king eternal monarch #lee gon #jeong tae eul #queue-een jeong tae-eul #kdrama #more like okay: drama #the king: eternal monarch netflix #nell chats tkem #chez nell mind palace #lee min ho #tkem rewatch

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