T梚

I sat through eight episodes and to be honest, The King was a letdown. I am finding myself very perplexed whether I should finish this drama or not. Kim Eun Sook is undoubtedly one of the more prominent names in K-dramas. I have seen Secret Garden (choppy ending) Goblin and Mr. Sunshine (gave up on DOTS because the dialogues were too cringey).. Both were pretty stellar from start to end. Let’s start with plot. Too much unsolved holes. The writer opens with a mutiny scene, then she talks about time and space parallels... and then she talks about murders in one world.. then political conflicts in the other... this mysterious female Prime Minister, life in the kingdom, activities of the king (his royal duties), repercussions of time travel - characters that transcended here and there. Villains! There’s an entourage of them lol. Oh oh! Not to forget she also wants to include romance between the leading couple, the supporting couple... family relationships..and pack everything in 16 episodes. It’s definitely going to feel very under-developed, and confusing for everyone. Note that there are two parallel worlds , aka double the characters. It is of little wonder that viewers lose focus. A lot of time wastage on the romance part, yet still not well shaped. The leading character Lee Gon just falls in love without any questions asked. Like BAM! Tae-Eul just goes along with Lee Gon by Episode 3/4. Ugh. Some interactions were so forced I could not continue watching. Acting-wise, no complaints. The actors were doing a great job. They played their roles well. The problem does not lie with them. I enjoyed the smaller characters too (like the rowdy folks at the police station..) Busan dialect is awfully cute on Woo Do-Hwan too. I never knew he could pull off that accent. The cinematography in The King was absolutely awesome. Some of the angles were beautifully shot. I love how they portrayed tiny little differences between the parallels. Trams! I do have to agree that the Imperial Seal should look more distinct - it really bears too much resemblance to Japan’s. The CG, however, was pretty bad. There were a few scenes where I wished they put in more effort in making the scene more plausible. (Notably in Episode 5 and 6) I could not stand the in-the-face product placements too - The Alley, BBQ Chicken, Jongga Kimchi, some bottled coffee, ginseng extract, Longines Watch... omg they had to zoom in onto the packaging for a few seconds. It was too excessive that it was annoying. I watch a lot of K-dramas so I can safely say the product placements here that you see is of the more severe ones out there. The King was quite disappointing for me. I did not expect much after reading the synopsis but the way it presents itself after eight episodes... i just felt things could have been written better. The pilot was too slow, and the next three episodes had too much fillers. I think the writer (and her assistants) was being overly ambitious with this work. I do sincerely hope she does better with her next work.