Empress Ki has officially gone cray cray with just 8-episodes left in its airing. That it managed to be good initially was quite a feat considering the insane amounts of historical distortion. Then the titular future Empress Ki played by Ha Ji Won managed to have a believable first love with Joo Jin Mo‘s King Wang Yoo of Goryeo, followed by an understandable shift of her life path to align with Ji Chang Wook‘s Yuan Emperor Ta Hwan and grew to care for him as well. There was scary nemesis Prime Minister Yeon Chul, fun to hate Empress Tanasiri, Tal Tal being smexy and stealing any scene he was in, and lots of great supporting characters that all served a narrative purpose and was nicely acted. Ha Ji Won’s Seung Nyang even bore a son for each of her husbands and there was this great anticipation for her to learn that her firstborn baby Star (Byul) was in fact not dead but had been swiped by Tanasiri and was now growing up under her nose as the Yuan Crown Prince Maha.
The big bads were dispatched about ten episodes ago and this drama promptly look a precipitous decline in sense and entertainment. I’m only writing about it now because I feel soooooo bad for Joo Jin Mo for playing such a marginalized leading man role and I really want him to die an epic death now. Flaming arrows, anyone? The biggest clunker for this drama was creating a second round of the same palace and political conflicts and having neither end of the romance stand up. Seung Nyang and Wang Yoo have been apart for ten years and pretty much is just a past memory of love, while Seung Nyang never fell madly in love with Ta Hwan and merely grew to care for him and support him. The worst part is the mixed up baby plot line has remained under wraps from the three main leads for the last 20-episodes and now Prince Maha grew up to be an angry jackass and blames his real daddy Wang Yoo for the death of his fake mommy Tanasiri. It’s so painful to watch with no payoff and more manufactured angst. Sigh, just enjoy the latest round of pretty.
This so-called love triangle is like the opposite of how well Ha Ji Won has done in her previous love triangle dramas such as Damo and What Happened in Bali, where both ends of the stick stood up on its own emotional merits. Here we get a first love with Wang Yoo that ends abruptly due to revenge, then a second love with Ta Hwan that feels more companionship and care without any genuine frisson of romance. It’s pretty weaksauce either way and at this point Seung Nyang would do better to jettison all the men around her and be a Queen Seondeok type of ruler all on her own. I don’t know how this screenwriting duo sustained Giant for all 60 episodes and kept it humming along on while it’s tanking so majorly here.
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Agree...
Ma Ha is such a jerk it pisses me off even though I know he doesn't know the truth!
But yeah the troubles here are so repetitive they should've ended with 40 or 45 episodes instead of bringing another evil queen in...
not knowing a thing about korean history...is it safe to say the writers wrote their own history?
*ME not knowing a thing about korean history
It took such a weird spin after El Temur's death (or whatever his name was). His death was the last epic scene this drama has seen so far. I just wanted Seung Nyang to kick ass Empress but that clearly hasn't happened yet...
The problem with this drama is that they kept too many bad guys around after El Temur and Tanashiri's deaths. They should have wiped out the entir El Temur clan, El Plaque or Yocum and his sidekick. Maybe then, SN would have time to kick Bayan the new empress out of the palace. I hope they are not trying to bring the love triangle back because it's too late for that. They are too many things to resolve with so little episodes left. Also, I don't like what the writers have done to Tawan. He's been drunk for 5 yrs now or 3 eps and it's really annoying.
Koala what do you think of the newly premiered angel eyes and hotel king? I'm in love with hotel king but angel eyes is better than I thought so far
I think I stopped because I needed Tal- Tal to get together with Ki and that wasn't going to happen.
The chemistry between them was fabulous.
LOL, they are soul mates (^^). But EK sure is getting boring now, lost all that initial luster. Should stop NOW after killing-off the 2 idiots, Dang Ki Se and Yeom Byung Soo (played by the talented Jung Woong-In)... They have outlived their usefulness. Oh horror, there are 51 episodes...
We are enjoying Wild Chives and Soybean Soup, loving the young actors, esp. Lee Won Geun... BUT, it's another 50ers... :((
Every time I watch the moments when Tal Tal and SY are close and together I can see his eyes how he admires her and loves her. Tal Tal is risking his life for her Oh Well just wishfull thinking maybe in another drama sooon :) :) :)
I stopped watching after they kill off father-daughter tandem and I think I made a good choice. Bringing new batch of villains is to fill up the remaining 18 episodes. May watch the end though just to see for the heck of it.
still hanging there just to watch Ha Ji Won's acting. her awesome display of acting in tonight's upcoming episode makes me excited..i just don't care about the story anymore. She made me a fan through this drama :)
I'm overwhelmed by the overload of machinations and betrayals in these last episodes, but will stick through the last 5 episodes to have closure. My favorite eps. will always be those where Seung Nyang (aka Nyang) was given the task (by WY) to protect TH. The comedic vibe between them made me happy I was watching, 'cause WY and SN always had a "seriousness" that did not let me enjoy them together, as much as silly Paeha & Nyang-ia".