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It’s been a long time since a true sageuk has come my way and MBN series Bossom: Stealing Fate basically said “hold my beer” and blew me away in the first two episodes. Episode 1 set an MBN premiere record of 3.132% and episode dropped a bit to 2.960% but it’s basically a sageuk tailored to hit every craving of mine right now. Leads Jung Il Woo, Yuri, and Shin Hyun Woo are a collective powerhouse trio, with perfectly nuanced performances required of their characters. We’ve got the disillusioned but still righteous lout of a male lead single dad trying to live a life in a world he loathes, a widowed princess with pride and class who nevertheless still has a lot of life to live, and a principled yangban secretly crushing on his widowed sister-in-law. I loved the first two episodes, it was stylized in parts but a traditional sageuk at heart with all the controlled beats. Yuri was the biggest surprise, never expected a SNSD idol-actress to have such measured acting with beautiful diction and the subtle combination of sheltered princess and woman ready for what life throws at her. Watching her eye devour Jung Il Woo’s naked chest was the highlight of episode 1 and their bossam crossed paths so adorable to watch especially with his little son playing matchmaker to come. This is an excellent sageuk start so far and I’m so happy to have a great series to follow on weekends again.
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I liked it and Yuri too. About time Jung Il-woo gets a good drama. He’s always been good at sageuks.
Bossam made realized how much I miss traditional sageuk. The first two episodes are great so I’ll tune in for sure. Jung Il-woo always shines in sageuk, and it’s nice to see him as a thug instead of his usual yangban/royal roles. The child actor is cute, and I’m looking forward for him to act as the cupid for the leads.
Yuri is indeed a pleasant surprise here. I never thought she would pull of the dignified Joseon princess role so well, because her idol image is so far from that… Even her nickname is KkabYul (over-excited Yul).
Awhile ago when she guested Knowing Brothers and Amazing Saturday, she asked permission to dance her heart out (even when it’s not her turn) because she has to surpress the urge to act silly and dance on the filming set. The way she succesfully embodies elegance on this role after spending her overflowing excitement by dancing on variety shows are both impressive and funny lol.
I started it because I found Yuri’s still cuts so, so beautiful lmao but I am liking it so far
I’ve been looking for this but can’t find this on Netflix or Viu 🙁
Viki is the only place that’s subbing it.
Enjoyed the first two episodes as well. I haven’t gotten into sageuks in awhile (in years actually), and this feels nostalgic somehow. Including the color grade or whatever the proper technical term is. I love that there is an interesting political backdrop which makes for a richer world building than just your straight up romance.
The dialogues can be a bit heavy handed sometimes, with how they build tension. But overall I am thoroughly enjoying the performances. The score is also gorgeous.
I thought Ra Miran is one of the leads. Hah. Turns out it was just a cameo. Guess she’s too big a star to be in a lesser known production.
Crossing my fingers the following episodes will be as interesting.
I’m going to keep my eye out for this one then. I miss sageuks but I haven’t been interested in the recent ones. It’s nice to hear of an idol, a female idol nonetheless, hitting the ball out of the park. Yuri from these stills gives the vibes and has the looks of first gen idol actresses who I love.
Strange that I don’t feel the same way 🙁 I watched the first episode and I felt it was disorganized and went all over the place. The filming is very wonky and the choreographing of the fight scenes wasn’t good. The acting of JIW is great and he exudes great charisma so far. I really don’t understand the kid, at all. For him to want a random lady as his mother, I didn’t see that scene as adorable at all and head-scratching. I don’t know how the ML and his partner stay in business since they don’t seem professional at all, I suppose it’s to help enhance the humor aspects of the drama. I’m really frustrated at the princess way of thinking, mourning for 3 years? Thinking she’s at fault therefore she should essentially live as a widow for the rest of her life. It’s so frustrating haha The little boy and the kid at the temple was cute together.
Ep 1 in my opinion wasn’t promising but I’m watching it with others so I’m sticking with it, hopefully it gets better for me. Sweet munchies and now this drama? JIW deserves better :/
Oh I’m not sure if this is culturally specific but I live in an Asian country which was under heavy influence of Confucianism (and I guess Joseon during that time was more or less the same) and it was considered social and moral norms that a widow would stay in mourning/ would not remarry for years (3 is the minimum), regardless of how she had felt or felt toward her late husband at the time. So I think this point was made to reflect the hard situation of widows in the past and not necessarily the princess’ true feelings. She was sort of forced to do so to abide by the rules society imposed on her. I guess she didn’t have any other choice.
I’m neutral on other points though 😀
Thank you for your insights, I appreciate it ?
I’m sure she had a mixture of different contrasting feels inside her mind, she probably wants freedom but also at the same time she feels guilty because she mentions she feels like a sinner towards her parents.
Isn’t the whole premise of the drama is how bad widows and women had it in Joseon era? – which is a new interesting topic for sageuk. The whole Bossam practice existed because widows are socially expected to not remarry at all and die alone, so they had to get ‘kidnapped’ if they wish to marry. As mentioned in the drama, commiting suicide to follow their husband was considered the most virtuous.
Once they got married, Joseon women lost their individuality, independence, and even lost their right of family inheritance (not sure if this also apply to royals). That’s also explain why the princess was treated badly by the mother-in-law, she’s only princess by birth but no longer had much royal power over them. And even if she wished to, she technically cannot go back to live in the palace since she belongs to her in-law’s family now.
It may be a common practice but I didn’t expect the female lead to hold such a strong narrow view as the titular female lead character, I believe her worldview will alter as the drama progresses but honestly it’s a personal disappointment for me.
Personally for me, this wasn’t the first historical Korean drama to shine a strong light on the widow practices/customs. The first time for me was TTON in 2019. That was very empowering to see women protecting women and forming a women-only village to protect widows and other women suffering.
In history, widowed or not, royally is normally treated with respect when married off, so it’s not realistic for the mother-in-law to mistreat the princess. If that gets leaked, society much less the palace would look down on their family.
I am loving this so far. Solid storytelling in these first two episodes. ML & FL are believable in their characters, and that child actor is such a gem. That last scene of guards giving chase was sloppily done though.