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 … Continue reading →
Whatever magic pill the production team of Empress Ki swallowed recently, it ought to share with other drama teams out there. The drama is narratively firing on all cylinders with equal measures delicious makjang and genuine heavy stakes. The best part for me is actually the reinvention of the relationship between Yuan Emperor Ta Hwan played by Ji Chang Wook … Continue reading →
MBC has done a good job promoting Empress Ki prior to its airing and continues to keep up the pace as the drama heads towards wrapping up the first third of its long run. I thought it deflected the “complete historical inaccuracy” complaint (which was valid) by splashing across all its materials that this was a fictional take on the … Continue reading →
It’s taken me a few weeks to get back to wanting to write about Empress Ki mostly due to the last few episodes being dull as beans for me. The drama continues to do well in ratings, dominating the Mon-Tues timeslot by a wide margin and recently broke 20% in ratings and will likely stay there if not continue to increase. The … Continue reading →
I have to confess I almost dropped Empress Ki about 10 minutes into episode 1. It happened at the scene where second male lead Ji Chang Wook as the Yuan Emperor Huizhong (nee Ta Hwan) whined like an insecure kid towards Joo Jin Mo as the Goryeo King Wang Yoo about whether Wang Yoo still loves Seung Nyang played by … Continue reading →
Empress Ki can be viewed as a glass half-empty or half-full depending on which side you want to throw your leap of faith. On one hand, there is established A-list actors Ha Ji Won and Joo Jin Mo playing the OTP in a mega sageuk written by the screenwriters of Giant and History of the Salaryman. On the other hand, … Continue reading →
The MBC special sageuk Goddess of Fire is ending next week. I can hardly believe it, having genuinely experienced a drama that has managed to suck from beginning to end that I bitterly stuck with. There is nothing that can happen next week to redeem this steaming pile of dung, even a group orgy will only leave me wondering how … Continue reading →
My interest in the upcoming 50-episode MBC tentpole sageuk Empress Ki (formerly known as Hwatu) has waned considerably since it was announced that Ha Ji Won and Joo Jin Mo would be starring as the leads. The first reason is based on logic and experience – this sucker is airing on MBC which has had an abysmal track record of … Continue reading →
I’ve got some good news and some bad news, with the bad news dependent on whether you can spot the difference or can’t/don’t want to see it. The good news is that the upcoming 50-episode ambitious MBC sageuk Empress Ki (formerly known as Hwatu) finally has a full main cast. The remaining character of Yuan Emperor Huizhong has finally been … Continue reading →
Normally when an actor denies reports of being cast in a drama, I usually don’t find it newsworthy. But this is Moon Geun Young‘s upcoming sageuk we’re talking about, and the circumstances of this situation bears parsing through before tossing the baby out with the bathwater. News broke this morning that Ji Chang Wook had been cast as the male … Continue reading →
Wow, watching the second teaser for the upcoming weekend K-drama Five Fingers left me speechless. I was all jet-lagged and then I watched this sucker and WHAM all my sleepiness got bitchslapped six-ways to Sunday. This drama looks fierce and shouty and intense with a capital I. Is it my cup of tea? Looks less and less like I’m even … Continue reading →
My first inclination is to make some sort of joke about scandals coming in pairs, but then I realized this is just so oddly timed and the allegations are quite serious that I’m in no mood to make light of the situation. Joo Ji Hoon‘s first comeback drama since his military service discharge (which was precipitated on the heels of … Continue reading →
I’m sure Joo Ji Hoon fans must’ve been thrilled that he’s coming back to TV-land with his comeback weekend drama for SBS called Five Fingers. The drama released its first teaser this weekend and I was suitably impressed…….by how makjang it felt in a few short seconds. I loved the piano playing tracking shots and all the intense performing-at-Lincoln-Center vibes … Continue reading →