100 Days My Prince (2018)

Cliches Work

Wondeuk and Hongshim
There are several notable tropes that serve as the foundation of Wondeuk and Hongshim’s relationship, and 100 Days My Prince handled them in a way that makes the progress of romance between these two characters feel natural instead of relying on the audience’s expectations that they must fall in love because they’re the main leads of a K-drama.

For example, in typical Asian drama fashion, our leading man Wondeuk/Lee Yul grows up never forgetting his childhood love, Yoon Yiseo. But instead of him harboring some sort of linger obsession with a random girl he met who was nice to him once, as it often is the case in other dramas, he’s driven to look for her by the very real and understandable guilt from watching her entire family die by his father’s orders.

What follows is his amnesia, which not only does the job of providing the perfect foundation for a slew of comedy and miscommunication, but frees Lee Yul from the constraints that comes with being the Crown Prince, allowing him to become “Wondeuk” and fall in love with Hongshim while being, arguably, his truest self.

This drama puts in the work of making its main leads grow through shared experience and confrontation of not only each other, but themselves. And what comes out of a pretend marriage built on deceit, lies, and secrets is one of the sweetest, most honest romances you’ll ever find in Asian drama land—second only to Kkeutnyeo and Gudol (Hongshim’s best friend and her husband) of course.

Dissecting Kim Chaeon
Watching 100 Days My Prince early on, I thought Kim Chaeon was a lacking villain, created to play a role but with little reason to explain why he is the way he is. To tell the truth, I still kind of feel that way about him, even though he turns out to be a bit more complicated than I anticipated.

Kim Chaeon starts out as an enigma of an antagonist. You kind of don’t understand what he wants, so much so that I initially wondered if he was a red herring and the actual villains were the Queen and her family’s political faction.His actions comes off peculiar at first. He forces Lee Yul’s father to become king, but won’t allow him to keep his wife/Lee Yul’s mother as Queen. Okay? So he successfully replaces her, only to let the replacement queen and her family become the thorn in his side sixteen years later. But hey, that’s all right. His daughter is married to the Crown Prince. Except wait, he may or may not have masterminded the Crown Prince’s assassination…

Everything he does makes sense if you watch on and follow the threads closely. He wants to replace Lee Yul’s mother because she came from the former king’s family. Her replacement turns out to be more crafty than he anticipated, and he isn’t able to stop her family’s rise to power in time. His assassination of the Crown Prince, it turns out, is to protect his daughter’s crown princess position after she fell pregnant by someone who’s not her husband. So yes, his actions do line up to his overall motive—to be the true power behind the throne.

Except, at some point, the audience and multiple characters in the series have to start wondering why he didn’t just take the throne for himself all those years ago. Why stop short of absolute power? Instead of being king—and he could’ve been king—he chooses to be a puppeteer over and over.

Along that same illogical train of thought, in the face of accusations of treason, he colludes with a foreign force to bring down his country. And instead of loving his children and ensuring they live a happy life, he chooses to sacrifice his life and saves his family via the blank royal decree, except he’s doomed them to live out their days as prisoners and exiles.

We eventually get a glimpse into his inner psyche during his final conversation with his daughter where she tells him how much she hates being his child. He reveals that he had nothing growing up, that there’s an ever-growing desire inside him to not have to answer to anybody, and that nothing he does ever seems to fulfill it.

It’s only then we learn that this is a man who’s lived his entire life in survival mode, and who, despite all his cunning, doesn’t really understand himself or what he wants, which explains everything about this character to me. In universe, he’s a lost man living moment to moment, trying to stave the hunger he experienced as a child growing up in a dog-eat-dog world. On a story-level, he’s a one-dimensional villain whose only function is to be a hindrance to the protagonist, which he’s very effective at, even if it means his choices come off arbitrary and incoherent. Hey, this random line alluding to his tragic backstory should make enough sense to cover up the plot holes!

An Overly Upbeat Finale
Someone once said to me that you can tell how historically accurate a historical Asian drama is by how happy the ending is, and I agree. 100 Days My Prince, a drama of pure fiction, ended very happily.

For the people of Songjoo Village, life goes on for the better. Mr. Yeon clearly acquired some nicer clothes and renovated his house. Kkeutnyeo and Gudol are expecting their first baby while acting as warden to Kim Chaeon’s son, a job they’re collecting some nice cash on. Park Seondo is stripped of all his wealth and sentenced to eternal servitude under the new county magistrate, Park Bokeun. Even Machil manages to turn his life of loan sharking around.

In the capital, the Kim clan is no more. Lee Yul reconciles with his father, who fixes his marriage with the Queen, who, as it turns out, isn’t looking to unseat the Crown Prince in favor of enthroning her own son as much as she wants to spend more time with her husband, who just wants to see his eldest son married before retiring with his wife to the countryside. Even Eunuch Yang returns to serve by Lee Yul’s side, now with the leverage that he once almost died because of Lee Yul to make his job easier.

The last twenty or so minutes of this drama is also the weakest, if only because there are no consequential conflicts driving the reconciliation between Lee Yul and Hongshim, now a noblewoman. Realistically, it’s probably a good thing that the couple took some time apart after defeating Kim Chaeon to settle into their new selves. Narratively, the separation serves no purpose and drags things out too long. Nevertheless, watching our main leads finally coming together for real with the support of their friends is immensely satisfying.

Oh, and I’m so happy that the Crown Princess is alive and well with her son.

Other Thoughts
1) Jung Jaeyoon strikes the perfect balance as a second male lead—not too great that he overshadows Lee Yul, not too awful that you dislike him. His face-blindness is an amazing use of plot device by this drama. Plus, his relationship with Ae Weol the gisaeng is a highlight for me

2) The complicated yet clearly real love between the Crown Princess and Mooyeon is fanfiction worthy material
3) The whole subplot with the Ming Dynasty envoy and his daughter feels out of place and serves too obvious of a contrast to 4) Lee Yul and Hongshim’s situation
5) Prince Seowon is an angel

Final Rating and Recommendations
100 Days My Prince is insanely bingeable and insanely good. The main romance is the perfect example of when a fictional relationship can be based on cliches but not be dictated by them. The ending is almost too upbeat and cheesy, but you honestly won’t mind it after the emotional rollercoaster that is this drama. The comedy is top-notch, with amazing costumes and a well-plotted story, not to mention its amazing cast: To fans of Exo-K’s D.O., this is a must-watch.

My Rating: 8.5/10

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Hooked me, bored me, lost me

The palace intrigue trope is the backbone of most sageuk and it is the focus of this show as well. Amnesia is another popular trope that is fairly timeless as far as plot device goes. Combine the two and we should have an engaging plot full of potentials, right? Well, sort of, but only if the writer-nim was up to the challenge. 
100 Days actually started well enough. The flashback was quite impactful but in their rush to set up the OTP's backstory and their fated love story, it gave away too much of the main characters' stories and motivations. With no change to the rationale over the intervening years, that removed a lot of the "intrigue" from the palace intrigues. This is not necessarily a lost cause because the plot switched up with the ML (a Crown Prince, no less) suffering an injury which brought on amnesia and he was a fish-out-of-water in a backwater village. This conveniently set up the fake marriage trope with the FL. Hey, when you already ticked two major trope boxes you might as well go for the trifecta!
The Show has a dash of romance, a hit of angst, a measure of intrigue and a sprinkle of comedy but nothing really dominated. It really felt like the Show is fishing for a genre but it swung from a sageuk to a rom-com then stretches of full-on melodrama and bits in between. None of the traits stuck though. This drama doesn't hit you with the feels but more like flick you with a wet hanky.
The writer-nim did try to make us ship the CP by using all the clichés in the playbook. In that sense, I have to give full credit to the FL (loved her in Suspicious Partners) as she did most of the heavy lifting here. The ML was handsome but he spent way too much time being stoic/poker faced/detached or feeling unease. That is a source of frustration at times as all you see is his stony countenance even though the script is clearing saying "you are in love" (is that the idol curse?). By the time he started to show some real emotions later in the show, the script dumped us straight into a long stretch of melodrama and he underwent a full face Botox treatment. This could have been a decent rom-com but the chemistry of the OTP was slow to develop and always felt a bit scripted which is a shame.
The Show wasn't bad and it was watchable but the writing has some issues. Old cliché power struggle plots were the only game in town and they were hardly original. Most characters were standard archetypes with little growth so an archvillain was just that. A petty local bully stayed petty. The found village/family setup was nice and sweet. The close knit set of villagers provided the thankless backbone of the show and some colour. Even the so-called machinations and scheming were fairly transparent and is oft given away by long expositions (even though the viewers are well aware of the plot by then). The odd revelations were more like confirmations and not surprise twists.
There was no doubt a HEA ending was mandated but the last couple of episodes were really awkwardly written (even by the Show's standard). After the longest set up regarding the ultimate showdown between the ML and the antagonist and how they were manoeuvring to outsmart each other. When it happened, it was a disappointing fizzer. It was poorly set up and poorly executed. Why did the ML charged into war still wearing his fancy court robes? There wasn't even any attempt to put on the simplest leather armour let alone anything befitting a royal personage. Speaking of THE war, it was more like a skirmish. It felt like an afterthought with minimal attention to details (did they run out of money?). To be honest, they could have skipped that completely and still achieve the same outcome. There was little narrative logic as the script rushed all the sub plot to conclusion and gifted everyone a happy ending. It was not so much "no questions asked" but more like "ask no questions and hear no lies".
I really felt sorry for the FL, she hasn't been in many dramas since Suspicious Partners and this is not a career highlight. She did her best but the drama let her down.
OST was serviceable but repetitive. Rewatch value is low. Not that many swoon worthy moments to relive.

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A great drama, not just for EXO fans

I went into this show already knowing that Kyungsoo is an amazing actor, based on previous works. But I understand that a 16 episode drama is different from a movie.

The main character with memory loss is nothing new, nor does this drama take it somewhere surprising. The cast was wonderfully picked. I can’t say anything bad about any of the actors. In special I’d highlight, besides Kyungsoo, Kim Seon Ho and Nam Ji Hyun.

I do feel like the story drags a bit around the halfway point, since it’s still to early for the prince to come back, but the show doesn’t exactly know what to do with the village plot. The "villains" work well in this show, specially in the palace.

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Should have been shorter..

100 days isn’t exactly a kdrama with great depth, however it manages to be entertaining. The acting makes up for what the storyline lacks. Perhaps my biggest problem with the plot is the unnecessary dragging. This could have easily been a 12 episode drama.
The show actually starts off well- it manages to be funny without being over the top. After that, the focus starts shifting to political affairs and becomes somewhat melodramatic, with the main couple not talking to each other for a lengthy time. This is all resolved in the final episode, which - in my opinion - was slightly disappointing.

I am having mixed feelings, because despite this, I did enjoy the acting. I don’t think it was necessarily out of the world, but it felt suitable for the kind of drama 100 days my prince is. I think that it might even be worth rewatching, but I think I would skip through many unnecessary scenes.

Overall, you might enjoy this if historical dramas are your cup of tea, or if you’re a big fan of Kyungsoo. 100 Days My Prince didn’t amuse me, but I did feel all sort of emotions while watching it, which, I feel, should be the end goal of any series.

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A slow start but...

The beginning, from episode 1 to 3 is rather slow. I had to kinda force myself to watch the sequel thinking it was going to be just as slow AND boring. The more the series progressed, the more interesting it became.

We see very clearly Won-deuk and Hong-sim's relationship "improving" as the episodes progress. The character of "rich heir who doesn't care about anything" gradually improves into a generous and helpful person, although sometimes he comes to the surface (don't forget that he is still the crown prince...).

Conclusion : It's a pretty good series but I won't watch it twice, I think.

Good viewing to you ! :]

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Good start, but just got boring

The first few episodes were really interesting . The palace intrigue and backstory of our main characters was fascinating and high stakes. It made me feel so many emotions and I was rooting for them.

But around episode 4(?) it started going downhill for me. The pace slowed down and I was getting pretty bored. It didn't feel like the plot was going anywhere and it could have easily been cut down to 12 episodes.

The acting was superb and I ended up looking up what other dramas these actors have been in because I want to watch them in something else (hopefully more exciting).

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"Am I the only one feeling uneasy?"

I've put this one off for awhile, I just wasn't all that drawn to it.

I found myself stuck in bed, so gave this a go.

What a nice surprise (given the last few Netflix fiascos).

I didn't expect much; the whole amnesia concept is not one of my favorite story lines.

This one was fairly well done.

I liked the natural progression between the two leads, we already knew who they were prior so watching them learn one another was fun.

The ML had a great air of superiority about him the whole time, kudos to the young actor.

There were some sweet scenes between the two main leads, delivered with little more than looks.

They had it - chemistry.

These two had a very natural flow about themselves.

I enjoyed it mostly from start to finish.

Were there hiccups along the way? Of course.

It was a decent watch.

This is probably not one I would re-watch, but others might find it enjoyable a time or two more.

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Acting of all the cast are perfect ?

I am watching this drama again as i really loved this drama. D.O oppa's Oho! Makes me smile and laugh everytime..i am an EXO L and his acting is what made me love and fall for him more. His 💋 kisses, his voice and also the plot is perfect for me..in an ancient drama plotting is always there...but still this drama is different for me❤️...the OST cherry blossom 🌼 by Chen is my all time favourite song in my playlist. Please do listen to the OST after watching the drama...it will hit different ☺️. I am still not disappointed by watching this drama for the 4th time😌....i just wished that his security guard (Ban Ryeu from Hwarang) should not have died so early....i cried from the beginning 😭...overall i really loved this drama...i will recommend it to all specially our EXO Ls

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Average historical show with an alluring performance from the cast

It’s always been politics, the throne, and love stories when it comes to Korean historical drama. Despite the norms that the show presented, it isn’t much of a cliche since they manage to pull an attentive storyline that triggers the interest of the audience.

The best element of this drama is the portrayal of all the characters, immersing their great acting skills. From the main characters to the supporting ones, everyone is firm with the emotions that their characters need to build from time to time.

D.O. is such a cute and handsome man. With his expressive facial gestures and engaging way of delivering his lines, he surely deserves to hold the title of one of the best idol-turned-actors in the industry. Also, Nam Ji Hyun once again nailed her role. No doubt, she and the rest of the cast performed an excellent presence in the story.

The plots are predictable but still satisfying to watch. The comedy here was good too, the same with the heartbreaking scenes. The ending isn’t that extravagant compared to other historical shows. But I guess this is their charm here, making it as simple as it is. Overall, this show is a light and feel-good drama to consume.

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Not very good one

I'm not an exo fan (please don't kill me xD) so it was a little more difficult to watch, because I didn't have the fangirl motivation here xD
Someone said is a shopping king Louis in joseon and...well that's where the problem lies. Everything, like every trope of this drama it's already seen and already done. The similarities with skl are many, but also with like every period drama I have seen. (Speaking of which: there is a saeguk not focused on the royal family? Or at least not only, like there's nothing else to write about that period??) There's no suspance, no really twists in the story or mysteries - we all knew that the assassin brother was the father of the queen's baby. Even the death of the evil vice minister was unsatisfying...well the whole plotting against the crown was too bland and boring.
Also! There was the "solution agency" which was an interesting thing, but they drop it pretty soon only to bring it back at the end just to feign ignorance about the fact they forgot about it lol

Ps. My extremely unpopular opinion: I had the second lead syndrome... I felt much more chemistry between Hong Shim and the magistrate...maybe because I liked more his characterization or to me he has better acting skills (not saying the ml sucked...I just preferred the sm) when he almost proposed at the end I hoped they would've take the "realism" route and have the prince marry a noblewoman (ugh bitter isn't it?) and let them become a couple.

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