The Tale of Nokdu (2019)

This drama is okay. But I'm not going to lie, I had to force myself through a lot of frustrating scenes.

The drama has 2 modes. It's either this lighthearted comedy with silly gags or darker than night horrific violence, death and torture time. They switch so suddenly from one mode to another, it's jarring. It starts out as this cute rom com with crossdressing and a solid mystery that I actually found myself intrigued by.

I wish this part of the drama had less filler though, there's just quite a lot of unnecessary scenes that become repetitive very quickly at the widow village and I was very disappointed that most of them involved the FL. She's a good actress but her character is incredibly unlikeable during this first half. She's rude, entitled, selffish and let's be honest she's not very smart. Her plans to kill the king are ridiculous and not well thoughtout. She has been planning her revenge for years and shooting the guy with an arrow is the best that she could come up with? My boy Nokdu decided to kill him in an afternoon and had a better, more solid, plausible plan within the hour.

Once we reach the midpoint, we get a wonderful villain in 2ML and the king. They're both very complex characters and I wish they had shown more of their backstory rather than their relationships with both FL and ML. SML is deliciously evil, but I wish we could have seen what drove him to that point. He does a complete 180 from good boy during the first half to it's murder time in the second.

FL becomes even more dumb and annoying during the second half. She goes on her own with her same bow and arrow strat - spoiler it doesn't work - and is also rude to ML and 2ML (granted he is a murderer but he's competent girl, the man gets the job done and what do you do besides falling into a hole?). She manages to get a job at the palace but this goes knowhere because she achieves literally nothing from it... in the end she goes back to dressing up as a man and trying to shoot the king undercover.

She also doesn't TALK to ML whenever they obviously need to have a converstaion, instead she goes on her own and messes things up even more. The amount of miscomunication or lack of comunication got pretty frustrating and old by the middle of the drama. And by the end when FL finally does things right it feels like a redemption rather than the moment of audience rooting for her. It felt more like at least you didn't screw up this. All in all she is not the worst FL I've watched but she was incredibly frustrating to root for. As a consequence of this I did not enjoy her romantic moments with ML that much. I wasn't against the couple... but if FL died I'd be ok with it.

The side characters are hit and miss for me. I actually loved the widows and the sword master and that Lord that helped them. As well as the dad. But the little girl got on my nerves more than once. Her character had some funny moments but a lot danced the line of annoyance at times. The brother is the worst and I wanted him to die.

I wish we could have gotten more interactions between ML and the queen. I loved the few instances when they talked but ML couldn't tell her who he was. I needed more of that. Also more interactions between Kind and Queen. Overall I would have loved to see more of the royal family lore rather than the annoying FL shooting arrows at a tree.

ML is incredibly likeable, kind and smart. I love his problemsolving skills. He's one of those MLs that think outside the box and even if he's not a genius he manages to outsmart his opponent. He's also humble and just a joy to watch. He had chemistry with everyone on screen and he's the reason to watch this show. I loved his interactions with the king and could feel the personal stakes at every single moment of screen they shared. It was painful and wonderful to watch. I wish the drama was about their story instead of this romance with FL that feels less pressing or important.

Overall I felt like this drama was a bit too long and the FL was unnecessarily frustrating, this is not because of the actress but the writing. But it was still enjoyable at times.

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I liked this drama, it has some new ideas and, thank god, has a happy ending , simple, yet happy :)
However, I hoped the comedy phase continues for a bit longer as the story was not that complicated but the comedy was phenomenal. Come on guys, lady kim needs her own drama!
I liked Jang Dong Yoon (nokdu) so much that I will wait for his next drama and watch his previous ones. He is very talented. He mastered lady kim to the point I forgot that she is actually he :D. Of course, in addition to his cuteness and sense of humor ♡♡♡
I liked the actor "Jung Joon Ho" ( the king),although the king character was stupid and shallow. And I'm happy to discover such talented actors through this drama.

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My Comfort show

I've been an avid kdrama viewer for over five years, and "The Tale of Nokdu" has secured its place among my all-time favorites. This is the first time I've awarded a drama a perfect score, and for good reason. From start to finish, "The Tale of Nokdu" exceeded all my expectations, leaving me pleasantly surprised at every turn.

My initial attraction to the drama stemmed from Lady Kim, but it didn't take long for me to become completely engrossed in the world of the widow's village. I felt deeply connected to each and every character, a rare occurrence for me in kdramas. Not a single scene felt unnecessary or disrupted the flow of the story.

The writers masterfully kept me hooked, constantly leaving me wondering if we would indeed get a happy ending. As for the acting, every actor delivered stellar performances, with Jang Dong Yoon shining brightly in his dual roles as Lady Kim and Nokdu. The chemistry between the leads, both on and off-screen, was explosive, making me ship them fervently and leaving me questioning if they were truly acting at all.

I could go on and on about this show, but let me keep it concise: Don't hesitate, go watch "The Tale of Nokdu" now. You won't regret it.

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SPOILERS: DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO WATCH











"Wonderfully Sweet and Entertaining" - that was how one blogger described this Drama, and it puzzled me. It STARTED that way, but by about 1/4 of the way through, the body count started to climb, and the deaths, most depicted with languid lingering attention to gory detail, kept on coming. Basically EVERYBODY dies, except the OTP, and apparently THAT makes it a "wonderfuly sweet and entertaining" romance? I started this for Ms Kim, whose work I've enjoyed for 6 years now, but the surfeit of savagery in this sageuk meant I had to bail out after making it to half way.

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This was a refreshingly good sageuk-lite drama. I tend to find sageuks repetitive, always having the same plot points, so the emotional impact is lessened because I’ve seen the same thing before. But Tale of Nokdu managed to use some of the sageuk plot elements while putting a twist on them or executing them a different way.
The most obvious is the gender-swapped roles. Tale of Nokdu has a man dressing as a woman, which I have not seen before. It’s not played for a joke really either; sure, they joke about him having small boobs, and he has some funny moments when he acts like a woman, but there’s no “lol look at this guy dressed up as a girl.” It’s played about as seriously as it would be if a girl dressed up as a guy. Nokdu is also investigating a secret group of assassins who are women, which is another gender-swapped element. Many of the characters in the beginning of the show are women. The relationship between the male and female lead is also gender swapped; he’s the bright eyed, cheerful one, and she’s the cold and grumpy one. They do bicker, but it’s all lighthearted stuff. It’s great that he’s open and honest about liking her early on.
The sageuk plot elements do pop up; oh noooo the king is baddddd and we need to put someone else on the throne. But these elements are brought in gradually, and you have a better sense of who all the players are because you’ve spent more time getting to know them. And because you know them and like them, you’re a lot more invested in what happens. So I think the transition from more lighthearted, gender bent sageuk fun times to “oh no the king is bad” sageuk seriousness was really good. It was great that several of the sageuk plot points play out differently than they usually do, because that made it more interesting. It also still kept a lot of lighthearted elements due to the characters, who are a kooky group of people. Nokdu himself is the best character, a sweet boy who is kind and caring but nevertheless willing to fight for those he loves. He is a great and compelling character and the show would not be nearly as good without him. This show never lost sight of what made it good (the characters), but also executed the plot really well.
Tl;dr This was a self-aware sageuk that headed in its own direction rather than going down the well-worn path of most sageuks. The characters are unique and fun, with Nokdu truly being the best of them. Would definitely recommend to those both new and old to the sageuk genre.

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The way this drama was advertised and how it started off were about the MC cross-dressing and hiding out in a widow village. That was what drew me to the drama in the first place and ended up being my favorite arc in the drama. In reality, over half the drama was not focused on this. It shifted to the reason why assassins were sent to kill him and his family. After everything, there was really no resolution to the matter. The ending felt rushed and made some of the plot feel entirely unnecessary. The main couple were the reason I stuck with this drama. They were very cute and I was invested in their relationship.

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Tale of Nokdu is a show that I found very easy to watch and quite engaging. Although I didn't find the humor as hilarious as other people did, the first part of the series when Nokdu dresses as widow Kim is entertaining to watch. Pretty early on (I actually thought they would drag it for longer) Dongjoo finds out he is a man though, and her feelings for him grow during the time they are forced to cohabit.

This show follows the characters as they go through many phases, from finding out the truth about their pasts, to plotting revenge all the way to giving up and freeing themselves from it all. I found it refreshing yet somewhat bittersweet how they didn't accomplish any type of closure, specially Nokdu. He finds out he is the king's son, then that the king tried to have him killed as a baby, he tries to find out the reason why (and is crashed to realise it is only because of the throne), he wants revenge but then he tries his best to stop prince neungyang from becoming king. Eventually, he fails at everything, and the actual king (his father) never for one second wavers in his decision to have him killed. Makes me wonder, why did he have to go through so much for?

That part of the story is pretty heartbreaking. I expected that after spending time together as guard and king, the king obviously having grown affectionate feelings towards Nokdu, that in the end he would regret everything he did to his son. But the king is despicable until his last breath. I saw glimpses of him being a good guy and had hope, but by the end of the story even his last words to prince Neungyang feel like a pointless effort at self-justifying his life. He warns Neungyang that when he claims the throne he will be very lonely... man, you are a psychopath, no excuses!

As for prince Neungyang, I don't see why Dongjoo hates him so much. He is plotting treason against the king, but overall he is a very mellow baddie. He rarely kills and he has been kind to her all his life. Even the way he acts towards Nokdu isn't that terrible, I have seen worst in other dramas from second MLs. Burning the village of the widows was pretty bad, but Dongjoo never truly confronts him about it, making me wonder if she is even aware he was 100% behind it.

The soundtrack is good, the fighting scenes are well done, the side characters are not given much time so they didn't grow much on me (I was extreme surprised how much I ended up disliking the kid Aengdo, I mean kids are normally impossible to dislike).

It is an easy drama to watch and the love story is cute and refreshing.

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I started to watch this nonchalantly...just because I did not have anything else to watch. However now that's over, it became one of my favorite historical drama.
The ML was phenomenal in acting as a woman and let me point out even visually he was amazing as a girl. He did good portraying the sad, happy and flustered emotions especially when he found his origin. He and the FL was cute together... I love their perseverance in fighting against the odds which were forcing them apart...
Speaking of the girl, she was good but idk I found lacking in certain areas especially during the sad scenes BUT she grew to expressing her emotions better as the drama progressed. Contrary to the ML, she was not as good in acting as the opposite sex...but she did her best... The best thing I liked about her was her firm refusal of the second lead's proposal... she was consistent in her actions no matter the threat the second lead put forward...
The second lead true nature was a blow to me...at first I thought he was just another love interest in the story But I was completely wrong. When he showed his true colours later on, I started hating him especially when he kept being a pushover with the FL. His reasons for taking was no better than the current king so I couldn't find it in myself to justify his heinous deeds...So until the end I was on the side on the first ML.
Lastly, I will speak about the King....It will be unreasonable no to commend his acting. He was good at shifting between the bad and good (if I may use the word) king. I cannot ignore that he really loved his friends despite all his vices but made the wrong choices because of his greed.
Speaking if the ending, it was the best ending in my opinion because the king was beyond saving and the second lead had to do what he did to be able to show how one wrong choice can destroy one's life and that of others...
I did also like to point out the supporting cast was very good especially the little girl and the second lead's personal guard; he was a man of a few words but delivered a superb acting.
In overall, the drama was nice and amazing to watch....

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I am pleasantly surprised

I’m really glad I got to finish this. When the drama starts it’s generally very light hearted and fun and I couldn’t help but wonder what some characters even existed for. I like more complex/ deeper story lines personally so by episode 7 I started to wonder if it was just going to be cute and fluffy. But no! The show was giving what it was supposed give if you know what I mean. We had a strong understanding of the characters before the more serious drama began and in hindsight I don’t mind that at all.
The character Nok Du is really a dream. What a well written character! And Dong Joo is really cool too.
The acting is great, their chemistry is great and they’re all so natural. The characters really come to life and are very consistent. I love that.
There were parts that were a bit overly dramatic but they’re dramatic without being annoying. The antagonist has the best expressions too?. It’s actually worth the watch I would say if you like Saeguks.
I gave it an 8.5 because there were some parts that didn’t make absolute sense dragged but they were also negligible in my opinion. It’s a strong 8.5.
Some people were disappointed that it didn’t keep it’s humorous tone throughout the drama but I’m the type of viewer that doesn’t like humor when the situation just isn’t funny and should not be portrayed as such. It’s funny when it can be, cute when it’s appropriate and darker when things are tough for the characters. I like that a lot. I like to be shocked and entertained when I’m watching dramas and this delivered. The chemistry of the leads cannot be overemphasized. This review is for that Saeguk watcher that wants to give up on the show before episode 8. Don’t give up!

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MUST WATCH SAEGUK

Now when I started this drama I didn't expect much, I only knew So Hyun from the news in kdrama world and I didn't know the male lead at all. But I have to say every moment is thrilling and beautiful in this drama. This is of kind drama in this genre and a highly entertaining watch. It has drama, romance, mystery, plenty of comedy, and underlying political tension. We see our male lead grow as a person and how he navigates the world with his limited social skills, and in the scary Joseon palace. We also see how the female lead isn't some rude and audacious girl, but a strong young woman standing up for herself and those she cares about.

I'll rate the best things I loved about this drama.

Comedy: 10/10
This is comedy gold, the humor is first-class and was right up my alley. Plenty of unexpected quirky and genuinely funny moments. All the leads take part in this even those we don't expect. Some moments will leave you laughing till you cannot breath.

Romance : 9.5/10
The leads have sizzling chemistry on screen, and off screen the actors have this different kind of besties energy. Each moment these two had together gave me butterflies. How they stood for each others beliefs and was loyal to each other beyond just a romantic relationship, moreover the trust and even in the hilarious moments.

Politics: 9/10
Not going to lie, initially I wasn't a fan of the politics-mystery on the male lead's side but later this same factor made me stay up at 4 am to finish the drama. I couldn't stop watching it to know what happens next and the whole political intrigue makes up majority of this drama's core plot but fear not it is not as complicated and tricky as other saeguk where it just bores you after some point going in circles.

Acting: 9/10
The actors did a splendid jobs, their faces were emotive and truly refelective of the scenes they were in. I remember balling my eyes out during some scenes and getting butterflies with romantic scenes, having this frustration and anger towards the antagonsits and dying from laughter in hilarious circumstances. THEY DELIVERED.

That's all, overall I give this drama a 9.5/10, also the OSTs are beautiful beyond compare and always made me feel things. Only other drama I can see comparable to this is Mr. Queen, which I greatly enjoyed btw.

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