The King : Eternal Monarch (2020)

[[[[[[[[[[[warning] Spoilers at the very end, but the review has none. ]]]]]]]]]]

THE WRITER:

I have watched two of Kim Eun Sook's dramas; Goblin and Mr. Sunshine, and I went into this drama with high expectations. As I was watching the first episode, I definitely got the feel of both of those dramas...however, the overall brilliance was not there.

THE SOUNDTRACK:

I have every song on this soundtrack on repeat. I listen to Hwasa, Yongzoo and Paul Kim almost five times a day. I know every word and its translation. I cannot find fault with this soundtrack.

THE ACTING:

They played the characters to the best of their abilities and I applaud them for their hard work. That being said...

A coin toss for Kim Go Eun, Lee Jung Jin and Lee Min Ho; I either loved them or found them awkward to watch. Never in-between. Especially their scenes with each other. They were not able to deliver the emotions they were supposed to when the moment came. However, KGE and LMH had one scene that spoke to me and gave me chills*.

70/100 for Kim Kyung Nam; I would give him 100 but he did not have enough screen time or a well-rounded character. He was incomplete. KKN's character in Come and Hug Me had me in tears. I cried when he cried and I felt every emotion he felt as he portrayed them on-screen. Whenever KKN would widen his eyes (in CaHM), I could not help but get sucked in. In KEM, I felt that his character was missing a lot....

100/100 for Jung Eun Chae and Woo Do Hwan; they brought the sourness and spice and the sweetness and laughter whenever they were onscreen, respectively. JEC was a fashion icon who, had she set her sights on another poor soul, would have been my favourite female character. WDH was a scene stealer and a joy to watch. Their characters were more whole than KKN, but I wish WDH would have gotten a bit more screen time as well.

THE STORY:

Goblin - 16 episodes, 1 hour 30 minutes
Mr. Sunshine - 20 episodes, 1 hour 20 minutes
The King: The Eternal Monarch - 16 episodes, 1 hour 10 minutes

Had all of these dramas been 1 hour long each; Goblin would have had 8 hours/episodes of extra content, Mr. Sunshine would have had 6.6 hours/episodes of extra content and KEM would have only had 2.6 hours/episodes of extra content. I am not say the lack of runtime in the drama is the sole reason I did not enjoy it as much as I did the other dramas.... however, I am saying that, had they lengthened the drama, it may have been better.

This is the first time I wanted any drama to be longer. It felt too short. I felt empty after having finished this drama. Even after watching the 30 second HEA in Eternal Love I had felt more whole and happy than I do now. KEM does not feel complete. There are so many unexplored elements in this drama that a longer runtime could have made better.

OVERALL:

I have seen Goblin twice and am currently rewatching it for the third time. I am about to restart Mr. Sunshine and spend another 20+ hours of my life, happily, being mesmerized by Lee Byung Hyun's acting.
I cannot say the same for KEM. I got through it once. I believe once is enough.
I did enjoy this drama, but it is not one of the best that I have seen.

















THE SPOILERS:

I need to talk about this scene:

One of the best scenes in kdrama history (in my opinion).

*When Tae Eul was in the middle of the road, holding a gun with only two bullets, facing the on-coming cavalry (not knowing if she was going to live or die).*
I have never cried as much as I did. My tears came from deep within and I had to pause to calm down and catch my breath.
*Then Lee Gon comes racing in on Max screaming, "Protect Your Queen!"*
I. Broken. Down.
I will never forget this scene.

That is all.

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Lee Min Ho is backkkk

From my understanding, this show was written by the same person who wrote DOTS & Goblin, and both of those dramas are my all-time favorites, so I went in having high expectations. Boy, should I have gone in with blank slate! If you want to watch this drama you need a pen and paper in order to take notes on what is going on. If you miss one thing, it seems you can get lost very quickly. Just know that this is about a parallel universe and the characters overlap, you can seriously get confused if you do not pay attention.

Lee Min Ho as always was a vision of beauty, his acting skills has not diminished at all. I also love me some Woo Do Hwan, such a refreshing role for him - I love it when he plays the badboy. The interaction between the cast and chemistry as a whole was pretty good. There is a lot of character confusion - they just randomly spill out their feelings and there's not really a build-up to the reveal like a usual drama.

The ending truly saved this drama. My only reason for not dropping this video was because I loved the cast members from other dramas so I had faith it would get better. Also, I was too invested in trying to understand the ending, and the frustration of being confused made me question my intellect. So all in all, if you are into a drama that is confusing at first, has cute love scenes, a strong female lead, eye candy, and an ending that made everything close full circle then by all means.

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Great cast, loved the acting but shitty writing though.
Huge fan of Kim Go Eun but damn girl talk about overacting or could be the poor script writing. Not a big fan of Lee min Ho but i warmed up to him in this one. He seemed more mature and the hairstyle was better.

The plot was just too confused. I mean why were they riding horses when they had cars? !Who brings a sword to a sword fight when guns exist?! What exactly was the villains motive? Eternal life or multiverse domination? Eitherway his motives were unclear.

Too many plot holes and too much advertising.

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may be it's because I had really some big expectations for this series but after completing it I can properly say this was just a waste of precious money, hardwork and time. This drama had everything a hit series needs to have but they couldn't develop:

- the love story "the main theme of the drama"
- the time slip cuts
- parallel dimensions should have to be mentioned a lot before "not just in the last 3 eps" it simply confused viewers
- it does had to have at least 20 eps to finish it without any hole to fill
- really rushed

To be honest I lost my interest in ep 8 but I kept watching it only for Lee Min Ho he was such pleasure for eyes so I thought to finish it just to see him and it was a great decisione. Well I can't say I hated the drama, it was passeble but they could do a better job

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Consider me confused like a big question mark, and I'm not going to even act as if I understand what is happening esp. in the last 4 episodes where Kim Eun Sook inserted time travel. It's just sad when your last episode is full of OTP moments and you just want to ffwd through it. The King has the basic DNA of Goblin, so where did it deviate from that winning formula?

First, the source material parallel worlds is a fascinating topic, but needs good execution to make it not confusing. The production group should have made the differentiation of the two worlds more obvious.

Second, casting is definitely crucial in all projects, that's why stars are getting paid big bucks to bring the audience in. Sadly, Lee Min Ho looks more suited to action genres like City Hunter, which I enjoyed him in, than as the King, he has the regal presence but failed to bring more oomph to the role.

He's better on the 2nd half of the show, but he doesn't have romantic chemistry with Kim Go Eun at all, and kfans can be very forgiving for plot holes as long as the OTP is sizzling on screen.

Woo Do Hwan & Lee Min Ho pairing has potential, but there was a lack of back story for Yeong aside from being the Unbreakable Sword. But omg Woo Do Hwan. I stan! I probably need to watch all his dramas now. Him playing dual roles, Eun Sup trying to be stoic like Yeong and Yeong trying to be fun Eun Sup is comedy GOLD. He is wasted on all these serious roles. Can someone cast him in a romcom soon, with Kim Yong Ji pretty pls. Why isn't she in more projects?

The support cast is strong from Lee Lim to the Prime Minister, Kim Kyung Nam, esp. is a pleasant discovery from this show. Why did we get so little screen time with Lee Min Ho, Woo Do Hwan, and Kim Kyung Nam on screen, oh the lost potential.

Still, live watching and analyzing Kim Eun Sook dramas are always worldwide kfan events, I enjoyed the parallel worlds, and the concept of having a 'clone' in another world, and figuring the heck out who is who. Hopefully not being a breakout success won't affect the big budget investment on these types of fantasy genre dramas, as they always push the boundaries of what kdramas can be.

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It’s all about balance - give it a try!

This is the first time I felt I had to write a review. Never thought the day would come as I usually enjoy reading everyone else reviews and more or less find my own views and opinions in them. Not so regarding this series.
Give this show a try, if you in general like the genre fantasy romance combined with thriller/detective story elements.

I watched what feels like a hundred of Korean and Chinese shows, this one only by accident. Because of the many bad reviews, I thought just to skip this one. Surprisingly, after the first episode didn’t strike me that bad I kept on watching. Some comments said the show messed up after the first few episodes, especially regarding the editing and story line. I don’t think so. As some one who skipped a lot of shows because of bad writing, stupid story line, too many plot holes and so on, I don’t understand why there are so many bad reviews about this one.

Yes, the FL did cry a lot after falling in love, but surely not out of weakness waiting for the ML to rescue her. Yes, towards the end it annoyed me a little, so I just forwarded these scenes.

As for the product placements, yes there are a lot of them. But, a few seconds seeing the brand of food and drinks didn’t really bother me. Not living in Korea or buying Korean groceries I don’t know any of these brands anyway.

The “parallel world” concept is not something easy to transfer. In this show it was done well enough. Naturally there will always be plot holes, but they’re definitely not as bad and obvious as some of the reviewers seem to point out. The last episode was a little challenging though…. They could have done better with another ending.
The editing has its reasons. I think it fits the concept and makes the evolvement of the story line quite interesting.

The romance is ok, it didn’t bother me as being more stupid or unrealistic than in other shows of this genre. It’s fun to watch, and their feelings for each other are not completely implausible. Besides, the whole story is about more than just their relationship.

TKEM is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. Therefore I don’t expect an scientific explanation for the traveling between the parallel worlds. Of course it’s only possible, because of “manpasikjeok” this ancient object of desire that they all want to get their hands on. Did ever some one who likes to watch this kind of genre complain about why someone can travel back in time? No, we except it’s just because of the heroine being on a specific time at the right spot under the full moon and here we go. No complaints. I don’t understand why so many people are bothered with the fantasy aspects in this one.

I would give this show 7,5-8 points. Just for fairness I might give it some more, to phrase it like that little boy for the sake of “restauring balance” ;-) TKEM is a well done show, the ending could have been done way better, the acting is still quite good. Nothing I have to watch twice, but nonetheless very entertaining to watch for the first time.

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Rock Solid, Entertaining Show...Until the Very End

Eun-Sook Kim hasn't failed me yet. She is a master storyteller, focusing on deep, rich characters and plots. "Mr. Sunshine" is still her masterpiece with "Descendants of the Sun" just a hair behind it. "The King: The Eternal Monarch" is another great series, even if it doesn't quite hold up against the other two. I still enjoyed it.

I give props to any writer who attempts to tackle "time travel" as a major plot device. It's not easy, and there is so much to keep track of. The best ones tend to provide the best and most feasible explanations. The worst ones tend to make the viewer believe that the writer had no clue how to write using time travel. In my opinion, "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" always did the best job when it came to stories regarding parallel universes.

The story centers around Lee Gon, King of the Kingdom of Corea, which we quickly find out, is a parallel world to the world that we know. His half-uncle (Lee Lim) seems to be plotting the overthrow of the current king--Lee Gon's father--but we find out that his true aim is to possess a flute that gives the wielder the ability to crossover into those parallel worlds. The coup attempt leaves Lee Gon's father dead, Lee Gon half alive as a young boy, and Lee Lim escaping. However, both are in possession of half of the flute (as it was cut in half), giving Lee Gon and his uncle the ability to crossover.

We find that Lee Gon grows up to be a genious in Quantum Physics, giving him the ability to use mathematical equations to access parallel worlds at various points in time as well as calculate the pitfalls of he and his uncle only having half the flute. Somehow, Lee Lim--not being a Quantum Physics genius--is able to remain a step ahead of his half-nephew.

Lt. Jeong Tae Eul is a young detective in the violent crimes unit as a black belt in Taekwondo. She is the first to come across Lee Gon when he crosses over into the Republic of Korea. Of course, she was immensely skeptical of him when he tells her who he is and where he is from.

Once again, we are provided with rich characters and fantastic actors to play them. Min-Ho Lee (Lee Gon) and Go-Eun Kim are the leads, and it's clear that their chemistry is what helps to drive the story. All of the supporting characters are great as well. The fact that nearly every actor has to play their main role plus their counterparts, was done seemlessly!

It can be a bit challenging keeping track of all the characters and their counterparts, as each character also has a different name in the parallel world. I also wasn't satisfied with the ending. It was as if Eun-Sook Kim tried to find a middle ground for the ending. Would Lt. Jeong Tae Eul become Lee Gon's queen and go to live in his world? Would Lee Gon give up his kingdom and go to live in Tae Eul's world? Both aren't likely, despite the deep love that they have. I know people tend to love "happy endings" so instead, we have both characters spending weekends traversing the multiverse and visitng various parallel worlds. Funny how Tae Eul always has weekends off, despite being a detective, and Lee Gon can simply leave his kingdom whenever he chooses. Nice ending? Sure. Realistic one? No. This wasn't like "Crash Landing On You" in which the two are separated by a wall and have no choice but to make the best of it. This is finding a "happy solution" rather than the "right solution."

Still, I wouldn't let the end prevent you from watching this series. Korean Dramas are fantastic at giving us good characters and good plots that keep us invested and longing to watch the next episode. You won't be disappointed by this series at all.

Lire davantage

This series starts out upbeat and stays that way throughout the series. It is absolutely unique in comparison to other fantasy series of this nature. It revolves around dual worlds, borderline time travel. There is humor, action, mystery, suspense and romance. The acting was great. The clothing was perfect. I got a few good laughs, genuinely.
The set up and plot were enough to make you binge watch it. I like how things played out however I was a bit thrown off by the express growth of feeling, like out of the blue, that area was not fully developed. But it’s still worth the watch.
What I liked most was that our leads didn’t have extreme drama and overly complicated situations.

Lire davantage

This drama is watchable, but nothing special

I expected a complex storyline, and a happy ending, but I only got the later. The writing was rather lazy, and it tried to create a façade that it is a complex and twisted storyline, but it really isn't. I felt very few heightened trilling moments, or suspenseful and climactic points in the drama. The story aside, the rest was quite enjoyable. Kim Go Eun is rapidly becoming my favorite actress and her screen presence is just phenomenal. There is something simplistic yet sophisticated about her, and and it just makes me appreciate her even more. The rest of the cast was good as well, specially the 'unbreakable sword' guy. The drama does end happily and I didn't regret watching it. It had its moments, but I will not watch it again. Give it a go if you like fantasy-sci-fi dramas and like happy endings.

Lire davantage

I literally had high expectations for this drama. Reading the plot of the drama already gave me the vibe it'll be a bit confusing, however... I was expecting an impressive resolution for it especially for the other aspects of the drama but I didn't get any of it.

Let me start with the plot. I despite my low rating of the plot, I really thought that it was refreshing to have a drama that tackles parallel universes. However, I think that it was executed and written poorly. The drama focused on so many things at the same time and I think that I didn't have the time to immerse myself with the whole drama. I can say that the romance was really nice by the end, but I still couldn't feel any butterflies from the lead couple. I thought that it was too fast and thought that everything should've had more time. Even as an avid fan of Lee Min Ho, it's really not his best drama. I was so sad because I was rooting for more highlight or emphasis when it comes to the other characters of the drama because I saw that they literally had so much potential to develop. It was just so disappointing that most of the characters stagnant and the whole plot twist seemed obvious from the beginning.

When it comes to the cast and their acting, I thought that it was really good. Despite the bad writing, I really saw that the cast did their best in executing their characters. When it comes to the romance of the drama, I'm really glad that Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun didn't make the romance awkward by the end of the day, but as I said, their whole romance lacked so much backbone and it felt so rushed. I would really like to applaud for the other cast such as Woo Do Hwan, Kim Kyung Nam, Jung Eun Chae, and Lee Jung Jin. Despite the bad writing of the plot, they were still able to execute such lively characters that made me a lot more interested in them than the leads. Lee Jung Jin definitely gave off such a different and excellent vibe as the antagonist of the whole drama.

I think that the OST of the whole drama was alright. There are actually many songs that are good and I don't have much to say about it.

To summarize it all, I think that the whole drama tried to make an outcome of so many genres good, that it ended up lacking so many aspects that had to be emphasized such as the romance or the character development content of the other characters. I wouldn't mind seeing another drama wherein Kim Go Eun and Lee Min Ho as the pair because I definitely saw potential. However, despite the bad writing of the plot, the cast is GOLD. I just really hope that this drama wouldn't let the audience think that the cast is bad because they definitely did their part well. The drama had so much potential if the writing was done well and if everything was executed with an equal balance of the genres.

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If i have to choose Top 3 Dramas in 2020, TKEM will be on my top list, of course.

If i have to choose Top 3 Dramas in 2020, TKEM will be on my top list, of course. I always adore Kim Eunsook writernim and her works. The idea of the plot is brilliant, i can guarantee that she totally did a great research before makin this drama. The casts selection is also good, i cant imagine another male actor taking this role as Lee Gon instead of Lee Minho (it applies to other roles too). It looks like they were born for those roles.
Well, for some people, the plot might be confusing. But if youre smart enough, i think it wont be a problem, you'll like it! Kim Eunsook wrapped this drama so neatly. She gives us the clear and clean closure (+ beautiful ending for everyone). Ah, and for some people the PPL (product placement for ads) are a bit annoying, but it's not a big deal for me since it doesnt affect the plot of the story. Overall, i really love this drama no matter what!! Great job, Kim Eunsook writernim!

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