Loved it!
This is one of the best shows I have seen this year. A very good sci-fi drama with wonderful acting by the cast. I do understand some character development has not been done in a proper manner but overall you will surely enjoy it.If we watch carefully there are small hints depicted by the director which took the story ahead beautifully. I loved the closed ending and not leaving it to the public.
This is definitely not for people who do not enjoy such genre or such concepts or want more chemistry to be shown.
Personally I loved it alot. And I do understand people have different tastes and choices. So that's alright.
Have a good watch.
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You just don't know what you know.
This larger than life, universe parallel thing does not fit well in normal brain at first. But I love Lee Min Ho, so I kept on moving.
I can say the show has been written brilliantly. Performance by everyone is out of the world. And the Ost is also brilliant. But I am still doubting if I managed to digest the overall plot or do I need to check it again!
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The acting by every single person in this show is amazing. From Goblin we already know that Kim Go Eun is a fantastic actress but she is absolutely brilliant as Jeong Tae Eul in King.
As Lee Min Ho's come back drama after being in the military, this was a great show to showcase his acting skills, in the heartbreaking moments, you cry with him and in the more light-hearted scenes you laugh and just want nothing but happiness for his character Lee Gon.
Woo Do Hwan as both Jo Yeong and Jo Eun Sop, was amazing, before this, I had only seen him in The Great Seducer, in which he was amazing but he truly shines in the double role here. Absolutely deserves all the praise he is getting and I am now going to look into more of his dramas.
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Honestly if I had to recommend a kdrama for someone who had never watched one before, this would be it. A high budget, well-casted, well-written, exciting show that keeps you on the edge of your seat eager for more. It’s too good, too good!!
The romance was top tier. I'm aware it's been a topic of controversialness, but for me - Jung Tae Eul x Lee Gon are one of my new favourite couples. Especially the scene at the end of Ep 11. Had me on the edge of my seat!! That scene >>> any boring love scene ever made
Their dynamic was just so fun. A post to summarize (courtesy of @lavenderbyun):
Tae Eul: take your clothes off
Lee Gon: *undoes 1 button*
Tae Eul: I DIDN’T SAY STRIP YOU IGNORANT SLUT
Lmaoooo, they give me life ♡
And Lee Gon! My man. We love (1) romantic, skilled, handsome science nerd. Someone who travels across time and space for his love, asdfghjkl; A king worth stanning.
One of the highlights in the beginning? When we're in the Kingdom of Corea and people were just shocked cause no one is allowed to touch the king but he lets Tae Eul touch him HAHAHAHA
Considering his well-known 'I don’t like being touched by people', he is certainly shouting out loud here to everybody around him 'I'm crazy about this woman and I just want to touch her all the time!!!!'
I loved all the characters in this drama. Especially Jo Young & Eun Sup, their scenes were always a highlight. Woo Do Hwan has the range, give him all the awards
And his bromance with Lee Gon!! Love them sm
I will admit my brain started to hurt with all that time travel, multiple universes and that place where time doesn't flow. It is a lot to get your head around but just don't think about it too hard is my advice lol
Otherwise, this drama deserves all the praise. I could rave about it forever, please give it a shot!
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Well laid out intriguing story line, pay attention From episode 1
Started this drama without much expectation of it being better than Goblin and i wasn't disappointed at all, its actally totally different and better, The story wasn't told the typical kdrama way, so a lot of patience is needed for unveiling its sci/fi plot plot hence its not predictive , also the romance in this drama isn't your regular girl runs foolishly after a boy for 75% of its episodes, no its pretty straight forward and matured and certainly realistic in line with the characterization of the leads, above all you will experience the most amazing chemistry ever seen in kdrama land with pure sincere romance , the story progressed with a chemistry jackpot as i have never ever seen two kdrama characters so comfortable with each other as the leads of this drama by episodes 15 .Please do not drop this drama because of some silly unsubstantiated reviews from people who had already decided to review this drama negatively because their favorite actress wasn't paired with Lee Min ho and the fact that Lee min ho was going to become more popular than their favorite internationally , their backlash and anger started upon the news of the pairing and worsened when they were shocked at how well the two leads synced with each other as the episodes progressed, these outrageous people complained about everything plus typical product placements like the drama is supposed to fund itself and they are sorely dissapointed that despite their back lash the drama retained its spot and yet they didnt drop it,that tells you how amazing and addictive this drama is and of course it has retained number 1 position in so many countries on netflix and its been number 1 on wavee a streaming platform which like Netflix in south korea, people actually prefer to watch on this platforms than via the national tv called SBS so as to rewatch it again. This drama is the only drama that is now on number 6 most watched shows on netflix in the world, and its a drama in korean language, that speaks for itself.
Re watch value is 10/10 if you loved it once you will always go back to find more clues of what you may have missed.
The story is centered around a protagonist Lee min Ho a king in the Kingdom of Corea, who is trying to restore balance that his antagonist uncle disrupted by committing treason to steal a wooden flute that has mysterious powers, he was almost murdered on the night of the treason and he was saved by someone who left an ID card of a Lieutenant played by Kim Go eun , he held on to this ID for 25 years waiting to meet his savior only to find himself mysteriously led by the flute through a maze to Republic of Korea where he meets the woman who is supposed to be his savior and falls instantly for her and she thought he was nuts because he was rambling on about how he was a king.
The story progressed deeper as we understand in a time loop by episode 15 why the king had Tae eul ID card all his life and why she fell so fast for him and how their long distance relationship across parallel universe became a sad love story for them so they always have to live in the moment when they get to see each other, and Gosh their chemistry together is sizzling as their hugs and stares alone burns the screen not to talk of the beheading kiss, this is one drama that delivers real romance progression, from being shy and awkward and blushing to plenty of clingy skinship and you will certainly think you are watching real life romance oncsreen, there stares, tears an longing gazes will tug at your heart.
Waiting for the final episode this Friday and i sincerely hope everyone gets their happy ending because the millions of this fans of this drama are clearly going to revolt as i have never seen a drama where people are so heavily invested in as The King Eternal Monarch
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As the most anticipated drama of the year, this one disappoints BIG TIME!
Story: Writer probably thinks when you throw scientific BS in the story, it'd make the drama looks like highly intellectual. Parallel universe, doppelganger, time travel, mathematical computations/formulas thrown as part of a story, is a brilliant idea ONLY if you know what you are doing, if not leave it to the experts. Writer thinks she can get away with it, but she made a big mess and doesn't know how to solve it! Those people who think this is a masterpiece is either a LMH or writer's die hard fans.
Acting casts: Thank goodness to Maximus, WDH's character and SJ. The villains are just decorations, PPL appeared more than them. Writer probably lose interest and just throw some fillers and whatever she thinks will work with the fanatics. I am not even a WDH fan but he stands out in this drama, totally overshadowed the ML. The 3 stars is for WDH, KKN and Maximus.
Music: Good thing, I liked 2 of the OST's, if not I would give this 1 star!
Rewatch value: Probably just watch WDH's scenes OR maybe just go to youtube and look for clips instead. Not gonna waste my time fast forwarding a lot of awful and cringey scenes.
Overall, this drama is for the fangirls only, nothing more nothing less.
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WOO DOHWAN
the star of the show is easily woo dohwan. only his character was done some level of justice, his acting and his chemistry and bromance with himself is honestly the only thing keeping me through the episodes. everything else is just below par and not enjoyable. i don't know whats happening, and at ep 14 I've given up all hope at understanding the plot/characters/etc. i had so many hopes for this, but the under-done plot and absolute zero development of the characters and overdone romance is just. ew. I was actually jo yeong whenever something romanc-y happened, and this is coming from someone who LOVES romcoms and romances. i wish i knew what went wrong with the script and the plot for it to turn out this way. the romance is too much and too bland, like one second she absolutely hates him and as soon as she finds out hes a king shes suddenly in love with him??? what??? i dont understand the magic of the worlds, or the science of them and no effort has been made to try and make m e understand. we started out solving a mystery, a case but that is lost now?the characters are so bland. they know nothing about each other and neither do we??? lee gon is justa king with a pasion for math, and a weird obsession with tae eul, and what? the two dimensionality is ridiculous. jang tae eul is just a rude, unlikeable cop and i just ont understand what makes her that great and no one has even tried making her great?? prime minister koo could have been such a powerful, strong female lead but she was only dislikable. not the good kind either.
the only saving grace is jo yeong/jo eun sub. id give my life for these two, absolute cuties.
i absolutely love all the actors, and theyre what made me watch this in the first place. but this was just not it. not worth it at ALL (except ya kno, dohwan. he won)
the good thing about this was the production. a+. beautifully shot and post produced, loved it. the rest however just isnt worth it.
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Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
Entertaining, but not for people wanting more substance.
The King: Eternal Monarch is difficult to review because, at face value, it is an entertaining drama: interesting premise, excellent cinematography, addictive soundtrack, strong female lead, suspenseful, and romantic. The problem with The King: Eternal Monarch, however, is that it fails to meet expectations, leaving many viewers feeling as though they watched an early, conceptualized version of a drama released as it was being written by an author with a vague concept of where the plot was going and no knowledge of how many episodes were left until the ending. We know what could have been, so our disappointment leads us to be overly critical of what we have been given.**Story: 7.0**
While the plot devices of interdimensional travel and a modern day Korean monarchy are nothing new, the combination of the two are unique enough to excite any fantasy lover. Throw in a dashing king, a tough female cop, and a villain traveling between dimensions, killing people and replacing them with their doppelgangers, and you have the building blocks for something special.
Sadly, someone somewhere thought more would be better, and all the elements that could have made this drama great were poisoned by the the addition of a time travel plot device, a surplus of ridiculously blatant examples of product placement, a female villain who served no real purpose other than to be an unlikable annoyance when convenient for the plot, a multitude of supporting characters and their doppelgangers who were difficult to keep track of, and a sometimes non-linear story-telling style that made the whereabouts and actions of the villain difficult to follow, with very little mystery or payoff because of it.
The addition of so many minor characters was, perhaps, the biggest downfall to this series because it detracted from the time that could have been better spent developing the main characters, in particular the relationship between the male and female leads. For a show that is built around a love story that spans multiple dimensions, it sure didn’t spend a lot of time developing the romance, and instead it relied heavily on the concepts of fate and destiny to carry the relationship while the leads spent a large amount of time apart in their respective worlds.
The main antagonist and biggest external conflict for the leading couple, villain Lee Rim, also suffered due to shared screen time with his many, many doppelganger minions. His villainy would have been much more impactful if his motivations for world domination had been expanded upon and all the corrupt doppelgangers were introduced as they were exposed, the extent of Lee Rim's reach being unveiled one doppelganger at a time. It was a missed opportunity that would have created suspense and kept viewers guessing as to who was good and bad along with the leading characters.
As the show went into its final four episodes, the plot began to feel rushed, as though the writer anticipated the series being 20 episodes long but was told half-way through production it was only going to be 16 episodes instead. Moments previously depicted in the first episode (Lee Rim being interrogated at the police station) turned out to be insignificant and irrelevant, and the downfall of the villain was less impactful and grandeur because it happened three different times, all rather abruptly and without much fanfare.
I suspect that a lot of fans were satisfied with the “happy” ending, but I found it to be a cop-out. While all our secondary characters found endings in the reset timeline deserving of their good--or bad--deeds in the original timeline, it was clear that the writer didn’t know how to resolve the love story that spanned two worlds and various timelines. While a together-but-separate ending worked in Crash Landing on You, it’s hard to imagine such a situation working out in the long-term for this couple, despite the clear implication that they do somehow manage to grow old together, when one of them is the king of a country that still expects its monarch to produce heirs.
I personally would have liked an ending where everyone, including Jung Tae Eul and Lee Gon, lost their memories of the other world after the reset--which would have been more in line with traditional time travel logic--allowing us to see Jung Tae Eul meet Lee Ji Hun and Luna meet Lee Gon and fall in love in their respective worlds, suggesting that the two souls are destined to be together no matter the universe. Of course, such an ending would have had to exclude the cute moment between Luna and Kang Shin Jae, but it’s a sacrifice I would have made, especially since he seemed to have chemistry with the therapist/doctor, who could have turned to be his love interest in the reset.
**Acting/Cast/Characterization: 7.5**
Woo Do Hwan stole the show with his dual roles as Jo Young and Jo Eun Sub, and I would watch this drama again solely for his performance. While the two characters were foils for each other, there were moments when you could see flashes of Jo Eun Sub’s personality in Jo Young, showing that the four-year-old Jo Young introduced in the first episode could have also grown up boisterous and carefree, had his parents not divorced and he not become the King’s Sword. Woo Do Hwan did an excellent job of portraying them as two sides of the same coin.
Lee MIn Ho fit the role of dashing, attractive king, but much like Prince Charming in Disney’s Cinderella, he had very little personality outside of being perfect. To be honest, I’m not sure if this is a symptom of Lee Min Ho’s acting abilities or a combination of the director and writer pushing for the idea of a fairy tale romance, complete with a royal leading man who excels at literally everything. If that’s what they wanted, then they succeeded. Unfortunately, as a viewer, I found that level of perfection unbelievable, and I feel like opportunities for Lee Min Ho to express deeper, less flattering emotions were skipped over in favor of having him look pretty for the camera. While I don’t mind seeing Lee Min Ho being paraded around in a bunch of dashing uniforms while riding in slow motion on the back of a gallant steed, the reality is that if he’s placed on such a high pedestal, both socioeconomically and personality-wise, it’s hard to imagine a police detective who values comfort over appearances forming a meaningful bond with him, definitely not in the time allotted to them as a couple in this series.
Kim Go Eun’s acting was hit or miss for me. As Jung Tae Eul, she had some real standout moments, such as the last twenty minutes of episode 11, but for the majority of her scenes her facial expressions were kind of flat and wooden. Perhaps that was an intentional choice in order for her to appear more like a tough-as-nails cop despite her petite appearance, but instead it felt like she had no personality outside of being a detective, which further widened the emotional gap between her and Lee Gon. I found her role as Luna much more intriguing and complex, and the blank-faced delivery of her lines felt more befitting of the street hardened thief dying of cancer than of a cop with a lot of friends, a loving father, and a princely suitor.
Most of the supporting cast did well in their roles, including several standouts, but there were a few characters that I wish had been excluded from the drama (Looking at you Prime Minister.) in order to tighten the plot.
**Music/Cinematography: 10**
I was extremely happy with the cinematography and music. With Netflix funding the production, it’s no surprise that the special effects and camera work seemed more on par with a Hollywood production. Every scene in which time stops is gorgeous, especially the moment it paused as Jung Tae Eul was tying her hair and the warm hues of fall dominated the color scheme.
The soundtrack was extremely catchy and was used effectively to compliment the various scenes. I am particularly fond of “Gravity” and “Orbit.”
**Rewatch Value: 9**
Despite all of its flaws with the plot and the disappointing resolution, this drama is immensely entertaining. If you acknowledge it for what it is, a drama that capitalizes on cliches and romance tropes, and that is your bread and butter, then you will be pleased with this drama and want to rewatch it for the vicarious fairy tale thrills. However, a lot of people want more from their dramas than unrealistic entertainment; this drama isn’t for those people.
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Personally I don’t understand why people didn’t like this , I loved it. At first I thought that it would be a typical drama with a long so it wouldn’t be as interesting but then once I actually got into I loved it. I’m so sad that this has ended because I became emotionally attached to this drama. The chemistry between the main characters was so real which made the scenes between them so beautiful, especially everytime they met each other. It was also funny when it needed to be and the plot had the right amount of twists without making it too predictable or unbearable. I loved the romance and friendship between them because it felt so real. The music is on another level for me, I loved all the OSTs from this drama and it made me like the drama even more since the songs were thought out well. The only thing I was sad about is that eun sup and yeong didn’t meet again like they’d promise each other and I wanted to see know who the little boy actually was. I know the ending can seem to be a bit unrealistic as they do end up together but it’s a fantasy drama for a reason, and I would have the ending any other way. Apart from that, I know it can be kind of confusing but you will not regret watching this. It’s one of the best dramas I’ve watched and I’m going to have a hard time getting over it. Cet avis était-il utile?
When sci-fi leads to a mess
TKEM is a title that has undergone the exact same fate as Hotel del Luna. The drama has been hyped and declared a possible masterpiece even before airing, due to the combination of cast-screenwriter plus romance-fantasy. But as HDL, the plot didn't live up to the hype.The author wanted to propose an ambitious sci-fi fantasy that tells us the story of two parallel worlds, where each member of the cast has a double role and is involved in a "save-conquer two world plot-line". The main concept may be brilliant, but the script is not well written and definitely it is badly executed (editing and direction).
The author was unable to manage the amount of information she wanted to offer, failing on multiple fronts. Between plot holes, errors on space-time theories, which casually favor the hero while disadvantaging the villain, bad characterization of characters and useless characters who steal precious screen time, penalizing both the main plot and the main couple, who also lack chemistry due to a hasty and forced romance.
The director wanted to tell the story in a non-linear way, jumping between sub-plot, often using flashbacks. All this has unnecessarily complicated a plot that was already complex of his own due to the number of characters and plot-line, plus the space-time theory, and two different worlds that looked almost the same.
Add the bad CGI, an OST that lack of impact, the controversy over product placement and japan style building and what positive aspects are left? The great cast, some acting, the scenography & costume. Definitely not enough to save a drama. Overall TKEM is an ambitious project with great potential, which unfortunately has turned into a giant mess because both the author and the director wanted to overdo it.
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One of my favorites!
I know a lot of people don't love this drama, but I absolutely adore it! The OST is to die for, and it makes the drama 10 times better!! It can be a bit confusing, but everything gets cleared up later on. I wouldn't recommend it as a good first drama for anyone, it may be too confusing for people who are new to k-dramas and don't quite know how k-dramas run yet and because of that, it could give them the wrong impression about them.Lee Minho's and Woo Do Hwan's bromance in this is literally the best! Also, the bromance between Jo Eun Sup and Jo Young! I live for bromance and this is everything. Definitely give it a shot! 1000/10 recommend!!
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