Affection (2021)

My eyes, ears and heart are happy ❤

This drama is so truly beautiful that it took my breath away. It is extremely visual, the scenes are like moving paintings, every detail is perfect. We get to see different angles, a lot of camera movement, close takes and amazing shots - all that together with the excellent acting from the cast and the perfect soundtrack got me mesmerized. So yes, this is definitely one of the most beautiful dramas I have ever seen. It is not the work of only a few, and it is not done without love and effort, so kudos to the entire The King’s Affection crew.

I loved the cast, a great team that delivered wonderful acting all the way. Park Eu Bin is amazing and we can see the extent of her talent here. She’s always enchanting with her acting skills and this time was no different. My KING slayed.

The soundtrack is, I know I’m repeating myself here, beautiful. I mean, I cannot stop listening to the songs, even the ones that are instrumentals. All of the songs make me feel happy, sad, dreamy and hopeful at the same time.

I liked the plot, I absolutely LOVED the gender approach here and the non-toxic relationships - hello, there were a lot of one-sided “loves” and just mature reactions on how to deal with these feelings, let’s appreciate it. Pure gold . Plus, there were a lot of valuable messages that are timeless. In general, it is a sad story, but with a lot of cute and funny moments to level it all. The pace was on point for me - it got me on the edge of my seat sometimes, buti it also gave me time to breathe and dream. I cried, my heart ached, but I also laughed, I swooned and my heart was happy and warm by the end of it. BALANCE, BITCHES.

So, to sum up my review: IT WAS SO DAMN WORTH IT.
The King's Affection has my heart and it became one of my favorite dramas.
I will definitely rewatch it someday.
❤

Lire davantage

the show I recommend to everyone

"The King's Affection" has a special place in my heart. Not only are the costumes and set very visually appealing and satisfying to watch, but what intrigued me the most was the unique dynamic between the prince and the tutor. I adored Rowoon in "Extra-ordinary You" and his character in this drama is even better - the slightly eccentric tutor who is star-struck over the prince and follows him wherever he goes like an obsessed puppy, thinking himself insane for loving a man but despite this doing nothing to stop himself. lol. Park Eun-bin is also outstanding in her portrayal of the cold calculating prince Lee Hwi and it was enthralling to watch.

20 episodes may seem long but honestly for me, I was itching to watch the next episode every Monday and Tuesday, and it is in fact one of the few dramas I have actually completed from start to end. The premise enchanted me ever since I'd heard about it a few months prior to its release and I was not disappointed when I could finally get my hands on it. For any of you hesitating to watch this, I say, be bold, and just watch it. If you have taste, you won't regret it.

Lire davantage

One thing this drama sets up to do is that it's story is quite simple, it never tries to fall into other drama's gimmicks, like amnesia, moving the plot forward by years, really complicated plots that go nowhere.

In that sense you won't get any BIG reveal, but you will get satisfaction of watching the story unfold.

The acting from all the character is pretty solid, and our main character gets really well treated, and she always delivers.

Apart from that, the story does suffer some twists and turns and it ends up being really confusing. But I applaud them for their simplicity.

Lire davantage

I am a sucker for gender bender dramas, and this one is done well. Park Eun Bin is solid as steel as she maneuvers the political machinings of the royal family as a pretend monarch. Rowoon is decent but not outstanding as the Royal tutor loyal to his King. The supporting cast did a better job than Rowoon, even the child actors playing their younger selves. Kudos especially to rookie actor Nam Yoon Su who played the brooding noble pining for his cousin. The plot, while intricate, was a bit predictable, especially the anti-climactic ending. Despite this, this drama was an easy and enjoyable watch for me.

Lire davantage

Please watch this, I didn’t want it to end.

This was so addictive, I was clinging onto Netflix waiting for the next episode, then I knew once it was needed I had to wait a whole week till it was back. The music is so beautiful I am in the process of learning then in Korean, which is quite a feat as I am English. It stays in your memory long after it finished. I actually missed the actors.
It keeps you on the edge of your seat. An in the end well I was crying my eyes out because it had ended, and because of the story. It twist and turns till you have no idea how it’s going to end. At one point I think I forgot to breathe.
The costumes are stunning, whoever made them needed an award. Made me laugh, cry, smile and utterly sob, so much that I went on a zoom meeting when this episode aired and I couldn’t speak for crying, they thought something dreadful for real had happened.
Watch this drama you won’t be disappointed.

Lire davantage

Great introductory saeguk

This is a great historical drama to start out with for those who haven't really watched any and are worried about the roles and terms being difficult to follow. It has some cliches but it doesn't make them seem overbearing and if anything it actually helps the drama be more understandable which, as someone who had not really watched saeguks before, I found very enticing. The plot is more than the politics.

I know a lot of people complained that this drama got draggy, but I completely disagree. In fact, I feel like this one of the best paced kdramas that I've ever watched. I really love slow burns and I think TKA dedicated the perfect amount of time to the backstory, to the political tensions, and to each character. Not once did I think that the story wasn't moving forwards or was leaving me confused — there was a brilliant balance between very tension-filled moments and domestic, comforting scenes.

I think the story was fleshed out really well. There are some questions I have left near the end and I found some of the extended fight scenes a little meh and lacking in substance, but overall I think this drama was really well-written and well-acted. The ending was really beautiful and bittersweet and I think the story couldn't have gone any other way.

Lire davantage

The story telling was always steady, the tension always only rose tiny bits without any big showdowns. The finale itself was calmer than I expected but still worthy and in the end fitting the overall vibe of the drama.

It's one of those dramas that lives from its characters as there were many multi-layered ones who drove the story forward and whose cast did really good in portraying them. It's rare that I don't look for flaws in at least one or two actors/actresses. I just enjoyed all of them, the leads, the second leads, the side characters, the villains.

I often have concerns when it comes to characters pretending to be the other gender. And even though I started doubtfully, Park Eun Bin convinced me otherwise. She did really well in portraying someone that had to hide her gender for years, starting to feel more comfortable in men's clothes and acting way tougher than one would expect, so that it would lead to a natural rough behavior. In the end I found it somewhat funny but totally fitting that in her developing relationship with the ML, she was the strong one while Jung Ji Woon was the softer counterpart. She took the initiatives while he followed. And he definitely cried more than her, lol. BUT he never felt unmanly or something. Rowon achieved a good balance between his character's soft side and his strong/brave moments. And he was a good equivalent to Park Eun Bin.

At some point in earlier episodes I started to wonder why she continued to pretend to be someone else, since it was such a toll on her. But later on I realized that everyone just wants to live. And don't always need an answer to everything. Sometimes things are just like that without any deep reason.

One thing I'd complain about would be the part where people from Ming were visiting. They hinted so much to another back story that I actually expected them to make use of that in later episodes but they never did, which is quite sad. I would have loved to see as to what that part might have led.

And the music... In my humble opinion, I thought it was too weak and didn't support important scenes well enough. But that's just me.

Lire davantage

akting peran utama yang sangat menonjol

Bisa dibilang, motivasiku nonton drama ini 100% karena tokoh utamanya. Rowoon sudah sangat memikatku dengan aktingnya di Extraordinary You dan bikin ketagihan untuk menonton projek dia lainnya, sedangkan Park Eun Bin aku penasaran dengan cara dia membawakan karakter setelah sukses menghipnotisku di drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

Rowoon melalui perannya sebagai Ji Woon mampu menyampaikan emosi sesuai porsinya, tidak berlebihan, tapi sangat mengena. Dibanding EOY, dia disini memiliki lebih banyak ekspresi untuk ditampilkan, dan aku kagum karena penggambaran karakternya sangat berbeda dibanding di EOY. Kemudian, dia juga cukup cerdas untuk memilih drama ini sebagai projeknya untuk mengembangkan akting. Keceriaan yang berbanding terbalik dengan tokoh Haru di EOY membuat karakter ini muncul sebagai pribadi yang menyegarkan. Keramahan tokoh Ji un yang dia perankan, rasa cinta, serta kegigihannya untuk terus berada di samping Putra Mahkota tanpa memandang gender dan tanpa membuat kesan 'menyimpang' layak untuk diapresiasi. Dan chemistry antara Rowoon dan Eun Bin membuat aku betah menonton drama ini. Apalagi adegan cemburu-cemburunya. Jujur aku menikmati konflik pasangan ini daripada alur ceritanya sendiri hehe.

Sedangkan Eun Bin. Wajahnya cukup asing kalau ini adalah drama pertama yang aku tonton. Untungnya sebelum aku nonton drama ini aku memutuskan untuk menonton drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo sehingga aku sangat familiar melihat dirinya dalam jubah Putra Mahkota. Banyak yang bilang dia tampan sebagai laki-laki, tapi bagiku Eun Bin selalu terlihat cantik walaupun dalam busana pria. Ketika dia menggunakan busana wanita, kecantikannya sangat menampar haha pantes aja Ji un sampai jatuh cinta padanya walaupun Dam i masih dikira laki-laki olehnya.

Hal yang aku sayangkan dari drama ini karena poin tragedi yang sebenarnya bukan preferensiku untuk menonton drama. Aku tahu bahwa drama kolosal cenderung mengedepankan tragedi, tapi pengemasan tragedi di cerita ini kurang efektif dan kurang memberi kesan. Kesan yang ditampilkan hanyalah kesedihan dan kesedihan yang tidak ada hentinya. Bagian yang harusnya terasa megah malah cenderung flat sehingga cerita seperti tidak ada perkembangan. Konflik tidak kunjung diselesaikan sehingga pada beberapa bagian membuatku sangat jengah dengan alurnya. Banyak penceritaan yang kurang to the point dan sia-sia.

Porsi kebahagiaan selalu dijadikan sebatas angan-angan untuk para tokohnya, dan cerita ini seperti memutar di permasalahan yang itu-itu aja seolah tidak ada progress yang signifikan dari usaha tokoh-tokoh utamanya.

Dan yah, agak canggung untuk aku pribadi melihat wanita yang menyukai wanita walaupun disini sebenarnya Ratu tidak tahu bahwa Raja adalah wanita, tapi yah.. aku canggung aja lihatnya.

Secara Keseluruhan Drama ini sangat cocok ditonton kalau kamu ingin drama kerajaan yang ringan. Ceritanya memang banyak bisa ditebak, tapi kamu akan jatuh cinta pada para aktornya. Sekalipun ini drama pertama mereka yang kamu tonton, aku yakin kamu bakalan ketagihan sama akting mereka.

review lengkapnya klik link di profil ya!

Lire davantage

Disappointing

I don’t know what happened in this drama. The first two episodes were really good and the story had all the potential to be developed. However after the ep 3 until the ep 16/17 nothing happened. It was like I was watching the same thing over again. Even though the actors were good, the screenwriter of this show didn’t do a good job. I didn’t drop because I hate to drop things. it would be a waste of time to watch 10 episodes and just left it there. The end of the drama was not captivating at all and pretty boring. Didn’t understand why she survived after taking the poison. I don’t understand the hype and I don’t get why it got an Emmy.

Lire davantage

It has its ups and downs

Like most dramas, I think this show starts out strong, but looses momentum as it continues. There's definitely some pacing issues towards the end and the second half becomes draggy and kinda boring. I just don't know if this show needed 20 episodes. Some conflicts take too long to be resolved, while others get a solution out of nowhere.

The story mainly focus on the characters and plot development, while the main couple takes a backseat role most of the time, specially as the drama goes on, but this becomes a problem since the plot starts to show some holes and inconsistencies. Certain choices and circumstances just don't make sense or go completely unexplained whatsoever. The last episode had an interesting tone, but I was disappointed with how everything turned out.

Despite the flaws, this drama has good elements and interesting moments. First I think the acting is pretty good overall and I really think the fl looks convincing as a man, unlike other historical dramas with a gender-bender trope. The main couple has chemistry, even if not explored to the fullest and some moments between them feel a bit underwhelming, but they're still cute together.

Although The King's Affection has a lot of tropes that have been done already, they stil work since they're well executed (mostly in the beginning). I specially liked to see how being forced to pretend to be a man influenced Dami's personality and that she was just as smart and strong as the other man around her.

All in all, this drama has potential but some parts are harder to stomach, mainly for being boring. I enjoyed watching most of the time, but it's definitely not a show that left a strong impression on me, I'd recommend you to give a try if you like lighter historical dramas and has some time to spare.

Lire davantage