My picks for entertainment ~ suggested movies, TV shows, music, and books ~ so you can enjoy some quality ME time! (ATTN Korean drama addicts! This blog has lots of K-drama love.)
The Matchmakers is a
2023 Viki Original Korean drama series, with 16 episodes. It is
categorized as historical, romance, crime, and mystery, with light
moments of comedy.
The two main characters are a widow, disguised as
a matchmaker, and a widower who is a prince working as a matchmaker according to a royal decree.
♦ The
Widow and the Not So Merry Widower
Jung Soon-deok
is a widow who becomes a matchmaker by personal choice. She is a
widow, the daughter-in-law of a powerful political party leader. But
she truly believes she is the “goddess of
matchmaking”, i.e. Ssangyeonsulsa. It is not the kind of lowly
work that a noble woman should do, so Jung Soon-deok keeps her
true identity a secret by using the name “Yeo Joo Daek”. She
didn't learn until later that the name she had taken as a disguise,
was the name of a woman who was wanted for murder.
Shim Jung-woo
is a Confucian scholar who scored the highest on the civil service
exams. The king would been pleased if he could put this young man's
intellect and skills to good use. But the leader of a corrupt
political party, arranged for him to be married to the princess. On
the day of the wedding, the princess dropped dead. He became a
widower before he could even consummate the marriage. So now he's a
prince who can not participate in political affairs or serve in any
way other than being a prince, a member of the royal family.
♦ The
King Makes a Promise
The king is furious
and frustrated because he wants his son, the crown prince to marry
and have an heir. But corrupt officials keep finding ways to prevent
the marriage. He tells Shim Jung-woo to can come up with a way to
thwart the efforts of the politicians so that the crown prince can
marry. If he is successful, the king will have his marriage to the
princess annulled.
Shim Jung-woo tells
the king, to get a matchmaker to arrange marriages for the daughters
of his close friend, who had passed away. But the plan was not so
simple. Even if the politicians were not resorting to their
treacherous tricks, the daughters themselves are all refusing to get
married.
♦ The
Widower and the Widow Become a Team
Shim Jung-woo needs
to work with an experienced matchmaker since he knows nothing about
the process. He meets Jung Soon-deok aka “Yeo Joo Daek” who
agrees to assist him as long as he cooperates with her and follows
her directions. He agrees, so now they are The Matchmakers.
The process of
matchmaking is complex, but it gets even more complicated when they
begin to uncover murders connected to political power schemes to
overthrow the king and the crown prince.
On top of all this,
the matchmakers ~ Shim Jung-woo and Jung Soon-deok ~ fall in love
with each other. Theirs is a “match” that would break all of the
rules.
Main
Characters:
Widower
Shim Jung-woo (played by Ro Woon, )
Widow
Jung Soon-deok (played by Cho Yi-hyun)
This
is a Viki Original series and Viki
viewers rate this series 9.4 out of 10 stars.
I agree.There
was the main plot of forbidden love between a widow and a widower; a
relationship that went against Joseon rules, customs, and traditions.
Then
there were various subplots:
Corrupt nobles,
their wives, and the king's concubine, plotting against the king and
the crown prince;
True crime stories
published as erotica novels;
Old maidens (virgin
women in their 20s) who need to get married ~ hence the need for matchmakers; and
a
slingshot!
The
intricate plot-weaving kept me eagerly looking forward to the next
episode.
Finland Papa is a K-drama Viki Original series that is an unusual story of love and healing. Just 6 episodes; released in 2023.
Finland Papa centers around the life of a young woman grieving the loss of her grandmother. In the first episode of this very short series, we meet Yu Ri (played by Kim Bo Ra). She is wearing the traditional black hanbok dress and standing alone in front of her grandmother's memorial. You can immediately feel her grief, pain and sorrow. Not only has she lost her grandmother, but her father had also tragically passed away. They were her only family. Now she is left in the world all alone. How will she carry on?
Her childhood friend encourages her to apply for a job at a restaurant called Finland Papa. According to the job ad, the applicant will be required to eat dinner with the staff. Yu Ri goes for the job interview and SHE'S HIRED!
There is something delightfully wonderful, yet mysterious and strange about the restaurant, such as:.
None of the employees know who “Papa” is. They have never met the owner of the restaurant. But he gave 10 rules they must follow or they will lose their jobs.
One of those rules is: If one of the employees has a problem or something that's bothering them, all of the other employees must stop what they're doing and listen.
The
Secret Romantic Guesthouse (2023) is a Viki
Original series, based on the web novel of the same name by Kim
Jung Hwa. Close to 6000 Viki viewers have given it an overall rating
of 9.6 out of 10 stars. I agree.
There
are three
flower scholars who become guests at Ihwawon Inn, an establishment run by a young noble lady named Yoon Dan-oh (played
by Shin Ye-eun).
The first flower scholar is Jung Yu-ha (played by Jung Gun-joo). He is already paying for a room before the other two guests arrive. The ghost rumor does not bother him. He has chosen to live at the inn because it is comfortable and convenient, and he hopes to one day win the heart of Yoon Dan-oh and marry her.
The second flower scholar is Kang San (played by Go Yoon-hwan better known as Ryeoun). He came to town in order to take the civil service exam for martial arts and hopefully become a member of the king's royal guard. He is looking for a place to stay and Yoon
Dan-oh persuades (or rather she “tricks”) him into staying at the inn.
The third flower scholar is Kim Shi-yeol (played by Kang Hoon). He has no money but he did try to help a damsel in distress. Yoon Dan-oh is being harassed by a nobleman, along with his friends, who are trying to compel her to get married. He arrives at her in, slightly bruised and battered. He tells her she should repay the debt by allowing him to stay at Ihwawon Inn.
Two
of the scholars have a secret identity and are on a secret mission.
One of the scholars has a secret identity that even he does not know
about, but he is also on a secret mission. One of the three scholars
is the crown prince whose life was saved by Yoon Dan-oh thirteen (13)
years ago. Which one?
Kokdu: Season of Deity is a Viki Original Korean Drama Series, released 2023. How long does a season of deity last? 99 days. During that time, Kokdu, a cruel angry death god, needs to find a woman, win her heart, and she must say the words “I love you”.
Kokdu is a really mean and nasty death god, who is being punished because he incurred the wrath of the Creator. The only way he can be freed from this punishment is if a woman who knows how awful he is but still falls in love with him, faults and all. Like the fairy tale, “Beauty and the Beast”? Eh! Sort of.
Kokdu Was Once a Human
Before he became a vengeful, hateful, angry, merciless, really mean, and nasty god, he was a human named Oh-hyeon. He was a handsome warrior in Silla, one of the three kingdoms in ancient Korea. He lost his life because he loved Seol Hui, a woman who had been gifted as a concubine to another man. The plan was for the two of them to run away together. Their plan was discovered and he was killed. Seol Hui decided that she did not want to live without him and so she committed suicide.
In the afterlife, he was always angry and he refused to obey any commands received from the Creator. For him, there was no punishment that could be worse than what he had already experienced in the land of the living. He was wrong. It is much more painful and lasted much longer. The Creator made him the death god and every 99 years he is reincarnated to visit the land of the living. He is allowed to be there for 99 days, i.e. for a "season". During this season of deity, he hopes that he will find the woman who can end his punishment.
Kim Jung-hyun plays Kokdu / Oh-hyeon / Doctor Do Jin-woo.
Im Soo-hyang plays Seol Hui / Doctor Han Gye-jeol.
"The Red Sleeve" is a Viki Original Korean drama series released in 2021. It is based on the love story between King Jeongjo and Royal Noble Consort Ui-bin Seong.
“The drama is based on historical records such as the fact that Uibin Seong, whose real name is Seong Deok-im, rejected Jeongjo's proposal to make her his concubine, not just once but twice. ...” (Source)
Lee
Jun-ho plays Yi San, later King Jeongjo. He continuously strives to
be a good king; a ruler who is kind and benevolent to his people.
During the Joseon Era, everybody knows that all of the women in the
palace are the king's women. He can have free access to any woman he
chooses and does not have to ask their permission. The king knows
this is the rule. But aren't the court ladies also his people?
Court
ladies in the palace wear uniforms that have a red cuff on their
sleeves. The king is attracted to a particular court lady named
Seong Deok-im played by Lee Se-young. He does not want his
relationship with her to be based on fear. He wants her to love him
and willingly become his woman. Seong Deok-im initially resists the
king's advances toward her. She feels that her life as a court lady
affords her a certain amount of freedom. If she becomes the king's
woman, she will no longer be free. If she becomes the mother of his
children, she can not love and cherish them as an ordinary mother.
They are her children, but they are also royal children and if they
are sons they are heirs to the throne.
She
eventually falls in love with the king but still tries to resist
becoming his woman. In the end, LOVE WINS. She becomes Royal Noble
Consort Ui-bin Seong. Just as she predicted, she did have to give up
her freedom. The king was very happy to have her by his side and she
was happy to be by his side. But she was not completely happy
because in order to live as the king's woman, she had to sacrifice
her free spirit. Not to mention, since it was obvious to everyone
that she had the king's favor, some of the other king's women were
“haters”. You can imagine the malicious backbiting she endured
from them.
This
series is 16 episodes and it is a very sad love story. There was no
fairy tale ending. Choosing to marry the prince or the king does not
always result in living happily ever after.
Queen: Love and War was released in 2019. In this Viki Original Korean drama series, a young
prince meets and makes friends with a nobleman's daughter, when they
were children. An accident happens on a boat and the girl he met is
tossed overboard. Her father believes that she drowned. Her twin
sister grows up and the prince, now king chooses her to be his bride;
not realizing that she is the twin sister and NOT the girl he met
when he was younger. Corrupt officials arrange to have both King Lee
Kyung and his queen, Kang Eun Bo, assassinated on their wedding day.
They succeed in killing the sister but the king miraculously comes
back to life. The people are terrified of him. How can he possibly
come back from the dead?
Coming back from the dead isn't all. Let's
not forget about the prophecy. Twins were supposed to be an evil
omen. It's the reason nobody knew that the nobleman had twin
daughters. He kept their birth a secret for fear they would be
harmed.
The
twin sister realizes that her sister has been murdered. She takes
her sister's body and secretly buries it. Then she returns to the
palace AS IF she has also risen from the dead, just like the king.
The king not knowing that she is the young girl he had met as a
child, also believes that his wife has come back to life. However,
the twin sister's main purpose for returning to the palace is to
discover who murdered her sister. For all she knew, even the king
may have been involved.
As she investigates to uncover the truth,
she eventually realizes the king is innocent and falls in love with
him. The problem is that she has already deceived him into believing
that she is the one who died. This makes their personal relationship
very complicated. AS IF life in the palace wasn't already
complicated with all of the scheming, conniving, ruthless, greedy
politicking that was going on.
Kim
Min-kyu plays the king, Lee Kyung
Jin
Se-yeon plays the twin sisters, Kang Eun-bo and Kang Eun-gi
This series is 16 episodes. It's love and war alright and the queen is right in the middle.
It's a
love triangle. But only because one grand prince does not want to
accept the fact that the woman he wants has already chosen his
younger brother. Her choice just adds to the list of all of the rest
of the reasons that he is jealous and envious of his younger brother.
It's a one-sided rivalry because the feelings are not mutual. The
younger brother truly loves his big brother. It's not his fault that
the royal adults chose to send his brother away from the palace and
allowed him to stay in the palace. Whenever his older brother comes
to the palace he is always happy to see him.
Yoon
Shi Yoon plays the younger brother, Lee Hwi, Prince Eun Sung. He doesn't really want to be king, even though he has the character to become a great king. He is sent to serve in the military to prove that he is worthy to rule.
Jin
Se Yeon plays Sung Ja-hyun, a noble lady, who falls in love with
Grand Prince Lee Hwi. They pledged their hearts to each other. When the grand prince is called to serve in the military, she vows
to wait until he returns. If he does not return she will remain unmarried and live her life in a Buddhist temple. One thing she has determined in her mind is that she will NOT become his older brother's woman.
Joo
Sang Wook plays the older brother, Lee Kang, Prince Jin Yang, who covets everything that his younger brother has, including his woman.
Unlike his younger brother, he has a strong desire to be king. He secretly arranges for his brother to be killed in battle and intends to take his brother's woman.
In the USA, the most popular streaming sites for Korean dramas are Netflix and Viki. Maybe I shouldd say, the most popular streaming sites that I know of. I have been a long-time Netflix subscriber and even though I give Netflix credit for introducing me to the wonderful world of Korean drama, I am a loyal Viki viewer. I became a loyal Viki viewer because Netflix didn't have enough TV series and movies to satisfy my appetite. Especially not enough sageuk or historical period K-dramas.
These days, Netflix has added lots more K-dramas to their database; and their Netflix Original Series are very entertaining. The Viki Original Series are equally entertaining.
If you want to watch a Viki Original Series, I highly recommend: Lovers of the Red Sky (2021); and The King Loves (2017). Viki has lots more original series that I could suggest but I prefer to finish them and write reviews first, before telling others to dd to their watch list.
“Lovers of the Red Sky” (2021) is a Viki Original TV series which stars Kim Joo Jung as Hong Cheong-Gi. Her leading man is played by Ahn Hyo Seop as Ha Ram. This young man is a singer and an actor who was born in Canada. The two of them made a lovely loving couple.
This series is based on the novel of the same name. It is a Viki Original Series, 17 episodes, and to be perfectly honest, it was sort of lacking. But since I like Kim Joo Jung so much, I was willing to overlook the script’s flaws and shortcomings. Also, Ahn Hyo Seop, who played her love interest, is strikingly handsome; even with red eyes.
It’s a a historical fantasy romance drama. There is a wicked demon, good spirits who fight against it, shamans who advise the crown princes, and a goblin who happens to have excellent taste in art. He doesn’t kill people. He just steals paintings.
Hong Cheong-Gi (Kim Joo Jung) and Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo Seop) are caught up in two vicious webs: the human politics and power games AND the eternal power struggle of good versus evil within the supernatural spirit world.
What will be the fate of these two lovers?
Two words for this series? Delightfully entertaining!
Watching Korean dramas is my guilty pleasure. I especially like the
historical period dramas, during the Joseon period. I have published a
few detailed reviews of K-dramas here on Read.Cash. But I also shared some quickie reviews on its partner site, Noise.Cash, which I am recapping below.
If you have not watched these you should add them to your watch list.
If you have watched them, let me know if enjoyed them too!
The main character is a feisty little innocent girl who is fiercely
loyal to her family and friends, but has the courage, inner strength and
determination to break with tradition, and find her own way in a cruel
world that is not a very nice place for a low-born; especially not a
low-born young girl.
This series is 60 episodes, with an extraordinary cast, and based on a
true story. It is a real life love story between a king and a woman he
took to be his concubine: Dong Yi (played by Han Hyo-joo) and King
Sukjong (played by Ji Jin-hee).
It's a love story with a bold and daring hero who is not only an
expert swordsman, but knows how to handle a pistol and a rifle. His love
interest is an intelligent woman whose father is a scholar and allowed
her to learn (although she had to dress up like a man to attend school).
They both dream of their country, Joseon, as a land that will one day
be populated with free people. His enemies thought they had killed him,
but he was saved and taken to another country. He returned to Joseon
with a new identity, and determined to settle old scores. The first time
his beloved sees him again, she faints. He may be wearing different
clothes and using a different name, but he still looked to her like the
man she loved. She thought she had seen a ghost.
A baby who was born in a prison turns out to be a princess. But
before she learned her true identity she was taught by a martial arts
master and first learned how to kick butt!! It's a handy skill to have
if you're going after the bad guys who caused your mother's death. The
main character is Ok Nyeo played by Jin Se Yeon who is on my list for
favorite Korean actresses.
A young prince witnesses horrific bloodshed and commands that it be
stopped. Since he is a small child, his command is disregarded and he is
returned to his father; only to learn that it was his father who
ordered the bloodshed. To add insult to injury, his mother is
“accidentally” killed (really she was murdered). From that day forward,
he not only hates his father, HE HATES EVERYBODY! Everybody except his
close friend. He was forced into a marriage of convenience. His wife,
the princess, becomes pregnant by another man. In an effort to cover
this up, the father-in-law (the father of the princess) attempts to kill
the prince. The attempt fails. Trying to escape his assassins, the
prince falls down a slope and hits his head. A poor man finds him, takes
care of him as best he can while he is unconscious. When he regains his
consciousness, he does not remember who he is. The poor man tells him
that he is his daughter's husband-to-be and that they must marry
immediately or his daughter will be flogged.
For 100 days, he lives the simple life of a commoner and falls in
love. He is found by his father-in-law and brought back to the palace.
His memory has not returned. But slowly bits and pieces of incidents
from his past, like puzzle pieces, begin to come together. His story
begins … AGAIN! He realizes who he is and what he needs to do. He also
knows what he wants to do. He wants to marry the woman he fell in love
with as a commoner, who is also the little girl he met when he was a
child and had promised he would marry some day.
A young prince meets and makes friends with a nobleman's daughter,
when they were children. An accident happens on a boat and the girl he
met is tossed overboard. Her father believes that she drowned. Her
sister grows up and the prince, now king chooses her to be his bride;
not realizing that she is the twin sister and NOT the girl he met when
he was younger. Corrupt officials arrange to have both King Lee Kyung
and his queen, Kang Eun Bo, assassinated on their wedding day. They
succeed in killing the sister but the king miraculously comes back to
life. The people are terrified of him. How can he possibly come back
from the dead? The twin sister realizes that her sister has been
murdered. She takes her sister's body and secretly buries it. Then she
returns to the palace AS IF she has also risen from the dead, just like
the king. The king not knowing that she is the young girl he had met as a
child, also believes his wife has come back to life. However, the twin
sister's main purpose for returning to the palace is to discover who
murdered her sister. For all she knew, even the king may have been
involved. But she eventually realizes his innocence and falls in love
with him. The problem is that she has already deceived him into
believing that she is the one who died. This makes their personal
relationship very complicated. As if life in the palace wasn't already
complicated with all of the scheming, conniving, ruthless, greedy
politicking that was going on. Oh! Did I mention the prophecy?
Goo Hae-ryung is a female historian. Prince Dowon (or Yi Rim) is a
young prince who has been sheltered from the outside world. These two
main characters are adorably cute! But they have had some tragedy in
their young lives. They both lost their fathers through violence. Of
course, the adults around them try to hide the truth. But the two of
them trying to uncover the truth makes for a good plot.
The time is during the transitional period between the end of the
Goryeo dynasty and the beginning of the Joseon dynasty, which is why it
is “The New Age”. A king, princes, military leaders, all engaged in a
power struggle to build a new country. Seo Hwi and Nam Seon-ho are two
childhood friends have the power of their friendship “tested”. Things
happen to them, they get separated, and become enemies due to a
misunderstanding about "my country." One of them decides his country is
“the country of the abandoned”.
“'Bossam' in the Korean title refers to a customary remarriage
procedure that took place during the Joseon period. At that time, a
widow could not remarry. A single man or widower would kidnap the widow
and marry her. Some of the kidnappings were agreed upon in advance and
others were by force.” (Quote Source: https://asianwiki.com/Bossam:_Steal_the_Fate)
Here's the story. Two friends earn their living by kidnapping widows.
It's a steady paying job because … evidently, a lot of widows want to
be kidnapped and remarried. However, there is one widow who does not
have this on her mind. She just happened to be sitting outside and the
kidnapper happened to go to the wrong house and … uh oh! … she is
accidentally kidnapped. You think this problem is easy to solve. The guy
made a mistake, so all he needs to do is take her back home. Right?
WRONG! The lady who was kidnapped turns put to be a princess. Her
father, the king, wants to see her. Since her father-in-law did not know
how or why she disappeared or where she was, HE LIED! He told the king
his daughter committed suicide, having died from the grief of being a
widow. The king finds out that his daughter is alive and wants to use
this fact to trap the father-in-law and get rid of him for treason. The
father-in-law also finds out she is alive and the entire series is him
trying to have her killed so that he doesn't get caught in his LIE!
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