The King’s Affection (Review)
The King’s Affection was one of the best period dramas on Korean TV in 2021, and a memorable role for Park Eun-bin. While the main plot revolves around romance, it is equal parts a political and historical drama.
The show is set in some generic Joseon past of Korea. This is a topic in itself: many Korean period dramas make use of 500-year-long history of Joseon allowing them for using virtually the same costumes and sets, since during that time barely anything changed in Korea (unless you’re a scholar of Joseon-era you wouldn’t tell the difference between the 14th century and 19th century). Like many shows of this type, The King’s Affection doesn’t have any real historical figures, nor it refers to any real historical events. That’s said, the Joseon being a formal tributary of China plays a role here. However, the scenes and setting of many Korean period dramas are so similar that you sometimes wonder if they have some sort of Joseon village near Seul where they shoot all of these shows.
The premise of the show is a spin on the classic The Prince and the Pauper story mixed with cross-dressing. It would take a long time to explain, but in essence we have two royal twins, Lee Hwi (boy) and Dam-yi (girl), initially both played by Choi Myung-bin, a child actress in a masterful performance (pretty sure she has a bright future in Korean entertainment). Due to some political machinations, Lee Hwi (boy) becomes a crown prince, while Dam-yi (girl) ends up being a maid. They make use of being virtually identical by switching places several times, however, in an unfortunate event, Lee Hwi is killed. For the sake of story, Dam-yi has to assume an identity of her brother, Lee Hwi, and becomes a crown prince. After a few episodes we have a time jump when adult Lee Hwi/Dam-yi is portrayed by Park Eun-bin. Park Eun-bin as usual delivers a great performance as a woman pretending to be a man, forced to perform many tasks and activities expected of the crown prince and finally of the king after his/her father death.
The main plot revolves around the romance between Lee Hwi (Dam-yi) and Jung Ji-woon (Rowoon), a son of a minor official and later Hwi’s tutor. There is a twist, though, since for a long time Ji-woon has no idea that Hwi is a woman, yet still he becomes infatuated with him (her) and confesses his love, so the romance arc transcends genders in a sort of homosexual love but not really. This is definitely one of the most interesting decisions the show creators made.
As usual, we have an ongoing conspiracy plot. Again, typically for Korean period dramas, there is throne change/palace coup/some kind of upheaval in the past with ramification for the present, and here is no different. Then in the present, the political machinations are led by main villain of the series, Han Ki-jae, Lord Sangheon (Yoon Je-moon), an influential Left State Councilor and the most powerful person in the country after the king. Later in the series he plans yet another coup, this time to remove Lee Hwi from power.
The number of intrigues and characters involved in those becomes very confusing, so it is hard to keep up with everybody and everything happening in the show. Most characters wear one of only few kinds of costumes, and most are bearded men, so it is difficult to tell them apart. While I understand that this somewhat preserves historical accuracy, but this is in a show which has no historical figures and has nothing to do with actual history. In western historical shows all characters usually wear different costumes, so differentiating between them is much easier.
Park Eun-bin became one of the most versatile Korean actresses. Her performance in The King’s Affection is a great example of her remarkable acting skills, where she has to navigate between being a woman, woman pretending to be a man, prince, and the king. She then went to deliver even more masterful performance in Extraordinary Attorney Woo as an autistic person, and now she is going to play a woman returning to society after being stranded on the deserted island for 15 years. So, there is really nothing she cannot play.
In sum, The King’s Affection is a great period/romance drama with great performances by Choi Myung-bin and Park Eun-bin, muddled by somewhat confusing medieval conspiracy plot.
The King’s Affection on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
