O Rei: Monarca Eterno (2020)

not perfect, but good

at first, i was intrigued by this drama because of it's similarities to Goblin as well as eventually being pulled in because of it's strong casting. although i have to admit that the drama isn't perfect, it's still a good watch and i would strongly recommend it - the plot combines fantasy, romance, comedy, whilst not focusing too much on the political side of it which may bore some viewers.

story;
the plot of the drama isn't original, but it's a genre that keeps giving and giving and directors manage to put their own unique twists into them. in this instance, it's a parallel world comparing a modernised korea with a cultural monarchic korea being run by heart-throb Lee Min Ho ;) on the one hand, the plot is quite refreshing as it combines so many different elements of a typical kdrama and combines them into one: detective, historical, romance, fantasy etc... however something that puts me off is the initial weak chemistry between the two leads. it's presented as a one-sided love but quickly rushes into a romantic relationship with not much development other than a kiss pretty much.

acting/cast;
as said before, i was pulled in because of it's strong cast. this drama has stirred up a storm because of it's casting of legends like Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun. they both play pretty badass characters however they show their cheesy cute sides whenever it comes to developing their relationship with one another.
Lee Min Ho plays the role of a young attractive king very well, seeing as that's pretty much what he already is in real life anyway.
meanwhile Kim Go Eun plays a badass lieutenant in the police force who beats and chases down criminals. i'm somewhat in love with her character seeing as she's not generic in the way that she is vulnerable and allows her male counterpart to do all the work. she's sarcastic, funny, and charming in all the right places and i would definitely rewatch this show if it's just for her.

all in all i'd definitely suggest that you give this drama a go! it's refreshing with such a good cast that you don't want to miss out on :D

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I should have been more wary of this, considering that the screenwriter is Kim Eun Sook. She has done other projects such as Goblin, Mr. Sunshine, Descendants of the Sun, The Heirs and Secret Garden. I actively dislike three of those, haven't finished Mr. Sunshine but have no real opinion on it, and enjoy the ridiculousness of Descendents of the Sun, even if I think it's objectively bad. The link between them all is that there is a dramatic and intense central love story that usually has significance to the wider world and is somehow cosmically important. The scope is usually very grandiose. The actual characters are usually not very good, the plot is jumbled and inefficient, and the romance often feels contrived. I know it's not something that is determined by a screenwriter necessarily, but I rarely find the chemistry between the leads compelling. Some of that is the characterization.

The biggest issue for me is Lee Min Ho. I am not a big fan of his, I find his acting to be wooden, dull, and lacking in chemistry with his co-stars across the board. In fact, I don't know a single one of his projects that I enjoy. His comedy never works for me and when he is being an imperious king he is just so unlikeable. Not to mention that he doesn't pair well with Kim Go Eun, who (although not consistent) is a good actress. Him being the male lead and also the King, having him be unlikeable just sank the whole thing for me.

I don't remember a great deal about the plot, which I think is telling of the weakness of the whole thing. I know there's some crossing of worlds, and backstabbing plotting, and doppelgängers, but the whole thing just didn't really stick. I often feel this way with these dramas (Goblin was terrible for this) -- there is no good antagonist. Everything is BIG and WORLD-ENDING but the stakes just aren't there.

And god, how did this drama make swords not cool? All of his kingly stuff just pissed me off. The horse was completely ridiculous and the fact that they were actually fighting with swords was so stupid looking. I don't understand why they went with that western style of sword either, instead of just a modernization of a traditional Korean style? I may be way off in that criticism but I just thought it was weird. In gangster movies where the yakuza fights with swords it looks so cool, and here it really reminded me of those hallmark Christmas prince movies. Sad.

My two pieces of praise are for Kim Go Eun, who had some truly excellent scenes. She is one of the great Korean drama criers. Absolutely fantastic performance when she finally sees Lee Min Ho after being on the run, and she's covered in blood and hysterical. I love to see her full breakdown performances. She was also good in other aspects, overall I think she did her best with what she was given. Woo Do Hwan was also excellent. Great in the serious and comedic roles, and very hot. He should have been King.

Overall? A mess. But everyone will watch the next one like it that comes out, because we all keep hoping they'll live up to their promise.

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Al principio te engancha pero luego te cuesta seguir

Antes de empezar quiero decir que aún me quedan cuatro capitulos para acabar el drama. Dicho esto, comencemos:

El argumento es bastante convincente, teniendo en cuenta ese punto de ciencia ficción/fantasia que tiene el drama. La producción de las escenas, a mi parecer, excelente. Aun así le pasa lo mismo que a otros dramas, que al principio te logra enganchar pero luego te cuesta seguir el drama. Además, entiendo que tengan que poner capítulos de relleno en los que no avanza la trama principal , sino los dramas durarían 5 o 10 capítulos, pero que sea tan aburrido no hace ningún bien.

El mejor personaje sin duda es Jo Eun Sup/Jo Yung (siento si el nombre completo de Jo Eun no está bien escrito, en cada página web lo encuentro de una manera distinta), sin duda. De hecho hay momentos en los que me pongo a ver un nuevo capítulo solo por verlo a él. El romance de los protagonistas, en mi opinión, es bastante forzado. Y en mi opinion también, pienso que el personaje de Lee Gon está sobreactuado.

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So here is the drama i've been waiting for the most for a long time now. So far the story did not progress anywhere, we pretty much only had world-building (and some banter) in the first two episodes that I've seen. I feel that there is no hook for me, other than the writer's name. I remember, when I watched the first episode of Goblin & I was already hooked by the birthday cake scene. Very pretty people are not enough by themselves to entertain me..
I'm pretty neutral about Minho, but I don't feel that he was ever a good actor & I really hope that this drama has more substance than his face, his acting so far has not been very convincing. I like Go Eun quite a bit, but I'm not yet sure about her character in this one.

Anyhow I'm hoping that things will go up from here, a 9/10 final review is still on the table. It's not going to be another Abyss, right!?

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edit: After seeing episode 3-4 I'm really hopeful. The story is finally on track & I'm kind of hooked, I'm genuinely looking forward to episode 5. MinHo's acting seems to have improved, perhaps he got more into the character as the filming has progressed. The world building stage seems to be over and I loved the teaser & how episode 4 ended.

edit2: I enjoyed episodes 5-6. I guess the only thing that's really lacking is humor, there is not a whole lot of it, but nonetheless I'm still excited about next week.
Here is me being nitpicy >>>
The writer is not the best at writing realistic warfare scenarios as we have seen in DoTS, we had some of that in ep6, probably it was an effort to jab at Japan due to their ongoing trade dispute. It's not great when real world politics have an effect on the entertainment industry like this, but I've seen much worse in Chinese works, hopefully there will be no more of this in future episodes. The second Jung Tae Eul detective Kang Shin Jae childhood origin story was completely unnecessary, feels almost like a byproduct of live filming/live writing. The drama had to be preproduced due to all the visual effects, but it's possible that the script was only written week by week as the filming went along, I hope that I'm wrong, because weekly writing almost never leads to a coherent script and that is pretty important for a high concept series to work.
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Final edit: "next week" came a little late, I had the time to binge the last 10 episodes over the course of a week. I'm disappointed overall. The romance got serious really abruptly, but Minho's acting was probably the worst it has ever been. Kim GoEun makes all these really lively animated faces & cries a lot, but Minho has no emotional range what so ever, their most epic scenes are completely butchered by Minho. I think it's safe to say that his bad acting killed the drama for me. The story goes real slow in between e6 & e12 and that would have been fine, if we had some cool romance, but Minho sort of ruined that, what else remains from the drama doesn't amount to very much.
I guess Kim Eunsook kind of borked the script, but objectively the script wouldn't even be that bad. With a better director & without Minho we could have reached the level of W, well too bad..
I heard folks discussing that the OST was really good, very similar to Goblin. Well, I'm not saying it's bad or anything, in fact is perhaps slightly above average, but to me this comparison doesn't make any sense. I feel that the 15th best track on the Goblin OST double cd is more valuable than all the soundtrack that TKEM has. It's pointless comparing them.

I just finished watching the last episode, which was probably the best episode of the drama and because of that I decided to give a final score of 6/10, but it's probably too high..

I almost forgot, good God the ad placements were terrifyingly bad. At times it felt like the entire drama was just an advertisement. There were some product placement scenes that straight up made no sense. I mean FL drinking something & then praising it is something that could actually happen, but Nari's supercars..

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Set in 2 parallel worlds, one in the Kingdom of Korea and the other the Republic of Korea. Lee Gon, the present Emperor of the Kingdom of Korea sets foot on the alternative universe of the Republic of Korea. He comes across a familiar face, Detective Jung Tae-Eul, whom he recognizes years ago, during his father’s assassination. Lee Gon assumes that this woman saved him from the wrath his uncle Lee Lim, who assassinated Lee Gon’s father. Overwhelmed with curiosity, Lee Gon tries to discover the complexity of the parallel universe, by going back and forth between the two-parallel universe.

The writer, Ms. Kim Eun-sook never disappoints. Her works contains a perplexing, yet imaginative series of dramas which makes it more appealing to her viewers. Similarly, The King: Eternal Monarch (TKEM) was one of the series that keeps you guessing. In the beginning of the series, it seemed ambiguous and overwhelming, with all the plot holes and the use of flash backs. Nevertheless, episode by episode, the series was slowly unraveling. Every problem I had with the show was answered, and the ending was well-written.

I grew fond with the series’ characters, especially with Captain Jo Young and Jo Eun-Seob’s characters. Woo Do-hwan has portrayed both the characters with the charisma and humor, I think many will also approve of this. Unquestionably, Woo Do-hwan has a remarkable acting skill. Moreover, I also liked the character of Prime Minister Goo. She presents someone who’s underprivileged. But because of hard work and ambition, she became successful. However, because of her ambitions, she became too greedy.

The problem that I have with this show is that it lacks accuracy in telling the stories of the different characters. For example, Captain Jo Young, as a child, was a bubbly and a loquacious friend to Lee Gon. He also explained as a child, that his father was close to Lee Gon’s father. I wondered if maybe there was more to this relationship, between Lee Gon’s father and Captain Young. More so, I even pondered the character development of Captain Young as a child and as an adult.

Another problem that I faced was, there was a lack of connection between the relationship of Jung Tae-eul and Lee Gon. Their relationship should have been more solidified. There should have been more of a connection, and how their feeling progressed over time.

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I have read somewhere that fantasy is the ultimate genre to explore all those feelings and secrets of human heart and this show with Kim Eun Sook writing proved it. It was show about friendship, devotion, but mostly of love.
For a long time I have not enjoyed watching a show like this one and it will always hold a special place in my heart, thanks to a beautifully written love story between the main leads.
The main story is very interesting, with the theme of parallel worlds, devious villains, but what I loved the most is romance.
It has been a long time I have watched a romance K-Drama like this one, where the main theme is this epic, fantasy love story and what is the most important, the writing was not shy because of it, in contrary, I had a feeling I was basking in that glorious feeling of an epic love tale. The main characters were not fazed how they felt about each other, they were lucky, they met and fell in love and it felt like a touch of destiny and they were grateful for that. There were no love triangles, no crazy in laws, no annoying unbaised misunderstandings, just their unconditional love and it was so beautiful, that truthful simplicity of their feelings and their unflinching will to fight for their love.
The main actors Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun had an amazing chemistry and they portrayed their characters perfectly, their scenes were heart swooning and so lovely. I laughed and cried with them, which is always a good sign, that a show touched my heart. After this show I became a devoted Min Lee Ho fan. :)

The other characters with their stories, enchanting scenography and captivating OST were perfectly included in the main story, which resulted in one fulfilling K-drama viewing experience. :)

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This is my first review in MDL (mostly because I agreed with more or less all the top reviews written by other people on the other dramas I've watched). I always check the reviews before starting a series, and was sad to see one of my favorite current dramas with low ratings on the reviews posted. Hopefully I can give you another perspective on this drama :)

I have never been a HUGE huge fan of either main casts but I do love them. So when news about this drama airing first came out, I wasn't as hype as my other friends were.

People complimented the first episode endlessly and I decided to wait for the drama to be completed to watch it (because I have no patience and I usually watch everything in one go). But after some time, people began leaving negative feedback on the drama.

Here is my opinion:
- the plot is kind of amazing? it's probably not original, but it has the perfect amount of cliche-ness that a drama would need to have. There are several parts that made me think "oh, so she's this. wait. no. wait. yes. oh, she isn't. wait, she is." in the span of 5 minutes. There may be some parts that can come out as confusing, but this gets resolved as they explain it in the next episodes.

- the cast is kind of VERY much amazing. Everyone did an outstanding job, but Woo Do Hwan (with his two characters) won me over the moment I watched the episode.

- the cinematography?? beautiful.

- the HUMOR is 10/10.

- I have never been satisfied with drama endings, but this was okay. I originally thought that I wouldn't like the ending that they had chosen, but they tied up the loose ends pretty well. I ended up liking the ending lol.

- one of the only downside of this drama is the chemistry between the main leads. After watching the behind-the-scenes, I was kind of disappointed that their off screen chemistry wasn't transferred on screen :/ I felt that the relationship between the characters progressed too quickly as well.

Overall, I would suggest anyone to give this drama a try. I absolutely love this drama, and still can't move on from it even though it has been a couple of weeks since I completed it.

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Watch for yourself and then decide

I don't normally write reviews but I felt compelled to do so after reading all the negative feedback and criticism on this Series. I hesitated watching this drama because of all the reviews. They were so in your face, with all these screaming negative headlines, I was practically forced to read them. However, I should have kept my usual stance, which is never to judge something based on reviews. Peoples opinons are subjective and based on whether they liked something or not. In fact I don't read reviews before watching. I read them after.

Back to the drama, I totally and thoroughly enjoyed this drama. I watched in two sittings and it would have been one sitting had it not been that I still had to work the next day. Within the first episode, and probably 20 minutes into it, I had to stop and rewind. I was riveted.

I get why there was so much negativity and criticism. People simply did not understand the storyline. If you did not fully grasp and understand the two worlds within the first episode, you were never going to understand the drama. You needed to be awake from Episode 1, to realise each time we switched worlds. But because people were not, they got lost in Episode 1 and stayed lost for the entire 16 episodes. The result of that was all the negativity around this drama. You were all expecting A, but you got B instead, and you simply couldn't handle it.

Did the viewers really expect to be told each time we switched worlds? It was pretty obvious which world we were in.

So from an overseas viewer, on the African continent, reliant on english subtitles, this was a great drama. Totally enjoyable and not the usual. Being an avid Korean drama, and Chinese, and Taiwan, and Thailand drama fan, I have watched some really lucklustre drama, where I have fast forwarded through most of it just to get to the end.

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Sempre que posso tento ver algo de Kim Eun Sook, amo como ela coloca elementos da sua cultura, espero que crie mais coisas do gênero e amo a temática universos alternativos, então logo me lembrei de W e Queen In Hyun's Man, mas tentei não ter grandes expectativas, não porque achei que não iria gostar, mas porque gosto de me ver presa em algum mistério e teorias, o que o dorama cumpriu bem.

No começo fiquei um pouco confusa com os dois universos similares, o reino da Coreia outro república da Coreia, mas gostei, nunca vi algo onde os dois universos são tão parecidos e também não posso deixar de admitir que a princípio a ideia do vilão foi boa, com alguns erros é claro.

Mas imagino por este dorama ser da mesma autora e atriz. A personagem principal e o dorama em si sejam comparados com Goblin, mas acho errado, Jung Tae Eul é forte, decidida e uma boa policial, não precisa se salva o tempo todo ou é excluída do foco principal, a medida do possível esteve junto com o rei tentando ajudar e resolver todas as circunstâncias.

Gostei da personalidade do rei, foi bom ver Lee Min Ho em algo diferente, sei que ainda não é totalmente fora de sua zona de conforto, mas Lee Gon sempre me surpreendeu com sua inteligência e controle.

Porém meus personagem favoritos foram Jo Young e o Eun Sub, o Woo Do Hwan está de parabéns, mesmo interpretando dois personagens tão distintos fez com maestria, a cena do episódio 15 foi linda e emocionante.

Sobre o final, eu gostei, vi pessoas falando de furos, mas se parar para analisar, como tudo seria perfeito se todos universos tem tempos e histórias diferentes? Outra coisa a ideia de final aberto que teve, é a característica da autora, pode não agradar a todos, eu mesmo não gosto se não for bem executado, mas aqui senti que foi.

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While many others do not fully understand the TKEM series, it does not matter as long as the series has given their best to improve their series, it has never knocked others, but almost every foreigner has this is the main storyline because of the unique story in the series, not just the story of the series but also the unique look of the artists.
And as one of the avid viewers of The King Eternal Monarch, I am very grateful to all who supported this series, for which our brains are fully engrossed, we have shown our ability to adapt to a show that does not you immediately understand it and with full understanding it will pay attention to how wonderful it is.

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Great plot, romance, science fiction/fantasy, humor, cinematography, amazing OSTs and background score.

I have watched over 60 kdramas in the past 2 years and I can honestly say that TKEM is already one of my favorites. I'm baffled by all this hate its recieving. On IMDB and Twitter I've seen so much love and praise for this show. One of my favorite things about kdramas is how they have explored different paranormal, science fiction, fantasy themes and this one is no different. I feel a lot of the nitpickers are forgetting that this is a FANTASY drama.

It is by no means a perfect show but I genuinely enjoyed it and already miss the cast. I thought LMH and KGE had great chemistry compared to his past co stars. LMH has improved greatly from his work on BOF and The Heirs. I was not a huge fan of KGE in Goblin but I absolutely loved her in this.

It had a slow build up at the beginning but I think it was necessary for the story and I I didn't find it boring. I felt included in solving each puzzle of the show.

If you want to watch the show please check the reviews on IMDB instead of here. It is a hit on Netflix internationally.

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