Jang Ok Jeong, Vive de Amor (2013)

This drama had such a strong, satisfying start that its slow decent into makjang territory was just all the more disappointing. It's almost as if we have two completely different shows here:

The first half - A sweet re-telling of the most infamous woman in Korean history.

The rest of the series - A melodramatic sageuk with bickering politicians and fizzled chemistry.

I love shows that try to shed a new light on popular stories (whether they be fictional or otherwise) because it is always so interesting to see things from a different point of view. I was also so pleased in the beginning of Jang Ok Jung because it did exactly that - it took a typically hated character and gave her a story where we could root for and love her.

But then it lost it's original purpose and started sticking more to historical facts and traditional sageuk shenanigans and in the process gave up all of the glorious chemistry between the leads. It also lost its lovely cinematic screen in the later half as well, which was just sad (this drama was so very pretty at first).

I would like to blame the ratings for most of this, since even with such a strong start Jang Ok Jung suffered from low viewership. And it's unfortunate but around the time the series started to go downhill is also when the ratings started to pick up (but only slightly) which probably encouraged the producers to continue forcing it down a road it was never meant to travel.

Having said that, I've never read the novel or seen any of the writer's other works so I can't say that either weren't also at fault. I CAN tell you that it is full of disappointment and misfortune.

It's such a shame and such a waste of what could have been a very original and beautiful series. Props to the actors for at least giving it their best.

Leia Mais

Although this drama may have been inaccurate from the historical descriptions that depicts, Lady Jang Hui Bin as a wicked concubine during those years, but it was also good that this drama was made and describe the other face of the history, as we know that during their era, it was the northern faction who rule the court and lady Hui Bin was one of their enemies at that time, actually there are some issues that lady hui bin became a political victim because lady hui bin is from the southern faction during their times, thats why it is good that they made this drama so that we will not learn or understand her story in a one sided way.

I just love all the aspects of this drama, the music was great, it was dragging and the actors portrayed their roles in the drama, we might say that king sukjong has a younger aura than lady Hui bin, maybe because lady Hui bin is actually older than the king himself..

Leia Mais

A fiery drama that had an identity crisis

This drama depicts a game of life and love and had such a good mix of swoony but serious.Jang Ok Jung is portrayed as King Sukjong's first love twice in all the iterations she came into his life. It doesn't get more beautiful than that. But watch them throw away such pathos.

What was initially the story of an ambitious woman who was born in the wrong time and the story of a passionate romance in a very chaste time made for an unbelievably delicious and satisfying watch. Moreover, the knowledge of the inevitable fate of these two historical characters is remarkably effective for the viewer to tune in.

Its clear to the viewer that the corrupt world they live in will eventually make them villains but not of their own making but just because they are the way they are. I thought that was so skillful of the writers to portray in the convincing manner they did in the first half but then things went awry.

Perhaps the story was too dynamic to handle because the show ended up delivering cheap makjang gimmicks from what was otherwise good pacing and fluid watching . My gripe is how thoughtful the drama was in its metaphors and then they literally threw that away . It should have watched as a political romance instead of delving into the hysterics of a makjang.

The drama literally had an identity crisis . It did not know what it was in the end .

I think I will watch Dong Yi.

Leia Mais

Jang Ok-Jung is an NOT EVIL woman

I started watching this historical drama because someone recommended that it is another drama where the King and Queen loved each other so much and there's lots of TLC, similar to QUEEN: LOVE AND WAR. Then I realized the FL is the same person in HI BYE, MAMA - which I really loved. I hope I don't cry too much after watching this historical drama.

I really loved the main female lead, Jang Ok-Jung, because she is smart, talented, hard-working and strong - due to her surviving great loss, pain and abuses. I WILL NOT SAY SHE IS EVIL. She is the product of her terrible environment and abusive experiences. She worked hard to make a living and to save her mother from slavery. However, society and circumstances failed her so many times. Just because she was considered as low-class (even though her father was a scholar and considered as middle-class), she was always being mocked, beaten, abused, betrayed, manipulated, kidnapped, almost burned alive (2x), almost murdered, and - the last straw - lost her unborn baby due to evil trickeries in the palace.

FINALLY, in the end, she realised that she needed power to save herself and her mother. She learnt to be/and became manipulative because she believed that's the only way to fully protect herself and exact revenge on those who have terribly hurt her in the past. If people say she was evil, then they must also say that her uncle, mother-in-law (King's bitter mother), the Queen's father and his accomplices, the bad palace maids, her mother's slave contractor, and the overall Josean high-class society and caste system as SUPER EVIL and Sadistic - because they all abuse the weak and the poor, and they take joy in other's pain and suffering.

What I loved most about this drama is King Sukjong's love and affection for Jang Ok-Jung. The chemistry between the main ML (Yoo Ah-In = who is sexy as hell and ohh that pouty lips) and FL (Kim Tae-Hee = she's beautiful and graceful, and she's RAIN's wife) was great and natural, and their loves scenes were so sweet and cute; at times, hot and sizzling.
l can't stop smiling whenever they flirted with each other. When they kiss, the kisses were real and passionate, not like those typical cold-fish fake kisses you see in many K-dramas.

SPOILERS:
I loved the part where King Sukjong lined the walkway to their new courtyard and house with lots of candles; it's Josean-version of romantic proposal. The part where King Sukjong told Jang Ok-Jeong that he wanted to build a separate house for her so that they can spend lovey dovey private times together and raise cute babies together, that dialogue almost made me cry. And he was back-hugging her when he told her this.
The part where he rushed to her work area, pretending to praise the workers there; he walked all the way to where she stood (she was at the end of the line) and then he turned around to face the others, blocking their view of him secretly brushing his fingers against hers, quickly yet firmly grasping her fingers before letting them go. AAHHHHH.... this scene reminded of teenagers in love and I just loved it.
The flashback when they first met when they were young; the whole scene was so sweet and cute (forget the crown prince's palace scenes - it's sad to watch). Even their young characters' chemistry was natural and wonderful. It was so bitter-sweet.
SIGH... Whenever I see King Sukjong and Jang Ok-Jung happily together, I just wished with all my heart that all the haters would just leave them alone and let them live out their lives happily.

OVERALL, this is a great historical drama, even though it has a tragic ending. Just enjoy the love story of King Sukjong and Jang Ok Jung (who became Queen Consort) and understand why she was labelled by history as evil, power hungry and manipulative. Perhaps, in truth, she was not evil after all.

Leia Mais