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.