Because K-drama
King 2 Hearts.
wiki linkThis was an older drama (2012) where the publicity posters put me off when it first came out. Luckily it turned out be very different from what I imagined. Damn you, publicity photo!
At first I simply enjoyed it for the romance set in an imaginary constitutional monarchy South Korea (and whenever I watch K-drama, like Goong, that riff on this concept, can't help thinking exactly what it would have been like IF Korea did have a constitutional monarchy... but history marches on) and because not only is the Ha Ji-won an ass-kicking, not-taking-names type, she matches up so well with the Lee Seung-gi (who is always kind of fun). Both are enjoyable in their own way and as the power couple, they are awesome. And of course, the fact that the writers bring in the North-South conflict (albeit resolving it, if temporary, in a suitably K-dramaland fashion) adds a lot of illicit thrill, because on one hand it's a Serious Thing and on another hand I can imagine the writers and producers thinking of the whole North-South conflict as a grab bag of ready-made issues that they can pull out for dramatic tension. As one does.
And on the other hand, I did reach a level of confusion about exactly what the writers/producers meant by constitutional monarchy. At one point Lee Seung-gi as the king yelled at the prime minister, "I'm the commander-in-chief!"* and I went, wait, is that how it's supposed to work?! which led to googling and reading and now I'm... less enlightened in my assumptions? Unexpected but again, fun.
*Though this could be due to subtitling/translation issues.
Goblin: the Lonely and Great God Wiki link. Trailer
hereThe buzz has been about Gong Yoo and the bromance between the goblin and the grim reaper, and those are definitely the draws, haha. There's just 2 episodes out yet, and I'm very eager to find more about the myth-world that's being built up here. There's also a thrill that they filmed part of it in Quebec because it is so pretty. And also very, very confusing because the goblin is supposed to be more than 900 years old but apparently Quebec was the first place he landed after he sailed from Korea (cf the tombstones in the trailer where his servants were buried) and I do not think ships were reaching Quebec from Korea at that point in time, 900 years ago. Unless he and his servant went overland to Europe first and sailed on a ship there. (But the ship and sailors looked Korean! But then it got sunk by him while it was in the middle of the ocean!) And there's gotta be a time skip of some sort.
Ok, either it will make sense in later episodes or it'd be brushed off by the overall narrative. But it's currently nagging at me. I guess this means I must follow it, haha.
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