Mickey
This review may contain spoilers
Comfortably uncomfortable
"Am I the only one feeling uncomfortable?" - Crown Prince Lee Yul
At first glance, it is quite uncomfortable that several Kdrama cliches are present here (amnesia, long-lost first love, fake marriage, and palace politics). I'm a viewer that doesn't necessary hate cliches, but hates when these are not executed well, and after the first episode, I realized that maybe there is something intriguing about this Kdrama.
Right off the bat, 100 Days My Prince is not a traditional sageuk. I may still be learning Korean and not be able to grasp contexts in coversations without subtitles, but I have a somewhat passable knowledge about the language used in the royal court as seen on other sageuks. So I was surprised that there were "modern" words/phrases scattered throughout the show, and assuming that we follow the year on which this was set (1450), this shouldn't have been the case.
Now going to the plot. Despite with the cliches, I liked how the story had a steady build-up especially when the crown prince Lee Yul (Do Kyung-soo) now had amnesia, had to change his name to Won-deuk and was "forcefully" married to Hong-shim (Nam Ji-hyun) because of a decree that the crown prince himself introduced which was funny and ironic. Since the crown prince was unfamiliar with the village life as opposed to what he was used to, it was entertaining to see him adjust and assimilate which was basically the bulk of the story. Other than that was the typical palace politics with the scheming of the queen for a new crown prince, and the antagonist (the vice premier) trying to cover up the supposedly murder of the crown prince while there was a weak king in the background, not knowing what to do with the chaos brewing. That was the gist for the majority of this kdrama. There were times that I was bored especially in the midway, but I just couldn't fast-forward it since I was curious as to what will happen next and how it will happen.
I think my interest started declined when the crown prince now came back to the royal palace. It would've made more sense if the reveal was more makjang-y as there were now many cliches, why not add more. The reveal could've been more impactful but in this case, it was more like "okay, moving on" vibes. The relationship now kinda plateaued on episode 12-13 and shifted to a build-up on the evil plans by the vice premier. I said to myself "okay, maybe the finale would be more on the palace stuff since the direction was now going towards it", and was assured that it was the case, but then again no. Also, the subsequent episodes were now longer than usual and now had filler scenes.
The finale was divided into 2 parts: first is the rushed resolution with the vice premier's plot. He shouldn't have met his demise easily and put in trial instead that would result to a hefty punishment. The trap that the vice premier prepared for the crown prince in the form of an "invasion" was weak story-wise, and was basically forgotten after he was dead aside from one battlefield scene. I was curious as to what happened to the instigators of said "invasion" and how did it ended. The second part was even more ridiculous with Hong-shim playing hard to get (when it was too obvious that they both love each other) because of guilt of her brother trying to harm the crown prince, when in fact, it should've been him that feel guilty in behalf of his father, the king which played a part on Hong-shim's real father's death. The fluffy fan service was not unneccesary, but instead of the too long "hard-to-get Hong-shim" scenes, it could've ended with a grand royal wedding with Hong-shim's friends and adoptive father given a chance to wear "noblemen's" clothes, all of them having a good fluffy ending. Side note: it was too foolish for the very pregnant Kkeut-nyeo to be also on the roof while throwing cherry petals to the leads on the last scene, but then again, it was purely for the fan service and not for the logic.
Pacing-wise, I was not sure how the story wanted to go especially on the penultimate episode. The build-up of the 2 main plots were pleasantly paced all thoughout the show, but their respective conclusions at the finale were rather botched. There were also some inconsistencies with the year and age (or maybe the subtitles were wrong?). The saving grace here was the acting of both leads as well as the other characters. It may be an unpopular opinion but I actually felt more chemistry on the second leads (the crown princess and Moo-yeon) and their story, despite being tragedic, was more emotionally-investing than the main leads maybe due to it being a cliche.
"Am I the only one feeling uncomfortable?" was basically the catch phrase of the crown prince all the time. It can also be said when reading the synopsis of this kdrama before watching it as it has full of cliches, just placed in a traditional historical setting (will not call this a sageuk). That uncomfortable feeling could've been replaced by its opposite, yet after the finale, it did not. For this, I feel comfortably uncomfortable.
At first glance, it is quite uncomfortable that several Kdrama cliches are present here (amnesia, long-lost first love, fake marriage, and palace politics). I'm a viewer that doesn't necessary hate cliches, but hates when these are not executed well, and after the first episode, I realized that maybe there is something intriguing about this Kdrama.
Right off the bat, 100 Days My Prince is not a traditional sageuk. I may still be learning Korean and not be able to grasp contexts in coversations without subtitles, but I have a somewhat passable knowledge about the language used in the royal court as seen on other sageuks. So I was surprised that there were "modern" words/phrases scattered throughout the show, and assuming that we follow the year on which this was set (1450), this shouldn't have been the case.
Now going to the plot. Despite with the cliches, I liked how the story had a steady build-up especially when the crown prince Lee Yul (Do Kyung-soo) now had amnesia, had to change his name to Won-deuk and was "forcefully" married to Hong-shim (Nam Ji-hyun) because of a decree that the crown prince himself introduced which was funny and ironic. Since the crown prince was unfamiliar with the village life as opposed to what he was used to, it was entertaining to see him adjust and assimilate which was basically the bulk of the story. Other than that was the typical palace politics with the scheming of the queen for a new crown prince, and the antagonist (the vice premier) trying to cover up the supposedly murder of the crown prince while there was a weak king in the background, not knowing what to do with the chaos brewing. That was the gist for the majority of this kdrama. There were times that I was bored especially in the midway, but I just couldn't fast-forward it since I was curious as to what will happen next and how it will happen.
I think my interest started declined when the crown prince now came back to the royal palace. It would've made more sense if the reveal was more makjang-y as there were now many cliches, why not add more. The reveal could've been more impactful but in this case, it was more like "okay, moving on" vibes. The relationship now kinda plateaued on episode 12-13 and shifted to a build-up on the evil plans by the vice premier. I said to myself "okay, maybe the finale would be more on the palace stuff since the direction was now going towards it", and was assured that it was the case, but then again no. Also, the subsequent episodes were now longer than usual and now had filler scenes.
The finale was divided into 2 parts: first is the rushed resolution with the vice premier's plot. He shouldn't have met his demise easily and put in trial instead that would result to a hefty punishment. The trap that the vice premier prepared for the crown prince in the form of an "invasion" was weak story-wise, and was basically forgotten after he was dead aside from one battlefield scene. I was curious as to what happened to the instigators of said "invasion" and how did it ended. The second part was even more ridiculous with Hong-shim playing hard to get (when it was too obvious that they both love each other) because of guilt of her brother trying to harm the crown prince, when in fact, it should've been him that feel guilty in behalf of his father, the king which played a part on Hong-shim's real father's death. The fluffy fan service was not unneccesary, but instead of the too long "hard-to-get Hong-shim" scenes, it could've ended with a grand royal wedding with Hong-shim's friends and adoptive father given a chance to wear "noblemen's" clothes, all of them having a good fluffy ending. Side note: it was too foolish for the very pregnant Kkeut-nyeo to be also on the roof while throwing cherry petals to the leads on the last scene, but then again, it was purely for the fan service and not for the logic.
Pacing-wise, I was not sure how the story wanted to go especially on the penultimate episode. The build-up of the 2 main plots were pleasantly paced all thoughout the show, but their respective conclusions at the finale were rather botched. There were also some inconsistencies with the year and age (or maybe the subtitles were wrong?). The saving grace here was the acting of both leads as well as the other characters. It may be an unpopular opinion but I actually felt more chemistry on the second leads (the crown princess and Moo-yeon) and their story, despite being tragedic, was more emotionally-investing than the main leads maybe due to it being a cliche.
"Am I the only one feeling uncomfortable?" was basically the catch phrase of the crown prince all the time. It can also be said when reading the synopsis of this kdrama before watching it as it has full of cliches, just placed in a traditional historical setting (will not call this a sageuk). That uncomfortable feeling could've been replaced by its opposite, yet after the finale, it did not. For this, I feel comfortably uncomfortable.
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