By: Katerina Badoova
Brace yourself because watching this Korean drama is a handful!
When I watched the very first episode, I was confused for days to the point where I had to re-watch it to understand the flow of the show. It is essential to pay extremely close attention when watching this drama because it will absolutely mind boggle you if you don’t.
The show follows two parallel worlds – the Republic of Korea and The Kingdom of Corea. The Republic of Korea is South Korea as we know it.
On the other hand, The Kingdom of Corea is what an offspring from modern day Korea and olden times Korea, like the one from the Joseon dynasty, would look like.
The protagonists of this K-drama are Lee Gon (Lee Min-Ho), who is the King of Kingdom of Corea and Jeong Tae-Eul (Kim Go-Eun), who is a police detective from Republic of Korea. Lee Gon is an extremely smart King who is also a skilled mathematician, a great cook and is witty as hell.
Tae-Eul is a strong independent police officer that isn’t afraid to put someone in their place by either her words or her fists. She is friends with all her colleagues and can be considered as one of the “bros”.
The King is a K-drama full of parallel world travelling as well as time travelling.
In 1994, Lee Gon’s father was murdered by his own brother Lee Lim (Lee Jung-Jin) and poor Lee Gon witnessed it. In the midst of seeing his father being slaughtered, Lee Gon himself was almost killed by his traitorous uncle because he tried to fight him to protect the Royal family emblem, the Manpasikjeok.
The emblem is a supernatural flute that allows one to open the gates to other alternative universes. While Lee Gon was fighting Lee Lim, the Manpasikjeok was broken into two pieces and, before Lee Lim could kill young Lee Gon, an intruder came and saved him. With that intrusion Lee Lim fled and along with him took one half of the Manpasikjeok. The unidentified saviour also fled and the only thing they managed to leave behind was a police detective badge with a picture and the name Jeong Tae-Eul written right across it.
Now in the present, Lee Gon is the King of Corea and is still trying to figure out who that person on the police badge is, and why exactly did they save him all those years ago. While Tae-Eul is simply living her life catching criminals.
Everything starts to take a turn when Lee Gon finally figures out how to open the gate to the parallel universe – The Republic of Korea. There, he finally meets Tae-Eul and together they will try to figure out all that has been happening in both worlds.
For me, the characters that absolutely stole the show were Eun-Sup/Jo Young (Woo Do-Hwan), who are the same person just from two different universes.
Eun-Sup is from the Republic of Korea and is a very good friend of Tae-Eul and also happens to work with her. He is a quirky and extremely funny character with a very strong Busan dialect (otherwise known as Satoori) – you can almost call him the comic relief of the show. Jo Young is from The Kingdom of Corea and is Lee Gon’s Sword – in other words, the one that protects him with his life. While Eun-Sup is quirky, Jo Young is more uptight, but when both meet it’s complete and utter chaos!
This show is a very interesting drama with a great cast and amazing moments to look forward to. I recommend it to those that like a bit of suspense and love to guess the outcome of the shows they watch!
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