Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Period
Episodes: 20
Broadcast network: MBC
Synopsis:
The story of the secret love between Lee Hwon, a fictional king of Joseon, and Wol, a female shaman. Wol was born as Heo Yeonwoo, the daughter of a noble family who won the love of the crown prince, Hwon. Her enemies, jealous of her family’s position in court, schemed against her and wrestled away her rightful place as crown princess and nearly takes her life. Years later, an embittered Hwon meets Wol, now a female shaman who has no recollection of her past.
Plot
Lee Hwon, the crown prince, and Heo Yeon-woo, the daughter of the chief scholar, meet by chance in the palace and fall into puppy love. It’s nice because they have the physical attraction but also respect the other’s intelligence. There is also Hwon’s most awesome Eunuch, Hyung-soo, who stays by his side his whole life providing support and comic relief.
Lee Hwon has a half-brother by another mother, Yang-myung, who was exiled from the palace. He, too, is in love with Yeon-woo. Yang-myung is also best friends with Heo Yeom, Yeon-woo’s brilliant older brother, and Woon, a genius in the physical arts. Yang-myung is a free spirit who offers to take Yeon-woo away from her potential assignation as the king’s concubine but she loves Hwon and refuses.
Yoon Dae-hyung, his daughter, Yoon Bo-kyung, and the Queen Dowager want Bo-kyung as queen to keep the power with the king’s maternal family. When Yeon-woo gets selected as the queen-to-be (despite the fact that Bo-kyung was supposed to be chosen) the young couple is ecstatic, but the baddies decide to take her out. The Queen Dowager has the head shaman place a curse on Yeon-woo, which will eventually kill her.
This shaman, Jang Nok-young, promised her friend to protect Yeon-woo, so instead of letting Yeon-woo die of illness, she gives Yeon-woo’s father a medicine to make Yeon-woo appear dead. Her family gets denounced, receving the blame for allowing an ill girl to be betrothed to his crown princess. WHATEVER.
The prince is heartbroken when Yeon-woo “dies” and has to marry Bo-kyung. Nok-young digs up Yeon-woo from her grave and raises her to be a shaman. Her faithful slave, Seol, goes with.
Eight years later, Lee Hwon is king and neither he nor Yang-myung have forgotten their love for Yeon-woo. Woon is the king’s trusty right hand man, hurting his bestie Yang-myung. The baddies, led by Yoon Dae-hyung, plot ways to control Hwon, who has turned out headstrong and utterly against all of the baddies mechanizations. Paramount in the baddies plan is getting Hwon to consummate his marriage with Bo-kyung and make a royal heir, but he won’t touch her, always claiming illness. This is a major conflict between him and the baddies. If he has an heir, then Hwon can be killed and the heir groomed to their ends.
As for Yeon-woo, she wakes up from her curse with no memory of her past and grows up as a shaman. In a twist of fate, she meets Hwon, who feels that she is familiar, but she doesn’t recognize him. He gives her a name, Wol, since she has none.
A while later, she gets kidnapped in order to draw Jang Nok-young back to the palace. She gets used as a bad-luck absorbing charm for the king, which basically means she sits by his bed all night and helps him sleep. Of course, this works. Eventually she gets caught and a lot of the plot is of Hwon and Yang-myung trying to figure out where they know her from and why she reminds them of Yeon-woo. She fights her memories and the baddies use Hwon’s strange attachment to her to manipulate him.
There’s a lot of her being a noble idiot and heaping loads of blame on herself. There’s a lot of him telling her she’s a no one because she’s a shaman only to make himself feel better that he likes a mere shaman.
A lot of jealousy on Bo-kyung and Yang-myung’s parts.
Min-hwa, Lee Hwon’s sister, had been obsessed with Yeon-woo’s brother Yeom and because the family was denounced, she marries Yeom and restores their status. Turns out, she had a key part in the curse that “killed” Yeon-woo. Her extreme desire for Yeom made her the perfect human effigy to fuel the curse. So basically, she “killed” his sister in order to have him. Yeom finds out and she gets sentenced to slavery. Their baby stays with Yeom.
Some more baddies attacking Hwon through Yeon-woo and Hwon defending his status, Yeon-woo and his country. Yeon-woo as Wol has a lot of stuff happen to her and Yang-myung continues to be there for her as does her servant Seol.
Eventually, they come up with a grand ol’ plan, Yang-myung pretends to betray Hwon, gets the baddies on his side and then good guys win in the end. Bo-kyung hangs herself. Yang-myung sacrifices himself so he won’t hurt his brother anymore, baddies die, Hwon marries Yeon-woo, they have a kid who becomes friends with Yeom’s kid. Yeom gets back with the princess and everyone lives happily ever after.
As you can see, it’s all about the love story. Every character was geared towards the love story and that weakened the plot incredibly. I would’ve loved to see Hwon working as a king to truly problem solve against corruption. I would’ve loved to see Yang-myung covet the throne for some reason other than Yeon-woo – perhaps because of a different vision of where Joseon should be headed. I would’ve loved to see the friendship between Yeom, Yang-myung and Woon played out to it’s fullest. I would’ve loved to see Hwon grow up under the trials and tribulations of being king instead of pitching fits. Or maybe Yang-myung move by his side and guide him and not be in love with Yeon-woo. It’s such a tired plot device to have brothers in love with the same woman. I would’ve loved to see people band together to fight corruption.
My Opinion:
I originally just judged this drama based on its title before I started it. The title sounded very melodramatic and historical, so I thought that the drama wouldn’t be that interesting or lighthearted but I was wrong. While this drama is dramatic and it has its melodramatic elements in it (like the memory loss), it was also lighthearted at times.
I believe that this drama is worth watching. If you’re in for the eye candy, you will be satisfied. If you’re here for a riveting story and plot, then you’ll be somewhat satisfied but not fully.Overall I enjoyed watching this drama, but more for its eye candy than for its plot.
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