Hey guys, I finally finished watching The King: Eternal Monarch after stopping at Episode 5 when it first premiered a couple of months ago and decided to write a review for this drama.
The King: Eternal Monarch tells the story of a parallel universe where Lee Gon (portrayed by actor Lee Min Ho) is a King in the parallel world, known as 'The Kingdom of Corea'. The drama started with 5 years old Lee Gon who witnessed his own uncle, Lee Lim (portrayed by actor Lee Jung Jin) killing his father who was the King of The Kingdom of Corea. After failing to kill Lee Gon, his uncle escaped after obtaining half of the Manpasikjeok, a mythical flute believed to have mystical powers to travel between the two worlds and to obtain eternity.
Upon realizing the powers of the Manpasikjeok, Lee Lim went to the other world and found out that the counterparts of his nephew and sister-in-law, and also his own counterpart was alive and living entirely different lives. He then killed his own counterpart and brought his own body to the Kingdom of Corea to make the citizens believe that the traitor Lee Lim was dead. Without having to worry about being caught in the Kingdom of Corea, Lee Lim has been traveling between the two worlds and committing all sorts of illegal business for his interest.
On the other hand, Detective Jeong Tae Eul (portrayed by actress Kim Go Eun) is from the Republic of Korea and she is a detective in the crime department. What connects Detective Jeong to Lee Gon is her police identification card which Lee Gon found on the night of the treason. Since then, Lee Gon believed that Detective Jeong was his savior and looks forward to the day he finally meets her in person.
One day, Lee Gon finally figure out how to travel between the two worlds using the Manpaljeok and he went to the Republic of Korea to finally meet Detective Jeong Tae Eul. The two then begin to uncover the truth and mystery behind the night of the treason and the Manpaljeok to save the two worlds from the plots from his uncle and traitor, Lee Lim.
Review
First things first, I think the writer did a good job of portraying a parallel universe that wasn’t too overboard nor cheesy, but quite a realistic one with identical-looking counterparts living in the parallel worlds of The Republic of Korea and The Kingdom of Corea. The unexpected plot twist towards the end of the drama was good especially with Lee Gon finding out that he was the person who saved his younger self 20 years ago and not Lieutenant Jeong Tae Eul. I also liked what the writer did with detective Kang Sin Jae that he was actually brought to the Republic of Korea from the older world when he was a young boy and that his counterpart was still alive but in a coma. However, there were some loose ends which the writer did not cover at the end of the drama like the part about the scars that were only on some people who travelled between the two worlds. Though I came up with the theory that only people whose counterparts have died in the other world has this scar because Lee Gon’s counterpart died in the Republic of Korea 20 years ago. There were also some parts that wasn’t necessary and did not make much sense like the part about Prime Minister Goo travelling to the Republic of Korea and supposedly killing her counterpart so that Lee Lim cannot replace her. There were also way too many product placements throughout the drama that it became too obvious. But it does work as I start to crave Korean fried chicken and The Alley's milk tea as a result of seeing it so often in this drama. Though it was a happy ending, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending. But I liked how the writer showed us how the lives of those affected where changed like how both Kang Hyun Min and his counterpart Kang Sin Jae were alive in the parallel worlds and Luna turned out to become a better person in the other world. Overall the drama has a good storyline with good acting but I wasn't a fan of the chemistry between the two leads. Surprisingly, I skipped most of their scenes together and enjoyed watching other scenes like the one with Jo Yeong (portrayed by actor Woo Do Hwan) and his counterpart, Jo Eun Sup who is one of my favorite character in this drama!
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