"Perfect Crown" Review
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
How did makjang drama like "The Last Empress" make a better 21st-century monarchy than whatever this is?
Taking yourself too seriously, not knowing what you want to portray, and all that, with badly filmed scenes, added up to become one of the worst dramas, after so much anticipation.
Or maybe you had a lot of fun watching this drama? Let me know in the comments!
Park Joon Hwa has worked on some great romance dramas, "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim", "Because This is My First Life", and a lot of people have loved "Alchemy of Souls".
There was a lot of trust put into the director as his previous dramas looked nice, and there was romance in the air between the leads.
So if something fails, we can rely on that, right?
Sadly, this wasn't true. It was purely edited and looked cheap (we know they have Netflix money and can do better), the shots were boring, going from one person to the other, and most importantly, they just wanted to show how pretty the leads are.
On one hand, it's not bad, as we have to root for and like these characters, and the quickest way to do that is to remind the audience how gorgeous they are.
However, this did not go the way they wanted. Byeon Woo Seok, rather than a prince, looked like a model on the runway, and IU, instead of a femme fatale, gave sweet neighbourhood girl vibes.
Neither of them looked like an authoritative figure.
This is Yoo Ji Won's first drama, so I don't want to be too judgmental, but there are way better debut works, and this was not it.
The writer didn't seem to know what she wanted to focus on. It's not completely romance drama, but it's absolutely not political drama either, as you'd need smarter characters for that.
To end on a positive note, the kiss scenes in the drama were quite good.
Directing: 4/10
Set in an alternate version of Korea ruled by a constitutional monarchy in the 21st century. The story follows Chaebol heiress Seong Hui Ju, who is frustrated by her 'commoner' status despite having everything, and melancholic Grand Prince Yi An, whose royal blood is his only identity and who has nothing despite being the son of the king. (Mydramalist)
Spoiler Free Review:
This drama pissed off the whole nation, and me included. What else can be added?
The plot of the drama just goes back and forth, kind of wanting to focus on the romance, but they keep adding political intrigue that was not handled well by the screenwriter and director.
Prince Yi An has some ambitions, but that has never been the focus. It's all about him being madly in love with the female lead. Seong Hui Ju is not better either, but at least she kind of has a whole backstory that is portrayed in detail, and we find out more about her inner thoughts.
To then later throw it all away in the last episode.
"Perfect Crown" was the most frustrating watch because the characters are the stupidest people on earth. There were times when the evil person was the only one to blame, but they acted so obliviously without any real explanation.
The only good thing that came out of this drama was Yoo Soo Bin, who was the comedic relief.
Overall: 2/10
Having expectations made it even more disappointing. Maths would say 4.1, but I need to minus it because it frustrated the hell out of me.
First, the drama establishes what positions both leads play.
Seong Hui Ju is more of an influencer and nowhere near the status of a Prince, so it's interesting how they meet and how this fake marriage will make them fall in love with each other.
Not to take too much time to build character and their love story, the screenwriter had an amazing, never-before-thought-of idea!
What if we make the Prince fall in love with Hui Ju in high school and always pine for her?!
As episodes continue, bits of the structure of the palace get explained; however, the only people working are the servants, not even the prime minister is doing any work! There wasn't a shot of him talking about something else that doesn't involve the crown.
The script should have taken more inspiration from other parliamentary monarchy structures, the best known of which is the UK. Or at least watched "The Crown"...
There is also a storyline that someone is trying to kill the Prince. Sometimes, this gets a bit forgotten and becomes like a D plot, as there are other things to focus on.
However, nobody even thinks of the most obvious answer...
The leads are so stupid that they could barely believe the Prime Minister is the culprit when he had the biggest motives, except for the Queen's father. He was also on the list (mine, definitely not the Prince and Hui Ju's)
Another fun storyline of the drama is a fire that happens every two months or so in the palace. There are still no firefighters, no security, and no one is taught what to do in those situations.
That does not make any sense!
Welcome to "Perfect Crown", the whole plot that becomes repetitive quickly: They kind of like each other, something gets in their way, then they're in love again, for something to get in the way.
Nothing else. There is no history behind any of the families. They try a bit with Queen's father and Hui Ju's sister-in-law to show that they're people of better status than commoners, but we will never know how and why.
The politics of the palace are barely explained, and we never got the true reason why Yi An's brother wanted to abdicate. It doesn't help that the romance plot falls short in the drama, too.
Storyline: 2/10
The prince had a terrible childhood, where he couldn't compete properly because of his father. He could never become someone better than his brother, or so he was taught, but there are glimpses that we see Yi An would have liked to become a king. Or at least he thought about it many times.
However, when his one true love comes into his life, all that is forgotten and the only thing left is to chant, "Pick me, choose me, love me!"
Even though Seong Hui Ju never became this femme fatale, her background story of a cold woman who slowly softens up for her lover is always nice.
However, love doesn't make you suddenly forget all the shit your father has done while growing up and just forgive him.
Why did he get a redemption arc??? He never deserved it, and never changed, but we need to keep up with the filial daughter prototype, so we're still going to continue with forgiveness.
The romance in the drama is there, but somehow not good.
Hui Ju barely had any moments where she stared at the prince, thinking that at this specific time, he was attractive or had a good personality. One day, a "click" moment happened, and she woke up loving the prince.
He loves her because "she's not like the other girls", while she falls in love because... He got hurt?
They needed more fake dating moments and time to brew the relationship, but they chose to do one incident after another, which never really mattered.
The prime minister is completely useless. He is there to be the villain, second-male-lead, but do people actually care about his character much?
He was annoying throughout the drama and always felt entitled to Hui Ju. But I do think that he wouldn't be this annoying if the leads had put their two brain cells to work and discovered sooner that he was behind it all.
Three people know about the contract... I wonder how it got leaked!
The Prime Minister writes "come to the palace", and it catches fire. Nope, couldn't be him, and definitely these random people that we never get to see!
Even after the whole mess, we do not see him get any prison sentence...
The Queen has her interesting moments, but she is not fully developed. The only backstory that we know of her is that she was crushing on Yi An.... I believe she should have also been more villainous, but she gets a redemption arc because she gets sad for her child...
There is a 3-year time jump at the end of the series, and I want to point out that she has become just a regular "tiger mom".
As the drama comes to an end, the screenwriter decides to delete whatever personality traits they had before.
If STATUS is the number one desire for most of the characters, abolishing monarchy is the most ridiculous thing you can do.
Goals can change, but if you want power, it will never make you want to become weak. In this case, weakness is not having a status. Seong Hui Ju already talked about how she had such a hard time because of that.
The only person I see agreeing to it would be the prime minister, as he can try to become the president. Surprisingly, he is the only one who wants the monarchy to stay the same.
Side characters, the housekeeping in the royal palace had great moments, but I didn't feel as invested in them. By the end of the drama, they were forgotten by everyone; we don't even know where they are now.
Except for Choi Hyeon, who is still spending time with the unemployed prince, but he's the only character who actually warmed my heart.
Also, Hui Joo's brother and sister-in-law reminded me too much of "Crash Landing on You"; it's visible that they were prototypes, but "Perfect Crown" left the unhinged evil middle sibling behind.
We have a Prime Minister for that.
Characters: 3/10
IU has come out from one of the greatest dramas of all time, probably a.k.a "When Life Gives You Tangerines", and Byeon Woo Seok was also greatly regarded after "Lovely Runner". They definitely got the hype, but even the teasers showed that the acting is not going to be a strong suit in this drama.
The feedback at the time wasn't nice, but I wanted to believe that it would become better. Somehow, it's going to look nicer when the drama comes out.
However, that wasn't the case. Again, I will repeat myself that a lot of things didn't go well from a directing point of view; the shots didn't help the actors to look better at all.
That's why they quickly got outshone by supporting actors.
Gong Seung Yeon definitely gained tons of fans during the run of "Perfect Crown", and I was looking at Yoo Soo Bin for my comedic relief.
The whole time, my mind was also on Choi Ji Su, who was incredible in "Undercover Miss Hong", and here she played such a small role as a maid.
Acting: 5/10
It had some really nice OSTs, but I guess that's what you get when one of them is from Sam Kim. From the whole playlist, it is my favourite one.
BIBI's voice is very distinctive as always, but it felt like I've heard the song before, and there are some songs that I had to skip because it was hard to listen to. However, it is just my preference, and I can't say that the songs didn't blend well in the drama.
Especially "Everglow", it seemed like it played at the perfect timing.
What surprised me is that Byeon Woo Seok had sung in one of the OSTs, I would have expected it more from IU. It looks like it won't reach "Sudden Shower" popularity, though...
Music: 6.5/10
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