K-Drama Review: The King’s Face (2014)
Imagine having the ability and skill to predict who will be a wise and sage king just by looking at the person’s face.
In the kingdom of Joseon, physiognomy, the art of face reading, was a desired skill. If you were good at it, you could get a job in the palace, and climb the ladder of success. Imagine having the ability to predict who will be a wise and sage king because you were skilled at face-reading.
The King’s Face is an intense Korean drama TV series that covers historical moments such as the Imjin War aka The Seven-Year War aka The Japanese Invasions of Korea. It’s 23 episodes with lots of palace intrigue, ruthless scheming, backbiting, and conniving, in addition to being AT WAR!!
The character development is excellent and so true to life. In real life, people really can go from being close like a brother and sister to becoming mortal enemies. That’s what happened with two of the characters: Kim Ga-hee (played by Yoon-hee) and Kim Do-chi (played by Shin Sung-rok). One chose to support the Crown Prince; the other chose to try to kill the Crown Prince.
As you’re watching the series you’ll probably find yourself thinking: Who would not want to support Crown Prince GwangHae. He’s such a good guy!
The reason the series is called “The King’s Face” is because physiognomy, i.e. face-reading was a really big deal! Evidently, there is a “Manual of the King’s Face” and if you used it to read the face of the king, you could tell whether or not he would be a good king or a bad king. When the series begins Prince GwangHae is receiving acupuncture treatments. It seems he doesn’t have the face of a future good king so … they need to fix his face! Prince Gwanghae is played by Seo In-guk and … uuhhh … I don’t know! I liked his face. I thought he was kind of cute! LOL. 😀
Seo In Guk won the 2014 KBS Best New Actor Award for his role.
There are two organizations that featured prominently in this series: the Daedong Society, and the Righteous Army.
- The Daedong Society: The leader of this organization became Kim Do Chi. He was a loyal disciple of the true leader. However, in his zealousness to prove that the current king was not a good and wise king who needed to be dethroned in order to accomplish the society’s mission, he exposed the whereabouts of the leader and other members of the organization and they were killed by the king’s men. He escaped death and then decided that the best way to get rid of a bad king was to work as a physiognomist (“face reader”) inside the palace where he could scheme and connive until he could put a good king on the throne. He was willing to do whatever it took to put the persons he personally chose as king and queen on the throne. He did a lot of bad stuff!!
- The Righteous Army: According to Wikipedia. righteous armies are “informal civilian militias that have appeared several times in Korean history, when the national armies were in need of assistance”. Even though Kim Ga-hee, was branded as a daughter of a traitor, she served bravely as a soldier, next to the Crown Prince’s side. Her relationship with Prince Gwanghae goes back to their childhood. They had promised to marry each other when they grew up but! … real life got in the way of their dreams of happiness and marital bliss. Through it all, they never stopped loving each other.