I think I'm more of a fan of modern Korean dramas to historical dramas but that doesn't affect my experiences when I decide to an historical kdrama. I could give count of the number of historical kdrama I've seen since I started to see Korean films and every one of them left a mark in my quest to learn k-culture.
The k-culture have always been an intriguing one for me every since the first historical drama I saw, "The Legend". It was a fictional story but it made me curious about what the world of Korea is like before modernization. I don't remember much from the series, I decided to share my experience on the most recent iconic history drama I saw.
I think historical kdrama series even though fictional, a lot of what is shown are a good glimpse of the world of Korea before modernization. I think their culture is still well preserved even through such a long time as they do show it in their movies to keep the remembrance and even make others know them.
If there is one Korean historical drama that drew me in more to learn about the Korean culture, it has to be the series "The Red Sleeve". I think I've reviewed it on Hive before so I won't say much about it but I'll share my experiences before, during and after seeing the story in this series. It has become one of my best historical kdrama.
I still think the historical drama "Under The Queen's Umbrella" is my most favourite but if I'm to say the one that made me learn about the past kings of Korea and how people lived before, "The Red Sleeve" made me curious about all that. It's a romance based historical drama but it opened my eyes to so many happenings in a royal palace.
Before seeing the series, I had almost no expectations, just wanted to see another historical drama to take a break from my regular modern day kdrama. And during my time seeing this drama, I came to understand that this one was different in an aspect I never imagined... Choosing self freedom and happiness over love.
The Drama reveal the life of a king who is in love with a court lady and begins to court her in hopes of having her as a concubine. As it has always been in history, she would have no choice but to accept his proposal but Deok-im, the court lady proves stubborn and becomes the first maid who doesn't desire to be confined in the king's palace.
The usual historical stories I've seen before this drama was, the king falls in love and the lady accepts after realizing her love for the king and then they both rule together as king and Queen. I guess I began to expect same for this series but my expectations were not meant. I wanted to hate the story but it taught a lesson afterwards.
It shows how much every person should value their happiness and freedom over a love that can never be. The King loved the maid too much but she saw how the matters of the kingdom will not let such a love stand. I also got to learn that every king who ruled in the past always have one queen with a few concubines as he wanted her as one.
In the story, every court lady has an attire that distinguished them as there are even ranks among them from Consort to maids. I think the native attire of the Koreans are amazing especially the hanbok, I see some Nigerians actually make it to wear here showing their love for their attires, might wear it someday too lol.
Another thing about the K-Culture is their native music with their unique instruments, I saw a few of them in a modern musical drama "Heartstrings" and I realized how much I enjoyed those traditional musical presentation to surpass modern music, it was beautiful to watch and listen to. This kdrama didn't say much in music.
Over all, the Korean culture is a beautiful one from attires to language to music to foods and even to their ranking styles and way of showing respect are all intriguing for me. I'm looking forward to my first real life experience with any part of their culture, would be so memorable. You can check out any of the series I shared if yet to.
Images are from Imdb