[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The King's Affection" Episode 7

When last I'd checked in on "The King's Affection" Scholar Jeong had been brought before the Royal Court on charges of being involved with all the goofiness of his medical assistants being imprisoned for helping him run a medical clinic. Luckily, Crown Prince Lee arrives to take the blame. Inspector Jeong also confirms his willingness to continue threatening Scholar Jeong's medical assistants. So back to the status quo, which involves more long, romantic walks where Crown Prince Lee and Scholar Jeong look and act like they're on a date.

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For all its flaws, "The King's Affection" is solid eye candy. Everything is really nice to look at. Even Lady Sin (played by Bae Yoon-kyung) looks pretty and almost even nice. I have to keep reminding myself that she was introduced threatening to kill Scholar Jeong's medical assistants for even pettier reasons than what Inspector Jeong came up with. The weird double date restaurant scene where Crown Prince Lee goes incognito is funny, but entirely too short.

Shortly thereafter we're introduced to the Chief Ming Eunuch (played by Park Ki-woong). It took me way too long to figure out that this was a title, rather than a name, in part because this character seems too important to not have a name. From almost the minute he shows up the Chief Ming Eunuch is excessively aggressive, abusing nearby staff and just being very rude in general.

Apparently he's not going to be around for very long, being just a temporary guest star antagonist. Which strikes me as somewhat arbitrary. We've had all this hype about Scholar Jeong meeting that minister whose life he saved that one time and it's just...a pleasant greeting so the plot can be about the Chief Ming Eunuch instead. No more fun stories about what Scholar Jeong was doing in China back then, but we do get a sad flashback about how the Chief Ming Eunuch was once a child slave.

The whole structure's just a bit odd. "The King's Affection" sometimes feels like a situation comedy with the way these events are presented, despite no attempt being made for them to seem even remotely funny. There are a few brief scenes about background political machinations at the royal court, one of which even involves the Chief Ming Eunuch, but these aren't in clear focus. The relevance of such machinations is ambiguous at best when the main characters don't appear to be aware of them.

Review by William Schwartz

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"The King's Affection" is directed by Lee Hyun-suk, Song Hyeon-wook, written by Han Hee-jeong, and features Park Eun-bin, Rowoon, Nam Yoon-su, Choi Byung-chan, Bae Yoon-kyung, Jung Chae-yeon. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/10/11~Now airing, Mon, Tue 21:30 on KBS.