Gantaek: Yeoindeului Jeonjaeng

When her twin sister is murdered, Kang Eun Bo (Jin Se Yeon) vows to find the killer and bring them to justice. But the Queen is the only woman with enough power to order a manhunt. As a woman on a mission, Kang Eun Bo resolves to win the prized royal title. To avenge her sister's death, however, she must first win the heart of Joseon King Yi Kyung (Kim Min Kyu). Throughout his life, Yi Kyung grew up in a time of great political unrest and is more concerned with bringing peace to the realm.

But winning the king's favor will not be easy, especially when the royal court is filled with beautiful women with the dream to marry the king.

Will Kang Eun Bo ever find out who killed her twin sister? Could love bloom between an idealistic king and Kang Eun Bo?

Actors ***** Action *** Imtrigue **** Villains **** Romance ***** Sidekicks **** Jealoous Shrew ***** Nagging Parents ***** Annoying Grandmother *****

It started slow. I already reached the episode 7 and I was still bored with the plot. It was too draggy and confusing because of its inconsistency, however, the leads were both good. 98% - politics and 2% romance. The drama was full of obstacles for the leads and ambitious characters. I suspected Han Mo at first because he's too good to be true but it turns out he's just good and plain loyal to the king. I almost fell in love with Han Mo. Lee Kyung, Kang Eun Bo, Hong Ki Ho, Han Mo and Wal were the only lovable characters here.

Whenever I looked at the king, I feel bored. Even he is acting, there's always this stoic expression that I cannot feel his emotions. The woman is the same and they only have some chemistry. The overall story has a lot of loops and the first episode is not well organized and confusing.

" Queen : Love and War " had a nice start but the second half was so so.

The first part had an interesting story. Although the first episodes were a bit of a let down and probably could have pushed people away, the idea of the selection was entertaining and full of intrigues between the women (hence the girls war alternative title). The mean characters were plenty, and some of them were even playing friendly when they were in reality the worse. Some others had tragic endings, so the tragedy genre was plenty in this one. So, the girl's adventures and how she managed to survive the twists and traps that the other contestants set for her were entertaining and spiced up the story.

The chemistry of the couple was amazing, too, and they had a nice romance. Their romantic scenes were pretty intense and they had plenty of kissing scenes, which is often rare in historical dramas. Though, the love triangle they wanted to present was not as good and it was underdeveloped.

However, the second part was predictable. It was pretty much what happens to all historical dramas, the bad old aristocrats want power, the girl wants to protect the king, the king wants to protect her, and so on. The ending was okay, but boring.

Finally, the main character was good, but she got annoying from time to time, especially in the end, even though she started as a strong, sassy character. The male lead was pretty swoon worthy and he was a nice romantic lead.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

A costume drama which starts dramatically with a double assassination and leads then into a selection of a new queen and the conspiracies that occur to influence the outcome. The main stars are Kim Min-kyu who plays the king and Jin Se-yeon who plays Kang Eun-bo a candidate for the queens position who is investigating the assassination for personal reasons. It begins very well and the first half of the series is entertaining but the second half which deals with the plot to overthrow the king is less entertaining. The romance side was believable and I would have preferred the female lead to have remained feisty as she was in the first half. Overall an ok watch but could have been better.