Queen In Hyun's Man (aka Queen and I) is a Korean drama series that recently aired in 2012. It's another typical K-drama show in a long line of KTV romance series.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's your story: A nobleman from Joseon era travels back and forth in time from past to present day Korea. While in Joseon era, he's a central figure in protecting the queen of that age (Queen In Hyun). In modern times, he happens upon a struggling young actress who just got her big career break; she won the starring role as the titular queen in an upcoming KTV drama that retells the same story that the nobleman is involved in 300 years ago. Hence, this nobleman is essentially "the queen's man" in both the real queen's life in the past, and the life of the actress who plays the queen in the present.
Both the past and present story lines are sufficiently entertaining, and, almost all of the melodrama involving intrigue/people doing mean things/etc are tied to the past story line. This is highly effective because:
A. The past was a dangerous time to live in compared to today. Therefore, it makes sense to dump the majority of the melodrama & intrigue into the past where it belongs for practical reasons.
B. You must include this melodramatic intrigue in the story somewhere (apparently by some mandatory Korean TV show law), so by putting most of it in the past story line, it effectively frees up the present day cast & story to "have fun" most of the time, and concentrate on the central love story the rest of the time.
Our lead male character is played by Ji Hyun-woo, and, he OWNS this role. In the past, he leads an honorable and noble life. He's also tall, smart, charming, and good looking, so when he travels forward in time (along with his chivalrous values), he's makes for quite the catch for any single woman. Basically, he's your perfect knight in shining armor.
Our female lead is played by Yoo In-na. In the real world, Yoo In-na has been relegated to playing the friend of the lead / a secondary character / etc... She finally gets her shot at a lead part here though (just like the character she plays); she's gorgeous and is super effective throughout this series...I would very much like to see her get more opportunities at starring roles in the future!
Both the leads have excellent chemistry together, and you can tell they really enjoyed working with each other. My girlfriend informs me they recently started dating in real life, which is not surprising based on how they interacted on screen.
As the story progresses, Hyun-woo uses his time traveling abilities to come to the present in order to change the past. He reads about the history of the past, and hops planes and taxis to quickly travel from one place to another, so that he can return to the right place at the right time in the past with the proper knowledge to save the queen. Every time he returns to the past, he changes history that is instantly reflected in the present. In-na is the only person in the present that realizes history is being rewritten by Hyun-woo's actions in the past, and it wrecks havoc on her first lead performance playing the queen, since she has to adjust on the fly to whatever historical changes impact her script. It's not quite clear why In-na is the only person who realizes this, and there's several instances where the rules governing time travel vary throughout, but this doesn't really matter; this is not some epic sci-fi movie where time travel details need to be super tight in order to make a film "work", so I don't even care about these discrepancies in the least.
When Hyun-woo is in the present, he and In-na start to fall in love while they try to keep secret from everybody else what is going on; nobody would/does believe them anyway. Along the way, there's plenty of lighthearted moments where the "fish out of water" learns how to use a phone, drive a car, etc, and where In-na takes advantage of Hyun-woo's lack of modern world understanding by "stealing" kisses from him, and telling him nonsense to make herself appear more appealing, wherever she can. This is all terribly cute and amusing!
This show is also very quickly paced, and that's a HUGE plus for me. Too often, I find Korean love stories are bogged down with too much nonsense, filler, and repetitive melodrama, during their run times; this tends to make me not like the overall story as much as I otherwise would. With 16 episodes at 45 minutes or so each, and 2 stories to tell with loads of secondary characters (who all put in stellar work), this show zips right along from start to finish.
What this all results in is 2 stories that balance romance, comedy, intrigue, drama, and a little bit of action incredibly effectively. This show is also extremely well written, and both stories are woven together in such a way that it's clear there was a considerable amount of thought and effort devoted to making this a coherent watch overall.
In the end, all that's left is to see if the "Queen's Man" can indeed save the Queen in the past without having to forever forgo the "Queen" he loves in the present, and I'm not about to spoil the outcome for you!
This series is REALLY GOOD! I'm telling you right now, if you're a fan of KTV melodrama/love stories, you are going to absolutely LOVE this show! Even if you're not a fan of this genre, it's still plenty enjoyable!
9 out of 10 stars. Highly Recommended!
