The King 2 Hearts

Really good KD not quite as silly as the norm, the male actor was very good and i usually could care less about them.enough with the horrible caucasian actors though are you that afraid of our acting that you get these stiffs. All in all worth watching one of the best.

The badass woman protagonist stays fierce and strong even while exploring her vulnerable side to love and relationships. Her military and physical strength don't just disappear, and she is the one who saves him from physical dangers (a nice reversal of the damsel/ Princess in distress).

As many have noted the antagonist can be weird and over-the-top and the foreign actors can. not. act.

But, the Korean characters genuinely develop throughout the series and the tragedies had me crying. The love between romance characters and new family members feel genuine because of their growth.

This 2012 series is better than King Eternal Monarch but that isn't saying that much. Fans of CLOY may want to check this one out because there is a North South thing. It's cruder since it's from 2012 but you can find some humour about the differences. Politics is one of the main themes with digs at foreign powers. It can get tedious at times. The start is the better part of the series with some exciting parts and good action here and there. Quite a stellar cast with Oscar winning actress YYJ playing the queen mom. The leads Lee Seung Gi and Ha Ji Won have chemistry because they both have more tanned complexions and South East Asian features. HJW is believable in her action scenes. Interesting secondary romance between the soldier and the princess. The villain is comical as his is bunch of international bad people.

The fault is the drag during the WOC games and the kidnapping and politics. This show should have been the standard 16 episodes. Then the boring parts could have been edited out. There is more English and other languages spoken to give it an international political drama feel.

In a South Korea with a monarchy the spoilt prince becomes enamoured with a North Korean special forces soldier. An interesting mix of romance and politics over the 20 episodes with lots of murder and intrigue. A megalomaniac boss of a large conglomerate will stop at nothing to destroy the royal family and because of his wealth he influences countries making him difficult to oppose. It stars the adorable Ha Ji-won although in this series she does have an annoying intonation to her voice, the rest of the cast give a Stirling performance although this does not apply to the stilted actors playing foreigners.

I'm a bit of a Lee Seung-gi fangirl so was looking forward to this but I'm finding it a bit hard to swallow with the tough as nails army girl going all gooey eyed saccharine all the time in a very Hello Katty way. The plotline is good, the story is interesting, the acting.... half is good (korean) the other half (non-koreans) not so good. The story is a bit implausible and IRL it just wouldn't happen without major ramifications, but this is a kdrama and it's just how it is in fiction. It gets better as it goes along, so just keep watching, even if it is exhausting.

I picked certain extras were Australian/New Zealandish before they even opened their mouths due to the wooden/cardboard nature Australian & kiwi actors generally have (it's like they overthink it and worry too much about what people think).