10/10 is my rating. This is a 2024 South Korean period costume comedy romance drama with 12, 64-72 minute episodes. Based on a webtoon.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

Cho Yeo Hwa (Lee ha nee) was widowed after never even seeing her husband on her wedding day. As the daughter-in-law of of the most prestigious noble family, her mother-in-law forces her to follow the most strict rules that applied to widows of the era she must spend many hours at the shrine honoring her husband and cover herself modestly in public. She cannot wear anything but the drab mourning attire and must always conduct herself in such a way to be beyond reproach. That is the day time version of Yeo Hwa, At night she dons ninja like attire and rights injustices. After 15 years of keeping her night persona a secret, she runs across Park Soo ho (Lee Jong won) a by the book military officer who does not appreciate Yeo Hwa’s vigilante ways. At first he is determined to bring that masked menace to justice until he discovers the man is actually a woman and a very attractive and intriguing one at that. The more Soo ho learns about the mysterious martial artist and that her actions are actually noble, the more he finds himself helping her. They also share commonalities around events in the tragedies of the past. Intrigue turns to like then possibly something more.

Review

This is one of the best historical dramas I have seen because the focus isn’t on the politics, even though the politics are a part of the plot there’s so many other interesting things going on that it isn’t central. If you like action dramas with strong central characters and leads that are very interesting in their back stories, this would be a good one for you. The romance element is there but it’s certainly not highlighted and that could be a plus or a minus depending on how strong you want the romantic element to be. The series ends well and happy with all major plot points resolved.

I highly recommend this series and will likely watch it again.

Spoilers

The only critique I have of this, as somebody who likes romance, is they never fully kiss. That disappointed the romantic in me. I like displays of affection, to see chemistry, or lack there of. In the end they’re together, but it’s not like any level of commitment is made. She just reappears and it’s pretty obvious they’re going to be together from that point forward, but you only get to see just a few seconds of that reunion. After waiting through all of the episodes for them to be together, only getting a few seconds at the end of the final episode, just wasn’t enough to satisfy my desire for strong romance. Honestly, the show was so good though I couldn’t decrease how I rated it based on that small aspect. It was just something that would’ve made it even better if they had given a little more time for the satisfying union of the two main characters.


I felt so sorry for the widows in this and I was curious how real the severity of the social restrictions were. I’m sure some of it was accurate but I’m not sure how overblown the sacrifices they had to make in this series were. I have the sense that it could be individuals’ families deciding how the widow could behave. I was glad Yeo Hwa helped the other widow escape with the man she loved. I also liked that she broke free if that miserable existence.

Personally, I really like characters that are strong physically and I enjoy complex martial art scenes were the good guy defeat the bad guys believably and repeatedly. Yeo Hwa was super hero status in her martial arts ability and it was fun to watch.

#KnightFlower

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