Ruler: Master of the Mask

Ruler: Master of the Mask

4.5/10

Ruler: Master of the Mask

Genre:                               Episodes: 20                         Year: 2017

Romance

Historical

Synopsis:

Pyunsoo is a group that control Joseon from the shadows. The organisation uses their power and wealth to privatise water, and the country’s people suffer greatly due to their actions. Crown Prince Lee Sun is an idealistic young Prince who wishes to free Joseon from Pyunsoo. 

Cast:

Yoo Seung Ho (Prince Lee Sun)

Kim So Hyun (Han Ga Eun)

L (Lee Sun)

Yoon So Hee (Kim Hwa Gun)

Heo Joon Ho (Dae Mok)

Park Chul Min (Woo Bo)

Shin Hyun Soo (Lee Chung Woon)

Bae Yoo Ram (Park Moo Ha)

Lee Chae Young (Mae Chang)

Kim Seo Kyung (Gon)

General Thoughts:

Whew- this one was a bit of a struggle to get through. Despite the great expectations that this drama raised, it crumbled underneath all its hype. The show aimed to be a sweepingly romantic, epic sageuk, but it didn’t come close.

It was just salt in the wound that this was stealing ratings away from '7 Day Queen'

The romance was weak, with the leads falling for each other in a split second with no build up and no reasoning, and all points of the show that should have been epic were either easily avoidable, confusing or concluded without much struggle. The writing is definitely to blame here, and the slow and befuddling plot makes the drama a real drag.

My feelings when I realised I had to sit through 20 hours of confused nonsense

For starters, the show didn’t really stick to its premise. Yes there’s a mask and a real King and a fake king, but water being privatised was brushed over in about 30 seconds in the first few episodes, and the heroine’s vendetta against the King/Crown Prince is short and bland- not to mention she doesn’t act on it. I was kinda expecting Ga Eun to be a secret, sly assassin waiting for her chance to strike the King (only to find out it was the man she loved all along)- I didn’t expect her to be a useless crybaby that didn’t do anything and only got about 5 minutes of airtime each episode. Hooooooo, okay, let’s go back to the beginning. Sun’s Dad sells himself to Pyunsoo to become King. And then he’s super agitated that he’s a puppet King and Pyunsoo Group has all the control (like, hello dude, what did you expect?). He then places a huge amount of pressure on Sun saying that he needs to be the king that saves the people (from the evil he invited in, I might add). Then everyone gets super angry when Sun tries to do something about it, saying that he can’t know how the world works because he’s sheltered (as if they weren’t the ones who sheltered him).

"Son, you were born to battle the evil I let in, and I sure as hell won't help you in any way."

Then for a very thinly veiled reason Ga Eun’s father is arrested and scheduled for execution. When Sun finds a way to sneak Ga Eun’s father out of prison he refuses (yeah what) saying that he won’t live his life as a criminal, so instead he gets executed as a criminal (double yeah what).

Why is everyone in this show so eager to die?

Dad dies, Ga Eun cries and Sun makes his (very) newly made friend, Lee Sun, stand in for him as Crown Prince. Pyunsoo kill Sun’s Dad (am I supposed to feel bad about this? He was a total ass, not to mention super unhelpful…), Lee Sun is crowned as a fake king and Sun lives outside the palace to ‘connect with’ and ‘understand’ the people. I say this sarcastically because this is glossed over in the time skip, and Sun is really no smarter about the people 5 years down the track. Anyway- so that was our opening, and the rest of the show makes about as much sense as that did, if not less. The characters get very little development, and the development they do get is often extreme and not at all realistic. Rather than showing a gradual buildup of emotions, our characters were suddenly 100% confident in their feelings. After several brief, and not very deep, encounters, Sun and Ga Eun are suddenly so very in love with each other that they would risk it all for the other.

And you like each other...why?

After more than 5 years waiting for Sun and being a quiet puppet king, Lee Sun suddenly hates Sun and wants to be king forever. I mean, these aren’t unbelievable ideas, it was just that there was no progression towards these outbursts- they just suddenly happened. The smaller stories (buying up the copper, rescuing the child workers, burning the poppies) were all interesting enough, but I just didn’t care enough about the characters to have these events hold any gravitas.

♫ I don't ca-a-a-a-a-are ♫

Except for Hwa Gun who was fab. Because the characters had such little development, it just felt like a bunch of blobs running around slowly (and I mean slowly) solving some problems. I’m sure that there were pieces of information that would have made the confusing aspects of the plot a lot less confusing, but I often found my mind wandering during episodes. Sure, it’s partly my fault for not paying attention, but it’s also kind of the writers' fault for not engaging me. When I’m engaged in a story I will remember every detail- I don’t even want to admit what sort of ridiculous details I remember about ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (there’s a lot), but I can barely even remember the ridiculous reason behind why Ga Eun’s father was beheaded in this show. Of course, having characters that are poorly written gives the actors an extra hard job too. I’m slowly starting to realise that I’m not as much of a fan of Yoo Seung Ho as I thought I was (please don’t kill me). His characters often annoy me, and when he cries I tend to find him weak and useless rather than pitiful or loveable.

Whine on

I like him much better when he’s determined and strong, which thankfully he was for the most part in ‘Ruler’. But he just didn’t sell the love line that well. Understandably, because the love line is pretty darn awful. It was a difficult task for Yoo Seung Ho to convince me that Sun was a character that made sense, and he didn’t quite manage it.

Let's start picking better projects, okay?

I mean, when the character is written as a King who wants to rise up so he can save the common folk, but then constantly risks everything for one girl, the actor’s not really going to be able to make that go smoothly. I mean really, the whole ‘what sort of King would I be if I couldn’t even save the woman I love?’ thing was just stupid. You’d be an alive King who could actually do something about the people’s suffering. Stupid. What good are you to anyone if you’re dead? And boy did Ga Eun make me really angry at the casting director. If you’re going to give us an absolutely useless female lead, cast someone I don’t care about. Don’t cast Kim So Hyun and squander all her talent! It actually made me quite angry at how this amazing, powerful actress was given absolutely nothing to do. L was okay, but I really don’t think he was quite up to the task of making a bland character pop. Lee Sun was pretty annoying when he was a whimpering servant, but his transition into confident, mildly villainous king was just a tad too schizophrenic for my taste. Also his posture killed me. Yeah, I know he’s trying to be a cowering lower class man and all, but all that hunch did was make me want to put a knee in his spine and yank his shoulders back.

Like come one man, sit up straight

Yoon So Hee was a bit rocky to start, with her character's sudden and random love for Sun, but as the story progressed she settled in Hwa Gun’s character nicely. By the end of her story arc she felt comfortable in her role and gave a convincing, confident performance.

Quit playin' boy, we all know you ain't takin' it off

The side characters were all okay, barring Kim Young Woong who I find weirdly bad in everything. The plot itself felt super long, and dragged out points that should have been addressed much earlier. I mean, it took more than half the drama for Ga Eun to find out that Lee Sun was the King, and even longer than that to find out that Sun was the real King. There were so many moments where characters came close to finding out secrets about each other (that we the viewers already knew), that by the time these reveals came around I just didn’t care anymore. Ga Eun nearly discovered Lee Sun behind the mask so many times that it stopped being a cliffhanger moment- because we just knew something would happen that would prevent that mask from coming off. Long story short, this drama isn’t really what I was expecting it to be, and didn't really do a good job in telling its story.

A little less talking, a little more action please

Worse than being downright ridiculous-bad (giving ‘Scarlet Heart’ some serious side-eye here), ‘Ruler’ kind of just meandered on boring-bad, where it had all the right ingredients but just had no idea what to do with them, and so decided to do nothing. For 20 hours.

What Was Great:

Antagonists:

Thank goodness for our antagonists because really, they were the only ones that got anything done. Any time Dae Mok wasn’t actively involved in the story the pace of the show slowed right down and my interest started to drop.

He may be evil but Dae Mok knows how to get sh*t done

Once Dae Mok was back on board stirring things up and making trouble, the show became a lot more enjoyable. It almost got to the point where I was rooting for him and Pyunsoo just because he was interesting to watch on screen. While technically our second female lead is a hero, I’m still going to include Hwa Gun in this section,

The heroine of my heart

because as Dae Mok’s granddaughter and the new leader of Pyunsoo she was always aligned with the other antagonists. Boy, was Hwa Gun interesting. Once you accepted her rather abrupt love for Sun, her dilemma became quite fascinating. Her love for her family always collided with her love for Sun, and the tension just grew tighter and tighter as the time came for her to make a choice between the two. Hwa Gun was an upright and upstanding character who made many sacrifices for Sun, despite his indifference to her romantic feelings. She had a total Romeo and Juliet type of relationship with Sun, and I can’t help but wonder if this series would have been any better if Hwa Gun had been our leading lady. Hwa Gun was the interesting, active heroine I wanted for this show, often taking situations into her own hands and striving to always be on the front foot (unlike Ga Eun who knew nothing and did nothing). Hwa Gun’s defiant attitude and unwillingness to compromise Sun made for an interesting dynamic between the other Pyunsoo members. The love between Dae Mok and Hwa Gun was clear to see, which only made the friction caused by Sun more fascinating.

This is where the real tension's at

Hwa Gun’s Dad was a character I found surprisingly interesting. He lacked the smarts and cunning that Dae Mok and his daughter had, but his gentleness and love for his family was always nice to see. It was clear that Hwa Gun was going to be the dividing point between her father and grandfather, and it was bittersweet to see how her death at Dae Mok’s hand was what lost Dae Mok the respect of his son.

The only couple I really care about

And of course, without Hwa Gun we wouldn’t have had Gon. It took me a bit by surprise how alarmed I was when Gon was nearly killed, and I realised how much I didn’t want him to die. Even though he was a side character’s side kick, Gon still managed to get more character development than either of our leads. Despite not having many lines that went beyond accepting an order, Kim Seo Kyung was able to express Gon’s one sided love for his Lady, Hwa Gun, perfectly. As much as I adored Hwa Gun’s pure and unfaltering love for Sun, I liked Gon’s secret love just a little bit more. Gon was a character that gave Hwa Gun (and later Sun) power through his fighting skills, so it was nice to have a reason for him serving the two that went beyond just following orders. Lee Sun was a character that was either super interesting or super boring. For about 80% of this drama while he’s politely keeping the throne warm for Sun, Lee Sun was dead boring. Then towards the end he starts to have some autonomy (or so he thinks) and tries to shake things up a bit. Yay for shaking things up.

Really at this point I'll cheer for anyone who does anything that's not sitting around and talking

Sadly for Lee Sun, this didn’t exactly make his character any more likeable. It was less the fact the he was going against Sun and Ga Eun (because I didn’t really care about those guys at all), it was more the suddenly schizophrenic nature he possessed that made him a bit weird. Frankly speaking, I kind of wished that Lee Sun had successfully taken something away from Sun, cuz the real King seemed to have everything going for him and actually didn’t have to sacrifice much over the course of the drama.

Honestly speaking, I couldn't care less who ends up King

While a lot of people cursed him and called him greedy, I actually liked Lee Sun’s desire to keep the throne for himself. Because as things stand Sun really screwed his ‘friend’, over pretty royally. I mean, Sun (unintentionally) set up events for Lee Sun’s father to get murdered. He then starts wooing the girl Lee Sun likes.

You guys are terrible, terrible friends

He then asks Lee Sun to pretend to Prince just for a little while. Sh*t hits the fan, Lee Sun is forced to join Pyunsoo group, is continually poisoned and under threat of death every 15 days all while Sun runs off into hiding to protect himself. A whole FIVE YEARS pass in which Lee Sun is still being used, poisoned and threatened (all while separated from his family) and Sun makes no move to go and free his friend. While Lee Sun is suffering, Sun is off chasing a girl and making no effort to help anyone really- he’s even getting chummy with Lee Sun’s mother and sister. And still after all this Lee Sun intends to return the throne. Sun trying to marry Ga Eun was really the last straw for Lee Sun and he understandably snaps. Basically Sun and Ga Eun are officially the worst friends anyone could ever have. So I couldn’t help but cheer for Lee Sun a bit when he tried to keep the throne, if only because I wanted Sun to see how much of a wanker he’d been to this poor kid. Of course he doesn’t though and instead guilt trips Lee Sun for wanting the throne when he had nothing and Sun had everything. 

Costuming:

Everything was very pretty in this drama, particularly the costumes. Historical dramas always tend to have beautiful costumes and ‘Ruler’ is no exception. However, historical K-Dramas don’t always have the best wigs (I’ve seen some real shockers), but this drama thankfully gives us very nice and very natural looking hair- for both the males and females. 

Much pretty

What Wasn’t:

Non-Existant Heroine:

Ga Eun sucks. Sageuks are known for having pretty useless heroines (‘Moon that Embraces the Sun’, ‘Scarlet Heart Ryeo’), but ‘Ruler’ really takes the biscuit for the suckiest heroine.

Damsel in distress

Originally Ga Eun was quite cool. She hated injustice, was studying despite being a girl in a patriarchal society, and had no problem being friendly with people ranked lower than herself. She had to see her father executed and was then forced out of her home. Despite all the hardships,

Damsel still in distress

Ga Eun rallied the villagers around her who had also lost their homes and they built a market place in the middle of nowhere under Ga Eun’s instruction. And there ends our heroine’s usefulness. It also didn’t hurt that at the start while Ga Eun was quite likeable, Hwa Gun was acting kinda like a crazy person. But as soon as Sun comes on the scene, Ga Eun becomes completely and totally nothing-y. She literally does nothing of importance for the rest of the series. It kind of felt like the only reason she was in this show at all was because there needed to be some reason for Lee Sun to want to keep the throne. Ignoring that fact, without Ga Eun the rest of the drama probably would have progressed much the same, except that maybe Sun would have actually been a hero for the common people rather than just chasing after some girl and then becoming King so that he could marry her. I mean, I guess she did find the jar containing the document that proved Sun was King, but at the same time she was told to look for it in the first few episodes and didn’t actually find it until the second-to-last.

Congratulations, it only took you 15 episodes

During the period of time after the time skip and before Hwa Gun died, I actually think Hwa Gun got significantly more screen time than Ga Eun. Because she just mattered more, was more involved, and wasn’t annoying. I swear, Ga Eun never actually tried to solve any problems (and the times she did try she just made things worse- like becoming a court lady? Really?). Instead she just sat around and cried a lot. Frankly speaking I have no idea why Sun was so drawn to her, as in Joseon I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find a girl who whines and cries.

Recommend?

I strongly DO NOT recommend this drama. It’s long, exasperating, and left me feeling worn out rather than entertained.

Aaaaaaand it's over

Let's Eat

Let’s Eat

5.5/10

Let's Eat

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                         Year: 2014

Comedy

Synopsis:

Lee Soo Kyung is a divorced woman who lives alone. Although Soo Kyung prefers to do everything by herself, she finds it embarrassing to do the thing she likes best alone- eat at famous restaurants. After a friendly, enthusiastic girl moves in next door, Soo Kyung finds herself spending a lot more time with both her neighbours. After discovering that they all love food, the three often go out to eat together.

Cast:

Lee Soo Kyung (Lee Soo Kyung)

Yoon Doo Joon (Gu Dae Young)

Yoon So Hee (Yoon Jin Yi)

Shim Hyung Tak (Kim Hak Moon)

Lee Do Yeon (Oh Do Yeon)

Feeldog (Hyun Kwang Seok)

General Thoughts:

Well, while this drama certainly didn’t land itself in any of my favourite lists, it wasn’t all bad. The show had glimpses of sweetness and quite often presented laugh out loud humour, and of course plenty of delicious food.

Okay, but far from exceptional

Where ‘Let’s Eat’ went wrong for me is that it felt kind of like it was trying really hard, then just gave up, before trying some more and getting tired again. The story line was quite confused- while the mystery elements were mildly interesting, they felt extremely out of place in a slice of life drama such as this one, and I really don’t think they could have executed the mystery worse.

Weird thriller killer with no backstory, and really no point

Also the heroine was a giant b*tch, and that’s certainly not doing anyone any favours. Although it meandered along not doing very much, it did avoid being completely boring. While I personally disliked the heroine, the rest of the characters were fun and quirky, though rather deprived of any depth. Jin Yi rapidly became my favourite character- she was just so adorable and Yoon So Hee pulled of her naivety and innocence perfectly, so the character only appeared inexperienced rather than dumb. Dae Young was interesting as a male lead, though I will admit that I didn’t care all that much what happened to him. Yoon Doo Joon played the role well and was highly amusing, though the character was hard to connect to emotionally. The downside of having a quirky, detached male lead who brushes everything off is that it starts to imply that nothing really impacts him- he’ll keep making shallow relationships that never go anywhere while working as an insurance salesman. Sure, this might not actually be the case, but as he got very little (dare I say no) character development, it was hard to grasp who he really was or grow attached to him.

We barely even know our male lead

Feeldog’s character probably had around ten times the development the hero had, and he was only in like…4 episodes. If that. Shim Hyung Tak was just a ball of laughs, and it was easy to steadily open up to his character. While at first Hak Moon seems like a total butt, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that he is in fact just a massive ball of insecurity with a squishy centre and haughty outside.

Solid ten out of ten for comedy

Watching his haughtiness clash with his squishiness was always entertaining, and Shim Hyung Tak nailed the nervous puppy-eyes. And I suppose that brings us to our female lead. Sigh. I think I would have enjoyed this series way more had our heroine…not been our heroine. I would have much preferred Jin Yi to be our lead- but I suppose there’s an infinite number of problems that would have cropped up if she had been. Soo Kyung was just not likeable. In any way shape or form. At no point in the series did I find her sweet or endearing or acceptable at all really. I don’t know if her prickly character was supposed to be funny or just make her a unique character- but I found it completely off-putting. She just seemed like a person who had no interest in the world around her, and who was content to stay in her own private bubble. And a character like that probably would have been fine- but it was the way Soo Kyung acted as if the world was a dirty place and everyone else that inhabited it was beneath her that really made me dislike her character. For almost 12 or so episodes, Soo Kyung doesn’t even like Jin Yi or  Dae Young- so I question why some people have said that this is a heartwarming tale of neighbours becoming family- because it’s really just a tale of Soo Kyung figuring out how to not be openly hostile to her neighbours.

How can anyone like her- she's such a cow

I guess you could say that her prickliness covers up her real character- but unfortunately her prickliness is basically all we see until she has a unbelievable personality transplant after discovering Dae Young is the author of her favourite blog. Soo Kyung is shallow and selfish from start to finish, and had very few redeeming qualities. The writing was a bit all over the shop too. Sometimes it was a slice-of-life, sometimes it was a thriller, sometimes it was a romance- and none too convincingly. Despite having no real ongoing plot, the drama still remained fairly engaging- an upside of having such poorly constructed leads and characters is that it’s not predictable which way the romance will swing.

Stealer of scenes

The thriller aspects were tacked on as an afterthought and really could have used some fleshing out- some episodes had no mystery moments at all, while others relied on it heavily. I didn’t mind the mystery/thriller parts, though I do wonder if that’s just because I wanted to see the heroine hit over the head with a blunt object. Who can tell. The romance stayed out of the series for the most part, but came in heavy at the end. I didn’t really love the pairing, but can appreciate that the scenes probably would have been pretty cute had I not written off Soo Kyung from episode 2 (and once I write a character off, they rarely get back in my good graces). There were some jokes that got old pretty fast- such as Do Yeon wrongly thinking that every man loved her, and some jokes I wish had been kept going longer- Dae Young and Hak Moon’s awkward, almost gay moments. The directing, while not amazing, was better than the writing, and knew how to make a comedic moment truly funny. The editing cuts and camera angles for our two main boys enhanced their goofiness and made them seem adorably ridiculous. Though I will admit that the lengthy shots of food and characters eating were probably a bit too lengthy. You could have a bathroom break, make a cup of tea or have a short nap and you won't have missed anything except for people having lunch. The Pomeranian was a total scene stealer and was adorable throughout. The soundtrack was also on point.

Just one of the many, many food shots

What Was Great:

Second Leads:

The second leads were fabulous, and had way more story than either of the main leads. Although Hak Moon was used mostly for comedic relief, he had a heap of emotion stacked into his story, and it was hard not to pity him.

Jin Yi is Number 1!

I actually preferred him with Soo Kyung (disregarding her awkwardness around him), as they both seemed to have similar harsh exteriors to cover whatever was inside (though I’m still doubtful about Soo Kyung). Hak Moon’s journey of self discovery was really quite entertaining and sweet, and he remained likeable as he never tried to force the heroine over to his way of thinking. Jin Yi was just all kinds of adorable and I loved her to pieces. She was everything that Soo Kyung wasn’t- nice, friendly, optimistic, and caring. I cared more for Jin Yi’s happiness than I did for Soo Kyung’s- probably another reason I wasn’t really onboard the central romance. I liked when they brought in the delivery-boy character for Jin Yi, though it was a little weird how they tried to make him a bad guy before promptly forgiving and forgetting. Though I really shipped that romance, so I’m not mad that it came through. Jin Yi was always likeable to me as I was always on her team, though I can understand people not loving the way she tried to interfere with Soo Kyung and Dae Young’s relationship. 

I wouldn't have minded a massive plot twist where Dae Young was keen on Hak Moon. At least it would have been funny.

Sound Effects:

These were wonderful and so on point it was ridiculous. It made everything so much funnier than it otherwise would have been and fit into the tone of the series well. It’s not one of the things you start out noticing is done well in a drama, but once you do notice it’s hard to ignore the extra hilarity the sound effects add.

What Wasn’t:

Soo Kyung:

I’ve really said all I need to about her. She sucks and I don’t like her.

Unfortunately she didn't choke

Romance:

Boy was this one unconvincing romance. It came so far out of left field. There was no warm up to Dae Young falling for Soo Kyung, and as he’d apparently sworn off women until he got rid of his debt, I found it hard to see what it was about Soo Kyung that made her so irresistible to him. I mean, she lost the dude $100 000.

As Yoon Doo Joon tries not to pee his pants laughing mid-snog

Soo Kyung’s interest in Dae Young was also super unconvincing. She’s gone from outright hating this man to barely tolerating him for the sake of Jin Yi and good food. Suddenly she finds out he’s the author of the blog she reads and her attitude completely changes. It’s not even like a gradual softening. Just BAM suddenly she loves him. It did nothing for Soo Kyung’s character, as it only made her seem that much more superficial.

My thoughts exactly

She hasn’t given a toss about this guy until she finds out about his blog. It felt much more like she was in love with the idea of Dae Young rather than Dae Young himself. I also wasn’t keen on the way the romance impacted the relationships with Jin Yi. Jin Yi was the one who brought them all together to eat, but neither Dae Young nor Soo Kyung really care about Jin Yi once they decode they like each other. Had it been a big eating group it might have been fair, but these guys have been doing everything together, and then suddenly the two pair off and start (indirectly or not) excluding Jin Yi. I was fairly on board with Jin Yi in thinking that Soo Kyung was out of line. While Soo Kyung has every right to date Dae Young if he likes her, she’s known for ever that this is the man Ji Yi likes, and has constantly been telling Jin Yi to go for it and that Jin Yi and Dae Young look good together. Then suddenly she turns around and starts dating Dae Young without giving Jin Yi any sort of heads up. Yeah, not cool at all.

Meanwhile Jin Yi's getting pushed off a roof by a psycho

I think I almost would have preferred the romance being left out of it completely, as the romance left me feeling dissatisfied on many fronts. Perhaps it really should have been just a show about three neighbours becoming really good friends.

Re-watch?

I’d rather not.

Jin Yi and Kwang Seok were my favourite part