South Korea · Drama · 2021
The King’s Affection
Binge Brief
- Park Eun-bin plays both twins, Crown Prince Lee Hwi and Dam-yi, opposite Rowoon as Jung Ji-woon
- 20 episodes on KBS2, Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:30, from 11 October to 14 December 2021
- Released on Netflix worldwide on the same day as each KBS2 broadcast
- Nationwide Nielsen ratings rose from 6.2% for episode 1 to 12.1% for the finale
- First South Korean series to win an International Emmy, Best Telenovela in 2022
Synopsis
The King's Affection is a 2021 Korean drama from KBS2, set in the Joseon period, about a woman who has to rule as a man. A royal daughter is born a twin, and because a prince born as one of twins could be judged unfit for the throne, her grandfather orders the baby girl killed. She survives. Years later she is made to live as her brother, Crown Prince Lee Hwi, after he dies in her place. Park Eun-bin plays both twins, the prince and his sister Dam-yi.
The servant sent to kill the child leaves her at a monastery instead. Dam-yi grows up to work as a maid inside the palace, where she falls for Jung Ji-woon, the son of Inspector Jung Seok-jo. The crown prince notices that the maid has his face. He trades places with her so he can slip out and see the execution of his tutor, a reformer brought down by their grandfather. The swap goes wrong: Jung Seok-jo stabs the disguised prince, believing he is killing the girl. From then on Dam-yi is Lee Hwi, and only a few people close to the throne, among them Court Lady Kim and Eunuch Hong, know the truth.
Ji-woon, sickened by what his father does, leaves for Ming China and makes his name there as a physician. Back in Joseon he works at Samgaebang, until Lord Sangheon, wanting use of his Ming connections, has him appointed royal tutor to the crown prince. Rowoon plays Ji-woon. Neither of them recognises the other at first, and the old attachment comes back anyway, which is the one thing the disguised heir cannot afford.
The politics are just as dangerous. Lord Sangheon, the Left State Councillor, put King Hyejong on the throne through a coup and treats his granddaughter as a tool. The king answers by building up Lord Changchun, father of his second queen, as a rival faction. Prince Wonsan, a cousin, schemes to take the succession. Another cousin, Lee Hyun, Prince Jaeun, played by Nam Yoon-su, works out that the crown prince is a woman, loves her, and stays loyal.
Screenwriter Han Hee-jung adapted Lee So-young's manhwa Yeonmo, and Song Hyun-wook directed. Court intrigue and a slow romance share the screen with lighter comic scenes, and the violence is not played down.
The King's Affection characters beyond the two leads
Around Dam-yi and Ji-woon the drama builds a crowded court. Choi Byung-chan plays Kim Ga-on, the crown prince's personal bodyguard, whose real name is Kang Eun-seo and whose past is tied to the tutor executed at the start of the story. Bae Yoon-kyung plays Shin So-eun, only child of the Minister of Personnel, and Jung Chae-yeon plays Noh Ha-kyung, youngest daughter of the Minister of Military Affairs.
The older generation carries most of the menace. Yoon Je-moon is Han Ki-jae, Lord Sangheon, and Bae Soo-bin is Inspector Jung Seok-jo, Ji-woon's father. Lee Pil-mo plays King Hyejong, Baek Hyun-joo is Court Lady Kim and Ko Kyu-pil is Eunuch Hong, the two servants who guard the secret. Kim Taek plays the scheming Lee Jeong, Prince Wonsan, and Lee Il-hwa the Queen Dowager. Park Ki-woong makes a special appearance as the Chief Eunuch and envoy from the Ming dynasty.
Why it still gets watched
Its reach outside Korea came fast. Within two weeks of the premiere it was in the top 10 of Netflix's most viewed programmes worldwide and in the top 5 in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. By 23 November 2021 it stood fourth in Netflix's Global Top 10 for non-English shows, with 15.64 million hours watched.
Then came the prize. In 2022 it won Best Telenovela at the International Emmy Awards, the first South Korean television series to win an International Emmy.
Critics looked at what it does with an old device. The woman disguised as a man is nothing new, but here she holds the higher rank, and reviewers said that reversal opened new ground, along with a stronger presence of queer elements than the genre usually allows. Park Eun-bin's performance was singled out. NME placed it sixth among the best Korean dramas of 2021. Some reviews found parts of the romance hard to believe and thought the violence could have been cut back.
The King’s Affection cast
Filming locations
Korean Folk Village, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province
Hangae Village, Seongju County
Gyeonggijeon, Jeonju
Mungyeong Saejae provincial park
Buan Cinema Theme Park
Jukjusanseong and Sangdangsanseong fortresses
Themes and messages
Director Song Hyun-wook has described the series as the story of an unlucky monarch forced to hide that she is a woman, with a quiet romance growing inside a court that shows little mercy to anyone in it, blending period drama with action and lighter comic turns rather than playing the premise for pure melodrama. The Thai outlet Workpoint Today read the same premise from another angle, framing Lee Hwi's feelings for Ji-woon, which do not change once he learns her secret, as a step toward normalizing love that does not sit inside strict lines of femininity and masculinity.
Interesting facts
The leads were announced months apart. Ilgan Sports reported Park Eun-bin as the female lead on 17 December 2020 and named Rowoon as the male lead on 15 January 2021; both were confirmed on 19 March 2021.
A second chance to play a king. Park Eun-bin, who had already worked in a historical drama with Secret Door in 2014, said she doubted she would get another chance to play a king, and that she wanted to show why the character needed the disguise rather than imitate masculinity.
Filming stopped twice. Production was halted on 26 July 2021 after a staff member from the 24 July shoot tested positive for COVID-19, and resumed on 28 July. On 6 August it was reported that filming had been cancelled after a fire broke out the evening before, at 21:10 KST, while the crew was shooting at the Korean Folk Village.
The camera kept rolling until the last month of broadcast. Filming began in April 2021 and wrapped on 15 November, while the series was already on air.
Episodes
| Ep | Title | Air date | Status | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Years after the crown princess secretly gives birth to twins, Crown Prince Lee Hwi meets a palace maid who could pass for his own reflection, stunning both him and his mother. | 11 Oct 2021 | Aired | 6.2% |
| 2 | Dam-yi struggles under the weight of ruling in her dead brother's place, while across the palace Jung Ji-woon races to find a cure for an impatient patient. | 12 Oct 2021 | Aired | 6.7% |
| 3 | Believing he will never cross paths with Ji-woon again, Hwi lets him go unharmed, then is unsettled to spot him wandering inside the palace walls soon after. | 18 Oct 2021 | Aired | 6.5% |
| 4 | Ji-woon proves harder to dismiss than Hwi expected from a new royal tutor, while Lee Hyun pulls his cousin out of the palace for a night in the city. | 19 Oct 2021 | Aired | 5.9% |
| 5 | Ji-woon's attempt to draw his guarded pupil closer to the people around him backfires, and her cousin Prince Changwoon tests Hwi with a cup that leaves her lightheaded. | 25 Oct 2021 | Aired | 5.7% |
| 6 | A book on the crown prince's desk leaves Ji-woon puzzled, and with little time left to protect the children he once cared for, he turns to Hwi for help. | 26 Oct 2021 | Aired | 5.5% |
| 7 | A visit from Ming envoys gives Hwi a chance to win her father's trust, though a difficult guest pushes her composure to its limit. | 1 Nov 2021 | Aired | 7.0% |
| 8 | Ji-woon holds a shaken Hwi close, while Lee Hyun and Ji-woon join forces to work out what a mysterious visitor wants from the envoy. | 2 Nov 2021 | Aired | 7.6% |
| 9 | The queen dowager presses the crown prince to marry, and as Ji-woon replays the previous night in his head, he begins to understand his own tangled feelings. | 8 Nov 2021 | Aired | 7.8% |
| 10 | After a day spent happily together, Hwi finally gives Ji-woon her answer, just as Shin So-eun and Noh Ha-kyung arrive at court as candidates for crown princess. | 9 Nov 2021 | Aired | 7.2% |
| 11 | Lee Hyun calls on Ji-woon at his new clinic, while an angry Hwi confronts her cousin Prince Changwoon over his conduct and pays a steep price for it. | 15 Nov 2021 | Aired | 7.1% |
| 12 | The king faces mounting pressure to remove the crown prince, and Ji-woon, back inside the palace, vows to shield Hwi whatever it costs him. | 16 Nov 2021 | Aired | 8.8% |
| 13 | Hwi finally lets Ji-woon glimpse the truth behind her disguise, while Lord Sangheon moves openly to clear a path to the throne for his own choice of king. | 22 Nov 2021 | Aired | 10.0% |
| 14 | Hwi and Noh Ha-kyung spend their first night together, while Ji-woon, reinstated in a palace now controlled by Lord Sangheon, keeps out of sight to treat the wounded king. | 23 Nov 2021 | Aired | 9.6% |
| 15 | Working quietly against her grandfather, Hwi plans her retaliation as Kim Ga-on returns to the king's side with a confession that changes everything. | 29 Nov 2021 | Aired | 9.9% |
| 16 | Commander Yoon Hyeong-seol hunts for a ledger that could keep his promise to the king, while Prince Wonsan pieces together the truth about Hwi. | 30 Nov 2021 | Aired | 8.8% |
| 17 | Talk of a bond between Hwi and Ji-woon spreads among the palace staff, pushing Jung Seok-jo to act on his own to protect his son. | 6 Dec 2021 | Aired | 8.4% |
| 18 | Lee Hyun and Lord Sangheon uncover Prince Wonsan's hidden scheme to unseat the king, as Hwi readies herself to face her grandfather without help. | 7 Dec 2021 | Aired | 9.4% |
| 19 | Prince Wonsan shows Lord Sangheon just how far he will go to claim the throne, while Hwi prepares to step down as ruler. | 13 Dec 2021 | Aired | 9.3% |
| 20 | Lord Sangheon and Prince Wonsan march on the palace with an army, cutting down anyone in their way as they close in on the crown. | 14 Dec 2021 | Aired | 12.1% |
Soundtrack
Starting the player loads Spotify, which sets its own cookies.
| Track | Artist |
|---|---|
| Shadow of You, Part 1 | Super Junior-K.R.Y., 12 Oct 2021 |
| One and Only, Part 2 | Lyn, 19 Oct 2021 |
| If I, Part 3 | Baek Ji-young, 26 Oct 2021 |
| I Believe, Part 4 | An Da-eun, 2 Nov 2021 |
| Hide and Seek, Part 5 | Vromance, 9 Nov 2021 |
| Full of You, Part 6 | Haeyoon (Cherry Bullet) and Vromance, 16 Nov 2021 |
| No Goodbye In Love, Part 7 | Rowoon (SF9), 23 Nov 2021 |
Awards
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | APAN Star Awards | Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries | Rowoon | Nominated |
| 2022 | APAN Star Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries | Park Eun-bin | Nominated |
| 2022 | Baeksang Arts Awards | Best Actress, Television | Park Eun-bin | Nominated |
| 2022 | International Emmy Awards | Best Telenovela | The King's Affection | Won |
| 2022 | Korean Broadcasting Awards | Best Actor/Actress | Park Eun-bin | Won |
| 2021 | Korea First Brand Awards | Female Acting Idol | Jung Chae-yeon | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Best Couple Award | Park Eun-bin and Rowoon | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Best New Actor | Rowoon | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Best Young Actress | Choi Myung-bin | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Popularity Award, Actor | Rowoon | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Popularity Award, Actress | Park Eun-bin | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actress | Park Eun-bin | Won |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Best New Actor | Nam Yoon-su | Nominated |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Best New Actress | Jung Chae-yeon | Nominated |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Best Young Actor | Ko Woo-rim | Nominated |
| 2021 | KBS Drama Awards | Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries | Park Eun-bin | Nominated |
| 2022 | Seoul International Drama Awards | Best Writer | Han Hee-jung | Won |
Frequently asked questions
What is The King's Affection about?
The King's Affection is a Joseon-era kdrama about Dam-yi, a princess hidden at birth because she was born a twin, who takes the place of her brother, Crown Prince Lee Hwi, after he is killed. She has to rule as a man while falling for her tutor, Jung Ji-woon.
Who is in The King's Affection cast?
The main cast of The King's Affection is Park Eun-bin, Rowoon, Nam Yoon-su, Choi Byung-chan, Bae Yoon-kyung and Jung Chae-yeon, with Yoon Je-moon, Bae Soo-bin, Lee Pil-mo, Baek Hyun-joo and Ko Kyu-pil in supporting roles.
Who plays the twins in The King's Affection?
In The King's Affection one actress plays both twins: Park Eun-bin is Crown Prince Lee Hwi and his sister Dam-yi. As children, the twins are played by Choi Myung-bin. The two actors share the role, one for the childhood years and one for adulthood.
Who is Lee Hyun in The King's Affection?
Lee Hyun, Prince Jaeun, is the crown prince's paternal cousin in The King's Affection, a soft-hearted man who discovers Dam-yi's secret and stays loyal to her. Nam Yoon-su plays him, and Choi Ro-woon plays him as a boy.
How many episodes does The King's Affection have?
The King's Affection has 20 episodes of about 70 minutes each. They aired on KBS2 every Monday and Tuesday from 11 October to 14 December 2021.
Is The King's Affection on Netflix?
Yes. The King's Affection premiered worldwide on Netflix on the same day as its KBS2 broadcast, and it is listed on Netflix under the title The King's Affection.
Is The King's Affection based on a webtoon?
The King's Affection is based on Yeonmo, a Korean comic (manhwa) by Lee So-young. Han Hee-jung wrote the screenplay for the drama.
What awards did The King's Affection win?
The King's Affection won Best Telenovela at the 2022 International Emmy Awards, the first South Korean series to win an International Emmy. At the 2021 KBS Drama Awards it won six prizes, including Top Excellence Award, Actress for Park Eun-bin.
What do reviews of The King's Affection say?
Reviews of The King's Affection praised it for putting the disguised woman in the higher social position and for Park Eun-bin's performance, and NME ranked it sixth among the best Korean dramas of 2021. Some critics found parts of the romance implausible and the violence excessive.