[Drama 2019] Haechi, 해치

[shynaz]

Anyone can give spoiler tonight..may be kiss scene or bed scene.. Ops... 

 

Just realised its my dream scene.. Lol

[gerrytan8063]

@shynaz

 

"Anyone can give spoiler tonight..may be kiss scene or bed scene.. Ops... "

 

Yes, there was a bed scene, Yeo Ji was with Queen Dowager Inwon 

[akhenaten]

I haven't seen the latest episode yet except for clips on IG but I'm beginning to lose hope that Yeongjo and Yeo Ji's romance and the background stories that I've been wanting to see will ever be explored much. As it is, his scenes with Yeo Ji are very limited. Hardly any time for those little,  in-between scenes that would have shown how they start to fall in love.  What more with the background stories of Moon Su, Yeo Ji and the late Han Jeong Seok. 

[lightbringer06]

@akhenaten Yes, it does seem we might not see that backstory we wanted..they are busy with all the politics. With Ara's injury, it might be impossible..she still sits in a chair from her latest IG on the set. And that preview of holding hand scene bw YN and YJ, someone complained in IG that it was deleted? Not quite sure though because I too haven't scene the ep yet. But the preview for Tuesday's ep, YJ has a slight fight scene, she's fending off someone.

[spark101]

I love that the antagonists aren't one-dimensional, and the hero(es) are smart. Note to other dramas- you don't have to make your protagonists stupid for them to be realistic/human! 

Spoiler

Another shoutout to jung il woo, whose portrayal of yeongjo I'm loving. No overacting, just a great performance all around. 

And that preview, oh snap. Looks like a lot of fun for tomorrow's(or today's, depending on where you live, haha) episode. And our yeoji is still capable, mentally and physically, so no one in the palace had better cross her! 

 

Edit: In case anyone hasn't already heard, nielsen has been having a delay in ratings due to unknown system errors since a couple days ago. 

[hahanzyy]

13 hours ago, akhenaten said:

Ibut I'm beginning to lose hope that Yeongjo and Yeo Ji's romance and the background stories that I've been wanting to see will ever be explored much. As it is, his scenes with Yeo Ji are very limited. Hardly any time for those little,  in-between scenes that would have shown how they start to fall in love.  What more with the background stories of Moon Su, Yeo Ji and the late Han Jeong Seok. 

 

initially from looking at the IG posts, i was also disappointed with the lack of interactions between King & YJ. 

i thot i wouldn't enjoy this episode but i have just finished watching it with sub and i must say i like it a lot. It is true

romance is definitely not the focus of the drama. The situation portrayed was so tensed for the king, with waves after waves of bad news coming in at him. Even though he only saw YJ for a few short minutes, the words YJ said to him definitely gave him lots 

of comfort and strength. 

[irilight]

18 hours ago, akhenaten said:

Ohhhhh. I would love for these two actors to reunite in a serious film together. Or another drama. The idea of a cynical but brilliant politician like Min Jin Heon mentoring an equally brilliant though inexperienced King Yeongjo is just so much my crack right now

@akhenaten, I second that idea... I hope the Gods are listening to us.!

 

8 hours ago, spark101 said:

Another shoutout to jung il woo, whose portrayal of yeongjo I'm loving. No overacting, just a great performance all around. 

 

 @spark101, I agree with you. I love Junkg Il-Woo's portrayal of King Yeongjo. I always knew that Jung Il-Woo is a terrific actor, but he did not always get as great projects as this one. I hope this is a turning point for him.

I also agree with you that the antagonists are smart here.

Tonight, another powerful episode.  I am glad that Yeongjo has some smart people on his side too. 
Dal-Moon for one.  I do not think think this is the first Kdrama I have seen with antagonists spreading terror by poisoning the wells.  I would almost think this would be the first thing to check.

And I am glad Moon-Soo saw the antagonists and will be able to report that.  I hope he comes back to be near the King.
 

1 hour ago, hahanzyy said:

The situation portrayed was so tensed for the king, with waves after waves of bad news coming in at him. Even though he only saw YJ for a few short minutes, the words YJ said to him definitely gave him lots 

of comfort and strength

@hahanzyy, I was also glad that he finally got to see YJ in the palace. Even though he might not like the idea of her being a court lady, clearly her presence there gave him comfort.

[akhenaten]

SBS is really very stingy when it comes to sharing clips and videos for this drama.  Until now, all their BTS are unsubbed and clips uploaded to YT are several episodes back.  

 

Only 3 weeks left and very few scenes between Yeongjo and Yeo Ji.  If they won't have a happy ending in this drama, at least show us a few moments of them together in between all the chaos.    Even flashbacks will do.  Because how can I believe Yeo Ji suddenly found herself falling in love with Yeongjo?  If there's no context, her feelings can just as easily be borne out of fierce loyalty to him as her king, whom she has chosen to serve for the rest of her life.  I don't like that.   

[realistic2280a]

Go ARa's injury must have been severe for her not to be seen too much....

 

just one scene in ep 19? And I really do not like that the last two episodes that we saw YJ, she just cries and in ep 19, after the King saw her, and it ended just like that?? As if writer could not think of any other dialogue for her character.... sigh.. have a swift recovery Ara!

[akhenaten]

'What happened to that scene in the preview when Yeongjo held Yeo Ji's hand?  It wasn't shown in the actual episode. That scene kind of reminded me of a similar scene in "Dong Yi" when King Sukjong took Dong Yi's hand and she was so flustered because she wasn't sure what it meant. There are very few scenes betweem them as it is. The least they could have done was show us that handholding scene. 

 

Speaking of "Dong Yi",  I just need to rant a bit about the way the romance is portrayed and developed. I'm afraid this writer is giving the romance here in "Haechi" the same treatment.   To me,  she tends to portray romances in her drama in an overly idealized and chivalrous manner.  Characters often just stare at each other, standing three feet away from each other.  They almost never kiss (in Dong Yi,  Sukjong and Dong Yi only kissed once and it was the typical lips smashed together kind). When they hug,  if at all,  only their heads and shoulders touch,  never a full-body hug.  I remember one such hug in Dong Yi,  where Sukjong looked like he would dislocate his back or topple over because he was trying to keep the lower half of his body away from her even as he tried to hug her tightly around the shoulders. And when they hold hands,  their fingers don't intertwine. The hand of the female lead is often closed into a fist or remains limp while the male lead's hand close over hers. 

 

Maybe the writer is trying to aim for slow burn or even the tension of a love that can't be expressed freely due to the strict norms of Confucian society. But sometimes,  they just end up looking comical and unrealistic. 

[spark101]

11 minutes ago, akhenaten said:

'What happened to that scene in the preview when Yeongjo held Yeo Ji's hand?  It wasn't shown in the actual episode. That scene kind of reminded me of a similar scene in "Dong Yi" when King Sukjong took Dong Yi's hand and she was so flustered because she wasn't sure what it meant. There are very few scenes betweem them as it is. The least they could have done was show us that handholding scene. 

 

Speaking of "Dong Yi",  I just need to rant a bit about the way the romance is portrayed and developed. I'm afraid this writer is giving the romance here in "Haechi" the same treatment.   To me,  she tends to portray romances in her drama in an overly idealized and chivalrous manner.  Characters often just stare at each other, standing three feet away from each other.  They almost never kiss (in Dong Yi,  Sukjong and Dong Yi only kissed once and it was the typical lips smashed together kind). When they hug,  if at all,  only their heads and shoulders touch,  never a full-body hug.  I remember one such hug in Dong Yi,  where Sukjong looked like he would dislocate his back or topple over because he was trying to keep the lower half of his body away from her even as he tried to hug her tightly around the shoulders. And when they hold hands,  their fingers don't intertwine. The hand of the female lead is often closed into a fist or remains limp while the male lead's hand close over hers. 

 

Maybe the writer is trying to aim for slow burn or even the tension of a love that can't be expressed freely due to the strict norms of Confucian society. But sometimes,  they just end up looking comical and unrealistic. 

I hope I don't sound rude but, what do you even mean by unrealistic? In those days, it's simply not realistic for couples to hug and kiss, unless they are married and within the confines of their room. It's just a drama but the distance and any awkwardness makes more sense. Also, the writer and PD have made it clear the focus is on the politics/yeongjo's rule, so this isn't the drama to be watching for the romance. 

[akhenaten]

 

 

5 hours ago, spark101 said:

I hope I don't sound rude but, what do you even mean by unrealistic? In those days, it's simply not realistic for couples to hug and kiss, unless they are married and within the confines of their room. It's just a drama but the distance and any awkwardness makes more sense. Also, the writer and PD have made it clear the focus is on the politics/yeongjo's rule, so this isn't the drama to be watching for the romance. 

 

Hello @spark101  To put "unrealistic" into context,  i will take the specific example of a scene in "Dong Yi" wherein it was just King Sukjong and Dong Yi together. By the way,  I'm using Dong Yi because it's by the same writer. Anyway,  the scene was Sukjong and Dong Yi had just been reunited after a long time of separation wherein she gave birth to their son, who incidentally happened to be Yi Geum. She and their son had also almost died in a fire where she was hurt.  The scene is highly charged emotionally. Given the situation and the fact that it was just the two of them in a private place, Sukjong could have hugged her. Instead,  he was just made to take her hand. Then another scene was when they were finally back in the palace and Sukjong was in Yi Geum's room,  watching his son sleeping. Dong Yi had come in and sat beside him. They started bantering about who Yi Geum looked like,  until finally Dong Yi said that their son did take after his father. It was the reason why she was able to go on despite being separated from Sukjong,  because when she looked at Yi Geum,  she saw his father in him. Sukjong was so moved that he promised that he will never let them go again. Then he hugged her tightly (at least they hugged). In this scene,  I don't think it would have been quite inappropriate if he had kissed her on the forehead,   or even a kiss on her lips. They were in the privacy of Yi Geum's room and the boy was asleep. 

 

I'm not saying the characters should be shown doing public displays of affection, nor do I ask that the drama show highly intimate scenes at the level of dramas like "Game of Thrones" for example. But romance can be portrayed in the proper context,  at the proper time and place in the drama. 

 

Yes, Haechi isn't a romance drama but it does include that story arc for Yeongjo and Yeo Ji. It should at least portray how and why they (especially Yeo Ji) fall in love and have them express that love in ways within context without becoming a romantic sageuk and violating the norms of the Confucian values of that society. 

 

Thanks for the clarification. 

[spark101]

@akhenatenI just don't see the point of fussing over it so much when any scenes of affection are minimal in screen time and very background to the plot in general. It would be a different story if the actual premise of the drama was romance - but it's not, and they don't show a lot of it, hence I don't really care- it doesn't get in my way of enjoying the drama and its purpose. I'll watch something like 100 days my prince if I'm feeling up for a good sageuk romance. *shrug emoji*

[akhenaten]

@spark101 don't get me wrong. I do enjoy the drama very much,  despite things like what I mentioned.  But I guess I'm just one of those viewers who prefer to have loose ends tied,  so to speak,  especially loose ends involving a major character's story arc. But then,  in the case of "Haechi",  Yeo Ji is a fictional character after all so maybe that's the reason why the writer made this choice. It doesn't get in the way of the drama being a very compelling watch, but it would help make the storytelling a bit more well-rounded if we get to see that her romance with Yeongjo makes sense. 

 

In any case, we've only got 3 weeks left to this drama. Regardless of how this angle of Yeongjo's story is handled,  I'm still looking forward to watching him become one of Joseon's greatest kings. 

 

[spark101]

@akhenatenWell, they involve the major characters, yes, but the the story arc itself isn't major. The romance feels very much just a "oh, yeah, by the way, that's kind of a thing, but anyways..." *cue main story line*.  And we haven't seen them really confess anything more than the fact that they just want to protect each other, so... 

 

Well, enough back and forth on that.  39-40 was a great episode. And a most riveting ending. 

Spoiler

I really liked the scene between minister min and jo(head of sorons). It shows just how amazingly brilliant yeongjo was/is, and the impression it's made on the head officials. Another thing I also love about this is how it shows that the antagonists can put aside petty differences/feelings they have with yeongjo and work with him for a more important cause. History plays a part in this, but once again, I'd like to see more of this less-one-dimensional relationship between two [supposedly] opposing sides in other dramas as well. 

And when yeongjo's prescription/treatment order worked, we see his wits again. Seriously people, search up yeongjo; he was a smart dude.

That scene near the end where the rebel forces took the fortress in cheongju was great. This reminds me- I miss KBS1 doing epic sageuks. They had the best battle scenes. SBS is really bringing the sageuks this year, i guess. 

Can't wait to see how the rebellion progresses next week. 

 

[shynaz]

Still not yet we get the romance relationship right.. Its ok.. Get it its political main plot.. Why this drama make me want more of politics.. 

 

 

[akhenaten]

I cannot say this enough, but "Heachi" is a good drama and King Yeongjo is such an interesting historical figure whose life makes for a very good and compelling story: the son of a lowborn woman who, for all intents and purposes,  was a real-life Korean Cinderella; ascended the throne against all odds and became one of Joseon's greatest kings. The ingredients for a great story are all there,  and they're real.  Yet not many people seem to watch this. Maybe coz his era doesn't involve too many battle scenes anymore?  Or maybe coz Yeongjo's battles are more "political" so it's more of a strategy game in court than anything else? 

 

Oh well. 

[spark101]

"Lee in jwa's rebellion" is on the naver search rankings right now  Why 12 hours after the episode aired, I don't know(well, I guess people are awake now, lol), but it's fun to see people take an interest in real historical events after watching something. 

[akhenaten]

Ah. I have a theory for the not so high ratings. Watching "Haechi" is probably like going through History Class for them all over again. 

[hahanzyy]

I'm also very touched by the scene between minister Min and Jo... these two very senior and experienced ministers agreeing that they are not friends with each other, that they do not wish to understand the King,  and yet humbly admitting that they learnt something from the young King and were supportive of his actions and plans, for the greater good of the kingdom ... it is so different from the usual pure evil/pure good characters i see in dramas

 

watching Haechi made me wonder about the real King YeongJo... his life seemed jam packed with trials and difficulties, a rollercoaster rides of ups and downs. it's scary leading his life