[Drama 2023-2024] Elegant Empire - 우아한 제국 - Mon to Fri @ 7:50 KST

[tulip06]

Where is episode 5? Viki says it will be available today, August 11, but nothing there so far. Nor on the questionable sites.

[Newbie21SG]

18 minutes ago, tulip06 said:

Where is episode 5? Viki says it will be available today, August 11, but nothing there so far. Nor on the questionable sites.

 

I don't think there was any Episode 5 yesterday, KBS youtube site didn't show any snippets of it. They did show for the other daily on KBS1.

[LeftCoastOppa]

7 hours ago, Lmangla said:

why is soup lady worried about playing another housekeeper/maid in drama? doesn't she know that housekeepers often have the snarkiest lines many dramas?  wasn't @LeftCoastOppa over the clouds for one? 

 

6 hours ago, partyon said:

Are you talking about this lady?

 

While Seo Hye-Won is an adorable cutie, there is only one Queen of daily drama housekeepers - She knows what you're thinking by the look on your face - The Maid from Miss Montecristo

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, partyon said:

Chingus, am good to do a poll for you! I need nominations on the most barfy daily dramas, though! Give me some suggestions on which to include in the poll!

 

Barfy Daily dramas???   If Barfy is defined by Thai Lakorn standards, I don't think I've seen a daily drama that even

qualifies. 

 

 

 

 

 

[partyon]

5 hours ago, LeftCoastOppa said:

Barfy Daily dramas???   If Barfy is defined by Thai Lakorn standards, I don't think I've seen a daily drama that even

qualifies. 

 

LOL I've come to the conclusion that no other country can compete with Thai lakorn barf standards - except for some South American countries.

 

So in this context I would classify kdrama barfiness more in the likes of Original Barf Drama (Love Ft. Marriage and Divorce). Do dailies have these components? Let's ask @joccu

 

5 hours ago, LeftCoastOppa said:

While Seo Hye-Won is an adorable cutie, there is only one Queen of daily drama housekeepers - She knows what you're thinking by the look on your face - The Maid from Miss Montecristo

 

Nice ring! Almost as nice as the Schwartz Ring in Spaceballs!

 

 

[backstreetboysfan]

No Episode 5 yesterday because of this.

 

Quote

• No episode aired on August 11 due to the broadcast of 2023 World Scout Jamboree K-POP SUPERLIVE.

 

And also this news No episode on the 18th as well.

 

Quote

• No episode will air on August 18 due to the broadcast of 2023 World Scout Jamboree K-POP SUPERLIVE.

 

Cr. https://wiki.d-addicts.com/The_Elegant_Empire/Episode_Ratings

[kboramint]

They have shown all the clips that appeared in the teaser/trailers this week. They were all in Episoded 1-4.  

[joccu]

@partyon  most Dailies has cheating husband who falls in love/lust with more beautiful new lady who is after the husband money and status.  
The wife is doormat in the beginning of the drama. Somewhere in the middle the wife finds her reason to fight back. Be it that one of her family member died. In the process of fighting back she falls in love with SML.  

 

then we have the in laws.   
the rich and the poor. 
 

 

@LeftCoastOppa  you’re right about that dailies is not lakorn barfy but they do have barfy elements.
cheating, behaving really awful towards your spouse, ridiculous in-laws etc.

[TheQueenReturns]

Am I the only one that seriously confused about what this drama is supposed to be doing?

[maribella]

@partyon except for MIAV and Unusual Woman, I could hardly remember the titles of dailies that I have watched after 3 months. But on googling, I think the most mind numbing boring ridiculous shows are Gold Mask and Teacher Oh So Nam. I can't decide which is worse.

I had only watched Everybody say Kungdari for a few episodes before giving it up, so it's not fair to include it.

[tulip06]

13 hours ago, Newbie21SG said:

 

I don't think there was any Episode 5 yesterday, KBS youtube site didn't show any snippets of it. They did show for the other daily on KBS1.

Which is the other daily?

[LeftCoastOppa]

4 hours ago, joccu said:

@LeftCoastOppa  you’re right about that dailies is not lakorn barfy but they do have barfy elements.
cheating, behaving really awful towards your spouse, ridiculous in-laws etc.

 

Okay, well on that note only one part of one daily drama comes to mind, so I'll throw it out there, and I'll trust the rest of the thread to either Yay, or Nay it.

 

The daily drama is Red Shoes -

 

FL is dating ML - ML has a younger playboy type brother (2ML) - 2ML is "loosely" dating 2FL - 2FL is actually the FL half-sister who is the target of her revenge plot.  2FL is deeply into 2ML, and wants/sees marriage. - FL works with both 2ML & 2FL.  

 

The FL asks the 2ML out for work related drinks, drugs him, takes him to a hotel, strips him & herself down and into bed they go. (nothing happens as 2ML is out cold) -  I don't remember just how the FL makes sure the 2FL finds out but she ends up bursting in finding naked FL in 2ML bed - very shortly after.   Then the ML boyfriend finds out, the parents, everyone at work ...

 

First, and only time I can think of that a daily drama character used the "nuclear option" in seeking revenge.   It is still the only scene that I was like ... OMG they went there in a daily, even if the deed was only implied. 

 

 

 

 

[partyon]

First poll: Confusing (?) Empire

 

Chingus, a first poll is up! Thanks to @joccu @maribella and @LeftCoastOppa for the barfiest daily drama suggestions, and to everyone else who is super confused about this drama.

 

If you would like to include a barf daily drama in question 3, please let me know and I will edit the poll.

 

tagging:

@liyahsbutterfly @LeftCoastOppa @maribella @marrez1 @backstreetboysfan @Ameera Ali @kboramint @perfectmouse @Yazusa @tulip06 @crystaltears @Lmangla @gm4queen @joccu @africandramalover @Newbie21SG @TheQueenReturns

[Newbie21SG]

4 hours ago, tulip06 said:

Which is the other daily?

 

Apple of My Eye (also called My Gold, My Jade) on KBS1.

[liyahsbutterfly]

As a daily drama expert, none of the classics are truly barf-inducing. But Dear Heaven and Beautiful Life, Wonderful Life also aren't dailies. I didn't watch The Secret Of My Love, but Love To The End was pretty barf-inducing at times. Included a scene where the FL got slapped hard by a man for no reason.

[partyon]

9 hours ago, liyahsbutterfly said:

As a daily drama expert, none of the classics are truly barf-inducing. But Dear Heaven and Beautiful Life, Wonderful Life also aren't dailies. I didn't watch The Secret Of My Love, but Love To The End was pretty barf-inducing at times. Included a scene where the FL got slapped hard by a man for no reason.

 

I have included Love to The End in the poll.

[liyahsbutterfly]

12 minutes ago, partyon said:

I have included Love to The End in the poll.

 

Hooray! I guess I'd consider Temptation Of Wife to be semi-barf-inducing? The "ML" (the husband Jung Gyo-Bin) was literally a rapist and that seemed to be pretty much ignored.

[yamiyugi]

Okay so here is the deal folks. I am sadly way to busy that I just can’t seem to finish dramas especially if they are dailies. Even the last one seemed interesting, but I couldn’t complete it. So, it seems will be the same case over here as well sadly.

 

Now moving on the drama, itself. I really have no idea what I was watching. I know that this drama is supposed to be a revenge drama and all but seriously I found it way more amusing as a comedy. Heck even the so called revenge part is making me laugh at this point. Not only that, but someone over here even posted the character description chart. Whoever is translating that needs to perhaps attempt to dub this drama in English because that seems just as funny. For instance, when they described the guy who knows Jacqueline, they described him working with his Galactic sister. Really what does that even mean. Was she an alien or deals with them at a galactic scale. See I can have a lot of fun in that department as well. I can only assume that the translators had trouble in translating so something got lost in translation. Maybe they even used google translation and that is why we got that amusing character description.

 

The drama does have somewhat of interesting characters as they all seem to have their own agenda. Let’s discuss some of them. CEO Nang is more likely the second lead. No way a guy who cheats on his wife can qualify for male lead status. Though his colour choice of pink in equally hilarious. To top this off this is perhaps the first drama that I actually saw a male character get into bed without changing. The budget must really be small for this drama.

 

Now before I get into anything more, I want to bring up a point that has been brought up in regard to the female lead, whether she is a twin who wants revenge for her sisters death, is the female lead disguised as her friend to confuse her enemies and take her revenge etc…

 

A bit hard to say but I am going to definitely say that she is in town for revenge. This was clearly obvious but let’s look at all the red flags that indicate that a lot of her actions were intentional even if they were coincidental so to speak. Someone mentioned how she was changing Infront of her so called BiL (assuming that she was a twin) and she didn’t recognize him. I am going to disagree with this point. Let’s look at the red flag over here. She is clearly aware of the fact that she is a dead ringer for Joo Kyung. This is not only due to meeting her a few years ago but also recently as she saw a picture of her on the desk at the office where she just caused a scene. She also knows said person. Now when the Ex husband notices her he addresses her by said name. at this point her reaction was to respond to him in Japanese indicating that he got the wrong person.

 

Doesn’t anyone find that odd. Since she is in Korea and even knows Korean, she could have easily corrected the mistake. Even to the point that she didn’t realize who he was until he properly introduced himself later. Notice how she otherwise points out to people that she is just a look alike such as the main leads mother who was a cleaner in their building. So if this was the case why didn’t she do so in this case as well.

 

Moving on while in the car she makes sure the guy knows that she is loaded as she is trapping him to see just how loyal he was too her. If he can cheat on his wife with her, she can know that he was doing the same thing with Joo Kyung. This part was indicated when she was having drinks with him, and the wife contacted him. He lied to her that he was in a meeting with the politician. Even when she pretended to be drunk, she was probably testing him. Pretty sure that guy won’t disappoint her down the line. He may try and deceive her for the time being, but his true nature is eventually going to show up.

 

Then we have the scene where she gets him a new shirt because she spilled food on him accidentally. Yes, the scene was meant to be funny about how she did it. But if we think about it carefully it looks pretty planned out in a way. Think about it this way she knows that if she pulls like that and suddenly releases it the food is going to drop on his clothes. This means that she can get him a new shirt. Which would certainly lead them in a semi compromising position. Not only that, but notice how she talks with him about how they were drunk last night and that hopefully nothing inappropriate happened. She did this publicly if she had any sense she would have done so in private. This means she wants the people in the office to gossip about this. Perhaps even hoping that his current wife finds out about this.

 

If you look at things in this light it might be on purpose that she dropped her earring in his car. She wanted the wife to discover it and cause a fight between the two. Now someone might be wondering how that could happen as it was probably just chance that the wife needed her husband’s car and she discovered the missing earring. While that is probably true the wife was bound to find the earring one way or another. For instance, another way that she could come across it would be if the car was being cleaned and when the cleaner discovered the earring, he would assume that it was the wives and hand it over to her. She just got lucky that the wife discovered it so soon. Not only that but if one noticed she was wearing the single earring even though she had misplaced the other pair. Now since I am not a female I can’t attest if this is normal behaviour or not. But I am going to assume that isn’t the case unless they are trying to make a statement of some sorts. For instance, Lee Yuri does that in Heavens Promise because she wants the evil mother to freak out and play some mind games with her. I believe that the same principle applies over here as well.

 

Has anyone noticed how the little daughter has selective mutism in this show. One has to wonder just what kind of trauma she had to suffer which led to this situation. In many ways her fathers treatment of her is certainly a factor. He demands that she speaks in English at least during meal times and even tries to control what she has for a diet. This certainly wouldn’t help her. Not only that I suspect that she will be key in taking down the villains later on. She probably witnessed one of them trying to harm her mother (sabotage the car brakes or overheard the plan to do so) thus causing her to become mute in fear. She is trying to protect herself because she doesn’t know any better and who to trust.

 

Oh, by the way lets get back to the female lead. Another reason that shows that all her actions are deliberate can be seen how she interacts with certain people around her. Moving back to the Ex and his wife. For starters notice how she gets into his personal space and insists that he isn’t her type or that she doesn’t seduce married men. She is clearly playing hard to get for a specific reason and this can be further seen when she informs him that she might give him a chance if he was single. Showing that she wants him to get a divorce. How many people can get back after divorcing their partner especially after they are caught cheating and then get dumped by the person they cheated with. It certainly seems like that is her goal over here.

 

Not only that but when the wife pops in she finds them in a so-called compromising position. Her response is simply that she isn’t that low to go after her friend’s husband. Okay while that may be believable her next actions again indicate that she has an agenda. Not only does she make sure that the wife knows that she is missing an earring she even has a response as to why the earring could have been in the car. It looks like she is a bit of an air head at times by her actions. But when we start to suspect that she may have an ulterior motive then they make a whole lot more sense. Then again all of this is merely my speculation over here and I could be totally wrong. Perhaps her character is just as it seems. But then we probably won’t be getting a revenge drama then.

 

Also, another thing to consider why she is actually the female lead and not her doppelganger. To an extent she seems way too familiar with the people around her. For instance, she constantly calls the aspiring actor aka the male lead kiddo. A term of endearment that was just between her and the actor. Even after being informed that only one person could call him that. Perhaps by coincidence or more likely she can’t change all her habits. Also, everyone seems to notice how she seems to be handling all of the problems that they are facing even though it is supposed to be her first time. Even if we are to assume that she had the same interests as her doppelganger I find that bit slightly hard to believe. There must be some differences even if she is a twin.

 

Come to think about it the twin thing is more possible than being a doppelganger. Did I hear correctly that the other one was from an orphanage. If that is possible then a birth secret is far more likely at this point. Not only that did anyone notice that the male leads mother has a small scar (burn mark I think) on her hand.). You don’t show that unless there is some sort of significance. Perhaps she rescued one of the babies from a fire. The other somehow survived and that is how she was raised by a Japanese family. Frankly I don’t think that she comes from a so called super rich family as she is claiming. Notice how the father’s name she has given is mostly a recluse. So, it won’t be easy to verify her identity. She probably knows that he has a daughter, and she can go by that name, and everything should be okay as long as he doesn’t get that family into trouble. Heck at this point I might even be willing to believe that her actual father is a loan shark or a member of the mafia in Japan. Considering the fact that he sent a bunch of thugs to retrieve her.

 

Okay while I have more to add I will have to leave my post over here as I have to get back to work. So till then take care all of you. Let’s hope that the revenge part happens soon and that I will still be around to comment on that. Apparently, I only recognize some of the adult actors. From the main leads only the second lead seems to be recognizable. Does he like playing cheating husbands I wonder. Also, what is it with these air head husbands who so depend on their mistress for success. It was the same case in the last drama. By the way how did that one end. Was it any good. I may have to get back to it at some point.

 

ps for the vote i really wanted to pick multiple people dying by a truck of doom. but i havent seen that ever happening. plus 3-5 would certainly be way more intersting but lets see what happens. i love being proved wrong

[joccu]

@liyahsbutterfly  I myself consider temptation of wife barf.

[kboramint]

12 hours ago, yamiyugi said:

 

 

Doesn’t anyone find that odd. Since she is in Korea and even knows Korean, she could have easily corrected the mistake. Even to the point that she didn’t realize who he was until he properly introduced himself later. Notice how she otherwise points out to people that she is just a look alike such as the main leads mother who was a cleaner in their building. So if this was the case why didn’t she do so in this case as well.

 

 

 

 

Yes, that is odd. Either she is her ex-wife's twin/friend and knows who the ML is OR she is the ex-wife pretending to be the twin/friend and all her actions towards the ML was intentional to get the SFL jealous. 

 

There's another red flag. If you have noticed there was a scene where she knew a secret about the actor that got head-butted. That he tried to force someone to have an abortion. Something that Ju-Kwong knew and supposivly told her twin/friend? How is this possible when the twin claimed they last talked a year ago? She knew about this secret but didn't know her twin died?       

 

12 hours ago, yamiyugi said:

ome to think about it the twin thing is more possible than being a doppelganger. Did I hear correctly that the other one was from an orphanage. If that is possible then a birth secret is far more likely at this point. Not only that did anyone notice that the male leads mother has a small scar (burn mark I think) on her hand.). You don’t show that unless there is some sort of significance. Perhaps she rescued one of the babies from a fire. The other somehow survived and that is how she was raised by a Japanese family. Frankly I don’t think that she comes from a so called super rich family as she is claiming. Notice how the father’s name she has given is mostly a recluse. So, it won’t be easy to verify her identity. She probably knows that he has a daughter, and she can go by that name, and everything should be okay as long as he doesn’t get that family into trouble. Heck at this point I might even be willing to believe that her actual father is a loan shark or a member of the mafia in Japan. Considering the fact that he sent a bunch of thugs to retrieve her

 

 

If this was another drama, they would probably show what you had described in the beginning and then have a time-jump to the present time BUT this drama decided that it would show what happens after the time jump first. Leaving everything that happened in the past, a secret. We don't know about what happened to Ju-Kyung or the ML's father. Will they have a time-jump backwards?    

[joccu]

ML. Honestly don’t know what he is playing.  This is so confusing.