Origin and release year: South Korea (2023 – Elegant Empire)

Korean title: 우아한 제국

Starring: Han Ji Wan, Lee Si Kang, Son Sung Yoon, Kim Ga Ran, Kang Yul, Lee Sang Bo, Kim Jin Woo, Lee Mi Young, Kim Seo Ra, Nam Kyung Eup, Bang Hyung Joo, Kang Sung Hoon, Lee Jung Bin, Kim Mi Ra, Yoon Chae Na, Kim Sol Bi, Yoo Jang Young, Lee Kyu Young, Kwon Oh Hyun, Mi So Yun, Hwang Dae Ki, Kim Ha Gyeom

Director: Park Gi Ho

Screenwriter: Han Young Mi

Synopsis: Gi Yun is a clever and good-looking chairman of WJ Entertainment. He is a rich romanticist of the century who seems perfect on the outside, but he is also an ambitious man with a dark secret that he cannot tell others. His wife, Shin Ju Kyung, was able to rise from poverty by marrying Gi Yun, just like Cinderella from the fairytale. She is a perfect mother and a lovely wife with a great career until an unexpected incident steals everything away from her. (MyDramaList)

At some point as an avid makjang watcher, you start to feel like if you’ve seen one makjang drama, you’ve seen them all. Whilst this is true in most cases as the stereotypical makjang tropes come to light in narratives, such as long lost children or amnesia – Elegant Empire did offer an element of refreshing appeal.

There was no amnesia trope (one of this writer’s personal pet peeves in K-dramas), there was no long-lost anyone, and the remaining tropes were done fairly well, bar some of them being overused. Like the amount of people that died in Elegant Empire or ended up in hospital felt a big excessive… However, we can forgive it.

Shin Ju Kyung (played by Han Ji Wan) coming back with a new identity as Seo Hee Jae to get revenge after faking her death (in which she was the target of homicide) is a trope we have yet to see in a lot of makjang dramas. At first, it was hard to believe that anyone would fall for it but if you obviously went to someone’s funeral and then saw someone who looks exactly like them but with a different background, aura, and no birth mark then we guess you could believe it. As the story went on, they did a great job of convincing us though.

Another question mark is how Shin Ju Kyung ended up marrying into such a horrible family in the first place but we’re glad she was able to turn things around and get back at them in a refreshing way. However, it’s a shame that Jang Ki Yoon (played by Kim Jin Woo at first, then later changed to Lee Si Kang) just died without much consequence. Granted, dying is one of the biggest consequences there is, but as a viewer you still wanted to see him live a life of torment as much as he had dished out.

Despite his less than satisfactory end, we have to say that Lee Si Kang was an a**hole personified. He did really well portraying that role.

However, since his only character trait was being evil and Seo Hee Jae/Shin Ju Kyung had an annoyingly indecisive side…

Sidenote: We didn’t forget about Jang Woo Hyuk (played by Kang Yul) but he didn’t make that much of an impact to the story to be honest.

There is one actress who stood out and almost even stole the show in this drama and that is Jacqueline (played by Son Sung Yoon). If there’s a character that showed depth, layeredness, character growth and development in this drama then it’s her. Not only that, her delivery of the script was so entertaining that you ended up looking forward to her scenes the most – even in the latter half of the drama where she kind of became a background support character. At one point you hated her evil ways, at another, her vulnerability made you feel for her, and towards the end you were just rooting for her to succeed. This actress made you feel something and really added to the drama’s overall entertainment factor.

Aside from the acting, the drama was pretty solid for a makjang. Naturally, there were some boring moments in between but for the most part it was a well-balanced narrative with a fair share of over-the-top drama and some wholesome moments.

What did you think of Elegant Empire? Let us know in the comments!