O Conto de Nokdu (2019)

The Tale of No-can-do

Initially, it stood out by highlighting a predominantly female perspective of resilient women thriving independently, offering a glimpse into a world of contentment among a backdrop of mostly antagonistic male characters. However, the typical romantic entanglement, took a central role in a heartbeat as it featured two inexplicably infatuated men competing for the affection of a seemingly unremarkable woman, creating an appalling surreal cycle of rejection and groveling. This toxic dynamic became overwhelming and off putting, tainting the entire drama. The drama stumbled when merging this with a weary political subplot that ended up being unnecessarily cluttered. On another note, the cross-dressing gimmick at the beginning was nothing but a waste of time and a blatant cash grab. At the very least, it should have served as an element to help the characters bond but it didn't. That only started to happen after the identity reveal, not before.

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Jang Dong Yoon and Kim So Hyun together have proven to be a dynamistic pairing. They both have "wow-factor" beauty and together they are simply a GORGEOUS couple. The push and pull dynamic between the characters of Jang Dong Yoon (Nok Du) and Kim So Hyun (Dong Ju) ranks among some of the best seen in romantic K-Dramas. I enjoyed immensely the constant "love bickering" between the two leads, the secrets that they kept from each other, the outright denials of affection for each other and then the sad eyes and hurt hearts as a result of their denials. I loved the code language that they would speak to each other that revealed what they really felt for each other which was always in direct contradiction to their spoken denials of any affection for each other. I loved the blushing that occurred whenever they would touch each other and the sweet things done for each other in the name of safety and protection. The slow and methodical build to a red-hot burning desire for love and intimacy between Nok Du and Dong Ju was well done by the writers. The first 18 episodes concentrated heavily on the relationship of the leading couple so that the audience would understand both the temperature and the chemistry between the two leads. With certainty, the emotional bond that Nok Du and Dong Ju had was tested in the second half of the drama. The strain put on the relationship in the second half of the series served to assess if their love would survive the threat of permanent separation from each other due to selfish choices and misguided ambitions. The audience's investment in the couple would make the second half of the drama a very intense and emotional experience for anyone who was cheering this couple on. As the second half of the drama unfolded, the back-stories of Nok Du and Dong Ju were fully revealed. Their fully revealed histories brought them into a direct head-on collision with each other. Now they would have to decide if their initial plans were more important than their love for each other.

In the end, Nok Du and Dong Ju made a decision that the love that they had for each other was more important than exacting revenge. The ending was profound in its way of proclaiming a message not often heard in K-Dramas and that is the unjust and the evil ones just might go unpunished in this lifetime but do not be greedy for things that are not necessary for true happiness. If you have escaped to your paradise and have love & family all around you, you have the supreme possession in life.

Much acclaim and praise should be given to the excellent writing of Hye Jin Yang (original webcomic author of "Nokjujeon") and the writing of Im Ye Jin, and Baek So Yeon (adaptation-to-drama writers). And a bow of honor to all the actors who executed the script to perfection.

At just 20 years old, Kim So Hyun gave a signature performance which served HallyU notice regarding who she is now as a young adult actress and all the great things that are yet to come from her career. Congratulations Kim So Hyun!!! Jang Dong Yoon delivered a diverse and masterful performance. How many male actors can say that they displayed both bravery and daintiness in the same drama....lol....???. Dong Yoon was comedic, fearless, compassionate, manly, womanly, and a serious lover sometimes all in the same episode. I see why his female audience will love him to the end----he can act and he has killer looks.

Finally, the cherry on top of this great story was the performance of Park Da Yeon. She just turned 8 years old and she played the character Aengdoo. Aengdoo was a treat to watch; she was like a shot of your favorite syrup in your best hot or cold latte drink of choice. Her "man-crushing" on Nok Du and Cha Yool-Moo was terribly cute, her refereeing the many love-spats of Nok Du and Dong Ju was hilarious, and finally her extreme love for food gave me great delight every time she chow'd down, slurped, grinned, gulped, and burped her way to delectable gratification; it was sheer joy for me to watch her being in "7th heaven" in these moments. Aengdoo was the quintessence of what the Story of Nokdu was all about. This great love story was punctuated by the bright spirit of Aengdoo and her consistent demonstration of pure love, joy, loyalty, and great happiness of spirit. The Tale of Nokdu is more than worthy of the high praise and the high ratings that it has and will continue to receive.

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This drama is okay. But I'm not going to lie, I had to force myself through a lot of frustrating scenes.

The drama has 2 modes. It's either this lighthearted comedy with silly gags or darker than night horrific violence, death and torture time. They switch so suddenly from one mode to another, it's jarring. It starts out as this cute rom com with crossdressing and a solid mystery that I actually found myself intrigued by.

I wish this part of the drama had less filler though, there's just quite a lot of unnecessary scenes that become repetitive very quickly at the widow village and I was very disappointed that most of them involved the FL. She's a good actress but her character is incredibly unlikeable during this first half. She's rude, entitled, selffish and let's be honest she's not very smart. Her plans to kill the king are ridiculous and not well thoughtout. She has been planning her revenge for years and shooting the guy with an arrow is the best that she could come up with? My boy Nokdu decided to kill him in an afternoon and had a better, more solid, plausible plan within the hour.

Once we reach the midpoint, we get a wonderful villain in 2ML and the king. They're both very complex characters and I wish they had shown more of their backstory rather than their relationships with both FL and ML. SML is deliciously evil, but I wish we could have seen what drove him to that point. He does a complete 180 from good boy during the first half to it's murder time in the second.

FL becomes even more dumb and annoying during the second half. She goes on her own with her same bow and arrow strat - spoiler it doesn't work - and is also rude to ML and 2ML (granted he is a murderer but he's competent girl, the man gets the job done and what do you do besides falling into a hole?). She manages to get a job at the palace but this goes knowhere because she achieves literally nothing from it... in the end she goes back to dressing up as a man and trying to shoot the king undercover.

She also doesn't TALK to ML whenever they obviously need to have a converstaion, instead she goes on her own and messes things up even more. The amount of miscomunication or lack of comunication got pretty frustrating and old by the middle of the drama. And by the end when FL finally does things right it feels like a redemption rather than the moment of audience rooting for her. It felt more like at least you didn't screw up this. All in all she is not the worst FL I've watched but she was incredibly frustrating to root for. As a consequence of this I did not enjoy her romantic moments with ML that much. I wasn't against the couple... but if FL died I'd be ok with it.

The side characters are hit and miss for me. I actually loved the widows and the sword master and that Lord that helped them. As well as the dad. But the little girl got on my nerves more than once. Her character had some funny moments but a lot danced the line of annoyance at times. The brother is the worst and I wanted him to die.

I wish we could have gotten more interactions between ML and the queen. I loved the few instances when they talked but ML couldn't tell her who he was. I needed more of that. Also more interactions between Kind and Queen. Overall I would have loved to see more of the royal family lore rather than the annoying FL shooting arrows at a tree.

ML is incredibly likeable, kind and smart. I love his problemsolving skills. He's one of those MLs that think outside the box and even if he's not a genius he manages to outsmart his opponent. He's also humble and just a joy to watch. He had chemistry with everyone on screen and he's the reason to watch this show. I loved his interactions with the king and could feel the personal stakes at every single moment of screen they shared. It was painful and wonderful to watch. I wish the drama was about their story instead of this romance with FL that feels less pressing or important.

Overall I felt like this drama was a bit too long and the FL was unnecessarily frustrating, this is not because of the actress but the writing. But it was still enjoyable at times.

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I liked this drama, it has some new ideas and, thank god, has a happy ending , simple, yet happy :)
However, I hoped the comedy phase continues for a bit longer as the story was not that complicated but the comedy was phenomenal. Come on guys, lady kim needs her own drama!
I liked Jang Dong Yoon (nokdu) so much that I will wait for his next drama and watch his previous ones. He is very talented. He mastered lady kim to the point I forgot that she is actually he :D. Of course, in addition to his cuteness and sense of humor ♡♡♡
I liked the actor "Jung Joon Ho" ( the king),although the king character was stupid and shallow. And I'm happy to discover such talented actors through this drama.

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My Comfort show

I've been an avid kdrama viewer for over five years, and "The Tale of Nokdu" has secured its place among my all-time favorites. This is the first time I've awarded a drama a perfect score, and for good reason. From start to finish, "The Tale of Nokdu" exceeded all my expectations, leaving me pleasantly surprised at every turn.

My initial attraction to the drama stemmed from Lady Kim, but it didn't take long for me to become completely engrossed in the world of the widow's village. I felt deeply connected to each and every character, a rare occurrence for me in kdramas. Not a single scene felt unnecessary or disrupted the flow of the story.

The writers masterfully kept me hooked, constantly leaving me wondering if we would indeed get a happy ending. As for the acting, every actor delivered stellar performances, with Jang Dong Yoon shining brightly in his dual roles as Lady Kim and Nokdu. The chemistry between the leads, both on and off-screen, was explosive, making me ship them fervently and leaving me questioning if they were truly acting at all.

I could go on and on about this show, but let me keep it concise: Don't hesitate, go watch "The Tale of Nokdu" now. You won't regret it.

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SPOILERS: DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO WATCH











"Wonderfully Sweet and Entertaining" - that was how one blogger described this Drama, and it puzzled me. It STARTED that way, but by about 1/4 of the way through, the body count started to climb, and the deaths, most depicted with languid lingering attention to gory detail, kept on coming. Basically EVERYBODY dies, except the OTP, and apparently THAT makes it a "wonderfuly sweet and entertaining" romance? I started this for Ms Kim, whose work I've enjoyed for 6 years now, but the surfeit of savagery in this sageuk meant I had to bail out after making it to half way.

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It's been a long time since I was able to find a drama to really sink my teeth into. I was not expecting to find it in a drama recommended as a "romcom sageuk".

The rewatch value of this show has proven to be so high, because every time you rewatch it you can find new details in the plot, the setting, and especially the camera work. Each rewatch offers new angles to explore the strong main characters, and diverse supporting ones. This show turns many a trope on its head - yet another reason why it's a win for me!

Though some might not enjoy the political aspect of the show, over all the pacing was good - I particularly liked the character arcs - they tied in well with the messages the show hoped to convey, weaved well with the progress in the romance between the leads. Without going too much into spoiler territory, I would say that it shows the futility of chasing after power especially well.

Of course, the acting of the cast was great. Also, the chemistry between the leads is excellent. What I loved was that the characters each had their own arc, and shone as individuals, but supported one another as they developed their relationship. I could tell that this script, this production - was borne of passion. I've already pre-ordered the Blu-ray, and am looking forward to the commentaries that will hopefully offer more insight into the show!

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This was a refreshingly good sageuk-lite drama. I tend to find sageuks repetitive, always having the same plot points, so the emotional impact is lessened because I’ve seen the same thing before. But Tale of Nokdu managed to use some of the sageuk plot elements while putting a twist on them or executing them a different way.
The most obvious is the gender-swapped roles. Tale of Nokdu has a man dressing as a woman, which I have not seen before. It’s not played for a joke really either; sure, they joke about him having small boobs, and he has some funny moments when he acts like a woman, but there’s no “lol look at this guy dressed up as a girl.” It’s played about as seriously as it would be if a girl dressed up as a guy. Nokdu is also investigating a secret group of assassins who are women, which is another gender-swapped element. Many of the characters in the beginning of the show are women. The relationship between the male and female lead is also gender swapped; he’s the bright eyed, cheerful one, and she’s the cold and grumpy one. They do bicker, but it’s all lighthearted stuff. It’s great that he’s open and honest about liking her early on.
The sageuk plot elements do pop up; oh noooo the king is baddddd and we need to put someone else on the throne. But these elements are brought in gradually, and you have a better sense of who all the players are because you’ve spent more time getting to know them. And because you know them and like them, you’re a lot more invested in what happens. So I think the transition from more lighthearted, gender bent sageuk fun times to “oh no the king is bad” sageuk seriousness was really good. It was great that several of the sageuk plot points play out differently than they usually do, because that made it more interesting. It also still kept a lot of lighthearted elements due to the characters, who are a kooky group of people. Nokdu himself is the best character, a sweet boy who is kind and caring but nevertheless willing to fight for those he loves. He is a great and compelling character and the show would not be nearly as good without him. This show never lost sight of what made it good (the characters), but also executed the plot really well.
Tl;dr This was a self-aware sageuk that headed in its own direction rather than going down the well-worn path of most sageuks. The characters are unique and fun, with Nokdu truly being the best of them. Would definitely recommend to those both new and old to the sageuk genre.

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The way this drama was advertised and how it started off were about the MC cross-dressing and hiding out in a widow village. That was what drew me to the drama in the first place and ended up being my favorite arc in the drama. In reality, over half the drama was not focused on this. It shifted to the reason why assassins were sent to kill him and his family. After everything, there was really no resolution to the matter. The ending felt rushed and made some of the plot feel entirely unnecessary. The main couple were the reason I stuck with this drama. They were very cute and I was invested in their relationship.

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Tale of Nokdu is a show that I found very easy to watch and quite engaging. Although I didn't find the humor as hilarious as other people did, the first part of the series when Nokdu dresses as widow Kim is entertaining to watch. Pretty early on (I actually thought they would drag it for longer) Dongjoo finds out he is a man though, and her feelings for him grow during the time they are forced to cohabit.

This show follows the characters as they go through many phases, from finding out the truth about their pasts, to plotting revenge all the way to giving up and freeing themselves from it all. I found it refreshing yet somewhat bittersweet how they didn't accomplish any type of closure, specially Nokdu. He finds out he is the king's son, then that the king tried to have him killed as a baby, he tries to find out the reason why (and is crashed to realise it is only because of the throne), he wants revenge but then he tries his best to stop prince neungyang from becoming king. Eventually, he fails at everything, and the actual king (his father) never for one second wavers in his decision to have him killed. Makes me wonder, why did he have to go through so much for?

That part of the story is pretty heartbreaking. I expected that after spending time together as guard and king, the king obviously having grown affectionate feelings towards Nokdu, that in the end he would regret everything he did to his son. But the king is despicable until his last breath. I saw glimpses of him being a good guy and had hope, but by the end of the story even his last words to prince Neungyang feel like a pointless effort at self-justifying his life. He warns Neungyang that when he claims the throne he will be very lonely... man, you are a psychopath, no excuses!

As for prince Neungyang, I don't see why Dongjoo hates him so much. He is plotting treason against the king, but overall he is a very mellow baddie. He rarely kills and he has been kind to her all his life. Even the way he acts towards Nokdu isn't that terrible, I have seen worst in other dramas from second MLs. Burning the village of the widows was pretty bad, but Dongjoo never truly confronts him about it, making me wonder if she is even aware he was 100% behind it.

The soundtrack is good, the fighting scenes are well done, the side characters are not given much time so they didn't grow much on me (I was extreme surprised how much I ended up disliking the kid Aengdo, I mean kids are normally impossible to dislike).

It is an easy drama to watch and the love story is cute and refreshing.

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