Kdrama Review: King 2 Hearts (AKA If Korea had a Monarchy...)


I enjoyed Lee Seung Gi’s performance in “You’re All Surrounded” so much I looked into another of his dramas, “King 2 Hearts,” and when I learned the lead actress was Ha Ji Won (Gil Ra Im from one of my all-time favorites, “Secret Garden”) I was sold. And the cast did not disappoint.



“King 2 Hearts” is set in a world where the nation of South Korea has a constitutional monarchy form of government. From the get go, the stage is set for conflict when North Korea and South Korea attempt to join a global military competition as one team. To complicate things further, the King tricks his little brother, the slacking and arrogant Crown Prince, into joining up as a Southern representative. The team leader for the South side is the head of Royal Security, Eun Shi Kyung. The team leader for the North side is beautiful Special Forces officer Kim Hang Ah. Naturally, a romance buds between the snotty Prince and the kick-butt Northerner. The villain of the show is Kim Bong Gu, a weapons dealer with a fetish for stage magic and mind games with a personal vendetta against the South Korean Royal Family.

I knew this basic premise going in, and it sounds like a great intro to a romantic comedy. However, this drama is definitely a political drama. The military competition storyline is only the first part of the 20-episode show, and things definitely get more complicated from there. “King 2 Hearts” has romance, but it also has world politics, violence and suspense. If you’re looking for the warm fuzzies, look elsewhere. You’ve been warned.

But if you’re looking for a phenomenally acted, well-written, Drama drama, this is it. Oh. My. Word. The acting! I love Kim Hang Ah’s game face, her impenetrable exterior and her naïve heart. I love the drastic yet completely believable character development of Prince Lee Jae Ha. I love controlled yet intense bodyguard Eun Shi Kyung. I love the feisty turned terrified Princess. I love the wise and compassionate King. I even love the conflicted Queen Mother. The villains eventually grew on me when they started doing evil things instead of just magic tricks and gothic glares.

Besides the ridiculously amazing acting, the story of “King 2 Hearts” definitely kept me guessing. I can’t think of any plot holes and I couldn’t predict what was coming next (that is, once I realized it wasn’t a rom com, haha). Seamless writing!

The biggest drawback of the show for me was the white people. All of the western actors were terrible at acting. The gothic torture chick was pretty good at being evil, but everyone else’s performances made me cringe at their unbelievable line delivery, not their heinous acts. (Is it that hard to find decent western actors in Asia?)

Also, the Americans portrayed were a special kind of terrible. Not only were they poor actors, the flags on their uniforms were backwards, and they occasionally had British accents, but they consistently hindered the efforts of the protagonists at every turn with a level of arrogance and racism that was downright embarrassing. “King 2 Hearts” did portray South Korea and the U.S. as political allies, but it didn’t take long for me to strongly dislike all the Americans in the drama.

“King 2 Hearts” didn’t do exceptionally well when it aired in 2012, and I think it’s definitely underrated. I can’t write highly enough of the (Korean) cast and the intricate plot. I laughed, I cried (!!!), I enjoyed “King 2 Hearts,” even if it was a political drama.

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