Queen In Hyun's Man is a drama that is currently airing on cable channel tvN, starring Ji Hyun Woo (Birth of the Rich) as the titular character and Yoo Inna (Best Love, Secret Garden), in her first leading role, as the love interest. Ji Hyun Woo's character Kim Bung-do is a time-traveller from Joseon era, approximately 300 years before present day. He is a top scholar and an officer for the Office of Special Advisors. Under the King's order, he strives to protect the dethroned Queen In Hyun from a conspiracy and assassination plotted by the Right Deputy Prime Minister, Min Am. While carrying out his duty he faces a fatal situation, but is miraculously saved from death after being transported from Joseon time to present day Korea. He then meets Yoo Inna's Choi Hee-jin, a present time newbie actress, who just unexpectedly lands on a leading role as Queen In Hyun in a drama "New Jang Hee-bin". She is the person who helps Kim Bung-do whenever he travels back to the future.
The character Kim Bung-do is rather smart. Actually, too smart that there's not much gag you can get from his time-travelling. He's very observant and takes his good short time to study his surroundings and adapts himself accordingly. Choi Hee Jin, who initially mistakens him as one of the actors of her new drama (because of his outfits), finding herself attracted to Kim Bung-do, who is very gentlemanly and caring towards her predicament every time they meet. Despite not believing the circumstances at first and thinking it's crazy, she still helps Kim Bung-do as best as she can, but is rather limited due to her self-consciousness about her public image as a "famous person".
As far as time-travelling goes, credits to the writers, I suppose, for making the character dutifully goes through a thought process on how on earth does he manages the time travel and actually successfully figures it out, at least on its modus operandi. That actually helps me appreciate this paranormal activity a little bit, compared to having to second-guess all the time on how does it work. All that's left now is for Kim Bung-do to figure out and let us viewers understand the reason why he is bestowed with such ability. In short, the purpose of this time-travelling on a larger scale. Don't let me realize later on that the writers make him time-travels just because that makes for fun tv. I would feel so cheated.
Six episodes in, and I think the actual drama is only starting. The plot moves along pretty fast, that while quite a few things happen, I still haven't fully invested in the characters. The story moves along from one scene to another so swiftly it doesn't give me time to take it all in. Watching it for 6 hours straight is not helping. Having said that though, it doesn't mean I don't like it. I actually think it's one of the better dramas so far this year. But then again, with only six episodes, I better not let my hope gets too high. I used to think The Moon that Embraces the Sun was a solid drama, until it went downhill before it even reached its midway run.
Nevertheless, for now, Queen In Hyun is well-produced. The quality of the episodes is good in terms of directing and writing, which in consequential give us beautiful cinematography, ambience, and characterization. The acting is generally good, though nothing screams awesome yet (on a side note, despite what poor things I say about TMtEtS, the acting alone was great and there are scenes that I'm still reeling from remembering them. Oh, how I wish the overall writing was better).
My only reservation, like I mentioned before, is that the pacing is really fast. However, by the end of episode 6, I feel like these early episodes really need to be fast because they are purely for setup. For the past six episodes, the occurrences in the Joseon time faced by our time-travelling hero are really going by the book, historically. But his ability to travel through time leads him to the knowledge of his demise at the young age of 27. Back to his Joseon time, he actually manages to escape death that is depicted in the historical records.
So I suppose this is when things really get going, with him defying history/fate, and the consequences of that very action. Will have to wait and see. Good luck to me, and well, everybody, for a wholesome drama from beginning till end.
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