If I leave home, who will I be? Will I have a face? Will I even have a name?
Whenever I watch a Korean drama that deals with widowhood, it always makes me a little sad, even though the drama is not sad and is relatively whimsical.
I watched Matchmakers last year and I realized how sad it was that the rule of the land was that individuals who lost their spouses couldn’t get together with another person. Same applies to Bossam: Steal The Fate which made me cry a whole lot.
As expected, I was so torn and got into a lot of articles and published essays about widowhood in Ancient Korea, and I’m preparing an article, but just know that it is incredibly sad the lives widows and widowers have to live when they find that their spouses are no more.
In this lovely drama, our main girl, Cho Hyeo Hwa (played by Lee Ha Nee) is a woman who has been a widow for 13 years. Just like Sim Jung Woo (Rowoon) from The Matchmakers, Hyeo Hwa never met her husband because he died on their wedding day.
But unlike Jung Woo, who could still go out in public and had a certain measure of freedom, Hyeo Hwa had to live a life of loneliness and eternal servitude to her in-laws.
There’s this scene where her maid tells her that her mother-in-law has agreed to take her out for a function, and she was so happy because the last time she had left the house during the day was 6 months before.
To keep her boredom at bay, she started having nightly excursions where she would leave the house dressed in black and then help people all around town. She did this so frequently that the people began to see her as something of a mythical creature who would appear whenever help was needed and do her thing.
And it is on one of these excursions that she meets our main guy, Park Su Ho (Lee Jong Won), a newbie policeman. He is very soft-spoken and educated, and with everything we’ve seen in the past two episodes, it seems he had a very difficult past and there seems to be a lot of intrigue there, but there’s not enough information yet for me to make a statement about it at the moment.
Anyway, they eventually start bumping into each other at the most random times, and it was the funniest thing I have ever watched.
The thing is that since she covers her face when she goes on her nightly excursions, no one knows who she is, but then the first night they met, there was a scuffle, and during it all, she landed in his hands, and he realized that she’s actually a woman.
Later on, when he meets her during the day, he can’t help but draw comparisons between the calm, collected widow in all-white and the abrasive nightwalker who had been plaguing his dreams and imaginations.
One thing I’ll tell you guys right now is that the chemistry between the two is incredible. She is older than him (I haven’t checked their actual ages) in this amazing noona drama, and you can really see at every point how stunned he is that a woman could be so forthright and so bold to do all she does. This visual couple 100% has my heart, and I can’t wait for them to finally catch feelings for each other.
And now that I’m done watching these first two episodes and I’ve had some time to calm down and really sit with my thoughts, I like that the drama has a mix of elements from several fairy tales – I can point out Robin Hood and Cinderella at the moment. I don’t want to drop too many spoilers for the entire thing, but you guys, it’s so fun watching this drama, and you totally need to check it out.
Just in case you think it is all roses, that’s not it at all. There’s a healthy amount of political intrigue and a lot of shadows and obscure details at the moment, but that’s expected since I have only watched up until episode 2.
But what I am very sure about is that the politics is going to be central to the story in the coming episodes. To give you a good idea of what I’m talking about when I talk about politics, think about our male lead from Mr Queen – The king in this drama and the king in Mr Queen are similar and yet different, and while I don’t know his endgame yet, I’m sure that’ll be revealed in the coming episodes.
Lee Ha Nee (or Honey) is genuinely an amazing actress. I believe the last project I watched of hers was One The Woman, and while I liked that one, it isn’t a favourite, and I felt like it went on for too long.
Even though Knight Flower is a little heavy and has very deep themes, I like that she still manages to bring that humour and hilarity to situations because her maid was completely exasperated with her at certain times, and I could totally understand because she was like a loose cannon. Their antics made me laugh a good number of times, and I look forward to seeing their relationship bloom.
And of course, in this drama, just like other historical K-Dramas, there’s an ensemble cast, and everyone has different motives and is so interesting.
At this point, all I can decipher are loaded conversations, hidden meanings, subtle talks, and all that I can’t make sense of, but they all hint at something thrilling. I especially like that there’s a villain who isn’t cruel to everyone because I want to see how that pans out.
The male lead and his relationship with his brother is the most precious thing. With the little we’ve seen about his background, it seems his family was killed brutally, and he managed to escape with the help of his adoptive family, and I want to see more about what this is about.
On a lighter note, this is very unbelievable, but it seems that the screenwriter has set it up so that our male lead’s adoptive elder brother will have a romantic relationship with our female lead’s maid.
When we had their meet-cute, I was a little worried because I was not sure about how they could possibly have a happily ever after, but then we heard from another character that she (the maid) was a free woman, and then she talked about how she’s saving but she wouldn’t leave until the female lead could also leave her in-laws’ home. Their sisterhood is one of the high notes of this drama, and I can’t wait to see more about it.
All in all, I’ll say that this drama definitely is keeping me hooked, and I just have a very good feeling about it. Have you started watching this drama? When you watch it, what do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
