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Drama: The King's Face (English & literal title)
Revised romanization: Wangui Eolgool
Hangul: 왕의 얼굴
Director: Yun Seong-Sik
Writer: Lee Hyang-Hee
Network: KBS2
Episodes: 23
Release Date: November 19, 2014 - February 5, 2015
Runtime: Weds. & Thurs. 21:55
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

Plot

Drama series follows the life of Prince Gwanghae. Even though he is the child of a concubine, he becomes the crown prince. For the next 16 years, until he becomes the King, Prince Gwanghae suffers through dethronement and death threats. Using physiognomy as a weapon, he is able to become the King.

Notes

Takes over the KBS2 Wed. & Thu. 21:55 time slot previously occupied by "Blade Man" and will be followed by "Thank You, My Son" February 11, 2015.
Actress Son Ye-Jin was offered the lead female role of Kim Ga-Hee, but declined to weight several movie role offers.
First script reading took place September, 2014 at the KBS Annex Building in Yeuido, Seoul, South Korea.

Cast

Seo In Gook as Prince Gwanghae
Jo Yoon Hee as Kim Ga Hee
Lee Sung Jae as King Seonjo
Kim Kyu Ri as Consort Kim
Shin Sung Rok as Kim Do Chi
Lee Soon Jae as Baek Kyung
Kim Myung Gon (김명곤) as Song Nae Gwan
Ahn Suk Hwan as Lee San Hae
Song Min Hyung as Yoo Seung
Lee Byung Joon as Kim Gong Ryan
Park Joo Hyung as Prince Imhae
Lee Ki Young as Go San
Im Ji Eun as Queen Uiin
Choi Chul Ho as Jung Yeo Rim
Yoon Bong Gil as Im Young Shin
Lee Sang In as Jin Young
Jo Won Hee (조원희) as Kim Doo Suh
Kim Hyun Sook 김현숙 as Lady Park
Kim Bang Won (김방원) as Kang Jin Yul
Min Song Ah (민송아) as Court Lady Park
Yoon Jin Ho (윤진호) as Suh Yong
Im Soo Hyun (임수현) as Song Won
Park Jae Min (박재민) as Bong Doo
Choi Kang Won (최강원) as Oh Gil
Oh Eun Ho as Court Lady Oh
Kim Hee Jung
Joo Jin Mo

Prince Gwanghae (Seo In Guk)

(1575 – 1641)

The 15th king of Joseon. His name was Hon.

Born as the 2nd son between King Seonjo and his first consort Gong of the Kim clan, he was neither a legitimate son nor the eldest son, but at the end of many twists and turns, he finally rose to the throne.

During the Imjinwaeran war which noone had foreseen coming, Gwanghae was able to use the opportunity to seize the position of Crown Prince, and he guarded it for 16 long years. He was a unfortunate king who successfully withstood hardships. During his reign, he continuously fought with the powerful ones in government and was a revolutionary king.

Consort Gong died as soon as she gave birth to Gwanghae and although Gwanghae was the 2nd son of Seonjo’s once most beloved consort, and although there was a time when Seonjo loved his son more than anyone else, this period of time when Gwanghae received love from his father was short.

When Gwanghae was 10 years old, he witnessed an assassination attempt of his father King Seonjo! Through the incident, he experienced Seonjo’s coldbloodness for the first time.

The shock from this day filled little Gwanghae’s heart with fear for his father.

Gwanghae hated the royal family, hated yangban (the aristocrats), and hated the way that people insisted on their social status. He believed in utilitarianism.

During Imjinwaeran, contrary to Seonjo who ran away from the palace, Gwanghae led the royal court which had now been separated (since Seonjo had run away). He also went around the whole country encouraging volunteer soldiers, collected food for the army and so on, showing his strong leadership skills. He also actively solved the arising unrest among the people who had been thrown into chaos with the war. Because of this, Gwanghae continued to face trouble from his brother Prince Imhae and Kim Gwi in (another of Seonjo’s concubines) who tried to control his actions. Although Gwanghae still strongly guarded his position of Crown Prince through all this, when the new queen, Queen Inmok finally give birth to a legitimate son, Prince Yeongchang, the threat towards Gwanghae increased and during his time as the Crown Prince, he continuously was threatened by murder and assassination attempts.

Kim Ga Hee (Jo Yoon Hee)

Living in the social class driven society of Joseon, she was a woman who created her own destiny. Possessing a destiny that was different to others, she received the love of both Prince Gwanghae and King Seonjo, and she and Gwanghae spent their whole lives loving and missing each other.

She was born in a well established yangban (aristocrat) family as one of two twins. When she was born, an old monk had predicted that the male needed to be saved and that the female needed to die.

The year she turned 10 years old, her twin brother took care of her when she had contracted the plague. As a result, her brother died but she lived. Because of this, she was devastated by the guilt she felt. At this moment, she melt Gwanghae and felt the feelings of first love. But after this incident, she started living as a man in the place of her brother.

She grows up to be a woman with both looks and talent and incidentally bumps into Gwanghae at the bookshop at the marketplace. Although she recognised Gwanghae the moment she saw him, Gwanghae failed to recognise her because she was dressed up as a man. Even so, she was happy to see her first love again and wanted to be of help to him.

But her family is suddenly accused of treason and her whole family is ordered to be executed. She thinks that Gwanghae is responsible for her father’s death and starts to harbour feelings of both love and hatred for Gwanghae at the same time.

Desperate to save her father, she finds out that her ‘face’ is meant to complement and help King Seonjo’s ‘face’. Wanting to save her father, she enters the palace hoping to become Seonjo’s concubine…

King Seonjo (Lee Sung Jae)

(1552 – 1608)

The 14th king of Joseon. Joseon’s first king to be the son of a concubine.

From the face reader Baek kyung, he hears that he has ‘a face that cannot become king’, and rises to the throne in the midst of a pressing atmosphere.


The sudden death of King Myeongjong.

Seonjo becomes king with the help of luck, but this becomes a big complex for him for the rest of his life.


He has a timid and sensitive personality.

Although he has already become king, but because he cannot rid of his complex that he possesses a face that is unfit to be king, he becomes a pitiful king, always paranoid that there is someone trying to steal his throne.

Just as Baek Kyung predicts, the whole country experiences continual drought and plague, and the Imjinwaeran war pushes Seonjo’s complex to a climax. He becomes paranoid that everything is because of him and is greatly distressed, to the point that he starts to show craziness. In order to protect the throne, he over relies on the face reading scholars, to the extent that people say he had become crazy about face reading.

During Imjinwaeran, Seonjo had wanted to escape to Myungnara (China during the Ming/Myung dynasty) but this leaves behind a sense of guilt in his mind. This guilt, however, turns into an even stronger sense of rivalry towards Gwanghae, who had led the separated royal court (while Seonjo was in exile) and resolved the war. Seonjo’s envy and jealousy towards Gwanghae took its toll and Seonjo’s personality gradually became more childish and unpredictable. He felt that his power was being threatened, trapping him and Gwanghae in the deep valley of mistrust.

When he hears that Ga Hee’s ‘face’ could complement his face and make up for the things that he lacked, he put Ga Hee by his side despite the fact that he knew she was Gwanghae’s woman, creating the tragic love triangle between him, his son and and Ga Hee.

Kim Do Chi (Shin Sung Rok)

Born as the son of a butcher, he lived a lowly life since birth but he was happy. Even when the plague broke out in the village of Ahsagol, where people of the lowest class lived, he ran around helping people in the village.

He was strong since birth and a child who was strong willed. Moreover, the king even came to find and comfort the people, and even though on the outside he complained and grumbled, he was happy.

But all of it was just for show. In the end, the king even locked up the people who did not have the plague and burnt down the whole village. In front of the bodies of his mother and sister who were burnt to death, he threw up blood and mourned. At this moment, a yangban reached out his hand to Do Chi – Jeong Yeo Rip.

From Jeong Yeo Rip, he learns how to write, and comes to dream the ambitious dream of a world of equality where there is no distinction between the higher and lower classes. Together with Jeong Yeo Rip, they form the 'Daedonggye' (an organisation gathering people of the lower class) and aspire to create a new world. And from Jeong Yeo Rip, he learns about the existence of a secret book to become king! - the “Yong An Bi Seo” (King's face secret book)

But this becomes the source of trouble.

Because of his desire to revenge the world and his resentment towards the king, Do Chi sends a thief into the royal library to steal the “Yong An Bi Seo” without Jeong Yeo Rip knowing. But he is discovered and the whole of Daedonggye is massacred.

With the thought that his mistake had caused Daedonggye to be wiped out and Jeong Yeo Rip to be killed, his resentment grows even stronger, and he dreams of creating a world of equality, the dream that his teacher could not achieve.

As someone of a lowly birth, he comes to hold the desire of becoming king.

Kim Gwi-in (Kim Gyu Ri)

(1555 – 1613)

Note. Gwi-in is one of the titles given to a king's concubine, and is one level under 'Bin'.


King Seonjo's second concubine.

As the mother of Prince Shin Seong and Prince Jeong Won, she was a rank one 'Gwi-in' who later on becomes a rank one 'Bin'. In order to secure the throne for her son, Prince Shin Seong, she burns with ambition and she was Seonjo's most beloved concubine during his lifetime.

She arranges for her sons to be married families with strong political power, and lives a life of tension, wanting to secure the position of Crown Prince for Prince Shin Seong and Prince Jeong Won.

She started serving Seonjo from the young age of forteen, but Seonjo did not even look at her for three years. She prayed day and night that Seonjo would come to find her again, and from the day Seonjo came to find her again, she has lived using all her strength to hold onto him.

She thought of Prince Imhae and Prince Gwanghae's mother Consort Gong as her rival and tried to control her actions. When Consort Gong died, there were no more obstacles and she became more successful as a concubine. As she had wished, Seonjo favoured Prince Shin Seong and wanted to make him the Crown Prince, but the Imjinwaeran war which noone had foreseen broke out.

Her love for her son meant that she could not send her son to the warzone, and she could only hold back tears as she stopped her son from becoming the crown prince.

As soon as the war ended, she uses every single way possible to try to take Gwanghae down from the position of Crown Prince and to place her son in the position instead...

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