Drama Queen

So the horrible Canadian drama shown on Rupavahini in the popular 6.30 pm time slot finished off a few days back. I was just anxiously waiting for it to finish off as it was so very boring. Anyhow the new drama shown on Rupavahini is Empress Ki which was shown on MBC Korea. It consists of 51 episodes and has quite an engaging storyline. If it is 51 episodes in Korea and so it will add up to about 120 Sri Lankan episodes. The story itself is based on Empress Gi of Yuan who was married to Emperor Toghon Temur.

 Something which is quite strange is that Rupavahini is showing two dramas about strong women one after another instead of the normal strong woman- strong man sequence. If you guys can remember it all started off with Sujatha Diyani and then the sequence was strong female character to strong male character. Anyhow be assured that the next drama after Empress Ki will be headed by a strong young man in the lead role.

Anyhow let’s take a quick look at the background information of this drama and whether it is worth your timeJ .

Empress Ki aka Suriya Diyani is mostly about the Yuan Dynasty of China. At this time China was primarily governed by Mongolians. So the cute Prince (Ta Hwan) in the drama who would end up being the next Emperor is a Mongolian Prince. The story itself is based on a young woman who is taken away to Yuwan as a slave but ends up being the Empress and later the future Emperor’s mother of Yuan. The main character of this drama is Ki who is a daughter of a General of Goryeo. Her mother runs away from General Ki and is later sent away as a female slave to Yuan. Anyhow on the way there the mother dies while the daughter finds refuge in Prince Wang Go’s (the bad prince) care. She grows up as a girl behind the disguise of a boy. Fortunately our little “to be Empress” finds a special friend in Prince Wang Yoo the Crown Prince and later the King of Goryeo. With time the Ki is able to work under her father as soldier and this is where Ki first meets Crown Prince Ta Hwan of Yuan.

The story itself takes a bittersweet take when Ki or then Seung-nyang falls in love with King Wang Yoo. Their relationship is so sweet to watch and it’s sad that we know that it is heading nowhere. I have to say the actor Jo jin-mo is so cute in the role and I just love him (second lead syndrome hereL ). The thing is that half way through our dear Ki is forced to choose Ta Hwan over Wang Yoo and this choice pretty much kills the souls of the two lovers.

However this is not without hope. Ki later becomes the Empress of Yuan and slowly finds herself drawn to Ta Hwan the Emperor. The love story that blooms between them is one of sacrifice and honour. Ta Hwan is of course facing a lot of rivalry to the throne in the same way Wang Yoo did. Anyhow in this case those very much close to Ta Hwan poisons him and this slowly kills the Emperor. Ki is of course torn between her love for her son and husband as she has to make hard choices.

I love the fact that until the end Ki is a very strong woman. She did have her moments of falling apart and losing control but all this just strengthened her. Her love for her adopted country and her love for Ta Hwan drove her to make hard choices while remaining a strong leader like figure. Unlike in the case of Silla’s Seondeok (Janahithakami Rajiniya) Ki never actually became Queen but yet she was a strong woman. I hope that you too would be inspired by this strong woman’s story and you can watch this drama every weekday (except poya days) at 6.30pm on Rupavahini. Enjoy the Yuan Dynasty J J J J J .