The Last Empress
The Last Empress is a South
Korean television series.
It aired on SBS Wednesdays and Thursdays at the 22:00 KST time slot from November 21, 2018 to February
21, 2019 for 52 episodes.
Main Role
Jang
Na-ra as Oh Sunny – an aspiring musical actress with a
bright and cheerful personality. She became an overnight Cinderella after
marrying the Emperor. In the palace, she fights to uncover the truth behind the
death of the Grand Dowager Empress and topple the corrupt imperial family.
Choi
Jin-hyuk as Na Wang-sik / Chun Woo-bin– seeks vengeance on the
imperial family after his mother's death. To infiltrate the imperial household,
he changed his identity to Chun Woo-bin, becoming the Emperor's most trusted
imperial bodyguard with unrivaled fighting skills.
Shin
Sung-rok as Emperor Lee Hyuk Emperor of the Korean Empire. A
powerful ruler who is well-respected by the people. He is talented and
eloquent, but beneath his pleasant appearance lies an ugly personality.
Lee
Elijah as Min Yoo-ra – Imperial head secretary. She is
quick-witted, decisive and greedy. She is trusted by the Emperor and becomes
his secret lover and mistress.
Shin
Eun-kyung as Empress Dowager Kang Lee Hyuk's mother. A
fearless and powerful woman who holds absolute authority in the palace and is
fiercely protective of her status.
The Last Empress is set in a
hypothetical constitutional monarchy in 2018 and follows the life of a musical actress who
marries the Emperor of the Korean Empire. She
searches for true love and happiness as she contends with palace life,
eventually getting entangled in the murder of the emperor's grandmother,
leading to the demise of the imperial family.
In Malaysia,
Singapore, and Brunei the drama aired on Sony
ONE within 24 hours after its original South Korean broadcast
with subtitles.
In Singapore, the
drama is available to stream on-demand on Viu with
subtitles. During its original run, episodes of the drama were available to
stream on Viu 12 hours after its original South Korean broadcast.The drama will
also be aired on public broadcast channel, Channel U,
starting from 3 February 2020 every Monday to Friday at 10pm.
In Indonesia, the
drama aired on Trans TV starting
February 18, 2019.
In Myanmar,
the drama aired on Sky Net International Drama starting
April 12, 2019
In Vietnam, the
drama aired on HTV2 starting
December 2019
In Philippines, it
will be aired in GMA Network at March 9 to June
25, 2020.
In India, it will
be Planned to aired in Colors TV Dubbed in Hindi as Antim Maharani, Colors
Bangla Dubbed in Bengali as Sesa Samrajani, Star
Vijay Dubbed in Tamil as Kataici Peraraci,
Star Asianet Dubbed in Malayalam as Avasana Cakravatti and Star
Maa Dubbed in Telugu as Civari Samrajani.
In Sri
Lanka this is being broadcast (as on 19th September 2020)
in Sirasa TV as Agra The
series is dubbed in the Sinhala Language.
Awards
|
Year |
Award |
Category |
Nomine |
|
2018 |
SBS Drama Awards |
Top Excellence Award, Actor in a
Wednesday-Thursday Drama Top Excellence Award, Actress in a
Wednesday-Thursday Drama |
Choi Jin-hyuk Shin Sung-rok Jang Na-ra |
|
2019 |
Seoul International Drama Awards |
Outstanding Korean Actress |
Jang Na-ra |
As
with any good drama, the finale of “The Last Empress” was gratifying in how
it highlighted just how far our characters have come. This was
especially Lee Hyuk’s (Shin Sung
Rok) moment of
truth, and the Emperor nailed it. Hyuk’s character arc was never
very clear-cut, as he always struggled between the sociopathic terror that
his family had raised him into and the good person that Sunny (Jang Nara) inspired him to want to become. Evil
as he may have been at times, Hyuk loved and admired Sunny because he
recognized what a purely good person she was, and there is some redemption
for the Emperor in that.
But Hyuk
knew that he could never fully atone for all his sins, and ultimately decided
that he should not continue to live. And this internal struggle between
good and bad is what made his death so tragic: it was incredibly sad
because we have seen glimpses of the upstanding emperor and sweet
husband that Hyuk could have become, but because his upbringing was too
ingrained in his character, he would never be able to
completely transform into that person, and ending his life was
the only way he could find peace.
And
how fitting that Hyuk ensured that he was killed by his own mother’s hand:
he completed Na Wang Sik’s (Choi Jin
Hyuk) revenge
by allowing himself to be killed but also got his own revenge on
the mother who turned him into such a monster.
Thankfully, before
we had to say goodbye to Hyuk, we were blessed with a few final gems of royal
comedy, to remind us that the Emperor’s quirky antics were hands-down
one of the best parts of “The Last Empress.” It’s almost unbelievable that
we found ourselves thinking of Hyuk — who we watched commit
numerous vile crimes — as cute, but Shin Sung Rok masterfully brought
an impressive number of dimensions to this character, managing to make
us find Hyuk despicable, pitiful, adorable, and even lovable at the same
time.
Unfortunately,
our other male lead met a far less fitting end. The drama’s treatment of
Na Wang Sik in the finale is without a doubt its biggest flaw, and was
also entirely avoidable, as it was because “The Last Empress” added
more episodes than originally planned that Choi Jin Hyuk could not
appear in the drama’s finale due to scheduling conflicts. And if “The Last
Empress” could not have the main male lead in its finale, it could have at
least given him a proper farewell. But instead, oddly enough, the
drama pretended as if Na Wang Sik had never been a central character
in the first place, barely even mentioning him in the final week. All
we got was a brief scene, with almost no buildup, of Hyuk in a hospital being
told that Wang Sik sacrificed himself to save everyone else.
Comments
Post a Comment