Jang Bong-Hwan was a cocky and arrogant ladies man. Top chef in The Blue House (Korean equivalent to The White House), one day he was framed for screwing up and intentionally injuring a Chinese ambassador. Disgraced and now unhireable, it seems like Bong-Hwan’s life can’t get any worse…
And then the police come for him. In trying to escape the cops, Bong-Hwan accidentally falls off his balcony and into the apartment pool many, many stories below.
Which is where he sees the figure of a woman in the endless black water before him.
The next thing Jang Bong-Hwan knows, he’s waking up in Joseon Korea, which is the easy part for him to process. The hard part… well… he woke up in the body of that woman he saw in the pool. Queen Cheorin.
Everyone in the palace believes Queen Cheorin attempted to kill herself, so the lake has been drained, with orders to not refill it. Bong-Hwan will have to learn to acclamate to the Joseon period, survive the intrigue of the palace, and seduce the king enough to get the lake refilled but not enough to make him want sex. Ideally Bong-Hwan can get through this without that at least. Though if any of the king’s concubines- or any of the cute court ladies- want a taste of the Queen, he’s more than happy to oblige!
Shouldn’t be too hard. After all, history records the King, Cheoljong, as a weak little puppet for his ministers. One of many Joseon regal failures that will weaken the defenses of the country and usher in the Japanese invasion.
Except, Bong-Hwan discovers, that isn’t the case at all. King Cheoljong knows he’s a puppet, and he plays his role well in order to flush out the Japanese spies within his empire and hopefully strengthen the Joseon dynasty.
As Bong-Hwan adapts to the role of Queen of Joseon, he will fight to keep the king alive long enough to save his country, fall in love with the King despite himself (or be “infected by the feelings of the host body”, as he puts it), teach the palace ladies how to twerk, and invent the Big Mac & french fries a century early.
But Bong-Hwan’s strength depends on his connection to his body back in 2021. A body laying in a coma.
And the men who framed Bong-Hwan and destroyed his life in this timeline have decided it’s best if the chef never wakes up again.
** I’m not saying this show is good. I’m saying it’s worth watching.
According to dark legend and tavern rumors, 120 years ago the Crown Prince Jonghyun- who had secretly published books under the name ‘The Lustful Student’- wrote a story very different than his usual erotic adventures.
This story was no bedroom novel, but one of supernatural political intrigue. A story of an ancient and powerful vampire named Gwi who controlled the King of Joseon-Korea as a puppet. Whose dark power wound through every level of government.
Except it wasn’t a legend, as Kim Sung-Yeol knows all too well. Once a respected scholar (and close friend to Crown Prince Jonghyun), Sung-Yeol ran afowl of the monstrous Gwi. As part of the vampire’s sick, twisted game Sung-Yeol’s beloved fiance was mortally wounded, he himself was turned into a vampire, and Sung-Yeol was forced to drink his lover’s blood in order to try and save the empire.
But he failed. And the Crown Prince was brutally executed as a traitor.
For 120 years, Sung-Yeol has walked the earth as a vampire hunter, and thus is gifted the ability to walk in the daylight. Gwi has continued to control the government of Joseon-Korea, and ‘The Lustful Student’ became nothing more than a shadow of a rumor.
Until the books began appearing again, republished from an unknown cache of manuscripts.
The Crown Prince’s final novel, the story of vampires, was destroyed by Gwi. The story goes that the Crown Prince found a way to destroy Gwi once and for all, and coded into his manuscript the means through which Gwi’s destruction could be brought about.
No matter that Gwi has slaughtered anyone who he even suspects of having the lost manuscript, Kim Sung-Yeol believes it is still out there, and is his key to destroying Gwi once and for all.
As Sung-Yeol turns up the heat on his hunt for Gwi, he will partner with the bright and optimistic Seo Jin- a young woman pretending to be a male book dealer. Seo Jin can get her hands on any book that has ever existed, and she is particularly knowledgeable about ‘The Lustful Student’.
With Seo Jin by his side, Sung-Yeol stands a chance to defeat Gwi once and for all… if he can find the last copy of Prince Jonghyun’s vampire novel.
But another player is working in the shadows- the modern Crown Prince Lee Yoon, who will not become another puppet king, and whose father was slaughtered at Gwi’s order.
What secrets are hidden within the Crown Prince’s memorandum? How can Sung-Yeol finally destroy Gwi and avenge all he has lost? Is there a way to save Lee Yoon from following in the doomed footsteps of his father, or of Crown Prince Jonghyun so long ago?
Gwi has waited for Sung-Yeol’s return for 120 years. He will not go down without a fight.
Detective Cha Ji-Won is living her very best life. She has the perfect husband in Baek Hee-Sung. Doting, handsome, and the perfect father to their young daughter Eun-ha.
Until a dark murder with all the hallmarks of an unsolved case from a decade before. The case of a serial murderer who kidnapped and brutally murdered innocent people. One killer was caught, Do Min-Seok. Initially police thought it ended there, but then they realized Do Min Seok had a partner.
His son. Who went missing shortly after the murders.
Cha Ji-Won must find Do Min-Seok’s missing son and bring him to justice before more innocent lives are lost.
Finding him, it turns out, is the easy part. In fact, she knows almost everything about the missing serial killer.
Because she married him.
Baek Hee-Sung is not who he appears to be. Loving so no one will realize he is ice cold. Doting so no one suspects he is more than he seems. For ten years he has kept himself hidden from the world, kept the darkness his father put into his soul at bay.
Cha Ji-Won knows her husband is the killer… or is he? How could the man she has lived with for so many years be evil?
Baek Hee-Sung knows his wife has figured out his secret, but he needs to stay ahead of her if he’s going to figure out exactly what is going on in the present, and how it connects to the darkness of his past.
The truth can only stay hidden for so long, and now that it has been exposed, what will become of the picturesque little family with the bloody, brutal secrets?
** I’m not saying this show is good. I’m saying it’s worth watching.
According to dark legend and tavern rumors, 120 years ago the Crown Prince Jonghyun- who had secretly published books under the name ‘The Lustful Student’- wrote a story very different than his usual erotic adventures.
This story was no bedroom novel, but one of supernatural political intrigue. A story of an ancient and powerful vampire named Gwi who controlled the King of Joseon-Korea as a puppet. Whose dark power wound through every level of government.
Except it wasn’t a legend, as Kim Sung-Yeol knows all too well. Once a respected scholar (and close friend to Crown Prince Jonghyun), Sung-Yeol ran afowl of the monstrous Gwi. As part of the vampire’s sick, twisted game Sung-Yeol’s beloved fiance was mortally wounded, he himself was turned into a vampire, and Sung-Yeol was forced to drink his lover’s blood in order to try and save the empire.
But he failed. And the Crown Prince was brutally executed as a traitor.
For 120 years, Sung-Yeol has walked the earth as a vampire hunter, and thus is gifted the ability to walk in the daylight. Gwi has continued to control the government of Joseon-Korea, and ‘The Lustful Student’ became nothing more than a shadow of a rumor.
Until the books began appearing again, republished from an unknown cache of manuscripts.
The Crown Prince’s final novel, the story of vampires, was destroyed by Gwi. The story goes that the Crown Prince found a way to destroy Gwi once and for all, and coded into his manuscript the means through which Gwi’s destruction could be brought about.
No matter that Gwi has slaughtered anyone who he even suspects of having the lost manuscript, Kim Sung-Yeol believes it is still out there, and is his key to destroying Gwi once and for all.
As Sung-Yeol turns up the heat on his hunt for Gwi, he will partner with the bright and optimistic Seo Jin- a young woman pretending to be a male book dealer. Seo Jin can get her hands on any book that has ever existed, and she is particularly knowledgeable about ‘The Lustful Student’.
With Seo Jin by his side, Sung-Yeol stands a chance to defeat Gwi once and for all… if he can find the last copy of Prince Jonghyun’s vampire novel.
But another player is working in the shadows- the modern Crown Prince Lee Yoon, who will not become another puppet king, and whose father was slaughtered at Gwi’s order.
What secrets are hidden within the Crown Prince’s memorandum? How can Sung-Yeol finally destroy Gwi and avenge all he has lost? Is there a way to save Lee Yoon from following in the doomed footsteps of his father, or of Crown Prince Jonghyun so long ago?
Gwi has waited for Sung-Yeol’s return for 120 years. He will not go down without a fight.
Detective Cha Ji-Won is living her very best life. She has the perfect husband in Baek Hee-Sung. Doting, handsome, and the perfect father to their young daughter Eun-ha.
Until a dark murder with all the hallmarks of an unsolved case from a decade before. The case of a serial murderer who kidnapped and brutally murdered innocent people. One killer was caught, Do Min-Seok. Initially police thought it ended there, but then they realized Do Min Seok had a partner.
His son. Who went missing shortly after the murders.
Cha Ji-Won must find Do Min-Seok’s missing son and bring him to justice before more innocent lives are lost.
Finding him, it turns out, is the easy part. In fact, she knows almost everything about the missing serial killer.
Because she married him.
Baek Hee-Sung is not who he appears to be. Loving so no one will realize he is ice cold. Doting so no one suspects he is more than he seems. For ten years he has kept himself hidden from the world, kept the darkness his father put into his soul at bay.
Cha Ji-Won knows her husband is the killer… or is he? How could the man she has lived with for so many years be evil?
Baek Hee-Sung knows his wife has figured out his secret, but he needs to stay ahead of her if he’s going to figure out exactly what is going on in the present, and how it connects to the darkness of his past.
The truth can only stay hidden for so long, and now that it has been exposed, what will become of the picturesque little family with the bloody, brutal secrets?
Jang Bong-Hwan was a cocky and arrogant ladies man. Top chef in The Blue House (Korean equivalent to The White House), one day he was framed for screwing up and intentionally injuring a Chinese ambassador. Disgraced and now unhireable, it seems like Bong-Hwan’s life can’t get any worse…
And then the police come for him. In trying to escape the cops, Bong-Hwan accidentally falls off his balcony and into the apartment pool many, many stories below.
Which is where he sees the figure of a woman in the endless black water before him.
The next thing Jang Bong-Hwan knows, he’s waking up in Joseon Korea, which is the easy part for him to process. The hard part… well… he woke up in the body of that woman he saw in the pool. Queen Cheorin.
Everyone in the palace believes Queen Cheorin attempted to kill herself, so the lake has been drained, with orders to not refill it. Bong-Hwan will have to learn to acclamate to the Joseon period, survive the intrigue of the palace, and seduce the king enough to get the lake refilled but not enough to make him want sex. Ideally Bong-Hwan can get through this without that at least. Though if any of the king’s concubines- or any of the cute court ladies- want a taste of the Queen, he’s more than happy to oblige!
Shouldn’t be too hard. After all, history records the King, Cheoljong, as a weak little puppet for his ministers. One of many Joseon regal failures that will weaken the defenses of the country and usher in the Japanese invasion.
Except, Bong-Hwan discovers, that isn’t the case at all. King Cheoljong knows he’s a puppet, and he plays his role well in order to flush out the Japanese spies within his empire and hopefully strengthen the Joseon dynasty.
As Bong-Hwan adapts to the role of Queen of Joseon, he will fight to keep the king alive long enough to save his country, fall in love with the King despite himself (or be “infected by the feelings of the host body”, as he puts it), teach the palace ladies how to twerk, and invent the Big Mac & french fries a century early.
But Bong-Hwan’s strength depends on his connection to his body back in 2021. A body laying in a coma.
And the men who framed Bong-Hwan and destroyed his life in this timeline have decided it’s best if the chef never wakes up again.
Choi Jun-Woong has spent his young life working his ass off in the hopes of landing a solid job in an unbearably competitive job market. He has collected endless certificates, learned endless bonus talents, and worked hard through dozens- if not hundreds- of interviews.
And not once has he succeeded.
But Jun-Woong is naturally an optimistic person, or at least he won’t let defeat pile up on top of him.
One night, Jun-Woong is walking across a bridge when he spots a homeless man trying to kill himself. Jun-Woong tries to save the man, and crosses paths with a mysterious woman with pink hair.
She is brash, telling the man to just kill himself if he wants to die so badly. Horrified, Jun-Woong grabs onto the man as he’s about to jump and is pulled over the edge.
He wakes in the hospital… but when he turns around, his body is laying there in the bed.
Jun-Woong is in a coma- one that is destined to last for three long years. When the mysterious woman from the bridge, Koo Ryeon appears, Jun-Woong begs her to save him so he can take care of his grief-stricken mother.
Koo Ryeon takes Jun-Woong to the Jade Emperor themself, who offers him a deal.
If he works for the afterlife for a period of six months- in the capacity of his choosing- Jun-Woong can wake up from his coma early.
Eventually, Jun-Woong joins Koo Ryeon’s unit, the Risk Management Team. Their job- along with super-reaper Lim Ryung-Gu- is to track down people at a high risk for suicide and find a way to save their lives.
Koo Ryeon has always had a rough touch, having been pulled out of hell to become a Reaper herself. But Choi Jun-Woong’s light, kindness, and sensitivity to the pain of others helps him show her a new way to approach the job. A way that honors the pain of those attempting suicide, and to help them find a way to keep walking in the world.
The team must work together to stand against the uncompromising and cruel Park Joong-Gil, a reaper who wants nothing more than to see their team fail, as he does not believe in redemption for those who take their own lives.
Kang Tae-Moo is focused on one thing and one thing only: Work. He is the President of a company that specializes in packaged, heat-and-eat meals and has been abroad working on bringing Korean cuisine to other nations.
Mainly to avoid his smothering grandfather, CEO Kang Da-Koo, who is obsessed with his grandson marrying and settling down.
Jin Young-Seo, meanwhile, is a wealthy heiress with much the same problem: her father obsessively sends her on blind dates, though she has no desire to marry for money or business acumen, but to marry someone she loves.
Enter Shin Ha-Ri. Ha-Ri is a brilliant food researcher who exists buried under a mountain of her parent’s debt that she is struggling to pay off. She is also Jin Young-Seo’s lifelong friend, and poses as her to bomb those blind dates in ways so epic that the wealthy, eligible bachelors of Korea will stay the hell away.
Pretending to be possessed, pretending to be a hooker, there really is nothing Ha-Ri hasn’t done to chase away a man, all in the name of a good laugh with her best friend.
But when she arrives to bomb Jin Young-Seo’s latest blind date she comes face to face with Kang Tae-Moo… Her boss.
If Tae-Moo realizes just who Ha-Ri is, she could lose her dream job in retaliation. While she tries to play along as Young-Seo as long as she can, there is an extreme problem:
Tae-Moo *hates* having his schedule screwed with for the sake of endless blind dates. He pops the question to Ha-Ri almost instantly, and then finds out… well, not who she is, but that she certainly isn’t Jin Young-Seo.
Young-Seo is forced to out her best friend as the real person Tae-Moo went on two catastrophic dates with. Ha-Ri gives him a fake name, but he makes her agree to pose as a fake girlfriend, just to get his grandfather off his back. In return, he will pay her $1,600 per date.
As Tae-Moo and Ha-Ri begin to develop feelings for one another, her lies will crumble and risk jeopardizing her career. Meanwhile, Jin Young-Seo has found her prince charming at last:
Tae-Moo’s secretary and brother, Cha Sung-Hoon, who is mad at Young-Seo for her deception against his best friend.
Kang Tae-Moo and Shin Ha-Ri have met their match in one another, and Jin Young-Seo has finally found her prince charming in Cha Sung-Hoon… if she can get him to speak to her.
Choi Jun-Woong has spent his young life working his ass off in the hopes of landing a solid job in an unbearably competitive job market. He has collected endless certificates, learned endless bonus talents, and worked hard through dozens- if not hundreds- of interviews.
And not once has he succeeded.
But Jun-Woong is naturally an optimistic person, or at least he won’t let defeat pile up on top of him.
One night, Jun-Woong is walking across a bridge when he spots a homeless man trying to kill himself. Jun-Woong tries to save the man, and crosses paths with a mysterious woman with pink hair.
She is brash, telling the man to just kill himself if he wants to die so badly. Horrified, Jun-Woong grabs onto the man as he’s about to jump and is pulled over the edge.
He wakes in the hospital… but when he turns around, his body is laying there in the bed.
Jun-Woong is in a coma- one that is destined to last for three long years. When the mysterious woman from the bridge, Koo Ryeon appears, Jun-Woong begs her to save him so he can take care of his grief-stricken mother.
Koo Ryeon takes Jun-Woong to the Jade Emperor themself, who offers him a deal.
If he works for the afterlife for a period of six months- in the capacity of his choosing- Jun-Woong can wake up from his coma early.
Eventually, Jun-Woong joins Koo Ryeon’s unit, the Risk Management Team. Their job- along with super-reaper Lim Ryung-Gu- is to track down people at a high risk for suicide and find a way to save their lives.
Koo Ryeon has always had a rough touch, having been pulled out of hell to become a Reaper herself. But Choi Jun-Woong’s light, kindness, and sensitivity to the pain of others helps him show her a new way to approach the job. A way that honors the pain of those attempting suicide, and to help them find a way to keep walking in the world.
The team must work together to stand against the uncompromising and cruel Park Joong-Gil, a reaper who wants nothing more than to see their team fail, as he does not believe in redemption for those who take their own lives.
