K-drama Review: The East Palace
- Very Average Joe
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
English Title: The East Palace
Korean Title: 동궁
Director(s): Choi Jung-gyu
Screenwriter(s): Kwon So-ra & Seo Jae-won
Studio: Showrunners & Imaginus
Released: 2026
Runtime: 8 episodes, ~45m
Starring: Nam Joo-hyuk, Roh Yoon-seo, Cho Seung-woo, Jang Young-nam, Tae In-ho
Crowned princes are dropping dead one after another, similar to thirty years earlier. Some people, including the queen dowager (Jang Young-nam), believe it is due to a vengeful spirit whilst the king (Cho Seung-woo) does not.
Enter Gu-cheon (Nam Joo-hyuk) who supposedly has the gift of being able to see and deal with spirits. He doesn’t want to do it but is practically forced to by the king. Assigned to keep an eye on and assist him is Saeng-gang (Roh Yoon-seo), a princess who has been somewhat kept a secret and outside the palace. She enters as a court lady.
The plot follows the Gu-cheon and Saeng-gang as they try to kick out the spirit responsible. In order to do so, they need to know the identity and the history of the suspected spirit. This does not make the king or the Queen Dowager happy because it reveals their dirty secrets.
It is basically a supernatural thriller-mystery in the tone of a dark-fantasy period drama with some action as our main characters get into fights against the spirits. The ideas are there but the plot progression can be clumsy. It is as if the narrative is avoiding being slow but then end up on the wrong cruise control setting.
The opening episode goes through the mandatory “hero’s reluctance”. It’s fair enough that Gu-cheon doesn’t want to do it but he acts like an annoying, snobby brat. Saeng-gang keeps asking questions and he gets annoyed without even trying to answer them.
Gu-cheon’s life is on the line as well—that’s just the way government works—and after some assistance from Saeng-gang, he feels obliged to stay for her sake and becomes less annoying.
This transition is handled well enough but then the plot stagnates. They suspect a particular spirit (person) but don’t act on it enough. Granted, they don’t know the history because the king doesn’t want to talk about it but they don’t do much either.
Of course, not all is as it seems. Spirits hang around because of grievances—for example, they were murdered—and it seems there were plenty of murders in the palace so there are other suspects. So, our heroes move on to another but there are obstacles because that’s just how kicking out spirits work.
In short, it’s not as if these things are not signposted, it’s just that Gu-cheon and Saeng-gang seem to know enough but they conveniently act or don’t act on it because the plot needs them to. Another example is that Saeng-gang doesn’t get much respect as a mere rejected-princess-turned-court-lady, but then there are moments she commands respect as if she is the heir apparent.
The cast sells it with their performances despite the writing. Roh Yoon-seo got some criticism but I thought she did very well. She never overdoes it; she is neither the man in a woman’s body or the “damsel in distress”. She is cool enough under pressure and wants to get things done. If there is any awkwardness, it’s because her character is in an awkward position.
The queen dowager is written too simply but veteran Jang Young-nam does well playing the psychotic cow. If nothing else, it is funny (in a good way). Also funny is Lee Hong-nae as the shaman. The character is written merely as the functional pawn of the villains but Lee Hong-nae does well with the small role as expected.
Cho Seung-woo plays the king plainly. The story is obviously a criticism of corrupt authority and the king doesn’t like answering questions any more than Gu-cheon. He expects things to be done without providing the necessary information, so he is just as annoying. Apart from that, there is not much for the actor to work with.
In addition to the premise, one other reason that may hook the viewer is the excellent production. Visually, it is shot well enough. There is a good use of wide shots and slow dolly to convey the sense of mystery and discomfort. There could be more of those. There is also good use of saturated colors, especially the warm tones in the parallel/spirit world.
The action is a bit more conventional with some slow motion which tries a bit too hard. Despite that, there is still the common problem that the action is sometimes too fast and therefore unclear. It does at times go for the longer takes that follow the action so it is cool that it goes for that stylization.
The CG is good in terms of the environment (such as the parallel/spirit world) but it is too obvious when it comes to spirits in the form of animalistic creatures. The difference between the former and latter is jarring.
The look of the parallel/spirit world obviously takes a lot from the Upside Down of Stranger Things which wasn’t the most original idea in the first place; no doubt that was inspired by both Western and Eastern mythologies.
The music composed by Jung Se-rin and Kim Joon-seok goes for “loud and apparent”. Most of the time, this is fine because that is the genre and it is the typical orchestral themes that go with the drama, whether it is suspense or kinetic action. The problem is when it shifts to contemporary rock and it’s so bad it’s funny.
The relatively short eight episodes mitigate the effect of whatever problems so that it is easy viewing—whatever it is, it is over quickly. It can definitely use a longer and more substantial epilogue.
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