This article contains mild spoilers. Whether in an office, at university or in the home, hierarchy dominates across all aspects of South Korea’s top-down society. As with many entrenched realities, this phenomenon finds its roots in the past. During the Joseon era that preceded the Korea we know today, rank dominated all facets of society. This intractable aspect of the period is one of the reasons why Korea’s period dramas are often so pleasing to the eye: rank is visually and symbolically described through the rigid symmetry of the cinematography and production design. Bloody Heart , a new drama on KBS2 (and streaming in select territories on Disney+) starring Lee Joon, Kang Han-na and Jang Hyuk, depicts its familiar tale of palace power games and thwarted romance through an intoxicating visual palette that foregrounds the abovementioned symmetry. The story’s scheming characters each covet something that does not belong to them, which invariably means they boldly cross lines in pursuit of their goals, something that the show presents to us in a very literal fashion. Bloody Heart begins its tale four years before its main events, with nobles gathering in the palace to demand that Crown Prince Lee Tae (former MBLAQ member Lee Joon) not gain the throne. His father, King Seongjong, is powerless to intercede as the real power behind the throne is quickly revealed to be the gravelly voiced first vice-premier Park Gye-won (Jang Hyuk). 8 new Korean drama series to look out for in May 2022 Nevertheless, Lee Tae does eventually ascend to the throne, but only after bowing to Gye-won and essentially abdicating his power. He is compelled to marry to help Gye-won solidify his hold on power, but fast-forward to the present day and his loveless marriage appears set to have run its course as Queen Yoon (Ham Eun-jung) has fallen desperately ill and is on the verge of death. Meanwhile Gye-won and the Queen Dowager Choi Ga-yeon (Park Ji-yeon) remain the real vectors of power in the court. The story then jumps back again to Lee Tae’s childhood, when he was a cocky young prince. He meets the strong-headed Yoo Jung (Kang Han-na), the daughter of a noted scholar, and proceeds to show his interest by doing everything in his power to rub her the wrong way, starting with mocking her for telling some younger children how to hatch chicks from eggs. Despite her strong initial resistance, it doesn’t take long for these stark opposites to attract. Yet tragedy strikes when Yoo Jung’s family is brutally mowed down as suspected traitors, and the young would-be lovers are swiftly pulled apart. Yoo Jung returns in the present, played as an adult by Kang Han-na, who turned heads as the other Gumiho in 2021’s fantasy romcom My Roommate Is a Gumiho . The first episode concludes with Lee Tae and Yoo Jung starring at each other across a footbridge at night as a spectacular fireworks show illuminates the sky behind them. Yet this proves to be no simple reunion as Yoo Jung’s appearance throws a wrench in Lee Tae’s plan to wrest control of the court away from Gye-won. Simply put, he has to give up the woman he loves to fulfil his political aims, while Yoo Jung’s situation means that nothing short of becoming queen would save her. In the next episode we’re sunk back into sombre territory as an early scene opens on a crow nibbling on a half-eaten face atop a pile of bodies cooling in the dry dawn light, victims of the massacre that claimed Yoo Jung’s family. Striking compositions like this, many of them drawn across the symmetrical lines of the palace, add a dose of intrigue here and there even as the story itself occasionally flags. As with many period dramas that combine palace scheming with timeless romance, like 2021’s River Where the Moon Rises , the shadowy political machinations should eventually become clear through sheer repetition. Hopefully that’s something we can look forward to, but there’s no getting away from the fact that two episodes in, the political subterfuge is difficult to follow and consequently rather dreary. Watching these dry power struggles unfold sometimes feels like watching a Shakespeare play you’re not familiar with in its original old English for the first time. It all sounds right, but you can’t quite follow all the scheming and are at risk of nodding off every other scene. Jang, seen recently in the period action film The Swordsman and the gangster saga Tomb of the River , once again relishes playing a villain. Less clear in his performance is Lee, last seen as a taciturn mercenary in the Netflix sci-fi The Silent Sea , whose young king switches between romance and cruelty a little too starkly and a little too often early on in the show for the character to make much sense. Given its uneven merits, the road ahead for Bloody Heart is currently a little murky. If we’re lucky, the central romance will crystallise in subsequent episodes and add clarity as well as some emotional stakes to the dull politics. But only time will tell how bloody this heart really is. Bloody Heart is streaming on Disney+.