Disney+ K-drama Bloody Heart: Lee Joon, Kang Han-na and Jang Hyuk in romantic period drama that looks fantastic but gets bogged down in dreary politics
- This tale of palace power games and thwarted romance features an intoxicating visual palette that highlights roles played in Korea’s Joseon era
- But the political subterfuge is difficult to follow – future episodes need to and add clarity as well as some emotional stakes
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.