KBS premiered a new Monday-Tuesday drama this week, Invincible Lee Pyeong-gang (KBS World title: Taming of the Heir), to replace Princess Has Returned. Contrary to the historical costuming above, this drama is a contemporary piece but has sageuk bits woven through it, since the story references the folk tale upon which it is based (”Princess Pyeong-gang and the Fool On-dal”) in a comic way. This, I think, is the drama’s highlight, which I’ll go into more below.

The drama probably won’t make a dent in Queen Seon-deok’s continuing domination. Still, I love Nam Sang-mi, who I think has a lot of charm despite some middling performances. I find her most winning in comedy fare, and have been wanting to see her try more of it following Bad Family. She was adorable there, and she carries over a lot of similar plucky humor here.

I don’t think Invincible Lee Pyeong-gang is going to be a great drama, but there’s something about it that caught my interest. It’s cute if you like goofy, over-the-top romantic comedies. It’s not the best of the genre, but its fusion-sageuk angle has viewers calling it fresh and fun, and it’s a light counter to the other Monday-Tuesday programming out there.

SONG OF THE DAY

Invincible Lee Pyeong-gang OST – “나란 남자” by MC Mong [ Download ]

INVINCIBLE LEE PYEONG-GANG Episodes 1-2 >>

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KBS’s current Monday-Tuesday show, Princess Has Returned [공주가 돌아왔다], has been pretty unremarkable (in ratings and in response) and ends on a similarly quiet note this week. On the other hand, I’m looking at the show to take over its slot next week with some interest — Invincible Lee Pyeong-gang [천하무적 이평강] seems to have come together rather under the radar, but now it’s got me perked up in interest.

The drama blends together sageuk elements with the contemporary in its reimagining of the classic folktale of Princess Pyeong-gang and the Fool On-dal. The fusion drama stars Nam Sang-mi (Time of Dog and Wolf) and Ji Hyun-woo (My Sweet Seoul).

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Are you excited for the new drama Friend, Our Legend?

If you’re not, that’s okay. I’m not, either, despite (or perhaps because of) all the hype. But there are a lot of dramas that I didn’t expect to like initially that I did in the end, so I won’t make a call until it’s aired. And that’ll be soon — with the weekend drama Strike Love meeting an ignominious end, Friend, Our Legend will be airing a little sooner than originally planned; it premieres on Saturday, June 27, on MBC.

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MBC’s much-awaited drama adaptation of the 2001 movie Friend, titled Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설], is set to premiere in a couple weeks, and the cast and crew held their drama production press conference on June 17 in Seoul.

The cast has some rather large shoes to fill, and none more so than Hyun Bin (The World They Live In), who takes the role originally played by Jang Dong-gun in the film that broke box office records at the time. Kim Min-joon (Tazza), Seo Do-young (Unstoppable Wedding), and Lee Shi-un fill out the quartet of friends.

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