I have finally finished Bloody Heart and I want to share with you all my love for the drama.

I am not a sageuk person (although my watching list from last year says otherwise, I know), because usually I find it really boring the whole bearded ahjussis in small rooms plotting political plots too boring, not for me really. I usually find myself playing Candy Crush or choking Twitter or Discord during those scenes. Very few sageuks made me like the political plotting, maybe just Six Flying Dragons (yes,I know, but I am not a sageuk person, believe me!).

When I fist heard Kang Hanna had accepted her first proper leading role and it was a sageuk, I confess I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to see her shine. And let’s admit it, sageuks are rarely dramas where an actress can shine, although there are exceptions. But after watching the drama, I am really glad she took that decision and proved me wrong.

I began watching when it was airing but summer got in the way and I had almost forgotten how much I was enjoying the drama. Then two weeks ago I resumed episode 7 and I couldn’t stop until I finished it last weekend. I loved it: from the top notch writing, directing, cinematography, music and production design, to the excellent acting specially of Jang Hyuk and Kang Hanna. Not that Lee Joon did bad, because he didn’t, but comparisons are terrible, goes a Spanish saying…If I don’t see Hang Hanna winning every single award available with this role I will be VERY mad. Absolute girl crush. I’m blinded by love.

One of the things I liked the most about the drama was how good politics are described and played, exactly like the Go board the King spends hours looking at. What I found boring and made me wanted to FF in most sageuks, kept me intrigued and wanting to know what the next step would be here. So, it’s probably not sageuks that I don’t connect to, just bad writing…

The other thing I loved was female characters. Writer-nim took the time to describe some real women, who acted like women in power historically acted, navigating through the space they were giving, forming alliances, looking for the best way to live their life. From Yoo Young who is a educated and intelligent young woman who has to hide one secret after another until her name is cleared, to the Dowager Queen who lives a suffocating life and tries to escape it and take revenge against those who created her life, to Lady Jo who is just a chess pawn and realizes too late she’s been used, to Lady Park, the woman who will always be by Minister Park side no matter what he does, to the court ladies taking parties and being treated as disposable beings. All of them real, you would hate them a minute, but understood them the minute later. Real women. I can’t stop saying this because in historical dramas (Korean or any nationality) there is a tendency of making women real according to our present standards, which automatically makes them unreal.

One last mention to Jang Hyuk, who managed to make the evil ahjussi with beard a real man, human, not just an antagonist, but someone you could understand and even still consider him “the bad guy”.

I can’t recommend this drama enough. So far the best drama in 2022 for me.