The Forbidden Marriage: Episodes 1-2

by Unit

If Moonlight Drawn by Clouds and The Moon That Embraces the Sun had a baby, it’d definitely be The Forbidden Marriage. Drawing inspiration from its parent dramas with light themes masking a sad story, our forbidden tale begins.

 
EPISODES 1-2 WEECAP

Hijinks-y and hilarious is how I’ll describe the first week of this crazy drama, with its even crazier leading lady YE SO-RANG (Park Joo-hyun) who runs a scam marriage compatibility business with her partner-in-crime MR. AX (Choi Deok-moon). Business has never been better for the con artists — despite the marriage ban in Joseon which has been in place for seven years, thanks to the king LEE HEON’s (Kim Young-dae) refusal to take a new wife after the death of the crown princess.

Officially, the crown princess committed suicide, but Heon is convinced she was actually murdered, and his refusal to remarry stems from his fear of putting another woman in the same position. That, and his love for the late crown princess, because unlike the stoic king we see now, Heon was such a lover boy back then as crown prince. And it’s unfortunate that while the crown princess loved him too, she was unable to display those emotions in full — almost as if she knew she wasn’t going to last long in her position.

Heon has since been subjected to all sorts of rumors ranging from his tyranny to his alleged impotence, and even insinuations that he’s gay. Lol. And our token evil minister of war MINISTER JO (Yang Dong-geun) doesn’t fail to rub the rumors in at every given opportunity under the guise of concern about the plummeting birth rate in Joseon.

Every attempt by Heon’s attendants to get him to at least produce an heir falls through, and it must be tough being one of the attendants on the king’s side. Well, except if you’re investigator LEE SHIN-WON (Kim Woo-seok) who’s also the king’s best friend. While Shin-won understands Heon’s reluctance to remarry, he’s also not afraid to call him out on troubles the marriage ban has placed on the citizens — and this is totally not because Shin-won is looking to wed a certain lady from his past. Hmmm.

So-rang and Mr. Ax take their matchmaking business to Hanyang under the auspices of a tea house, and I really love the art design of the place — it’s very colorful, just like the palette of the rest of the drama. So-rang and Mr. Ax even hire romance novel writer HAE-YOUNG (Jung Bo-min) to ghostwrite love letters for their clients, and I’m dying at the titles of Hae-young’s famous novels: Scholar From the Stars, Heirs of Arabia, and Concubines of the Sun. Lol.

The infamy of the matchmaking establishment soon spreads to the king’s ears, and he visits alongside Shin-won — who has to physically restrain him from barging in to prove his vitality to So-rang when they overhear her tell some clients that the king is impotent. Aigoo, Kim Young-dae. Still using the same playbook from Shooting Stars? Heh.

Since stripping doesn’t work, Heon does the next best thing: arrange for So-rang’s arrest. But So-rang is used to evading the police, and out she flies from the fence down into Shin-won’s arms. Heh. From his expression, he has finally found the lady from his past, but that doesn’t stop him from whisking her to jail where she is given two options: to repent of her actions, or remain locked up. So-rang goes with option C: pretend to be possessed by the crown princess’s ghost. And while her antics are hilarious, I feel bad for Heon who’s really out there baring his emotions to a fraud.

I can’t blame him, though. So-rang is very convincing, and she even manages to guess the nickname Heon wanted the crown princess to address him with — Hunny from Heon. Seriously? Lol. While I’m barely at beginner level in understanding Korean, I can tell that there’s a modern flair to their speaking style in this drama, and it’s not just from this scene. The modern ad-libs kinda make the banter between characters sound even funnier, and it’s not out of place because this is a fusion sageuk where almost anything goes.

Heon decides to keep So-rang by his side with strict instructions for Shin-won to protect her, and it’s such a bad, bad idea to keep these two in proximity. Actually, So-rang’s real name is YE HYEON-SEON, and she’s the daughter of the Minister of General Affairs who used to be engaged to Shin-won. While they hadn’t met in person, they were both looking forward to their upcoming wedding, and their excitement at the thought of getting married was so cute!

Unfortunately, So-rang’s stepmother had her sent off the Cliff of Doom — and spun a lie to her father that So-rang had run off with another man — in a bid to swap the bride with her own unmarried daughter on hearing about the imminent marriage ban. Thankfully, Shin-won already saw the face of his original bride after sneaking into her house earlier, so he halts the wedding proceedings a few moments before the marriage ban is officially announced. And just like the king who hasn’t forgotten about the crown princess, Shin-won hasn’t forgotten about So-rang — even becoming an investigator just so he can find his bride. *Sniff*

In the present, Shin-won and So-rang agree to be friends, and he even tells her about his engagement although So-rang has since known that he was her fiancé based on his name. But since Cinderella is on the run from Stepmother Dearest — who happens to be close enough to the Dowager for frequent visits (and guess who is now a palace maid? Hahaha) — So-rang can’t admit it. Shin-won also choses silence over losing her again, as he doesn’t want her to flee if he unearths her identity as Hyeon-seon. So he lies that he can’t remember his fiancée’s face when she asks, and this is such a heartbreaking and cruel twist of fate for both of them.

So-rang continues to fumble her way through her new career as a palace maid (under the assumed name of SUN-AH), and her get out of jail free card works every time with the king. “The crown princess is right beside us,” “The crown princess said you should feed me.” Blah blah blah. It will never not be funny how Heon seriously swallows So-rang’s nonsense, but it’s pitiful as well because he must really miss his late wife enough to hang onto little glimmers of her presence this way.

So-rang’s methods might be spontaneous and crazy, but we can’t deny that she has brought back a bit of spark to Heon’s life — and some excitement to the king’s quarters. To tire him out enough to sleep so that the other maids can get some much needed shuteye, So-rang pits him against Shin-won in a battle for the crown of sexiest man in Joseon — leading to sparring sessions with Shin-won for her amusement, and shirtless scenes for our drooling pleasure. Heh.

And when that doesn’t work, she turns to bedside stories about a goblin with a sword in his chest, and I’m in tears at the visuals the drama provides down to the red scarf and buckwheat flowers against a river backdrop! Hotel del Luna also makes an appearance with an equally hilarious reenactment, and I think Under the Queen’s Umbrella was hinted at too. The common denominator in her tales is the marriage ban issue which she masterfully weaves into the stories, until she succeeds in getting him to sleep. Phew!

By morning, all the bags underneath Heon’s eyes have relocated to So-rang’s face, and he thinks she spent the night fighting with an evil ghost. Lol. As she drags her stiff bones out of his room, she catches Minister Jo’s eyes until COURT LADY WON (Hwang Jung-min) manages to divert his attention away from So-rang. But how long until he finds out that the palace maid he saw is not Sun-ah the oldie, but So-rang the crazy — especially since Heon has no immediate plans of letting So-rang leave his side?

The realization that she might have to spend the rest of her life as a shadow of the late crown princess soon hits So-rang, and guilt sets in as the gravity of the situation she dug herself into now weighs heavily on her. This is where we wrap things up for our premiere week, which was as fun as I expected it to be. Park Joo-hyun really sells her act as the grade A level scammer, and while Kim Young-dae is not really giving it as the grieving widowed king, he does have great comedic timing and expressions — especially with his eyes.

Outside the fun, there were little seeds of evil machinations and palace politics sown here and there in the drama, but they don’t look too serious enough to derail the story. (Who am I kidding, though? I’ve been burnt in the past by dramas I trusted). Like I said earlier, the drama reminds me of The Moon That Embraces the Sun: a scheme against the crown princess’s life, a king unable to move on after her death, a king keeping a shaman who supposedly sees the late crown princess by his side, eventually falling for said ghost-seer — and of course, the inevitable love triangle with the man who fell for her first.

As for the Moonlight Drawn by Clouds similarities: bright color schemes, a tramp and matchmaking heroine with an ahjussi partner-in-crime, first meeting the king outside the palace, unwillingly getting dragged into the palace to become his attendant, and a love triangle. Again. Anyway, since both dramas had a great run and ended well (the other leg of the love triangle died in both cases, but that’s not the point here), The Forbidden Marriage has no choice but to continue — and end — with this fun and light-hearted pace it set out with.

 
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