Actually, I don't watch many Korean dramas. Since middle and high school, I've been watching many American TV series that are around 40-50 minutes per episode, so I can't watch Korean dramas that are 75 minutes long until the end. "The Goryeo-Khitan War," which started airing at the end of last year, was very easy to get into in that regard. It rarely goes over 50 minutes in runtime.

"The Goryeo-Khitan War" will probably be one of the most successful TV series in Korea in the fourth quarter of 2023. It's a work that brought the outdated KBS historical drama back to life in a trendy way. The production team poured a huge budget into depicting the Battle of Guiju and the Battle of Xinghua, and the audience responded well. Especially in Korea, the war hero Yang Gyu (played by Ji Seung-hyeon), who had been almost forgotten, has created a large number of historical drama fans.

But after Yang Gyu, who was practically the main character in the early episodes, died, the drama's ratings plummeted. Starting from episode 17, the content started deviating from historical facts, and when the original novel writer criticized the script, the screenwriter countered, fueling the controversy. In the end, Director Jeon Woo-seong of "The Goryeo-Khitan War" apologized for the historical distortion, and the drama will be on hiatus during the Lunar New Year holiday.

A Worldview Suddenly Gone Wrong

The world of "The Goryeo-Khitan War" is faithful to historical facts. That's why the brutal reality of medieval East Asia recreated in the drama added tension to the story. If it had been a typical Korean historical drama, a beautiful female lead and male lead in pretty hanbok would have been fighting over love without any worries about food or survival. But in this world, everything comes down to food and survival.

For example, in the early episodes, Gangjo diligently calculates how much food is needed while preparing for war. The nobles who have to send their sons to the battlefield harbor resentment against the emperor. In the world of "The Goryeo-Khitan War," if you don't get food, you will soon die, and no matter how beautiful a hanbok a noble wears, they are dragged to the battlefield and easily beheaded.

In this world, Yang Gyu defended against the attack of 400,000 Khitan troops with 4,000 soldiers. And he led a small suicide squad to rescue the peasants who had been taken prisoner. Because the world of "The Goryeo-Khitan War" was a brutal world based on reality, viewers could feel that he was fighting for his life. Furthermore, they could be moved by Yang Gyu's sacrifice.

The world of "The Goryeo-Khitan War" is just as brutal for the Khitan characters. As the war continues, the Khitan soldiers want to quickly grab their loot and return home. They have families to support. On the other hand, the Khitan Emperor Yelü Longxu wants to quickly capture the King of Goryeo to strengthen his political position. The characters in this drama conflict with the 'world of The Goryeo-Khitan War,' which is faithfully recreated based on historical facts.

But from episode 17 to 20, the world of "The Goryeo-Khitan War" shrinks to the Goryeo royal palace. The brutal world that injected tension into the drama suddenly disappeared. Most of the scenes involved the queen and princesses vying for jealousy in the magnificent Goryeo court, and the king and his ministers having emotional arguments. These characters now seem to have been freed from the problem of food and survival.

Previously, despite Yang Gyu's sacrifice, the Khitan had taken many peasants with them. If it had been the world of "The Goryeo-Khitan War" as depicted in episode 16, the Goryeo royal family would be immediately worried about running out of food. Hyunjung should be preparing for the Khitan to launch another war while rebuilding the devastated palace and capital. But somehow, the drama focuses on the emotional battles of the nobles in pretty hanbok from episode 17, instead of showing this situation.

The Clichéd Way of Portraying Female Characters

It's a fairly cliched trope in Korean historical dramas to depict women as embodiments of jealousy. Within a patriarchal system, female characters vie with each other for the king's favor. This conflict is usually depicted as if it were isolated from the world outside the palace, and living in a brutal reality is mainly depicted as a man's role. Lee Jeong-woo, the writer of "The Goryeo-Khitan War," is telling this trite story in a 2024 drama.

In the drama, Queen Wonjeong (played by Lee Shia) starts to fulfill the typical role of a villain in Korean TV historical dramas from episode 17. She is jealous of her husband Hyunjung's fourth wife, Queen Wonhye (played by Ha Seung-ri), and tries to ruin her family. This conflict is not only 100% fictional, not based on historical fact, but it also doesn't match the situation of the Goryeo capital, Gaegyeong, shown just before. Episode 16 clearly showed the destruction of the Goryeo capital. The royal palace burned down, there are refugees without food begging, and even Hyunjung, who has no escort, gets pickpocketed.

Queen Wonjeong is a character who values the survival and prosperity of the royal family. Wouldn't it have been more plausible and more in line with the sensibilities of modern viewers for her to show her efforts to protect the royal family in this broken world? The women vying for jealousy in the suddenly lavish court don't match the world that has been meticulously depicted, and it gives the impression that the production team is lazy in how they portray female characters.

"The Goryeo-Khitan War" has eight episodes left. The brutal 'world of The Goryeo-Khitan War' has returned to the drama as the Khitan prepares to invade Goryeo again. The production team has said that they have produced the 'Battle of Guiju,' which will be covered in the final episode, with a scale and quality never seen before in Asian TV series. I hope they wrap up the well-constructed 'world of The Goryeo-Khitan War' in the remaining eight episodes.