Title : 100 Days my Prince, 100 days Husband, Dear Husband for 100 days
Episodes : 16
Genre : Historical, Joseon, Amnesia, Comedy, Romance, Action, Drama, Mystery
Story : 7 out of 10
Characters : 8 out of 10
Cinematography : 8 out of 10
An interesting drama, with an original story placed in Joseon Dynasty. Creating huge buzz due to Exo’s D.O. being cast as the main lead, the drama had it all, as well as high ratings.
Story
When Lee Yul was young he met a girl who saved his life and vowed to marry her. However, a few nights later, his father, with the help of Jae Yoon, a powerful court member, overpowered the king and killed the girl’s father, attempting to kill her and her brother as well. From then on, Lee Yul became the Crown Prince. He suffered his mother’s murder for political reasons and he was forced to marry Jae Yoon’s daughter. Thus, he grew cold and demanded perfection from everyone. Being pushed by the officials of the palace, one day, he announced that every woman under 28 must get married.
After that, and while traveling, Lee Yul is attacked in an attempt to kill him. He escapes, but he’s gravely injured and he wakes up days later with amnesia. The man who cured him tells him that he is his daughter’s fiance and he must hurry and marry her. That daughter is Hong Shim, a strong woman who never wished to get married. However, due to the law that the Crown Prince had issued, she is forced either to marry or be tortured. Lee Yul, having no memory of who he is, is forced to marry Hong Shim, who, for her part, knows that he is not the man she is supposed to marry, but has no choice but to deceive him. Soon, however, the marriage proves to be more of a disaster for her than a blessing. Lee Yul is a troublemaker who doesn’t know how to work or fend for himself. He only creates trouble, mainly financial, and has Hong Shim clean up after him.
The story, at first, reminded me of “Moon embracing the Sun”, but soon turned more of a comedy than a romantic drama. The plot starts strong, with many political twists, but gets a bit lighter later on, with the game of Lee Yul gaining his memory back or not being the main protagonist of the drama. As the show drew to an end, the action scenes were more as well as the scandals.
I can’t say that the love story had a smooth ride. It started nicely, with cute and innocent scenes, as well as funny ones. The development was nice and you could see how the two of them fell in love. However, the conclusion was a bit awkward. Actually, it started being a bit odd halfway through the drama, when the story started focusing more on the politics of the palace and Lee Yul’s wife.
Also, I’ve found that the drama had some tiring scenes that messed with the flow of the story. It was great as a whole, but some times things got boring. It quickly picked up though, so that’s fortunate. However, there were some major plot holes that were never properly explained. Like, how Shim’s brother knew Yul’s wife. Or, how the man who had fallen for Shim and was Yul’s advisor, didn’t recognize him but he did recognize Shim.
Characters
Yul was clearly the cold guy that hides his soft side. He was funny as the helpless prince who didn’t have the basic survival skills and he was mocked by the village as the fool. He had, however, the royal aura and his confrontations were the best. Do Kyung Soo did excellent with the romantic scenes, as well as the action ones, as he had proved that he can master the dramatic ones in the past. He was kind of short for a prince, and at first, I didn’t know if he was the best choice for a crown prince, but his personality won me over.
Hong Shim was the strong, independent woman of her village. She doesn’t want to get married and serve a man when she can get by by herself. But, she is hiding a secret. Her father isn’t really her father, and she only stays in that village until her brother comes and summons her. What I liked about Hong Shim was that she wasn’t the helpless, goofy female lead, but she wasn’t afraid to state her opinion and she was an equal spouse to her husband. She also didn’t let the past defy her, as it would have been easy for her character to be the one to be stuck in her tragic past and have us watch flashbacks of it while she cried. Nam Ji Hyun wasn’t my favorite actress for this character. I didn’t really like her in Suspicious Partner. But she proved me wrong as well. She portrayed the strong female lead really well and her performance was enjoyable.
Jae Yoon was the bad guy of the drama. If you have watched some Joseon drama by now you’ll know that there must be a man of the court, probably an elder, who plots against everyone and wants nothing but power. Well, Jae Yoon was exactly that. He was ruthless, evil and dislikable. Another “evil” character for Kim Sun Ho, after Save me. He was nice enough in his part and his performance was flawless, as he had some action scenes as well.
Cinematography
The action scenes were presented good enough, though I would have preferred if they were a little more dramatic. The setting, however, and costumes were decent enough. One thing, however, that made this drama special for me was the lack of flashbacks. Sometimes, dramas tend to overuse them and you can easily get tired after watching the same flash back for the third time in a row in one episode. But this drama did a great job of keeping things simple and focusing on the plot that it was presenting and not the past.
Overall
My overall rating for this drama is 7 out of 10. The performances were really good, but the story had some plot holes.
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