My Answer Is Always You: Recovering What Was Lost in 100 Days My Prince

Image of the drama’s promotional poster from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes.

 

Fusion sageuk 100 Days My Prince (백일의 낭군님, tvN, 2018) follows two characters whose lives drastically changed when they were caught up in a political coup as children. Lee Yul was living a carefree life as the king’s nephew until his father usurped the throne and he was forced to become the crown prince. Yoon Yi-seo was the daughter of a noble family until her father, who supported the deposed king, was killed during the coup and she was forced to flee to save her own life. Sixteen years later, circumstances throw the two together again when the royal court’s power players stage an assassination attempt on Yul, who survives but loses all his memories. The commoner who saves him turns out to be the man who adopted Yi-seo (now going by the name Hong-shim), and this unbelievable turn of events sets up the main plot for the rest of the drama: because of his own royal decree prohibiting people from remaining single, Yul (now going by the name Won-deuk) and Hong-shim are forced to marry. Yul goes through all kinds of fish-out-of-water situations as he adjusts to life as Won-deuk, while an exasperated Hong-shim does her best to fix his mistakes. Against this comedic backdrop, feelings grow between the couple, but when the power players of the royal court discover that the crown prince might still be alive, the couple’s love–and their very lives–are threatened. 100 Days My Prince is a fun and exciting story, and viewers will root for the couple’s romance. But beyond the romance, the story is satisfying because in the end, the characters find the thing that they have been searching for since it was taken away from them the night of the fateful coup.

 

Doh Kyung-soo (EXO’s D.O.) plays Yul/Won-deuk. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes.

 

Yul had a happy life before the coup, with a mother who loved him and a father he respected. He lost both when his father plotted with the drama’s villain to take the throne. Yul felt deeply let down when he witnessed the coup and learned that his father had planned it, because he thought his father was a good person, and having to revere him as his king and legitimize his reign by fulfilling the duties of crown prince just added to his trauma. Worse, the man who put his father on the throne arranged for his mother to have a fatal “accident” so that he could choose a new wife for Yul’s father who would be a queen that he could control. When the new queen had a son, she wanted him to become crown prince instead of Yul, which ruined any chance of Yul having a good relationship with his younger half-brother. And, worst of all, to gain complete control over the royal family, the villain, promoted to the powerful position of Left State Councillor, arranged a marriage between Yul and his daughter, who is expecting a child with someone else that she will pretend is Yul’s. For sixteen years, Yul has been living in a place where everyone around him is trying to control him at best or kill him at worst, surrounded by a twisted version of a family that fulfills none of his emotional needs.

Nam Ji-hyun plays Yi-seo/Hong-shim. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes.

 

Yi-seo’s father died during the coup, and her older brother was spared only because he agreed to become the villain’s minion in exchange for letting Yi-seo escape. She fared better than Yul: after being adopted by a commoner who lived in a small village, she lived a difficult but relatively happy life as Yeon Hong-shim, though she still longs to be reunited with her brother. Before the coup, she was an independent girl who fought bullies and looked after people who needed it, and she doesn’t change her personality in her new life. After Yul appears in her village going by the name Won-deuk and they end up getting married, she starts looking after him, too. Near the end of the series, when Yul has been found by the Left State Councillor and returned to the palace, Hong-shim wants to let him move on with his life, but she can’t bring herself to do so and she sneaks into the palace to see him. It is then that we see the scene that epitomizes what Hong-shim and Won-deuk’s relationship means for the two of them. As he has been adjusting to life in the palace and trying to figure out which of the government officials and servants are on his side and which ones are out to get him, Yul has been unable to find a moment’s rest or eat a morsel of food. He has been imagining Hong-shim by his side, encouraging him. Now she shows up in person and says he can ask her for anything he wants. Although he is in love with her, instead of pursuing her romantically, he asks her to make him a bowl of juk (porridge) like she used to make back at the village. The palace kitchen is able to prepare the finest dishes, but Hong-shim’s cooking gives him the comfort of home that he felt when he was living as Won-deuk. Then he asks her to stay with him until he falls asleep. Finally, he is able to rest with her watching over him.

In the sixteen years since the coup, no one has given Yul the sense of comfort and safety that he needs. Hong-shim has always protected and looked after people, including Yul himself when they were children, and she does so again when she visits him in the palace. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes.

 

Yul/Won-deuk and Yi-seo/Hong-shim do have a romantic love story, and the final episode ends with the promise that their relationship will develop into the romantic partnership they have both wanted since they met as children and vowed to marry each other when they grew up–a marriage that, as Yul says, should have happened much sooner, if not for the coup that took them on different paths. But romantic love aside, the palace scene shows that Hong-shim fulfills Yul’s basic emotional needs for comfort and safety, and taking care of Yul allows Hong-shim to express the core elements of her personality. Finding each other finally makes them whole again, and for that reason, 100 Days My Prince is a fun, exciting and satisfying story.

 

As they should have done much sooner, Yul/Won-deuk and Yi-seo/Hong-shim get engaged at the end of the drama. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes.