Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be more pretty to add to my anticipation for this drama, KBS comes out and proves me wrong by releasing more teasers and posters for sageuk Seven Day Queen, starring Park Min-young (Remember–Son’s War) as the titular Queen Dangyeong.
They feature her complicated and painful relationships with her suitors, Yeon Woo-jin (Introverted Boss), who plays Prince Yi Yeok (later King Jungjong), and Lee Dong-gun (Laurel Tree Tailors), who plays King Yeonsangun. In a political battle between half-brothers, she becomes caught between the two, and eventually ends up its greatest victim.
The catchphrases in the latest posters of Seven Day Queen indicate the tragic conclusion of the love story between Queen Dangyeong (born Lady Shin Chae-kyung) and Prince Yi Yeok. Despite being his first consort, she was deposed in a mere seven days because of her father’s loyalty to the previous king, Yeonsangun.
The first poster shows the two young lovebirds smiling at each other, but the text tells that this happiness may not last for long: “Because I loved you, all the world’s tears came to me.” The second, while equally beautiful, shows our main characters with more somber expressions, and the tagline reads, “If I am born again… I hope to never meet you.”
The first teaser begins with the adult versions of Chae-kyung and Yeok, who look like they’re longing for each other while being apart. In his internal monologue, Yeok vows, “You [Chae-kyung] woke me. I will take over the world for you.”
Then we flash to an earlier time, where one of Yeonsangun’s courtiers reveals that the dying wishes of the former king were written in a secret document. The alarm on his face suggests that these final words were not in Yeonsangun’s favor, and he strikes a deal with Chae-kyung’s father: “Will you become [Prince Yeok’s] father-in-law?”
Then Yeonsangun eyes his brother, thinking of Yeok’s promise to remain complacent as the king’s younger brother, thinking how Yeok will have to do everything to prove his loyalty. The teaser ends on the adolescent versions of Chae-kyung and Yeok in a pre-marriage meeting with their parents. He shouts, “I will never marry this girl!” and he storms out of the room, but Chae-kyung resolves to enchant the prince with her cute charms.
The second teaser begins with the same scene, but this time Chae-kyung stays and says that she’s completely willing to marry him and her parents gasp at her forwardness. She finds him later and slowly comes closer, asking, “If one is born, should one not fulfill one’s purpose in life?”
Later, a carefree Yeok rides on the shoulders of two of his friends, yelling, “Everyone follow me!” But Yeonsangun’s paranoid mind takes this harmless act as a challenge to his authority and almost cuts his brother’s throat. Instead of death, however, it’s exile for the prince, and a tearful Chae-kyung asks him, “Do you have to leave?” And then we make a complete circle back to the adult Yeok, who declares: “I will return. Wait for me, Chae-kyung.”
Whew, that was a lot of background plot in two teasers. Now we know that what began their fated union—the close relationship between Chae-kyung’s father and Yeonsangun—may also be what breaks it in the end. While I want to keep hope that they will have more than seven happy days together, the teasers and posters have heartbreaking messages, making me suspect that the drama will stick closer to the painful ending written in history.
KBS Wednesday-Thursday drama Seven Day Queen will begin airing on May 31, following the end of Mystery Queen.
