The Tale of Nokdu

The Tale of Nokdu () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Jang Dong-yoon, Kim So-hyun, Kang Tae-oh and Jung Joon-ho. It is based on the webtoon by Hye Jin-yang which was published in 2014 on Naver Webtoon. It premiered on KBS2 on September 30, 2019.

KBS temporarily suspended Monday-Tuesday drama time slot from December 2019 to February 2020. Currently, there are no upcoming dramas after this series.

The drama had average ratings Nationwide. However, it captured the heart of the generation Z in South Korea and was well-received from online viewers.

Synopsis
Set in the Joseon dynasty, the series is about a man who disguises as a woman to enter a mysterious women-only village; and a young woman who does not want to become a kisaeng.

Plot
A man called Jeon Nok-du lives on an island of Korea during Joseon dynasty with his Father Jung Yoon-jeo, his brother Jeon Hwang-tae, his master Hwang Jan-gun and his master's little daughter Aeng-du. Aeng-du is convinced that she is to marry Nok-du as Nok-du promised to do so if master Hwang agreed to teach him martial arts. She also calls Nok-du honey(to much to disagreement to Nok-du). Nok-du wanted to get out of the island and start anew in the city for money and recognition. But his father forbid him to do so for an unknown reason. One day Nok-du's family is attacked by some unknown assassins. Nok-du arrives just in time to take down the assassins. Nok-du was about to kill the last assassin when he was stopped by his father. His father claimed that this happened so he could pay for his sins. But Nok-du was determined to find out why they were attacked, so he left his father and wounded brother in the care of master Hwang and followed the assassins to their hideout. After he left, Hwang-tae and others were shocked to discover that assassins were women.
Nok-du follows the assassins to the city. At same time king announced that he would be visiting the city. Here a man is seen hiding behind among the houses. This man takes his bow out of his bag and imagines that himself taking down the King. After snapping out of his imagination, he saw King's chariot had moved beyond the aim. So he quickly took his place and adjusted his aim. However, Nok-du who was following the assassin bumped into this man and caused the man to drop his bow and caused Nok-Du to lose his target. After a short dispute, the two parted ways. As the man was about to shoot the king, an old man threw a stone on king and injured him. This man claims that this stone was from his son's grave and he is taking revenge on the king on behalf of his son. Later, we know that the man sitting on chariot was impersonating as king. Real king, King Gwang-Hae was pretending to be the guard. He ordered all his soldiers to find and bring the allies of this man. As Nok-du was just about to capture assassin he was caught by guard and he was astonished to know that the assassin he was following was a woman. Here, the mystery man who tried to shoot the king with an arrow was also caught. They are locked up together in a cell. Mystery man tried to escape from the cell but he failed and was rescued by Nok-du. They were then called for interrogation. Here, the king also poses as guard. Once again mystery man was saved by Nok-du and they were allowed to leave. Nok-du continued on his trail to find the assassins. He booked an inn and the inn keeper mixed poison in Nok-du's meal in exchange for money from the assassin. Later on he fakes his death and once the assassin believes that he is dead, he continues to follow her.
They enter a cave and he reaches a village where he was surprised to see that there are only women residing there. Soon after, he was thrown out by virtuous women corps (yeollyeodan, also called anjjumma avengers) led by Kang Soon-nyeo,Park Bok-nyeo and Lee Mal-nyeon.
Later Nok-du reads the name of village which was 'the village of widows' and finds out that men were not allowed in it.
After helping a run away widow chased down by her father-in-law to murder her, Nok-du ends up cross dressing as a woman and is praised by the run away widow and her lover for his beauty, now dressing as a woman Nok-du stands a chance at knowing what's inside the village of widows and so he attempts to enter the village in his disguise.
There he successfully fools the widows into thinking he is a woman and impersonates the widow he saved earlier and asks for refuge into the village so he could continue his investigation.
There he meets Cheon Hae-soo, the head and guardian of the village and he finds out that there are no houses left and must stay with the Ahjummah avengers so he asks the head to allow his stay at the gisaeng house amidst that they are interrupted with the commotion of a customer of the gisaeng house who is a known pedophile dragging an underage gisaeng trainee to his pleasure, he is then stopped by the troublemaker trainee Dong-joo who stands up for the young girl and sacrifices her hair in the process as promise to give the man (who is known to have killed his previously captive gisaeng) the girl afters she comes of age. After a bit of the ongoing quarrel lord Cha Yul-Mo makes his appearance and embarrasses the man out of the gisaeng house.

Cast

Main
 Jang Dong-yoon as Jeon Nok-du / Lady Kim Nok-soon / Yeon Soo
 Kim Ji-woo as young Jeon Nok-du
 A smart and athletic man who, due to an incident, enters an all-women village where men are strictly forbidden. To do so, he dresses himself as a woman in the guise of the widowed Lady Kim Nok-soon.
 Kim So-hyun as Dong Dong-joo / Yoo Eun-seo
 Cho Ye-lin as young Dong Dong-joo / Yoo Eun-seo
 A clumsy and hot-tempered kisaeng trainee who has no skills in performing arts, but has the ability to make anything when given a tool.
 Kang Tae-oh as Prince Neungyang / Cha Yool-moo
 Jeon Jin-seo as young Prince Neungyang / Cha Yool-moo
 A man known for his looks and talent in cooking. He cherishes Dong-joo, with whom he has a special childhood connection. He is the future king of Joseon.
 Jung Joon-ho as King Gwanghae

Supporting

People around Nok-du
 Lee Seung-joon as Jung Yoon-jeo, Nok-du and Hwang-tae's father.
 Song Geon-hee as Jeon Hwang-tae, Nok-du's older brother.
 Lee Moon-sik as Hwang Jang-gun, a martial art master and soon to be father-in-law of Nokdu.
 Ko Gun-han as Yeon Geun, a rich man who manages the widow village and is entangled with Nok-du.
 Park Da-Yeon as Aeng-du, 7 years old daughter of Hwang Jang-gun. She is convinced that her father promised to marry her with Nokdu, so she called Nokdu "honey".

People around Cha Yool-moo
 Hwang In-yeop as Park Dan-ho, Cha Yool-moo's charismatic escort warrior with an excellent sword skill.
 Kim Lee-kyung as Olan, a kisaeng who is jealous of Yool-moo's one-sided devotion towards Dong-joo.

People around King Gwanghae
 Kim Tae-woo as Heo Yoon, King Gwanghae's most beloved friend and subject.
 Lee Eun-hyung as officer Baek Jong, a man who is silently guarding the king.
 Park Min-jung as Deposed Queen Yu, King Gwanghae's queen consort.
 Oh Ha-nee as Queen Inmok, King Gwanghae's young stepmother or King Seonjo's wife.

Kisaengs
 Yoon Yoo-sun as Cheon Hae-soo, the head and guardian of the village to protect the kisaeng and the widow village.
 Lee Joo-bin as Mae Hwa-soo, a friend of Dong-joo and the most popular kisaeng with her talent and natural dancing ability.

Member of the Virtuous Women Corps (Yeollyeodan)
 Yoon Sa-bong as Kang Soon-nyeo
 Hwang Mi-young as Park Bok-nyeo
 Yoon Geum Sun Ah as Lee Mal-nyeon

Member of the Muwol Corps (Muwoldan)
 Cho Soo-hyang as Kim Ssook, a widow who has impressive sword skills.
 Song Chae-yoon as Min Deul-re, a mysterious person who is following Nok-du and the dandelion.
 Han Ga-rim as No Yeon Boon
 Yang So-min as Ahn Jeong-sook

Others
 Kwon Hyuk

Special appearances
 Park Chul-min as the father-in-law of the escaper and the holder of elephant treasure statue of Ming Dynasty. (Ep.1, 8) 
 Lee Ho-jae as the father who threw the stone at the king. (Ep.1)
 Jung Yi-rang as the inn owner. (Ep.1)

Production
 The first script reading was held in June 2019 at KBS Annex Broadcasting Station in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea.
 Yeonwoo of Momoland was offered the role of Mae Hwa-soo, but declined due to health concerns.  
 The series was filmed in Dongmakgol, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon Province, South Korea from June 1 to August 31, 2019.
 The series suspended its production on July 4, 2019 in wake of actress Jeon Mi-seon's death. She was cast as Cheon Hae-soo.
 On July 18, 2019, it was revealed that lead actress Kim So-hyun suffered a minor injury when she fell off a horse while filming. Filming was cancelled and rescheduled after her recovery.
 On August 26, 2019, The Tale of Nokdu, Naver Music and National Gugak Center announced the opening of K-Drama Music Competition Season 3 to select ten songs for the series' original soundtrack. The winner's song will be released as an official soundtrack on various music portals with the prize money of ₩2 million.
 It is the first series produced by Wavve and aired simultaneously on KBS2 and Wavve starting September 30.

Original soundtrack

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Reception

The series had a strong opening week for KBS2 22:00 Monday/Tuesday timeslot with ratings ranging from 6-8% that was last achieved by Sweet Stranger and Me back in 2016. It was announced on October 2 that due to "The Tale of Nokdu effect", Wavve has increased 4.5 times in paid subscribers daily and peak-time traffic rose more than 30% due to service reorganization, wave marketing and monopoly contents after launching a month before the drama aired. In addition, the drama reached 8.8% of the total viewing time of domestic dramas provided by Wavve considering it provides both latest and old series. 

Jang Dong-yoon saddled to a difficult task in transforming himself into a woman by growing out his hair and going on a severe diet to be able to pass as a woman in hanbok received praises from the viewers. He and Kim So-hyun were donned the nickname "Manhwa tearing" chemistry by the viewers for capturing everything from laughter to excitement and adding their own colours to the original characters.

According to the Content Power Index, The Tale of Nokdu was ranked second in both drama and non-drama and first in the drama category. In addition, according to the Good Data Corporation survey, the series was ranked third place in online video consumption of currently airing and upcoming dramas, and Jang Dong-yoon and Kim So-hyun were ranked third and fifth respectively in the list of top 10 most talked about actors and actresses in South Korea. As of 4th Week of November, the drama ended topped on the list of top 10 most talked about dramas.

SeoulBeats gave the drama a positive review, saying: "...cannot be defined by a single genre. The ability of the drama to experiment with various genres at once is due in large part to the complex character motives, desires, and relationships that drive the plot." Although mild, The Tale of Nokdu indirectly demonstrates the great abilities of women from special bodyguards, female assassins to a community of widows. Moon Soo-yeon of The Fact praised Jang dong-yoon, Kim So-hyun and Kang Tae-oh's acting performance to the ever-changing atmosphere in a work where the elements of comic, melo, action, and traditional historical drama were properly harmonized. Sarah Kim, SVP of content and partnerships at Rakuten Viki stated that "It was good to have a cross-dressing drama, which has not been produced since Coffee Prince."

The Tale of Nokdu ranked 15th on 2019 Wavve Chart. According to a survey conducted by SBS, the series ranked 5th among the Korean dramas in 2019.

Ratings
 In this table,  represent the lowest ratings and  represent the highest ratings.
 N/R denotes that the drama did not rank in the top 20 daily programs on that date.
 N/A denotes that the rating is not known.

International broadcast
The drama is available on the online streaming services such as Viki, KOCOWA and Viu. The drama did not air on KBS World for global viewers.

 Taiwan: friDay影音, LINE TV
 Philippines: Viu, ABS-CBN's The First and True Home of Asianovelas programming block on March 2, 2020 and dubbed on Filipino.
 Indonesia: Viu
 Singapore: Viu, Singtel E-le
 Thailand: Viu
 Myanmar : Sky Net
 Hong Kong: MyTV SUPER
 Japan: Will air starting January 31, 2020.

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links
  
 
 
 
Joseon Love Story: The Tale of Nokdu (조선열애뎐 - 녹두전) at Naver Webtoon

Category:Korean Broadcasting System television dramas
Category:Korean-language television programs
Category:2010s South Korean television series
Category:2019 South Korean television series debuts

Category:South Korean romantic comedy television series
Category:Television programs based on South Korean webtoons
Category:South Korean historical television series
Category:Television series set in the Joseon Dynasty
Category:Cross-dressing in television