The King and I revolves around the life of Kim Cheo-sun, considered the best eunuch attendant who lived during the Joseon Dynasty.[3]
Cheo-sun secretly loves his childhood friend So-hwa, but he cannot confess his love because of their difference in social class. Eventually, when So-hwa becomes betrothed to King Seongjong, he castrates himself and enters the palace as an eunuch, determined to watch over and protect her.
Initially the King's concubine, So-hwa is later elevated to the rank of Queen. But she becomes a pawn of the intense strife among warring political factions, and is stripped of her title and cast out of the palace in disgrace. Despite Cheo-sun's attempts to help her, she is sentenced to death. Cheo-sun carries out his orders by handing her the bowl of poison and he watches as the woman he loved all his life dies before his eyes.[4] After her death, he looks after her son, Prince Yeonsan.
Park Sang-min was originally cast as King Seongjong, but had to back out. He was replaced by Go Joo-won.
Yeo Woon-kye was supposed to portray So-gwi but had to quit due to health reasons, even though she had already filmed a few episodes. Her replacement was Kim Soo-mi.
Reportedly enraged because the scripts were routinely turned in late, resulting in exhaustion for the actors in the cast, Jeon In-hwa's husband Yoo Dong-geun assaulted two producers on set on December 29, 2007. He later apologized for the incident.[6][7]
Episode ratings
The King and I performed moderately well, getting ratings in the 20%–25% range and ranking in the top 10. However, in late January 2008, due to competition from MBC's Yi San, ratings fell to the mid-tens, barely cracking the Top 20 in Korea.[8]
SBS first extended the episodes from the originally planned 50 to 67, then back to 61 because of bad ratings, and finally to 63.[9]
.jpg)