I had high hopes for Fashion King because it is Kwon Yuri’s first acting project. Plus it has Shin Se Kyung as well. It tells the tale of young designers in Dongdaemun Market. It shows their struggles as they try to achieve their dream of making it big in the fashion industry.
Yoo Ah In is Kang Young Gul, a hustler in Dongdaemun Market who doesn’t have any goals until he meets Lee Ga Young (Shin Se Kyung). She’s a talented fashion designer and has a bright future. Fashion King shows how the two coexisted to make their dreams come true.
Jung Jae Hyuk (Lee Je Hoon) is the manager of a large fashion company. He also has his eyes set on Ga Young. He tries to woo her from Young Gul. Then there’s Choi Anna (Kwon Yuri). She’s a fashion designer and Jae Hyuk’s former girlfriend.
Fashion King feels like Cinderella Man, a drama series that features Yoona, Yuri’s co-member in SNSD. Both series center on the Dongdaemun Market with the SNSD members being fashion designers. These are the only similarities of the two dramas.
I’m actually proud of Yuri’s performance in Fashion King, considering it’s her first acting job. She’s one of the reasons why I endured the drama until the very end. But her character is not really someone you will want to root for. Actually, the same can be said to the rest of the characters. Every single one of them is badly written.
Fashion King starts on a good foot. You want Young Gul and Ga Young to make little kids and grow old together. But then along the way, the characters change and it’s as if you meet them for the first time. The storyline doesn’t seem to progress and it just goes in circles until the final episode, which gives us the worst ending ever. Just when you think that everything’s going to be fine, it ends with a bang to Young Gul’s head.
You watch a romantic comedy because you want to see a happy ending for the characters, especially the main ones. The writers manage to surprise the viewers with the ending but it’s not the type that will endear them to the audience. I should have stopped watching Fashion King at Episode 19. No, I should have not watched it at all.
