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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Lim Ji-yeon, Choo Young-woo
Latest Nielsen rating: 6.8 per cent
In a country where appearance and status mean everything, sometimes the only way to get ahead is to pretend to be something or someone you’re not.
It’s an idea that has produced several gripping screen stories, such as the rich drama Anna with Bae Suzy. The JTBC series The Tale of Lady Ok is something of a period version of that, but with a bigger dollop of tragedy designed to have us rooting for its lead character straight away.


Played by Lim Ji-yeon, known to global audiences as Song Hye-kyo’s frightful bully in Netflix’s The Glory, Lady Ok is introduced as she is paraded through the streets of Hanyang (the name for Seoul during the era of Joseon dynastic rule in Korea from 1392-1897).
She is in fact being escorted to trial, pelted along the way by citizens angry at this low-born woman who dared to adopt the name of a dead noblewoman.
Despite the crimes she is accused of, Lady Ok holds her head high and calmly recites the constitution to soldiers who attempt to restrain her. There is an unflappable and noble air about this woman, and yet she stands accused of pretending to be noble born. Who is Lady Ok?
No sooner do we get a glimpse of this mysterious woman than the show answers that very question. We travel back in time and are presented with Gu-deok (Lim), the scrappy servant who will one day transform into the elegant titular character.

Gu-deok works for the spoiled young noblewoman Kim So-hye (Ha Yul-ri). During her time off, she sneaks out of the servants’ quarters to secretly do all the odd jobs she can in an effort to save up a nest egg that will allow her and her father to run away some day.
Things get busy at the family home when So-hye is betrothed to Cheon Seung-hwi (Choo Young-woo), a handsome nobleman known for being a storyteller and a “weirdo”.
While out on one of her clandestine jobs, Gu-deok meets a friend who is with another servant, and she begins telling them everything she has heard about this “weirdo” that her mistress is set to marry.

She bumps into the friend a few minutes later, only now he is decked in nobleman’s robes. She chastises him until he reveals to her that he is, in fact, none other than Seung-hwi, the “weirdo”.
Seung-hwi quickly falls for this outspoken servant, and the day that he breaks off his engagement with So-hye, she discovers Gu-deok hiding in his study. Filled with jealous rage – although Gu-deok is completely innocent – she has her beaten and sent off to be deflowered by her father.
Rather than submit to the master of the house, Gu-deok decides to avenge her mother, whose death the nobleman caused because he would not pay for her medicine. She almost kills him with a sickle, pours his chamber pot all over So-hye, and promptly runs away with her father.
After being separated from her father, Gu-deok begins working at an inn, where she is eventually befriended by the noblewoman Ok Tae-young (Son Na-eun). Tae-young, who is returning from Qing dynasty China, where she grew up, convinces her father to adopt the fiercely intelligent Gu-deok.
However, before they can leave the inn, fire breaks out. Tae-young saves Gu-deok but is herself killed. The one-time servant wakes up surrounded by Tae-young’s family, who mistake her for the returning noblewoman.

Pitched somewhere between village idiot and wily street savant, Lim’s performance in the early stretches does not quite hit the right note.
Ironically, as she starts turning into Lady Ok she becomes more convincing – doing a better job of portraying her character’s fake persona than the actual character.
Then again, this is the tale of “Lady Ok”. Assuming the noblewoman’s personal traits and biographical details becomes a matter of survival for Gu-deok. Since she can no longer be Gu-deok, who is to say that she doesn’t in fact become Lady Ok?

The Tale of Lady Ok rushes out of the gate and quickly turns melodramatic as it tears through Lady Ok’s backstory.
As it gets closer to the present, the pace of the story begins to relax, and we start to get a better sense of character and place, laying the foundations for what will hopefully continue to be an engrossing tale.
The Tale of Lady Ok is streaming on Viu.


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K-drama The Tale of Lady Ok: Lim Ji-yeon transforms herself in period rags-to-riches tale

Lim Ji-yeon in a still from The Tale of Lady Ok.

Lim Ji-yeon plays Gu-deok, a woman pretending to be noblewoman Lady Ok, in a still from K-drama The Tale of Lady Ok.

Lim Ji-yeon as Gu-deok in a still from The Tale of Lady Ok.

Choo Young-woo as Cheon Seung-hwi in a still from The Tale of Lady Ok.

Lim Ji-yeon as servant Gu-deok and Choo Young-woo as nobleman Cheon Seung-hwi, who falls for her, in a still from The Tale of Lady Ok.

Lim Ji-yeon as Lady Ok in a still from The Tale of Lady Ok.

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Lim Ji-yeon plays a humble servant who pretends to be a noblewoman, in this period K-drama set in the era of Joseon dynastic rule in Korea


Lim Ji-yeon plays a humble servant who pretends to be a noblewoman, in this period K-drama set in the era of Joseon dynastic rule in Korea.
