Queen Inhyun's Man - a drama so gonna drown you in tears.

Travelling through time and space has been a concept much explored by the human race. The ability to warp and manipulate the very essence of time itself is an idea that has permeated the entertainment culture, manifesting itself in the plot lines of T.V. shows, novels, and movies.

In my free time, I’ve decided to follow Queen In-hyun’s Man, a drama that is surprisingly good and touching.

The drama switches between two time periods, 1694 and 2012. The 1694 story line, set during the Joseon era, features our hero Kim Boong-do as he tries to restore the exiled Queen In-hyun. This storyline is fraught with political intrigue as he fights the conniving plans of Minister Min, who supports the opposing Lady Jang. It is in this time period he is given the time-travelling talisman that transports him to the future. The talisman works only for him and only when the hero is in immediate danger of death. Returning to his time period is a bit easier and doesn't require a threat of death.

The modern storyline features Choi Hee-jin, an actress playing the role of Queen In-hyun for a sageuk in her time. She becomes the only friend that Kim Boong-do has in the new world. After a couple of hijinks, the two somehow fall in love.
BUT. As Kim Boong-do goes back to the Joseon era, his talisman gets torn and his memories of his time in the modern era fade away.

Time becomes the main antagonist as the largest obstacle these two have to face. 
Well Hee-jin  has 300 years blocking her love. The fact that the biggest obstacle the two characters have to face is an abstract idea, time, provides for a more satisfying ending when they do overcome it.

Along with the plot, the characters are written well. Hee-jin is a spunky, impulsive woman. She has her childish moments and she is pulling off the role well, able to portray the spontaneity and the spacey nature of the character. Hee-jin is a good complement to the level headed and serious Kim Boong-do.
Speaking of the Joseon scholar, he has easily become one of my favorite male characters in the K-drama world. He is not a cold, detached, obnoxious, man who has no understanding of basic human interaction. Instead he is an intelligent, level headed, noble, sexy, (ahem) scholar.
 To be honest, I’m bracing myself for some noble idiocy because this man is just too awesome to exist in a K-drama rom-com. He’s just too damn adorable trying to figure out the 21st century.

The aspect of time travel is well explored in this drama.  History has been tweaked as he uses the tools in the future to help him survive and that could have some unintended consequences. The drama also effectively uses time travel as a way for Kim Boong-do to travel quicker. He understands that modern modes of transportation are more efficient and faster. He uses that to his advantage to move freely about and execute his plans. It further emphasized the clever nature of the character and it helped drive the plot.

Anyway...I seriously don't think I can coherently express the extent of my love for this drama. The amount of good things about it is just too much to list. Just - everything about it is perfect. The cinematography is wonderful - you have to physically watch the drama itself to appreciate just how visually stunning it is. And the music is so beautiful - I love saguek instrumentals in general, but here the music is alternately epically exhilarating, breathtakingly romantic or just simply gorgeous and sweeping and plain awesome - it literally makes me get goosebumps and makes my heart beat faster and creates this AWESOME ambience and does all the things that a drama OST should do, and more.