K-drama The Empire: Kim Sun-a plays prosecutor in dull, densely plotted legal drama that feels very old-fashioned
- K-drama The Empire, starring Kim Sun-a, is a convoluted mash-up of high-society melodrama and legal drama with a story that is overwrought and uninspired
- A wealthy family leverages the law to accrue and maintain its power. Dark secrets that would destroy them seem poised to come – but do we really care?
South Korea can seem like a colourful country when seen from afar, one filled with bright neon lights, vivid K-pop videos and prismatic palaces. But, until recently, many aspects of daily life were almost devoid of colour.
Workers spent their days in drab offices and government buildings and, save for the odd orange taxi and blue bus, Seoul’s streets were typically filled with an endless stream of white, black or grey cars.
Old-fashioned does not even begin to describe this convoluted mash-up of high-society melodrama and legal drama.
The show, with its lumpy black-and-white costumes and faded interiors, is so bled of colour that it often feels monochromatic.
Similarly, the story is overwrought, weighed down by uninspired ideas and let down by its dreary technical attributes.