Ghosts, Curses, And Poison: "Our Blooming Youth" Is A Mix of Menace And Mystery

Beleaguered princes seem to be the name of the game in sageuks these days. We’ve gone from a prince emotionally haunted by the memories of his lost love in “The Forbidden Marriage” to a prince who believes he’s been cursed by a ghost in “Our Blooming Youth.” But that’s the only similarity between the two shows. Ready yourself, Park Hyung Sik fans, because he’s finally back onscreen in full princely form, and he’s picked one heck of a brooding role to return in! This show is a slow-burn murder mystery, a love story, and an ode to friendship and family all in one. Here’s what we loved about the premiere episodes!

Warning: spoilers for episodes 1-2 below.

1. The prince’s curse

The central premise here is a unique one: a letter that couldn’t possibly have been sent by a human links both the crown prince of Joseon and a woman newly-accused of murder. Crown Prince Lee Hwan (Park Hyung Sik) has been plagued by rumors since his ascension to the position some three years ago. The reason? The highly unusual death of his brother, the previous Crown Prince: murder by peaches. Apparently the fruit interfered with his brother’s medicine, yet someone slipped it to him, which resulted in his death. Consensus in the royal court is that the “someone” was Lee Hwan. But is that really the case?

From the brief glimpse we get of the aftermath, Lee Hwan is immediately appointed Crown Prince and moved to the Eastern Palace where his brother used to live. But on his very first night there, a strange letter falls from the ceiling, the brief rustle awaking Hwan. And when he reads what’s within, his entire life warps in an instant. The letter is a curse and a prophecy, dooming him to paralysis, then the death of those around him, and promising that everyone will betray him. Why? Because the letter says he murdered his brother. Hwan knows it isn’t true but is completely rattled, since no human could possibly have delivered the letter with so many people stationed outside his room. But he can’t tell anyone either because it would mean that his brother’s death wasn’t just an accident and that there could be a murderer on the loose. So Hwan changes instead, growing crueler and distrusting of everyone, including Han Sung Oh (Yoon Jong Seok), his best friend since childhood.

Two years pass, and Hwan believes that the letter might have lost its teeth. But when a poisoned arrow nearly paralyses his arm during a routine hunting expedition, Hwan knows that the unearthly being that cursed him is still out there, ready to make good on its promise to destroy him. Add to that a divided court and a faction headed by the Right State Councillor Jo Won Bo (Jung Woong In), and it’s no wonder that Hwan is dangerously close to snapping. Especially when he learns that an accused murderess somehow knows his secret.

2. The mysterious poisoning

Min Jae Yi (Jeon So Nee) was right on the cusp of happiness. Betrothed to Sung Oh, the two were due to be married in a day. Her father, Hwan’s mentor, receives a mysterious letter from Hwan detailing his curse and how he’s at an utter loss on what to do when a force that isn’t of this world seems to be threatening his life. Hwan requests Jae Yi’s brother’s help, as Jae Yi’s brother was reputed to have solved many of the city’s cases. Only Hwan has it wrong. It was Jae Yi, not her brother, who solved those cases. Her father kept it under wraps for her sake as women having careers or being intelligent was highly frowned upon. Jae Yi tells her father that she’ll help Hwan, but that same day, her entire family is poisoned to death. And in an instant, she becomes the prime suspect.

Shim Yeong (Kim Woo Seok), a longtime friend of the family, testifies to the magistrate that he was Jae Yi’s secret lover and that Jae Yi did it to avoid marrying Sung Oh. Naturally, everyone’s more inclined to believe the man. Rather than wait to hear Jae Yi’s side of the story, they set out to arrest her. To her credit, Jae Yi fends them off without any help, which is a rarity in dramas. Even when she falls off a cliff into the water, she doesn’t even fall unconscious. Instead, she resolutely swims to shore, treats her wounds, dresses as a man and returns to the capital to the only person with answers on why her family was murdered: the prince who sent the letter that started it all.

But she doesn’t count on how much Hwan’s changed. They’d met briefly as children, where she quickly outsmarted him and young Sung Oh. But the Hwan of the present is a caged tiger, searching for someone to pounce on. So when he’s at another hunt, fighting off a silent coup in the making and yet another arrow nearly kills him, he’s furious upon finding Jae Yi next to the bow that shot the arrow. She denies that it was her but this prince isn’t prepared to listen.

3. A one-sided friendship

The years have warped Hwan into a man who doubts first and has little to give in the way of trust. Nowhere is this better exemplified than his relationship with Sung Oh. The two have known each other for years, and Hwan was well aware of Sung Oh ‘s impending wedding to Jae Yi. But when they’re in the forest on a royal hunting expedition, Hwan freezes upon seeing Sung Oh’s bow aimed in his direction. He doesn’t even pause to consider that Sung Oh would be shooting at something behind him – which would be the obvious conclusion. Instead, Hwan immediately believes that Sung Oh is about to shoot him. He thinks back to the letter which prophecied that his best friend would turn on him, and he’s absolutely positive that Sung Oh is about to do that.

It’s a pivotal scene that shows just how much that letter and fear rules Hwan’s life. If anything, part of this curse seems to be of his own making because he’s allowing himself to be ruled by the words of an unknown being. And it’s turning him into a callous, bitter man. Even the way his arm trembles seems to be more psychosomatic than the result of a curse.

For his part, Sung On evidently trusts Hwan and considers him his best friend. He thinks that Hwan can be too harsh at times, but there is nothing in his demeanor thus far to indicate any malice in him towards Hwan. The friendship seems extremely one-sided. So it should be interesting to see where this goes because it’s a full 180 degrees from Jae Yi’s relationship with her best friend.

4. An incredible sisterly bond

The women here are thankfully wonderful and ready to sacrifice themselves for each other in a heartbeat. Ga Ram (Pyo Ye Jin) is Jae Yi’s maid and her best friend. Jae Yi evidently considers her an equal and would do anything to protect her, just as Ga Ram would die for her. Both women risk everything in the aftermath of the murder of Jae Yi’s family. Ga Ram protects her as best she can and urges her to flee, while Jae Yi refuses to let Ga Ram join her in her quest for answers, knowing that the other woman would only be at risk in the capital.

But that doesn’t stop Ga Ram one bit. Increasingly concerned about Jae Yi, she dresses as a man herself and apprentices herself to Kim Myung Jin (Lee Tae Sun), the very eccentric herbalist/scientist son of the Left State Councillor. He’s also in love with Jae Yi somehow, which makes her warm up to him even if she thinks he’s weird. Thus far, Myung Jin and Ga Ram’s paths haven’t intersected with Hwan and Jae Yi’s. But at the speed we’re going at, they just might meet before long!

5. A mercurial king and family secrets

This is a 20-episode drama, so we have the space to fully flesh out characters. The drama certainly seems to be putting it to good use thus far, because there seems to be more to Hwan’s father than we know. The King (Lee Jong Hyuk) seems to be a kind father at first glance. He supports Hwan, showing the royal court that there’s nothing wrong with his arm after the arrow to his shoulder. He allows Hwan to kick out the palace servants that gossip about his mental state or the state of his arm.

Yet, there’s someone in the palace intent on making Hwan seem cursed. Take the hunting expedition where Hwan meets Jae Yi. He refuses to believe that she’s innocent (of her family’s death and of the second arrow that was shot at him) and has her dragged to his tent for questioning. It’s there that Jae Yi witnesses that someone really is out to get Hwan.

As part of a religious ceremony post the hunting expedition, Hwan washes his hands before all present and prepares to write a prayer when blood suddenly starts to drip down his hands. And there’s no wound. The assembled ministers see this as an ominous, cursed sign, and Hwan roars at everyone present out of sheer panic. But only Jae Yi knows what’s really happened here. After being towed back to the capital and locked in Hwan’s dungeons, she tries to convince Hwan to believe her by telling him about the letter he sent her father. Only, he hasn’t sent one.

Yet as she speaks, the contents of the letter she and her father received are exactly the same as the many letters he wrote her father over the years and destroyed. He grows more and more unnerved as she speaks and refuses to believe her out of sheer fear. But she also reveals that whoever is haunting him isn’t a ghost but a person. And she knows how they made him “bleed” at the hunting grounds without causing a wound. Whoever it was sprinkled bryophytes (a type of moss that accumulates iron) on the writing brush and alum (a clear powder) in the water that Hwan washed his hands in. When the two mix, the alum leeches the iron from the bryophytes, which results in a red liquid (the iron dissolved in water) that looks like blood.

Hwan demonstrates Jae Yi’s method before the assembled ministers the next day, believing that perhaps one of them was behind the trick. But even Hwan’s enemy, the Right State Councillor, Jo Won Bo, wasn’t responsible. And the most likely suspect in Jo Won Bo’s eyes is Hwan’s own father. After all, the King has yet another son: Hwan’s youngest half-brother, Prince Myung Han (Im Han Bin). And we still don’t know how the former Crown Prince died. Added to this is Hwan’s stepmother, the Queen (Hong Soo Hyun), who also happens to be Jo Won Bo’s niece. She’s thankfully not one of those evil, scheming stepmothers, whew. Hwan has enough on his plate as is. But there’s no telling what path she might take in the future.

All of which is to say that we have quite the set-up on our hands. The show really packed in a hefty amount of backstory in the first two episodes, setting up each character, their pasts, and their collision course with each other. It’s worth noting that Hwan is exceedingly rough with Jae Yi despite knowing her gender, which might be taken quite poorly. Yet there is more to him than what’s on the surface. Despite knowing who Jae Yi is, he doesn’t turn her in immediately. He’s curious enough to hear her out, despite also being incognizant of the injustices she faces as a woman in Joseon. Jae Yi is an incredible woman, skilled in swordplay, strength, and is super smart to boot. It was incredibly satisfying to see her taking Hwan down when he dared tell her that the law would decide if she was innocent.

She was heartbroken enough to throw everything away and prepare to surrender herself to the police, but also brilliant enough to threaten Hwan at the same time while yelling his secret to any who could hear. He’s in over his head with her because she’s sharp and has nothing to lose. Rather than have her change him (she shouldn’t have to be his teacher!), hopefully Hwan will wise up and learn to be a better person to be worthy of her. Regardless, their journey promises to be an incredible ride!

Check out the drama below!

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What did you think of the premiere episodes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Shalini_A is a long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she works as a lawyer, fangirls over Ji Sung, and attempts to write the greatest fantasy romance of all time. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and feel free to ask her anything!

Currently Watching:  “Island,” “The Interest of Love,” “Agency,” and “Payback.”
Looking Forward to: “The Heavenly Idol,” “Gyeonseong Creature,” “Ask the Stars,” “The Girl Downstairs,” The Worst Evil,” “Black Knight,” “Queen of Tears,” “Vigilante,” “Demon,” “Dr. Romantic 3,” “Daily Dose of Sunshine,” and Ji Sung’s next drama.