Splendid Politics Explained

Splendid Politics is a 2015 South Korean television series starring Cha Seung-won, Lee Yeon-hee, Kim Jaewon, Seo Kang-joon, Han Joo-wan and Jo Sung-ha.^{[1] [2]} It aired on MBC from April 13 to September 29, 2015 on Mondays and Tuesdays at 22:00 for 50 episodes.

The Korean title Hwajeong is a shortened version of Hwaryeohan Jeongchi (literally "Splendid Politics").

Plot

Prince Gwanghae (portrayed by Cha Seung-won), son of a concubine, usurps the Joseon throne from the direct bloodline of his father, King Seonjo (portrayed by Park Yeong-gyu).

After her younger brother, Grand Prince Yeongchang (portrayed by Jeon Jin-seo), is executed, Princess Jeongmyeong (portrayed by Lee Yeon-hee), who managed to flee the palace during the massacre, starts living as a commoner disguised as a man while plotting her revenge.

Cast

Main

• Cha Seung-won as Yi Hon, Prince Gwanghae^{[3] [4]}
  • Lee Tae-hwan as young Yi Hon
• Lee Yeon-hee as Princess Jeongmyeong^[5]
  • Jung Chan-bi as young Princess Jeongmyeong
  • Heo Jung-eun as child Princess Jeongmyeong
• Kim Jae-won as Prince Neungyang, later King Injo
• Seo Kang-joon as Hong Joo-won^[6]
  • Yoon Chan-young as young Hong Joo-won
  • Choi Kwon-soo as child Hong Joo-won
• Han Joo-wan as Kang In-woo
  • Ahn Do-gyu as young Kang In-woo
  • Lee Tae-woo as child Kang In-woo
• Jo Sung-ha as Kang Joo-sun, Kang In-woo's father

Supporting

Royal Household

• Park Yeong-gyu as King Seonjo
  • Shin Eun-jung as Queen Inmok Choi Jong-hwan as Prince Imhae
• Jang Seung-jo as Prince Jeongwon, Prince Neungyang's father
• Kim Gyu-sun as Princess Jeonghye
• Jeon Jin-seo as Grand Prince Yeongchang
• Lee Seung-ah as Queen Inryeol
• Baek Sung-hyun as Crown Prince Sohyeon
  • Shin Ki-joon as child Crown Prince Sohyeon
• Kim Hee-jung as Crown Princess Minhoe
• Lee Tae-ri as Grand Prince Bongrim, later King Hyojong
  • Song Jun-hee as child Grand Prince Bongrim
• Kim Min-seo as Jo Yeo-jeong / Royal Consort So-yong of the Okcheon Jo clan
• Choi Woo-jin as Yi Jing, Prince Sungseon

Northern Faction (Gwanghae Group)

• Jung Woong-in as Lee Yi-cheom
• Kim Yeo-jin as Court Lady Kim Gae-shi
  • Jo Jung-eun as young Kim Gae-shi
  • Shin Rin-ah as child Kim Gae-shi
• Han Myung-koo as Chung In-hong
• Yoo Seung-mok as Yoo Hee-boon
• Jung Kyu-soo as Lee Choong
• Lee Jae-gu as the Chief Eunuch

Western Faction (Injo Group)

• Jo Min-ki as Kim Ja-jeom
• Park Jun-gyu as Kim Ryu
• Jang Gwang as Yi Gwi
• Kim Hyung-beom as Kim Kyung-jing, Kim Ryu's son
• Lee Seung-hyo as Lee Si-baek
• Kim Seo-kyung as Lee Si-bang
• Jung Wook as a State Ceremony Eunuch

People around Princess Jeongmyeong

• Im Ho as Choi Myung-gil
• Lee Jae-yong as Kim Sang-hun
• Kim Chang-wan as Lee Won-ik
• Kim Seung-wook as Lee Hang-bok
• Um Hyo-sup as Hong Yeong, Hong Joo-won's father
• Kim Young-im as Court Lady Jung
• Gong Myung as Ja-gyung
  • Kang Chan-hee as young Ja-gyung

Other subordinates

• Ahn Nae-sang as Heo Gyun
• Lee Sung-min as Lee Duk-hyung
  • Nam Da-reum as young Duk-hyung
• Park Ji-il as Kim Je-nam, Queen Inmok's father
• Jung Hae-kyun as Kang Hong-rib

Cameo

• Park Won-sang as Jang Bong-soo
• Kim Kwang-kyu as Yi Yeong-bu
• Kwak Dong-yeon as Yi Ui-rip
• Jo Jae-ryong as Bang-Geun
• Lee Seung-hyung as Yi-seo
• Kim Hyun as Court Lady Inspector
• Hwang Young-hee as Ok-joo
• Baek Su-ryeon as Soo Ryun-gae
• Lee Jae-gu
• Kim Ki-bang as Gu-bok
• Kim Kyu-chul
• Kang Shin-il
• Jung Ji-so as Eun-seol
• Kang Dae-hyun as Su-Deok
• Kang Moon-young as Lady Yoon, Kang Joo-sun's wife
• Kim So-yi as Court Lady Choi
• Baek Soo-ryun as Soo Ryun-gae
• Jang Hyuk-jin as Maruno
• Jung Sung-woon as Hong Taiji
• Kim Joon-bae as Yong Gol-dae

Ratings

In the table below,

the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

Episode #	Original broadcast date	Average audience share
		TNmS Ratings[7]		AGB Nielsen[8]
		width=100	Nationwide	width=100	Seoul National Capital Area	width=100	Nationwide	width=100	Seoul National Capital Area
1	2015/04/13	10.0%	12.3%	10.5%	12.0%
2	2015/04/14	10.5%	12.4%		12.8%
3	2015/04/20	9.0%	11.6%	10.9%	12.6%
4	2015/04/21	10.4%	12.6%	10.8%	12.1%
5	2015/04/27	9.7%	12.1%	9.9%	11.2%
6	2015/04/28	10.0%	12.0%	10.9%	11.6%
7	2015/05/04	9.2%	10.9%	9.4%	10.2%
8	2015/05/05	9.9%	12.0%	10.3%	11.7%
9	2015/05/11	8.3%	9.8%	9.5%	10.8%
10	2015/05/12	9.3%	10.6%	10.1%	11.4%
11	2015/05/18	8.2%	9.9%	10.6%	12.4%
12	2015/05/19	9.2%	11.2%	11.4%	13.0%
13	2015/05/25	8.3%	10.2%	10.4%	11.5%
14	2015/05/26	8.9%		11.0%	12.2%
15	2015/06/01	8.4%	9.9%	10.6%	12.5%
16	2015/06/02	9.1%	11.2%	10.2%	11.6%
17	2015/06/08	8.8%	11.1%		11.9%
18	2015/06/09			11.0%	12.7%
19	2015/06/15	10.3%	12.1%	10.7%	12.4%
20	2015/06/16	9.3%	11.1%	11.0%	12.5%
21	2015/06/22	10.1%	11.8%	11.6%
22	2015/06/23	9.9%	12.1%	10.7%	12.2%
23	2015/06/29	9.2%	10.8%	10.0%	10.8%
24	2015/06/30	9.7%	12.0%	9.8%
25	2015/07/06	8.0%	9.8%	8.9%	9.8%
26	2015/07/07	8.4%	10.3%	8.8%
27	2015/07/13	8.3%	10.6%	9.1%	10.2%
28	2015/07/14	7.6%	9.2%	9.8%	10.8%
29	2015/07/20	7.8%	9.8%	9.9%	10.9%
30	2015/07/21	9.4%	10.9%	11.4%	12.3%
31	2015/07/27	7.5%	9.2%	10.3%	11.5%
32	2015/07/28	9.2%	10.4%
33	2015/08/03	7.9%	9.3%	9.1%	10.7%
34	2015/08/04	9.2%	9.9%	9.8%	11.0%
35	2015/08/10	8.0%	9.5%	9.0%	10.5%
36	2015/08/11	8.6%	9.6%	10.7%	12.4%
37	2015/08/17	8.1%		9.6%	10.4%
38	2015/08/18	8.8%	10.7%	9.7%	10.6%
39	2015/08/24	7.9%	8.7%	8.8%	10.5%
40	2015/08/25	8.2%		9.0%	9.9%
41	2015/08/31	7.3%		8.5%	9.5%
42	2015/09/01	8.5%	10.1%	8.9%	9.6%
43	2015/09/07	7.3%	7.6%	8.1%	9.3%
44	2015/09/08		7.8%	8.3%	9.1%
45	2015/09/14	7.1%	8.5%	8.1%	8.7%
46	2015/09/15	8.7%	10.3%	10.8%	12.2%
47	2015/09/21	7.4%	7.7%	9.7%	10.9%
48	2015/09/22	8.3%	9.3%	10.5%	12.1%
49	2015/09/28
50	2015/09/29	6.2%	7.2%	7.8%	8.8%
Average

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2015	8th Korea Drama Awards	Grand Prize (Daesang)
		Excellence Award, Actor	Seo Kang-joon
		Hot Star Award
	4th APAN Star Awards	Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Serial Drama
	23rd Korea Cultural Entertainment Awards [9]	Best Actor Award, Drama
	34th MBC Drama Awards	Grand Prize (Daesang)	Cha Seung-won
		Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Special Project Drama
		Excellence Award, Actor in a Special Project Drama
		Excellence Award, Actress in a Special Project Drama
		Best Supporting Actor in a Special Project Drama
		Best New Actor in a Special Project Drama
		Top 10 Stars Award

External links

• Splendid Politics official MBC website
  • • Hwajung, Princess of Light at MBC Global Media

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kwon. Ji-youn. Gwanghaegun returns in factional drama. The Korea Times. April 8, 2015. April 7, 2015.
2. Web site: Doo. Rumy. Fact, fiction mingle in Splendid Politics. The Korea Herald. April 8, 2015. April 8, 2015.
3. Web site: Sung. So-young. Cha stars as prince in drama. Korea JoongAng Daily. March 26, 2015. January 31, 2015.
4. Web site: Kim. Yeon-ji. Cha Seung-won has to act hungry for power. Korea JoongAng Daily. March 26, 2015. March 26, 2015.
5. Web site: Han. Ji-hee. Choi. Veronica. Hwajung Lee Yeon-hee confesses she is huge fan of Cha Seung-won!. Get It K. March 26, 2015. March 25, 2015.
6. Web site: ko:인터뷰 <화정> 서강준, "첫 사극이라 욕심 많아, 멜로 기대 중". http://enews.imbc.com/News/RetrieveNewsInfo/124546. enews. iMBC.com. Korean. March 31, 2015. March 30, 2015.
7. Web site: TNmS Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu . TNmS Ratings . April 13, 2015 . Korean . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131128032303/http://www.tnms.tv/rating/default.asp . November 28, 2013 .
8. Web site: AGB Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu. AGB Nielsen Media Research. April 13, 2015 . Korean.
9. Web site: 23rd Korea Cultural Entertainment Awards winners list. 15 November 2015. 6 April 2017.