Netflix 100 Days My Prince

I have started watching this Korean drama several times, but I must not have finished it, as my memory of the content was vague—it was amnesia. Since Netflix displayed a notice that it would be available until the end of 2025, I watched it all the way through this time. It has 16 episodes in total. I was so curious about the conclusion that I ended up binge-watching it to the end. The drama's script is well-crafted. It aired in South Korea in 2018 and was broadcast on NHK General TV in Japan in 2019.
The word 'Rang-gun' in the title refers to a man of high status. The English title is '100 Days My Prince.' A key term in the drama is 'Wonnyeo Gwangbu.' This refers to men and women who have reached marriageable age but are not yet married. In this drama, the existence of these unmarried people is blamed for the lack of rain and the resulting drought, leading the royal court to issue an order for them to marry.
The setting is the Joseon Dynasty. The protagonist, caught up in this order, changes from wearing her hair in braids, which signifies being unmarried, to wearing it up with a hairpin after marriage. Learning that one could tell if someone was married by their hairstyle in that era is a point one can pick up from the visuals of this drama. Another learning point is that the townscape of the local district (Songju-hyeon) consists entirely of houses with thatched roofs. The difference from the cityscape of the capital, Hanyang, is something that was likely accurate in reality. I felt that these aspects were in line with historical facts. Also, the exchange of documents within the royal court is depicted as being in Classical Chinese. I feel that this is likely accurate as well, though I have not verified it. In any case, these are areas where I felt a sense of historical research.
On the other hand, there are many things in Korean historical dramas that seem impossible, but what caught my attention this time was the imagery of lanterns hanging from the eaves of houses at night, providing outdoor lighting. This is the Joseon Dynasty. Since oil was precious, I believe there would have been no outdoor lighting in villages, towns, or even the homes of the wealthy at night, and it would have been pitch black, so outdoor lighting seems impossible.
Finally, to mention one more key term in this drama: amnesia. In the drama, the Crown Prince (Seja) is targeted, injured, falls, and falls into a state of amnesia. Similar to this, but a different concept, is dementia. In dementia, there is no awareness of having lost one's memory. In amnesia, there is an awareness that something has been forgotten. The drama depicts the Crown Prince's efforts to regain his memory.
This drama also features a character with prosopagnosia: face blindness. This refers to a condition where the ability to remember and recognize faces is significantly impaired. While amnesia is rare in recent films, it has long been a common trope in cinema. The premise of prosopagnosia is something I have started to see occasionally in recent times.