Flower Ring (KBS 1985)

[𝔰𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔠𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔯]

I had a nice article written for you guys but my internet browser decided to crash so fragmented information it is then :/ Also I mentioned it here once: deiner.proboards.com/thread/10619/5-more-kbs-sageuks-80s

September 16 1985~May 2nd, 1986

Episode count: 164

Very hazy plot I got from here

Poor nobleman and poor noblewoman fall in love, poor noblewoman gets engaged to richer family against her will, groom dies before the wedding but poor noblewoman is made to live as a widow, poor nobleman kidnaps poor noblewoman, main couple has a really simple wedding after which poor noblewoman kills herself, poor noblewoman's family gets a Red Gate for Virtuous Women, poor nobleman passes the national exam and gets into Court.

Episode 1:

What looks like a whole week of episodes:

Theme song:

[ajk]

Great stuff; thanks for posting it here. Some of the incidental music sounds like it was coming out of my Atari 2600! Good times, good times....

[𝔰𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔠𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔯]

Finally went through the papers for this one, confirmed 164 episodes!

[ajk]

Added to the timeline, thanks for checking on that.

[𝔰𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔠𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔯]

A little more of the plot I found:

In the Joseon Enlightenment era, a fallen noblewoman named Yeonbun lives with her widowed mother. She falls in love with a poor nobleman named Yun Sukju, and they seal their betrothal to each other with a ring made of flowers, because it's all they can afford. Sukju's family don't like the idea of him marrying a daughter of a fallen noble family. One day, Yeonbun receives a marriage proposal from the son of a Royal Secretary who's way richer. Yeonbun's mom works with Sukju's family to break off the original engagement, while Sukju's family find another maiden for him to marry. Sukju vehemently refuses his match but Yeonbun reluctantly accepts hers, only for her groom to die on her before the wedding. By Joseon rules a woman is considered married after exchanging gifts with the in-laws, so Yeonbun is now widowed herself, and begins mourning her husband after riding a white palanquin to marry his funeral tablet.

Meanwhile, Sukju falls ill with lovesickness, and starts throwing love letters over the wall to Yeonbun's chambers. He then tries to kidnap her so they can live happily ever after. When the in-laws find out, their first thought is to claim Yeonbun killed herself to preserve her chastity so they can get a Red Gate for Virtuous Women (a big honor for noble families). Yeonbun has a small wedding with Sukju, with only a broken jar of water as their witness (humble weddings are usually done with a bowl of water so this is considered more tragic), then Yeonbun kills herself with poison so he can move on from her and take the national examination. Sukju takes the examination and gets a post in Court.

Some plotlines I couldn't fit in the plot because too little information:

• A slave named Jeomshik who gets freed along with his wife
• The dead groom's Royal Secretary father gets murdered
  
• There's this character named Dohwa who's not only responsible for the Royal Secretary's death but also for convincing Yeonbun to poison herself
• Apparently the historical events going on at the same time are also in the plot but never takes any plot precedence

Some trivia I learned about the show:

So there was this minor character named Old Man Kim who had a concubine and was supposed to be written off after a couple episodes but people liked his character so much that they gave him a marriage plot that lasted half the show. He also had a catchphrase that translates to "Don't worry about a thing" (글랑 걱정을 말아라) in what I assume is a heavy regional accent, and it ended up in popular use for about half a year after the show finished broadcasting.