However, all of Kim’s historical dramas have had time settings in the Joseon Dynasty period, which covered only about 600 years. The era could be considered long compared with the periods of rule in other countries, but out of 5,000 years it only accounts for a little. “My dramas all take place during the Joseon Dynasty, but I did not intend for this to happen. It just came to be so, naturally,” said Kim. “For instance, when producing Yi San, the coach that I got to work with had previously produced a piece taking place in an ancient period, so he wanted to work on other eras. Not only that, throughout his career he had produced many series that had backgrounds set in Joseon. So it was settled that our production would be in the Joseon Dynasty era.”

In addition to this, the writer mentioned that she had an inclination toward doing something on the life story of King Jeongjo, the 22nd ruler of the Joseon Dynasty. “As King Jeongjo is renowned for his dramatic life, he had been portrayed on television screens in supporting roles many times before Yi San. However, it was Yi San that first cast King Jeongjo as the protagonist, the main character of the synopsis.” Similar to in the case of Yi San, Kim stated that the characters and the story for Dong Yi and The King’s Doctor naturally formed in the Joseon period when researching for interesting subjects. 

“When writing a synopsis, what is always needed is something new. Stories always have to show interesting and new attractions that will grab the audience’s attention,” said Kim. The historical dramas of Kim contain some catchy and notable cultural points. In Yi San it was Joseon art, and in Dong Yi new aspects of Joseon music were demonstrated. “In the case of The King’s Doctor, Joseon medical art was not just a mere point. The drama’s content itself was about medical art. Just like these, I always try to introduce new things to the public both for engaging interest and evoking fun.”

Although history provides such meaningful matters, writing historical dramas is indeed an arduous job. “One of the reasons that I cannot pick out which drama is the most memorable is that all three dramas required difficult yet tremendous workloads,” said Kim. “It was especially difficult to write 100-page scripts a week, on average.” However, despite such heavy labor needed to create historical dramas, Kim explained the appealing points of historical dramas.

“What is attractive about historical drama is that it can be much more dramatic than dramas from the present,” said Kim. “Having the past as background is indeed an asset for showing the moments between life and death much clearer as it was not an uncommon sight to see people killing each other through combat and assassinations at that time. Therefore, brutal murders to eliminate political opponents or during wartime were more available for being shown as dramatic points in historical dramas than in modern dramas.”

Also, the author spoke of the positive influence the series have upon their viewers’ historical views. “Of course historical dramas do affect the public’s historical insights, as the series are based on history. One of the positive points of this influence is that it focuses people’s attention on history.” Kim described such a role of the genre by using a metaphor. “Like candies that are sweet on the outside but bitter inside, historical dramas are like that too,presenting concrete history with enjoyable wrap-ups.”

“However, while such a role exists, from my perspective, the dramas present problems with people’s overall view of history,” said Kim. In this genre, the imaginations of writers are added into the scripts with the historical record as the basis. Thereby,Kim asserted a high probability that cases and figures can be described or interpreted wrongly, being distorted and not matching accordingly with the historical record or reality.

Regarding such negative influence, Kim emphasized the importance of having critical minds in viewing historical dramas.“It cannot be denied that producers do share the responsibility in deciding what historical distortions are allowed in the dramas,” said Kim. “But above all, viewers are required to actively view the dramas critically in order to prevent themselves from obtaining incorrect historical knowledge.”

After all, records the perspectives of the recorders are contained within historical. That is, history itself is not perfectly objective. Therefore, dramas produced from such unstable ground cannot be subjective, too. “With such unstable a source, for script writers,what is really important is their own interpretation of those subjective historical records.” Along with this, Kim also explained that the author’s view of the contemporary period is equally or even more important. “While interpreting the past, the writer has to find out what he or she wants to deliver to those living in the present, and in order to do that, the author needs to have his or her own unique perspective of viewing the present period.”

Not only the messages but the stories and content too could be related to the contemporary era. Kim demonstrated the point that, “In The King’s Doctor, I was advised by both experts on old veterinary science and that of the present. One of the reasons that I needed help with knowledge of current veterinary science was that its case studies could be applied in The King’s Doctor, the historical drama.”

By using historical evidence and relating the past to the modern period, Kim has been sincerely fulfilling her career as a historical drama writer. Though her works are difficult to complete, she has always been making continuous effort to come up with new material regarding the past. When asked what she wants to demonstrate to her viewers next, she said that she wanted to work on a piece in the late period of Joseon. Although with the dominance of capitalism—production companies being well aware of the Japanese drama market—there have rarely been any dramas recently set in Joseon’s late period, she still claims that she wants to write about the period saying, “I have been thinking of an item regarding the period and if possible I want to write that script.”