Can a cursed princess and a scholar rewrite a dark royal fate?
In short: In the 2016 South Korean series Secret Healer, a royal queen turns to black magic to conceive, triggering a curse that forces her to abandon her daughter. Princess Yeon-hee grows up isolated, but a chance encounter with a scholar named Heo Jun sets them on a quest to break her deadly spell.
The narrative of Secret Healer, also known as Mirror of the Witch, draws inspiration from the historical medical text Dongui Bogam. The story begins with Queen Shim, who struggles with infertility and enlists the shaman Hong-joo to secure a royal heir. Through dark rituals, Hong-joo manipulates a young shaman named Hae-ran, transferring a pregnancy to the Queen. Before her death, the betrayed Hae-ran curses the Queen’s future children, leading to the birth of twins: Crown Prince Soonhwae and Princess Yeon-hee.
To protect the kingdom from the curse, the Queen abandons Yeon-hee, who is raised in seclusion by the shaman Choi Hyun-seo. Surrounded by protective talismans, the princess lives a life of forced isolation, watched over by Hyun-seo’s son, Poong-yeon. Her existence remains hidden until she crosses paths with Heo Jun, a scholar born to a slave and a wealthy master. Their meeting initiates a perilous journey to lift the curse, which threatens to bring a gruesome death to everyone the princess holds dear.
The series, which aired on the cable network JTBC from May 13 to July 16, 2016, spanned 20 episodes. Its broadcast schedule faced a minor disruption when episode 7 was delayed from June 3 to June 4, 2016, due to the 52nd Paeksang Arts Awards. As a cable production, the show operated within the constraints of pay television, which typically reaches a smaller audience than South Korea's major public broadcasters like KBS, SBS, MBC, and EBS. Despite these logistical realities, the drama weaves a complex tale of fate, magic, and the desperate struggle to reclaim a stolen destiny.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Secret Healer
- Also: Wikidata — Secret Healer · CC0
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