[Confession] Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo
Before anything else, I would like to define my drama reviewing:
First, I won't be posting episode recaps for dramas because i don't trust my character - I tend to get lazy when I have routines to accomplish and
Second, sometimes when I decide to watch a drama, I depend my continuance on the first episode. So if ever I am interested in a drama, I will watch the first episode and I will review it just to see how it goes. If I liked it, I'll have a continuation review after I finished the whole thing.
Kke, let's go! :D
Yes, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (whew what a long title) is soooo 2016 - fortunately my blog doesn't need deadlines and trends to keep up, I like savoring 'em. lol So like I've said before, I've never really enjoyed Histodramas until now so I was caught up in between watching this or not. And many of my friends said that Moon Lovers was so good but had such a tragic fate for its characters - that's why I was kinda hesitant to do it. I did it anyway, because why not? It won't hurt. I think.
Here is the synopsis of the drama:
During a total solar eclipse, a 25-year-old 21st century woman, Go Ha-jin (Lee Ji-eun), is transported back in time to Goryeo Dynasty. She wakes up in the year 941, in the body of Hae Soo and there, she encounters the many royal princes of the ruling Wang family. She initially falls in love with the gentle and warm 8th Prince Wang Wook (Kang Ha-neul), and later Wang So (Lee Joon-gi), the fearsome 4th Prince who hides his face behind a mask and is given the derogatory label "wolf dog." Meanwhile, rivalry and politics ensue among the princes, in a fight for the throne, as Hae Soo finds herself unwittingly caught between it all. (cr.wiki)
Moon Lovers is a deceitful drama that seduces you with tons of flower boys, only to lead you on and hurt you after you've invested so much emotionally. Every thing started so bright and fun because the lead girl Hae Soo was cute being naive after being transported to the past (she's from the present), even after seeing all Princes' brothers half naked (seducingg mee) and the budding romance of Hae Soo to 8th Prince Wook - it was all light. It was all too cute to abandon and it didn't hurt me in anyway - at least not that time. In all fairness, I was prepared to get hurt. I planned to abandon the series once it gets dark and fall apart. I was fckin prepared, but even though I was prepared, I still stuck to it - even though it was getting bloody and traumatic - I still finished it like I'm a fcking warrior.
On the good note, I did like a lot of the elements of the story, in particular the misunderstanding and rivalry between princes, the tragic tale of a lonely king who lost the very things he thought power could give him, the drama’s revision of history, cleverly filling in what could’ve happened between the lines of historical record. It’s cool stuff, led by a charismatic Lee Jun-ki as the complex hero, so you’d think that the result would be decent. Good, even.
But hell, was that a hot mess, yet I was eager to watch the next episode. I'm not sure if historical dramas should be felt that way but it was such a weird experience to me. The directing was bad, the editing was like something a drunk monkey might produce, the acting was uneven and unconvincing *ehem*Baekhyun*ehem*, and the writing was especially infuriating because it was fcked up in so many levels. The greatest source of disappointment was the extraordinary extent to which it failed to be the sum of its many (both good and bad) parts, and its stubborn refusal to offer its viewers any sort of payoff at the end. After all that sht I went through watching, you wouldn't give me a happy ending? Not even a hint of the couple reuniting? The love story failed to redeem itself, imo Maybe we all just need to wait for the re-re-recut special director’s anniversary version to finally watch this drama be what it could have been.
I almost would have preferred if Moon Lovers had been consistently mediocre all the way through, because then it would have been a simple matter of disconnecting emotionally and walking away. But it had these occasional flashes of something gripping and provoking, and because we could see that it had some great ingredients, there was always that faint hope that those ingredients might combine together into something better, as though the combined ever described anything good.
It’s unfortunate, since there was just so much untapped potential for something great here—and there were some scenes that proved it—but all dramaland can do is learn that we can never diagnose a drama by its actors and pre-production capacity and all we can do is try to move on from it. Tragic.
PS. I am healing myself by listening to its awesome Soundtrack ♥
My Rating:
Plot: 7.3/10
Acting: 6.8/10
Cinematography: 6.0/10
Characters: 4.0/10
Uniqueness: 5.0/10
OVERALL RATING: 5.5