Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo Review

SPOILER FREE!

• Episodes: 20 – You can watch it online on Youtube or Drama Fever
• Release Date: August 29, 2016 – November 1, 2016
• My rating: ★★★1/2
• Genre: Historical Fiction

“No matter how many times you are reborn. You’ll eventually have to pay for what you’ve done.”

During a total solar eclipse, a 25-year-old 21st-century woman, Go Ha-jin (Lee Ji-eun), is transported back in time to the 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.

This Little Red Ridding Hood based drama put me on an emotional roller coaster. I was laughing so hard one minute and the next I was sobbing my eyes out. Lee Joon-Gi OMG if I could, I’d marry you!

A very skilled and talented actor not only worshipped in Korea but also the United States. He was one of the antagonists in Resident Evil 5.

He plays the 4th Prince Wang So who is also called the Wolf by the ones who are afraid of him. He has a mask on the left side of his face to cover a scar caused in his childhood. During those times, scars in nobility were a blasfemy, a disgrace. Hence why he covered it.

“Don’t push me away. Don’t tell me to leave. Don’t tell me that I bring misfortune and that I’m an animal. At the very least, you can’t do that to me.” – Wang So

It is quite interesting how times have changed. If you watch the series, you’ll realize that the scar was not that bad. It actually made him EVEN HOTTER! But well, he was ashamed of it and decided to be feared instead.

There are quite a few negative things I need to point out as they caused me not to enjoy the drama as much as it could have:

1. Patchy sageuk-speak
The use of sageuk speech patterns is very inconsistent in this drama world, particularly in the first half of the show. I know that Hae Soo (IU) is supposed to be from a different time period, but I found it really strange that we’d get scenes where almost everyone would speak to her using more modern speech patterns, and then see a subsequent scene where more sageuk speech norms are used. That choice seemed.. very odd.

2. Unexplained shifting relationships
A lot of time passes in our drama world, and with it, relationships among characters evolve. That, I get. What Show doesn’t do is paint a picture that we can easily follow, so that we can feel convinced of and engaged with the evolving relationships. This also results in a story that feels disjointed and roughly stitched together.

[MINOR SPOILER] For example, in the beginning, most of the princes start out pretty confused and bemused by Soo’s sudden change in personality after her “accident” (read body-swapping time-travel). In episode 6, though, all the princes are suddenly fawning over Soo like she’s their favorite person in the world. I get that some time is supposed to have passed since Lady Hae’s passing (Park Shi Eun), but we don’t get to see how Soo endears herself to the princes to this strong degree, save for that flashback of her drinking and talking with Baek Ah (Nam Joo Hyuk). The sudden strong affection feels like it’s coming out of nowhere and doesn’t feel organic. [END MINOR SPOILER]

3. Odd characterization
Many (seriously, so many) times while watching this show, I felt like characters were behaving in very odd ways. I found it hard to understand why they would behave the way they did, and this affected my ability to connect with these characters. This in turn hurt my ability to engage with this show, especially when the characters involved were often main characters.

[SPOILER] As a small example, in episode 2, Soo runs after So (Lee Jun Ki) when she spots him as he chases assassins into the woods. She chose to be brave and good for her! Maybe it was due to her personality back in the modern century. However, as time went by she was scared to do certain things. She started to adapt to this new society and that made her to be more afraid. Why?  [END SPOILER]

To be honest, I could only reach the end of the series due to Lee Joon-Gi. He kept his character on point and I was able to connect with him from start to finish.

Overall, the series could have been so much better with more development of the characters and less time skips. I believe they rushed towards an inconclusive ending in order to leave us devastated but in the end it just got me very angry. Would I watch a second season? Absolutely. There are certain plots that need closure for me.

Note aside: The OST (soundtrack) is really good! One of the songs is by EXO and I love it! Beware! You will be left a bit sad after listening to the entire album.