Just finished watching my first period drama: The Moon that Embraces the Sun!

-
This was one of the 'popular' dramas I saw on mysoju. I never really got into a period/historical drama before and since everyone was raving about "The Moon that Embraces the Sun" being so amazing, I decided to give it a shot. Of course, I get addicted from the start, lol. This drama is clever too because I usually start to lose interest from the mid to ending part of the drama but this one kept me hooked until the end. They've got some pretty nice cliffhangers for each of the episodes.

The story is one of those that starts off with the characters as children and then they transition over to adulthood. The beginning is shown to be tragic but there is redemption at the end. Cool story, likeable characters, colorful costume designs, and beautiful historic scenery; mostly of the palace and villages.

The synopsis is somewhat complicated so it would probably be better to just look at it on dramawiki. In my short summary, I say that this is about a girl who falls in love with the crown prince and is almost appointed to be the queen but evil conspirators in the palace work to tear the two apart using dark magic of shamans. Then the crown princess somehow becomes a shaman, yada yada yada... Of course they get back together in the end but only after many sacrifices, heartache, drama..., etc. :D

All the characters, IMO, did a great job and even the child actors were very talented. I even felt a bit sad after they changed to the older actors which I usually don't. Their performance added a lot of magic and bittersweet happiness to the show especially as they were around during brighter times before the dark undertone started taking effect of the story.


These two were so cute together!

Awwwww, I'm gonna miss all these guys! (;__;)

So after watching an actual historic Korean drama, I feel that this type of drama is soooo much more intense! The dramatic scenes and the incentives and motivations of characters are a lot more complicated with the ginormous social etiquette and hierarchy system that was so common in the Joseon era.

Remember I mentioned that the side characters were really likeable? As a result, I found myself more drawn to the side characters stories instead of the main characters' story.

My fav side character was Un, the sexy bodyguard. lol

Who would've thought that this sexy beast was also the 'a-hole' in 2NE1's music video "Go Away?!!!!!!!!!!!"
This makes me totally believe the saying if someone is ugly on the inside, no matter how attractive they are, it will make them look ugly on the outside as well. (o_O) But anyway, Un is oh so handsome in this drama~! *internal scream*

I always seem to fall for the quiet, mysterious warrior guys when it comes to fantasy/historical shows. There's just something really special about them. (''^___^'')

With me being me, I like to think up and try to predict different 'possible' scenarios for all the characters and I was SO convinced that Un and Seol (who were both the warrior types), would end up together! I was waiting and waiting for a possible romance to pop up between those two but it never did... In all honesty I was quite surprised because it just looked so convincing and there were these little hints here and there... Well, if you ever watch this, you'll know what I mean. I guess the writers could have changed their minds towards the end because Seol started to do a 360 in her actions and seemed to be interested in someone else (I won't say who) but I still had hope for UnxSeol........

So, yeah, I finally finished this bad boy and got over all the super drama with the wrap-ups of characters and it was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders to be honest. Yes, the drama is THAT heavy. (>.<);;

I haven't seen too many historical dramas but as of now, I feel that I'm not all that interested in the complexity of Joseon's social hierarchy system and more interested in the life of historic Korea outside of the palace. Like with all the warriors and stuff. xD (omg, back to the warriors again?! lol)

I have "Iljimae" sitting on the side so I might try watching that one since it seems like there's less palace life and more action/adventure outside palace walls with the whole 'Robin Hood' theme. (^^)

"The Moon that Embraces the Sun" was very good but it made a bit tired with all the social politics and hierarchy system drama so I don't think I'll be watching a period drama similar to this one for a while. That's some crazy shit the people in the Joseon era had to deal with!

Oh and lastly, I just want to mention that the music in this drama is AMAZING and so BEAUTIFUL!!! You can always tell how much impact the music has if you can remember the tunes after watching it. Now everytime I see pictures of certain scenes of this drama, I think about the little tune that was playing in the background. x3


I feel this composition is the most memorable or just represents the drama series as a whole...


... while this tune is the more magical and lighthearted and less dramatic version of the composition above.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why does Lightning look so different in FFXIII Lightning Returns? [SPOILERS-!]

-
Image
I finally finished the game Lightning Returns recently and zomg, why does her face look so different?  I mean, she looks like she got plastic surgery. Before I begin, I'd like to point out that I am not criticizing the game in its entirety.  This is solely about the change in Lightning's hair and facial design.  The game play of Lightning Returns has nothing to do with this. :) I didn't really notice her face change until I beat the game and watched the ending CG animation scene.  (pic above is from the opening CG scene) I was a bit disappointed that the animators weren't consistent in her facial design, especially when it was so beautiful to begin with. Here's some compare/contrast pics I found. This one is of the CG animation for FFXIII, FFXIII-2, and FFXIII Lightning Returns. And here's the cutscene animation.  It's a bit more difficult to tell the difference in the cutscene animation unless you look closely. The hair
Read more

Anime Food!: Brock's Cream Stew

-
Image
Hello again!  My apologies for taking so long to make another 'Anime Food' post.  Enjoy! During my childhood days of watching Pokemon, I would often see Brock cooking this white stew thing.  It would look so yummy but I had no idea what it was..  And even though my entire family and extended family was Japanese, none of them ever made something like this.  (T__T)  The closest thing I got was corn chowder. Only recently did I discover that it's called cream stew and luckily, it's quite the easy recipe. ^^ I remember the very first time I made this.  I used a cream stew mix pack from the store (the one that has the blocks that you melt in the pot).  That turned out pretty bad so I highly recommend people make this one from scratch.  It's really does taste so much better this way.  I'm lazy so instead of having the pretty diced pieces of carrot, I threw in some baby carrots.  XD Close up ;3 I found this recipe on Little Japan Mama's rec
Read more

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1 & 2

-
Image
Hooray for the 100th post~! (^0^) I finally got to watching the last installment of the Harry Potter series (The Deathly Hallows Pt2) last night with my dad (and may I add that he was so loud, especially on the quiet parts of the movie, I even had to elbow him and tell him to be quiet... And then he's laugh at inappropriate times, so embarrassing, thank God it was dark). Sorry to say but after viewing it for the first time, I really prefer Pt1. I don't know why, maybe it's because I liked the scenery better or those particular scenes opposed to the 2nd part of the movie. My favorite scenes were the one with the doe patronus and Harry & party running down the streets of London and when they infiltrated the ministry. I'd have to watch the last Hp movie again to give a better review because sometimes when I watch the movie again, I have a better impression of it. The last movie was full of effects and flare. I was trying REALLY hard not to compare it to th
Read more