Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016)

A time travel romance drama. The main character is flung from modern day Korea to its origins. She has to navigate the world of the palace, and her relationships while not giving away her secret. Unfortunately this series is nowhere near as good as the original. I’d recommend it to people who are looking for this specific genre but really if you have anything else on your list you’d probably get more enjoyment out of that. This drama is bland.

The story was decent. However it felt like the writers didn’t want to commit to a more political drama so they made the character’s motivations more personal. This ended up limiting the drama as those motivations were not always convincing. The script felt very rushed towards the end in contrast to the fullness of the character exploration in earlier episodes. It was also repetitive at times, rather than exploring new territory with the characters the same events ended up happening each time. The major issue with this drama is that while some characters progressed immensely, others remained two dimensional.

The cast was a mixed bag. Lee Joon Gi as Wang So was phenomenal. He did an amazing job portraying the emotion of his character and was persuasive. Unfortunately towards the end he was let down by the script that didn’t leave him enough room to show the change in Wang So’s motivations. IU was not convincing as Hae Soo. It felt like she could have been replaced by any other pretty face and the drama would have been fine if not better. Part of this is that Hae Soo was written as a character who has things done to her, as opposed to being a character that makes decisions for herself. This could have been made up for by a skilled actress who could have shown the depth of feelings outside the spoken dialog, instead however the viewer was given a blank slate. The rest of the cast was great but the script only allowed them to be two dimensional (e.g. angry ambitious character, bungling character who has all the power and connections, funny cute character forever changed by tragedy, and so on).

The music was on point but nothing remarkable.

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This is a beautiful, captivating and heartmelting drama! One of the best drama with the most visually stunning location and actors and actresses! It has grandeur in its own and will become one of those classic drama that will last in our memory and heart.

Most of the adaptation I have watched, oftenly are a let down to me. But this is an exception,and I would say this has been one of the the best adaptation if not the BEST adaptation of any drama that I have watched. I am a big fan of the original chinese version. I have scored the cdrama a perfect 10 and I will do the same with this korean version.

The story for me is perfect given that it has resemblance with history. The plot is engaging together with the characters. The writing has flaws but they are covered by great cinematography, costumes and acting. The setting is visually stunning! The pacing is just right given that it is historical in nature. I enjoyed watching how the plot are interspersed with each episodes. I think 20 episodes is enough to create a beautiful story of love, friendship and family ties!

Characterization is well written including the progression of the loveline! But what amazing in this drama are the actors, all of them acted brilliantly. I am surprised that IU has improved a lot especially towards the end of the drama. Two thumbs up to her and to all the prince (s).

Music is excellently chosen, they all stir the emotions and give more gravity to a scene.

Yes I am gonna rewatch but only for those light and feel good scenes and not those that rendered me heart-broken.

This is highly recommended drama, many layered of emotions, lots of twisted plots, great acting and grand visuals!

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Scarlet Heart is an anomaly for me. Everything about it is something that I would normally not enjoy or watch for anything other than a quick laugh or meme. Yet, I loved this drama. I loved every minute of it. I binged watched Scarlet Heart in three days and was enthralled every second. The cast was fun and bright, filled with Korean superstars, and in my opinion everyone was perfect for their role. The OSTs were some of the best I've ever heard, perfect for every emotion the show conveys; this soundtrack is beaten only by Goblin's in my opinion. Even the plot, though perhaps the most trope filled I've encountered since Boys Over Flowers, was wonderful; it was playful and fun at times and devastatingly sad at others. Scarlet Heart was able to strike a balance between light and emotional that many other dramas fail to achieve. For this reason it was able to capture my heart on a very different level, one of enjoying a drama for the fun of it instead of for a deep investment, than dramas like Goblin and Secret Garden, which normally receive perfect scores on my list.

I thought the best part of this drama was Lee Joon Gi and his portrayal of Wang So. Wang So is my ideal drama lead. He's incredibly sad, has a laundry list of deep personal issues, and underneath it all a heart of gold. He is desperately lonely throughout the majority of the show and any time he seems to clutch happiness it's ripped away from him. I love anything sad so this is perfect for me. Lee Joon Gi captured my heart in this drama. I cried even when he smiled. I cried for three straight days and still cry when I listen to Will Be Back. I watched this drama over a year ago and yet I still think about it constantly. Most of those thoughts revolve around Wang So; that is truly how compelling I found him. Watching the character development So goes through was amazing. He is almost unrecognizable in the 16th episode compared to the 1st. The adorable moments with IU's Hae Soo brought the character fully to life. I truly believed in their love by the drama's conclusion. They made me want that love for myself.

On the note of Hae Soo her character is also worth discussing. I am a huge IU fan. I say that outright because my analysis of her acting will undoubtedly be influenced by my opinions of her as a singer. I personally thought Hae Soo was adorable. Her interactions with all the princes was very sweet and she had a very kind disposition. That being said I know IU is not the world's best actress. Hae Soo as a character was also very stagnant and had the misfortune of being the 'positive thinking female in the face of adversity' trope come to life; literally nothing that happened could break her spirit and it eventually came off as rather ridiculous. She was also unfortunately caught in a reverse harem that I wanted no part of. I chose to ignore this and focus on the main romance but I can see this being a major annoyance for some. Overall I felt she served her function well and highlighted So, the princes, and the plot perfectly.

Overall I loved this drama for the little moments. The brotherly interactions with the princes, the private scenes of love, the small gestures of kindness and warmth between all of the characters. The plot as a whole was nothing spectacular and the ending leaves a sour unfinished taste in one's mouth. Even with all of that I loved this show. The princes were funny, cute, melancholy, sweet, loving, caring, devious, and everything in between and Hae Soo (mostly) lived my dream. If you're looking for a fun light hearted drama that is 30% sad, 20% funny, 20% heart warming,  and 30% meme this is the right one for you.

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Truly Disappointed WITH THIS MESSY DRAMA

I generally don't write review, I couldn't stop my anger when I watched this drama for its ratings.

I have watched over 100 dramas, never seen such a bad emperor, he clearly knew the situation in the palace, he will not order for investigation at all.

This drama shows what happens to royal

family when a mindless person sits on throne. Atleast the king should select good ruler from his sons, he is always obsessed with crowe prince who is not worthy of ruling at all.

Everyone knew who is the betrayer yet they just go with the flow and suffer from crisis...bad story..I am very disappointed to watch it believing the reviews.

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If you came from the future and told me how I would rate this drama I would have never believed you. I was obsessed in the beginning. I thought this story about getting sucked into the past was intriguing. I actually liked the female lead, and loved the dynamic between all the Princes. Once the 4th Prince came into the picture I was convinced that this would be one of the most exciting sageuks I've seen so far... now that I finally finished I am not so impressed.

First, I have very mixed feeling about the lead. I actually liked her in the beginning, but slowly she started to annoy me, and then her character stopped making sense at all. IU was great when if came to flirting with and challenging all the Princes, but once the role became more serious, her acting seemed more and more lacking. Then add to that the fact that the character's actions made no sense, and I could no longer stand her, or her visions. She was a very frustrating character to try to root for.

To me, the real stars are two of the Princes, Prince Hottie (#8) Kang Ha Neul, and Prince Bad@ss (#4) Lee Joon Gi. They are the ones who kept me watching. They were definitely the most complicated of all the characters, and they both had great chemistry with IU in the beginning. Unfortunately, as the story progressed they both went from being complicated characters I could empathize with, to characters that were very hard to defend or like. I know in some ways that this is a tragedy, but leaving me with only characters I don't like left to root for makes it hard to want to keep watching.

There were also some good villain characters, which I can appreciate. One of the worst mom's in the history of dramas, the worst sister, the worst father, and of course the worst brother (or two, or three...), but once almost everyone left seemed to be evil, the villains were a lot less fun to hate. I just started to dislike everyone instead.

That brings me to the story. There were so many characters, and some really great dramatic stories to follow, with a great supporting cast to make it all work. The problem is that after building up each story, where it eventually all lead to was very disappointing. The way characters suddenly completely switched personalities made no sense. The main romances started to feel forced and fake. The tragedy aspect of the story started to get extreme, almost like they threw every terrible thing they could think of in... with even the cute romantic scenes starting to seem rapey. Still I was more frustrated than sad, and also totally confused. The conclusion, and why she was there in the first place seemed thrown together, and I felt cheated. Many of the supporting characters had better plots, and stronger performances, than the lead. It almost seems like a waste of a great ensemble cast.

One good thing was that the soundtrack was good, with a few songs being worthy of my KDrama OST playlist.

Would I watch this again? Probably not, but part of me still remembers what I loved in the beginning, which may be worth revisiting. However, 20 episodes did feel way too long once the story started to fall apart. If I could go back in time I would probably tell myself to watch it again, but with lower expectations, and maybe skipping through most of the last few episodes.

Overall, this is a hard one to recommend unless you are a true sageuk fan, or a fangirl for any of the Princes. Part of me is curious to see what the Chinese version is like, but I doubt I will ever watch it. This was my first time watching 2 on air sageuks, and If I had to choose the best one with "moon" in the title, this one wouldn't be it.

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This was downright a horrible drama to watch. Initially I started to watch this because I love historical and fantasy dramas but then I dropped it half way through, only to pick it up again because I saw it was voted best historical on MDL.

I wanted to love this I really did, but the story was just terrible. The first half I found very childish and shallow and then the second half is full of angst and confusion. Now don't get me wrong I'm fine with angst in melodramas....as long as they make logical sense or have something important to convey to the audience. However at the end of this drama I was just left with so many questions and things did not add up at all in the last couple of episodes.

You should really avoid this drama, I wish I had.

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To be honest, when i first saw this drama was still summer and only weeks away from starting school again. At that time i wasn't sure of what to watch, and then i saw that Lee Jun Ki was back on screen and with IU. Had my doubts if i should watch it or not, but i'm grateful that i did. The story got me interested too. since the start until the end. The characters were unique, all of them left a mark and i will always remember them. Through this drama i felt a lot of emotions: I laughed, I smiled, i got angry, cried a lot but most important: I fell in love with the characters so much that my heart still can't believe that it ended.
The cast did a great job. The OST is beautiful. I must say this is DAEBAK. If you're looking for a heartwarming story, this is for you.

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During the whole process of the 2 months this show aired, i could not concentrate on anything other than this drama.(made me crazy loool ) Usually i watch multiple dramas at the same type but this drama made me discontinue other dramas which i was watching at the same type bcuz they just werent as good as this one. The story, the cast, the acting, the music, the cinematography was perfect !!! I watched the Chinese version (bu bu jing xing)before and i really liked it at that time but this korean version left me speechles. Although the ending could be improved a little bit (by adding the (30sec-1min) scene wich was cut)but it didnt annoy me at all. The main male lead( Lee joon gi)'s acting was superb with his mili-second expressions. Also at first half of the series the pacing is not that fast however in the second half it gets a bit rushed. However, overall this drama is really brilliant/Phenomenal even with its minor faults here and there, which could have been improved by the director. But this is the first Drama that made me go to the soompi forum, first drama that i was obsessed for a long time even after it has finished. (me speaking this bcuz im hardcore Korean drama fan since 2005, and i watched a looooooooooot of drama/ possibly every poplular kdrama up to this date). The only fantasy element in here is timetravelling but apart from that it is quite realistic for K-drama and the ending wasnt as forced /typical/ cliche ending u would usually see in kdramas. I highly recommend this drama!!! However watch only the SBS version which is much better than the international version.

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