The best drama I’ve ever watched
This is the best drama I’ve ever watched in my entire life. Finally after years and years my top three drama is changed. This drama is real, it shows how life is: unfair, fragile. There is no dreams and fluffy butterflies: it shows human weakness in so many different ways… And it teach you a lot: dialogs and sentences are really really deep. I feel so empty after ending this, I think nothing can be so hurtfull and heartbreaking as this story. Today I’ve cried all the day after the ending. I would really appreciate a second season or, maybe, it would be amazing that the cut ending scene was real, but also if I desire this I understand that in that case the story couldnt be so real as it is.Also: really good actors, OSTs and characters development. But the best thing, actually, is the plot.
Was this review helpful to you?
Reasons:
1) The storyline makes more sense as compare to the Chinese version.
(The restructuring of some scenes allow the story to be convey in a smoother way)
2) The characters are well made as compared to the Chinese version.
(Each character in this version plays an important role in the events happened in the story... unlike the Chinese version where most of the characters did not leave much impact to the viewers)
- The 4th Prince -
In the Chinese version, the 4th Prince is a very ambitious person where he long for the throne. He can do anything cruel including killing all his brothers in order to become the King. However, in the Korean version, the character has much more humanity. The 4th Prince wanted to become the King in order to protect his love ones (friends and family).
-The 8th Prince-
The 8th Prince in the Korean version has much more impact as compare to the Chinese version. (From the affection of the 8th Prince towards Hae Soo till his helplessness to give up Hae Soo and his greed towards the thrown and the betrayal of the sister..). In the Chinese version, the character of the 8th Prince is just someone who is in love with Hae Soo with not much ability in becoming a King.
-Other characters-
All other characters are well design to fit the storyline in the Korean version. (Some of the characters did not appear in the Chinese version). Although they were not the main character, they all played an important role in the story. Besides the love story between the male and female lead, the love story of the 10th Prince and the 13th Prince were well written.
Overall:
Recommend this drama to those who had watch the Chinese version. If you haven't watch the Chinese version, it's ok.. their good acting, the background music, the editing of the drama, the emotion of the story will definitely make you hook up to this drama!! Have a try~~
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
not as good as i expected
I started this drama with high expectations. I just watched this for the sake of Lee Joon Gi & IU's acting. I'm so sorry to say this but this is the most poorly written kdrama i have ever watched. Everything were a mess. The 4th prince and Hae Soo didn't have any chemistry until the half of the k-drama. And the thing that at the beginning of the show they made 8th prince her love interest when he was still married, gave me a headache. Also they gave almost every princes romantic scenes with Hae Soo was so exhausting. She is supposed to end up with just one person so what was the purpose of making Hae Soo the love interest of almost every prince. What were they expecting, a love polygon?!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This could have been a great drama, but the author has written a script that has major lead dramas!
I have just watched the last episode of the drama and I can't get over it... the ending was tragic for the main leads... the author of the script had no mercy for them... and this is the main complaint and my low assessment of the plot, which was already saturated from the middle only drama, shocks, misunderstandings between the leads... there was blood spilling, everywhere around were people hungry for power, full of intrigues... it was definitely too much...The beginning promised that it would be a nice romance, but from episode to episode the plot became darker and harder to bear. I don't know, maybe there are fans of such an accumulation of aggression, hatred, jealousy, deceit... but I am not one of them... I would like there to be some balance and for bad deeds to be justice and compensation... but unfortunately this did not happen in the majority cases of this movie...
What I liked.
FL and ML, i.e. Wang So and Hae Soo, played their roles very well for me, to the extent that the character of Hae SO at one point became obsessed with dreams (by the way, I don't know why she had such dreams from the past, if she hadn't experienced it before this life in those times, she just moved there, so how could she know certain situations? I don't know and it wasn't explained) in fact, she contributed to many bad situations... and she was completely unaware of it... she interfered and wanted to save and reconcile all the brothers, which of course was not possible considering that several of them dreamed of becoming emperor, so they pursued it by all means. Hae Soo allowed herself to be unnecessarily drawn into these intrigues. Her attitude pissed me off when she already knew that Wook had betrayed the emperor, she still had a million excuses... she didn't see and didn't want to see the truth... And besides, she fell in love with him when he still had a wife, by the way, she was her younger sister... great arrangement... These obsessive dreams were the reason for her hostile attitude towards Wang So for a long, long time, and it was only towards the end that one could notice that she was starting to feel something more towards him than just gratitude that ML had saved her many times... I regret that the author of the script did not develop the topic of true love between FL and ML so poorly... there were very few truly committed scenes when they really realized their love for each other, because the plot deviated in the meantime to side plots and supporting roles, which took a lot of time... In the last episodes, I was fed up with this heroine FL and her selfish behavior towards ML... Wang So did everything for her when he became emperor, he wanted her not to feel bad in this palace, despite the fact that everyone around they did everything to divide them and in the end it happened, to such an extent that the author of the script didn't even let them say goodbye in the last moment of Soo's life... a completely hopeless moment... ultimately left them both disappointed and lonely... they fought against adversities and in the end they were not given a chance to explain and forgive each other directly face to face... why, the author of the text, did you have to end things so hopelessly between them? I have huge grudges and that's why my rating for re-watching this drama is so low... I can't see it and experience it again!
The supporting characters did well - some were funny, others were power-hungry, others were irritating... unfortunately, the antagonists practically did not suffer any specific punishment... especially the witch Princess Hwang Bo - a terrible character... she was hungry for power and splendor from the very beginning. , full of envy, jealousy and striving hard to achieve her goal... and in fact she didn't suffer any punishment, on the contrary she got what she wanted... basically everything... so my question is, what's the point of being good and honest if you the good ones ultimately lose their lives, such as 10 Prince Eun and his wife... (victims of power-hungry brothers)... makes no sense...
I won't describe the rest because it would take several pages.
Overall, this drama could be really good, but the author of the script went too far, as they say in our country, "he went astray"... well, as I see, this is the problem of many script writers and few scripts are well written in terms of the beginning, development of characters and plots, and in balanced between good and evil... many questions remain because the plot often wandered and did not provide answers...
Why did So finally give hope that he would find her one day? And no sequel has been made, even though 7 years have passed since the premiere... no sequel... why give viewers hope? another poorly thought-out finale... well, to sum up, I regret that with a few wrong moves you can turn something good into something that arouses frustration and regret of wasted potential... and even the best acting of the actors will not help here....
OST
when it comes to music, I was particularly touched by 2 songs: beautifully sung with a beautiful heart-catching melody (Will Be Back) and beautiful (MY LOVE)...
I also liked Lee Hi's song 'Can You Hear My Heart'
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
this drama was unfair to everyone
For the first time in my history of watching drama I do not regret the tragic ending of this drama or whatever ending u might call it .kdrama writers would literally do anything so that the FL would love and only end up with the ML even if it means turning a completely good person into a villain to achieve that, this can be seen in the case of the 8th prince, wook and hae Soo , in case people would say I'm bias, I'll let u know that except from IU, I do not know any other person in this drama,
The drama just messed up, Soo loved wook up until episode 10 out of a total of 20 episodes and all of a sudden due to some poorly executed reason she fell out of love and then loved the 4th prince, how do they expect us as the viewers to take that, why can't writers be creative and different for once.
if you are a person that watches drama, u would have known write from the 1st episode that it's the mysterious and cold person that the FL would fall for at the end, but the writers decided to go in circles before that
let's not forget how she has relationship with each of the princes,poor 14th prince why did she have to marry him in the 1st place,that's rubbish,also there seems to be some left out stories that could have prevented the unnecessary sidelines to prolong the drama.for me there was no true justification for most of the 4th prince action like threatening Soo to kill the person she initially loved or his hysterical act after becoming king and etc
I would also say that this drama was unfair to every character and also the unnecessary killing and plothole,who didn't die here apart from the main characters?
I would have actually preferred the FL to end up with the 8th prince even with his uncompleted love story
To sum it up I really can't ever think of watching this drama again not because of the ending but because of the storyline
Was this review helpful to you?
AN AMAZING & HEARTBREKING STORY
An Amazing Story that left you heartbroken and asking your self why would anyone go through all of that, at times you understood the reasons behind the tears and violence, and then were times were questioned if was right thing to do? and often the confusion of which way to go what is right and what is wrong? a family driven by greed and power torn apart for only one goal in mind? I felt the general consensus is that Scarlet Heart: Ryeo had a great story that was screwed up by messy editing/directing/pacing etc. Production was really excellent, the story flowed and kept you wanting more. It didn't disappoint one bit. I mean, after such high expectations, it is only natural to feel a little let-down just because of all the hype you've been experiencing. But Moon Lovers actually ended up surpassing all my expectations. The drama was perfect from the beginning till the end.it was extremely well-paced. I mean, for dramas it is rare to find such consistently well-paced dramas. Sometimes the beginning is not that good and sometimes the plot dies down after ep 12-16. But here, you never feel like there is too much or too little. It is really hard to skip anything. You just don't want to.
Was this review helpful to you?
Far beyond imagination. This drama is an example about the darkest truth of this world that how cruel this world tends to be... people deceives you in order to cover up their bad deeds.In the end everyone leaves and you have to live alone.
Plot is absolutely unpredictable.. though it was adapted from novel. So it is obvious that this drama is marvellous. Watching this drama was like riding a rolar coaster ride... You'll get attached and become curious what's going to happen. The whole focus is not only on lead love story but much more than that. ????
Each & everyone acts so naturally. Wonderful acting. In my opinion Wang So looked much hot with his mask. ???????? Lee joong gi & IU looked so perfect together. Even their romance started after half drama. but still attractive. ????
Soundtracks are So good & background score is absolutely suitable in situations.
I love everything about this drama, It gives me tears and heartache sometimes and the ending is sad and gloomy. Can't stop thinking about it even after finished this drama. But still it is worth watching. If you like happy ending then don't watch this. And if you watch it and don't like then you don't have right to sat anything bad because there is not always happy ending at all. Overall I Desperately hoping for season 2 because Wang so and Hae soo never ever deserved ending like this.????????
Was this review helpful to you?
This is so far THE BEST costume drama ! That’s why it’s 10!
I know I will cry watching the final episode. I don’t know why but I just keep watching the final episode over and over, then I kept crying over and over. There are viewers who love this drama but refuses to rewatch because it’s sad story, but I am totally opposite.I usually don’t like watching heartbreaking story so I kept avoiding this drama for so long, but I finally watched it and I regretted for not watching it sooner.
I first liked Prince #8 just like FL fell in love with him. Then Prince #4 suddenly walked into my heart at ep 4. Lee Joongi is not even my type, what I meant is, I didn’t find him either handsome or attractive. However he is now my favorite actor. One of the reason why I continue watching the last episode is because Joongi’s great acting. His acting skills are one of the best among K-drama and C-drama.
If you are looking for some heartbreaking romance, then this drama will give you a most memorable ending.
Was this review helpful to you?
An heart wretching drama
Well...well...well, who knew I'll write a review. Moon Lovers is one of the few dramas that got me crying buckets enough to fill a deep swimming pool.I'm a big fan for historical dramas and Moon Lovers got me hooked from Episode 1 till the last episode.
Each character was beautifully portrayed that it was so hard to watch them act differently in other dramas. I can barely remember most of the Ost's but what left a very deep impression on me was of course the ending.
Moon Lovers is a must watch for any Kdrama lover. P.S it's been more than five years since I watched it and I can't seem to forget it.
Rewatch value rating is low because I can remember scene by scene and I definitely don't want to cry buckets all over again...*begins to sob just thinking about it* —Just kidding *laughs*
It's a good plot and a must watch!
Was this review helpful to you?
Do you know, I ask, what one of the albeit many reasons I prefer watching Korean Dramas as opposed to Western TV shows is?
It's this little wonderful thing called Closure. More on that later as I dive into the review:
Story (6.0):
Wow.
Okay, I've admitted this before, in that I don't like time travel very much, especially in Western repertoire, but I've seen a few time travel Korean Dramas that I enjoy very much.
One of them I've seen a few times just because it's so enjoyable (plus it's very short) is Splash Splash Love. A woman/girl is upset with the way things are going in her life and suddenly finds herself in a different time period...
My FAVORITE aspect of this sort of thing is seeing how the societies of the respective times clash and how the main character or time-traveling character has trouble fitting in.
And I'll applaud Moon Lovers for really making me enjoy this aspect of the story line. In fact, this is where most of my story rating is coming from... Honest mistakes, sassy unacceptable comebacks, those are the best, and the first couple episodes had enough of this to sate my thirst very pleasantly.
So, yeah, I highly recommend watching the first two episodes; then maybe watch up to the infamous scene in the rain with the cloak tent. You'll know when you get there. If you're ambitious, heck, you may even watch until the very end; and if you do, as I did, you may then go watch Splash Splash Love to see how a story like this could have had a much better ending.
Agh, maybe Splash has an over-optimistic ending for something like this, but even so, with our hearts bleeding and panting on the floor, you can't just, just leave us like that... Seriously, you try to calm us with a flashback? The parts leading up to the ending were torturous enough for me, and then, okay, it's over.
Alright, for those who are thinking this, no, I'm not new to historical dramas and their usual endings. Historical Korean Dramas are one of my favorites, even if I've only ever (currently) watched one past 35 episodes. But I've also seen this sort of ending done much better.
It's not equivalent, but the ending of Empress Ki had me crying but wholly appeased through good use of final moments and flashbacks.
But, whaaat? Moon Lovers? Twisting and turning can be cool and we all knew it was coming... But can't you give us some better closure?
Heal my broken, scarlet heart!
I couldn't deal and had to watch the first 2 episodes again and then watch Splash Splash Love to remind myself that the ending could have been this other way but they just didn't show us so it's all good.
Acting/Cast (9.5):
Aaaah, I love the cast; I'll be honest with you and tell you I dropped this drama at about the 1/2-3/4 mark at one point, but I came back just to see more of IU and the princes. I've got a masculine perspective on this, so I'm more into the IU aspect, but the princes (and I can't help but love Ji Soo from his other works) are more than enough for any fan girls.
And they aren't just eye candy, there is actually good acting in this. I especially applaud IU in her performance as I'm more used to hearing her sing.
Music (9.0):
I honestly loved the music from the very beginning and have listened to it separately from the drama; however, there are portions of it which I didn't think fit this kind of drama very well... But it's all still good.
Rewatch Value (6.0):
Same rating as the story. I've rewatched the first couple of episodes, but I don't think I would ever want to watch any of this drama past the half way mark ever again. Sorry.
Overall (7.0):
I loved the beginning, I hated the ending, had mixed feelings on the middle. Based on my feelings after finishing the drama, I would actually have rated this lower, but I had to look back at all the moments I actually really enjoyed and am glad I saw them, so here's a higher score for you.
Was this review helpful to you?
There is a variety of different characters/personalities to contribute to the diversity of the story. We definitely get attached to them and feel their emotions with them. Emotional roller-coaster ride.
The soundtrack is beautiful and fits the mood perfectly. It is definitely a contributing factor to the enjoyment of the series.
I've re-watched this series many times already. Definitely one I will go back to again.
Highly recommend it.
Was this review helpful to you?
Must watch!
I absolutely love it. It's a favorite drama of mine and also of my mom's. We watched it a few times on rewatch already and it still brings us all those emotions, we laugh and coo and cry, by the end. We've seen numerous number of Korean dramas after, but we still come back to this and nothing can replace its place. The acting, the story, OST, absolutely everything is perfect. This started our love for Lee Joon Gi as well. He absolutely slayed in this role and became Wang So. Also, IU was amazing, same the rest of the actors. Thank you for such a wonderful drama, from the start till the very end.Was this review helpful to you?