A tremendous romantic fantasy of good vs. evil
Step into this fantasy world, and you won’t be disappointed. The most challenging task a drama producer has is making fantasy look real. A fantasy reader creates the visuals in their mind as they read. On-screen is much more difficult because the mind now interprets what it sees. This drama was so well done it surprised me.Enjoy a historical drama that incorporates political infighting into the fantasy battle of good vs. evil. Humans are struggling against an evil demon that can possess and dominate. However, good deities are ever-present to protect and guide the souls of two people joined by destiny. Two lovers meet in childhood and never forget each other even though they were separated for 19 years. Fate brings them back together, bringing out suppressed emotions and memories of love and friendship.
The acting was fantastic. The FL and the ML complimented each other with just the right amount of on-screen chemistry. The villains were ever-present, and sometimes you weren’t sure who they were. The drama flows from episode to episode and keeps you immersed in this beautiful story.
The music was great, blending into an exploding fantasy world that I couldn’t stop watching.
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DIVINE PAINTER, MY FOOT.
It was interesting at the beginning of drama, like can't wait for the next episode, but as it progress...it became so unbearable. I finished the drama as I've already invested my time into this, water filler. The FL is so bad; fake panting..fake surprise..fake cry, she's not good at all in this drama. The line of story for being a divine painter is ridiculous, her father - the original divine painter went crazy for being a divine painter and all her elders worry she might get craze when she inherit the talent. She won the competition and appointed to repair the painting of the old king that hold the spirit of Ma Wang. But damn Ma Wang doesn't highlight as main antagonist because it's in the body of Male Lead. Screw that, we want to sympathy the Male Lead for being blind, kind, handsome, scholarly but he's the bad guy conspicuously as Ma Wang insipid his body. The problem is Ma Wang is nothing but bad spirit in the body of a good man - can't really fight it and here comes all the magic scenes unbelievably shitty. No one can fight the strong spirit of Ma Wang physically or using magic...but (this is why so boring) the weak hysterical divine painter and her dead (crazy) father and another spirits defeated Ma Wang back in to the painting!The scenes talk about sickly Crown Prince but he isn't in the picture; the King, 1 ambitious prince, 1 kind prince, shamans, bunches of painters. So, there isn't glorious victory or even fulfillment defeating the enemy...none of those. Male Lead is good for being blind...he's alright. The love story is predictable - fallen in love when they both so young, reconcile when they both grow up with different status in social standing, they both recognize each other and renew the relationship. Besides all the rant, it has a good ending, and that's resolve it all. The best part is the OST, love to listen to it over.
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Only For Lovers of Red Drivel
This drama started promising thanks to supernatural elements and story set among painters. But it didn't take long to devolve into typically bad romance, unnecessary love triangle, court scheming that doesn't go anywhere and ridiculous revenge sideplot that no one cares about. It peaked with really thrilling Ep 5 and 6 featuring a painting contest and now it's downhill from there in the Filler Zone where nothing ever happens and characters only regurgitate old talking points and endlessly remember the same peach picking from their childhood It's all so tiresome so I dropped it sometime after the 30 min mark of Ep 8, right after ML and SML declared romantic war over FL who loves toxic ML that leads her on and then plays hard to get. ML is the albatross around this drama's neck:Ridiculously written - blind but never misses anything, the richest man in the kingdom that talks down to everyone, skilled martial artist/poet/horoscoper/musician, a masked vigilante plotting revenge for his family downfall, possessed by an evil God who gets activated whenever ML touches FL with whom he shares destiny (don't ask!), in short a textbook Mary Sue
Ridiculously styled - his red contacts make him look cross-eyed rather than blind, his V for Vendetta cosplay is laughable but his Evil God transformation that looks like a tree-hoppin Jack Sparrow takes the cake (read: character is as wild as his hair)
Toxic beyond redemption - emotionally manipulative, selfish, wishy washy, possessive, jealous, scheming, whiny, hateful...look, I enjoy so-called toxic romances cause they are entertaining but this OTP is toxic and boring, repetitive and redundant, takes itself too seriously and has no awareness how bad it really is. That's inexcusable. It doesn't help that the actor plays the character as if he's a robot - slow whispery speak, slow head movement (no, real blind people don't act like that) , creepy half smile, overall stiff posture as if he has a stick up his butt.
The rest of the cast is fine and give engaging performances, in particular FL, secondary ML who plays the youngest Prince and the duo who play FL's painter BFFs. They all have a great banter so too bad that the drama is ruining the Prince by saddling him with the love triangle where he cannot win because he doesn't check enough OTP Tropes. Childhood sweethearts? Nope. Destiny? Nope. Etc. Since ML checks them all (eg. you can play drinking game or go on a bathroom break whenever ML or FL relive the childhood memory of ML picking peaches for FL, or ML goes into demon possession convulsions because he and FL touched) , it's a game over so why drag a character who won't move the needle into this, and pivot the drama away from really compelling world of painting and toward generic drivel that we've seen in million other dramas? Missed opportunity.
Dropped without looking back.
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Do not live up to my expectation
This is one of the dramas I anticipated since the casting announcement and the team announcement. I was like wow is this the second "moon embracing the sun" because that drama also has elements of supernatural aspects. The start is good. It shows the plot and it kind of shadows that their love story will be a heart wrenching one, very typical of historical dramas. (Its been a while I get a drama with sad endings so i was pumped) But 16 episodes later, it was a happy RUSHED ending with *SPOILER ALERT* samshin being the dead one. While the leads chemistry buildup is lacking, the plot isnt going smoothly either. The whole plot of the story is revealed to the audience at ep 1 while the leads in the drama are discovering the past one by one. The major thing that wasnt revealed to the audience is that haram being the one who killed his father, not the soldier. AND THATS ALL.The leads have no story to make me anticipate their love, even yangmyeong and cheongi had better conversations than the leads did. controversial take, cheongi isnt a very likable character, i like yoojung thats why i am able to finish this one. And haram pretty didnt much have the personality. Only yangmyeong is pretty well written at least for me.
The cinematography is so good. And everything ur eyes land on is so pretty. I give a solid ten in this aspect. And the four leads have very good saeguk tones. They talk so eloquently.
Overall, it is a nice production but with the current team , i feel like they could have done better. 7.5/10
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Starts out amazing, loses momentum
Let me first of all say that I'm a huge fan of the main characters. They and their relationship were the reasons I stuck with the drama to the end.The story was very interesting, and it was fun to watch during the first several episodes when everything was being laid out. However, I feel that 16 episodes were too many for this drama. It led to a lot of long, drawn out conversations between characters that were just rehashing the same plot points because nothing new was added. That brings its rewatch value way down for me.
The visuals are very pretty, and the special effects were some of the best I've seen in Kdramas.
The love triangle felt like an afterthought and unnecessary for the story as the second male lead was a kind person anyway and it would have been plausible for him to do the things he did for the FL without being in love with her.
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I find the plot lacking but still appreciate mythology of the drama.
I like it, I'm giving it an 8.5 despite me feeling a bit let down by the plot since I never found drama boring. Despite being a bit let down, I still like the mythology of this drama. The visuals and the imagery (especially those beautiful paintings and sceneries when Haram and Chungi are dating) are really beautiful. Acting is good by most especially by Kim Yoo Jung and Kwak Si Yang. Ahn Hyo Seob is good, but he really shone in the last 2 episodes (my only complaint against him is he sometimes doesn't act blind). Gong Myung is a bit disappointing (I'm saying this because I feel like an excellent actor with a lot charm could have made his character more memorable), but he was okay in the last 2 or 3 episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
i was hyped..
i was hyped because ahn hyo seop is acting in this and I loved him so much in abyss. but I forgot this drama is a historical drama. i don't know if I didn't like this drama because it's historical or if it's the story. as I read through the review, I see that it's not just me that didn't like it. i was hyped for this drama but in the first two episodes it got boring.my rewatch value would be a 7. I don't want to watch this drama unless I have nothing to do and I am really bored. i didn't feel any chemistry in between main lead and the female lead but I really loved the trio, young wook, choi jung and chungi.
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Charming historical drama
Let me start off by saying I wasn't planning on watching this drama. From the main leads I had only watched Love in the Moonlight, which I didn't really like, and Abyss, which is the bane of my existence and that I dropped after five episodes. I wasn't excited for it when it was announced nor did I pay attention to people commenting about it on Twitter. But fours days ago I was going through mydramalist's currently most popular shows and I FELT like watching it... out of nowhere! When that happens I usually end up loving the show so I just followed my heart and watched it. And I have to say that this is a great show overall. It's charming, interesting, different from other historical shows out there. However, there are also some elements that don't allow me to give it a higher rating. While watching it, I wrote down many of the positive or negative aspects about the show, in my opinion, so I'll share those now! This section might include spoilers (but to be honest... the first episode is one big spoiler for the rest of the story already so... it's not too serious haha)Things I loved about this drama:
1) The structure!! The way the story was told was very different from other shows. Like I mentioned before, the first episode lets the viewer see all the details of what happened in the past, while it keeps characters in the darkness until the last few episodes! Sometimes it was a bit challenging to follow who knew what informations but overall I think it was a super refreshing way of telling a story.
2) One of the most charming parts of the plot was the blindness aspect. That factor was used well throughout most of the show and connected the storyline between the two characters very well.
3) I loooooved the fact that the male lead isn’t a king or a prince and his main ambition or goal isn’t the throne!! He has so many goals to fulfill other than the romantic pairing: get revenge for his family and himself and get rid of ma wang’s possession.
4) The female lead is strong but has flaws, which makes her likeable.
5) Good acting that isn’t over the top or too dramatic. Very touching acting from everyone in the cast. Couldn't have been cast better!
6) Phenomenal chemistry between the two leads even though they didn’t share too much screentime in the first half of the show- the story was built according to the time it needed and it wasn’t overwhelmingly fast paced nor too slow it became boring. Perfect pace and perfect relationship pace according to the circumstances, in my personal opinion.
7) All the (main) characters have clear ambitions and those ambitions make sense for everyone! They’re not just caricatures but complete human beings with a background story and actual feelings, whether they’re good or evil.
8) Good fantasy elements that added to the show and made it stand out from other historical shows. It’s sooooo cool! I love the fantastical characters. Great cgi too.
9) It was funny when it had to be, heartbreaking when it had to be. Great balance.
10) It is a political drama but the plot matches the fantasy elements nicely and it’s not just boring ministers fighting for the throne.
11) Amazing ost. Baekhyun. No need to say more.
12) The love triangle is here for a reason! It wasn't toxic and there were no forced feelings from anyone. Really good.
13) I love that in episode 9 we got another summary of what happened with the demon as the king was telling the third prince about it. I thought it was nice to refresh the viewer's memory and to explain once again the fantasy elements.
14) OUR MALE LEAD IS SOOOO DREAMY!! THE EYE COLOR SUITS HIM SO WELL. He portrays deep emotions very well.
15) I also appreciated the fact that the male lead isn’t a goodie goodie. He’s looking for REVENGE!! He is a good person who (and to be completely fair, rightly so) feels very wronged and can't deal with that.
16) Really pretty cinematography and camera angles.
17) I LOVE THE VILLAIN SOOOO MUCH!!! The acting was phenomenal.
Now, the things that took out one star for me:
1) Sometimes it looked like the male lead's eyes don’t look like he’s blind. They seem to follow the female lead movements as if he could see... Maybe I’m being ignorant but I thought blind people had more unfocused eyes? But sometimes he does it more realistically… I'm not sure, maybe he’s just used to following the voices? Oh well, it took me out of the story sometimes.
2) Why does it have to be the dead king’s portrait and not the current one? Was it because the portrait wasn’t completely burned??? It was a bit confusing.
3) Very weak finale. It wasn't very impactful, there was a weird use of the blindness for just a minute and then it was dropped, and don't get me started on the weird plot with the second prince like????WTF was that????? Way too rushed!!! It's so weird how the last episode was structured... Worst episode of the whole show.
I hope my review makes sense. I'm writing this on three hours of sleep.
I did love this drama but I agree that there is a lot of wasted potential.
BY THE WAY
A very important advice: you should binge watch this show. I’ve noticed that a lot of people who suddenly stopped enjoying this show was because they were watching it from the beginning and waiting each week. The story is complex so to not miss out on details you should watch it in one go, like I did.
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So much potential…
So much potential, so far from achieving it. During the first episode i had a really good feeling about what i was going to be watching. By episode 2, that was out the window. Still trying to figure why some of the characters ever even showed up in this series. Still trying to figure out theLove between the 2 main leads. Still trying to understand how much HaRam flip flops in his approach to Cheong Gi. The amount of “narrated” self thoughts was ridiculous. A blind man who looks people directly in the eyes. Unredeemable characters that are redeemed. And don’t get me started on the Goblin.
The more I think about it, the lower ratings I think I should give it.
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Art is the theme
I really enjoyed how this fantasy drama was portrayed.The emphasis on painting and the different styles and interpretations of how to depict a theme was very entertaining and educational.
The FL is caring for her artist father who has been driven mad. We later discover how and who was involved. Meanwhile his daughter is following in his footsteps. The back story of how she was blind and then became sighted is also part of the flashbacks that weaves together elements to bring us to the dramatic latter half.
The actors did a great job with special mention of the young actor playing the tiger demon. The ML, Ahn Hyo Seop, has different characters to play and is excellent in each.
As the blind scholar Ha, astrology advisor favored and funded by the king, he portrays a quiet dignity and elegance very appropriate to this role.
As the mysterious masked Ilwolseong he has built a network of spies and informants so is able to sell information to the wealthy.
As the Demon (Mawhang) and the use of CGI, he becomes a dangerously strong mythical creature.
The FL is a plucky character who is devoted to her father and desperately seeking a way to cure his mental illness. Her attraction to scholar Ha is very sweet and believable. She displays astounding ability to paint and to copy masters. This is her fate so that she can be chosen as the divine painter tasked with creating the portrait needed to use in a ritual to capture MaWhang the demon.
Visuals and attention to colour palette help to create the atmospheres of painting, love and crisis. The costumes and settings are done well and will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys costume dramas, The traditional Korean paintings a re a bonus.
If you are still hesitating about watching have a look at the extensive picture gallery.
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Not Good Enough
Korean Drama "Lovers of the Red Sky" did not handle the fantasy element well, which cost it a lot.The story has a nice start, though the fantasy part was a bit sketchy and wasn't well explained, but at least there was room for improvement. The romance was kind of interesting and the mystery was okay. However, the fantasy element continued being messy, and the love story got boring and predictable. The rest of the story had also with a few surprises, as did the love triangle. Fortunately, the artistic part was nicely made and looked pretty. And the leading lady had an interesting character, which she acted masterfully. However, the male lead could have been better when he was portraying a blind person.
So, overall, three out of ten.
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