Moon in the Day (2023)

Intricate Tale of Love, Loss and Obsession

This is a fascinating and intricate tale of love, loss and obsession that spans 1500 years. The script very cleverly and effortlessly weaves its way from the past to the present and I found myself riveted by both worlds.

The man was once Do Ha (Kim Young Dae) an elite noble of the Silla Dynasty. His stepfather Lord Seo (Lee Kyung Young) hated him to his core. He had only one use for his son...in service fighting for the King. And because Do Ha served the King well, he brought Lord Seo glory and wealth. So Do Ha did as he was ordered without caring for his own life. Until he fell for her...the one woman he shouldn't have. Eventually their fated relationship was over as she chose to take revenge for the destruction of her family. So he wandered...neither resting nor forgetting..not even through eons of time. As a vengeful ghost ..he searched 19 lifetimes for her in the hope that he might return the favor. His only problem? He lacked a physical form. So when a top rated Korean celebrity named Han Jun Oh dies.... Do Ha...seizing his opportunity, takes over Han Jun Oh's form.
This is the chance that he has long been waiting for.

The focus of his obsession is Kang Young Hwa (Pyo Ye Jin) but she has no memory of him. She was once Han Ri Ta, a girl from a noble family in the Silla Dynasty. When her family was killed, she became the only survivor and she ends up as a maid in Do Ha's household. A maid that Lord Seo (his stepfather) takes an interest in and that connection between his father and Han Ri Ta the maid...resurfaces in the story of the modern day Kang Young Hwa. KYH is a heroic firefighter whose goal is to become the best firefighter in all of Korea and she is well on her way. Respected by her department and firefighter friends... she mostly dreams about traveling to the Antarctic. But ever so often, she has other dreams ...which are so real they blur the lines between her world and another and those dreams are getting harder and harder to ignore.
Thus these two are set on a collision course and I cannot wait to see where we go from here.

Although it is early in this series...we are sensing this one may be special. And if any of us ever thought that Kim Young Dae was just a pretty face..we have seriously undersold him. He is a very effective and mesmerizing actor. His eyes ...even when his face is solemn speak to a latent mix of powerful emotions, which we can sense and feel. Very difficult to do and amazing when it is done well. He portrays a man who on the one hand, knows he cannot ever atone for what he has done...but on the other...he cannot completely let her go. He pretends that only he is allowed to take her life...however, when the opportunity presents itself, he touches her hair gently instead.
So KYD is playing a very complex dual role and in my view, he is knocking it out of the park.

Likewise..... Pyo Ye Jin is exceptionally gifted ....I would watch her in any series she is in. She is persuasively believable. She is also rather unexpectedly beautiful. But her beauty does not overpower her presence. She is very fun to watch and I find myself smiling when she smiles. She is portrayed as someone who is preoccupied with doing her job well. She also has a strong sense of empathy, and a take charge, kick butt kind of mentality that drives her to take action to help others. That is why when Han Min Oh (On Joo Wan) Jun Ho's brother ...tells her that Jun Ho doesn't have long to live...and that someone is trying to kill him, her protective instincts kick in and she willingly decides to live with him.

So this is the setting for the story and since it promises to be anything but predictable, I encourage you to take a chance on it.
I think you will find it fascinating. I will be back to update as new eps are released...

@Final: Three reminders:
One: If you worry about the ending..don't. It was very satisfying.
Second: If you are afraid of the sadness, don't be. It was tempered by hope, and all of it together the sweet and the sad was very impactful.
Third: Don't stop short, this is a solid ten, perfect to the last second. So don't lose your nerve. Finish it and you will be so glad you did.

In conclusion:
The romance was unique and memorable. A lot of series..we watch and soon forget. This is one ....I won't forget. Not sure how it had so much depth with only 14 episodes, but somehow... they did it. Congrats to everyone involved with this project!
The cast did not disappoint, Kim Young Dae is more adept and versatile with every project. He will be a powerhouse someday..and Pyo Ye Jin is amazing in everything...and together...they rocked it! I felt a bit wishful at the end...wanting to see the young couple grow up together, but wow, what a lovely way to end it with hope.
And I loved the little nod to the title......Moon in the Day.. Enjoy my darlings....this is one to binge.

Happy Watching!

Read More

The problems are the script and direction

==Breakdown==
Background plot - 50%
Romance - 30%
Misc comedy - 20%

Background plot - Bad
Romantic chemistry - Good
Misc comedy - Meh
Production value - Fine

The actors did their best, I'm convinced the ML actor would have chemistry with a turnip, and the premise for the story is pretty good (and had the potential to be great if given to the right team) but the script and direction were just plain bad.

The pacing was off and the script didn't make any sense. Maybe writer was trying to maintain an air of mystery by being purposefully confusing, but it just came across as a jumbled mess, nothing made sense. People had reactions that were unrealistic, too much or too little given what was happening on screen (I blame the director for this disconnect, he/she are responsible for translating the emotions in the script for the audience, the actors only do what they're told by the director in terms of reaction.)

Perhaps this drama could have been saved if either the direction or the script had been halfway decent. Unfortunately, two wrongs don't make a right. It's such a shame! I really like the actors and was looking forward to this one.
:-(

Read More

An awesome premise, with a heavily mediocre execution

I think this drama, is probably the definition of mid (not necessarily in a bad way) of kdramas. Let's start by saying that the premise was incredible, and I really loved the idea of the whole revenge of the fated lovers. One of the strongest aspect of this drama was definitely the past storyline, and I WISH that the drama dared to explore the past relationship in a much larger scale. I felt the modern storyline was too imbalanced when it came to quality. In the early stages of the drama, I found myself constantly waiting for the drama to show me more of the past storyline, than focus on the main one instead. I think mostly it was due to the combination of the lack of chemistry of the main leads, which is funny because I did not feel this way when I watched the past storyline, and the overall lack of meaningful interactions that they had. Now when it came to the acting, I felt like, the main leads were a bit lackluster, but most of the time it felt like because they were not comfortable with each other, however out of the two I do feel like Kim Young-dae was probably the weaker one. Whenever he was on screen, I felt like he was just not expressing any or the right emotions that were needed for the specific scenes. I have seen people share this opinion aswell, and I've also seen people defending it as "Do Ha was just that sort of a character, It's not the actors fault," but I strongly disagree, I wanted to see his burning rage that he has been keeping in for 1500 years, but I feel like we had none of that. I swear I'm not coming for the actor because I know that he can do better, because I loved him in the Forbidden Marriage, however even in this one, he was great at displaying raw emotions, so I give him credit for that. The female leads acting was pretty decent, nothing extraordinary, but I just liked it nonetheless. What I have a problem with is her character. I feel like the writers intended her to become a strong, independent character, but they just lost the plot halfway with that one aswell, and during the second half of the drama, whenever a conflict arrived, her actions always seemed out of character, just because of how she was portrayed at the early stages of the drama. Now when it came to the story, I think this one was the weakest element of the drama. I have noticed that there were even a few sort of plotholes in this one, like Do Ha using Han Jun Oh's memories to his advantage at the beginning, but during the middle, he kind of completely forgot about that, and that's why he was exposed to Han Jun Oh's brother, towards the end we kind of got a sloppy explanation, that Do Ha didn't want to look inside Han Jun Oh's memories, because it felt like he was disturbing his privacy, which was so out of character of him. Also the fact that Han Jun Oh's brother first thought that the spirit who possessed Han Jun Oh was Koo Tae Ju, but the events literally don't add up. I also didn't like how there was nothing systematic, about the spirits and their powers. Do Ha could flicker lights, and have a bit of superhuman strenghts, but that's it, while his father could do the same, AND corrupt people. I would've appreciated an explanation, or how or why the spirits were different. However despite this, I started to enjoy my time around the second half of the drama. The pace started to pick up, it felt like the actors were more comfortable with each other and not just for plot reasons, it felt like the characters started to go through developments, and I did quite enjoy it, I was also really curious about how the story was gonna fold out, even though, I knew that the ending was bittersweet, (and suprisingly I didn't really cry, but it was quite devastating), but I think that the ending was perfectly bittersweet for this one, I kind of secretly were hoping that Han Jun Oh and Kang Yeong Hwa would end up together, even though it wouldn't have made a lot of sense but oh well. Overall, despite a few problems with the writing, and a lot more with the story, I still did enjoy my time with the drama, and I don't regret watching it at all. At the end I felt like, if this drama recieved the Alchemy of Souls treatment, of having two parts (the first part being the past storyline extended, and the second would be the modern storyline) it would've been a lot more better, and meaningful. I still recommend this drama for people who find the premise interesting, and want to watch a melodramatic (but mediocre), drama, with a tragic storyline, If you like all of these, then despite the drama's faults, I don't think your time would be wasted.

Read More

Exciting start, boring middle, proper ending

This might have been better as a shorter series. The first two episodes were so interesting that I initially chased this drama. The Silla-Gaya background and the 1500 year grudge really drew me in. However, as the drama progressed and the main villain was introduced, it just felt like a series of repetitive cat and mouse game, which ultimately made the middle so boring that I decided to just wait until all episodes are out before binge watching and fast forwarding. This had so much potential but ruined by lazy script writing. The main villain's reason for being was too weak for me. The powers of the ghosts and JunOh's fame were treated as plot devices and were inconsistent, it's there when needed but negligible when it's not. To be fair, I really liked the ending and how they incorporated the drama title into a scene. It was, for me, the proper ending for the main characters, with Doha's grudge finally being resolved. Overall, though it's not something I'll rave about, this is a good enough drama to pass the time.

Read More

Truly beautiful concept, not so great execution, and an amazing finale. Deserves a try!

INTRO:

Firstly, I have to say that I am not someone who really enjoys romance in general. Rom-coms, especially, are just not up there for me. I tend to enjoy thriller and action dramas/ movies more. Secondly, I am a little bit biased towards sentimental and emotional romances, if i had to pick out of romance as a genre. Thirdly, I have the attention span of a toddler, I lose interest extremely fast, especially if the story is slow paced. All that said, on to the review!


STORY:

I, personally, loved the whole premise of the story. The idea was very interesting and emotionally provocative. Love that transcends time and existence, there's quite a profound beauty to that. As beautiful as the concept sounds, I felt that it wasn't executed as well as it should have been.

To be honest, while I was watching the show as it was airing, I thought that episode 12 was the final episode, until I checked MyDramaList and realised that the drama was actually 14 episodes long. I felt like that was enough proof that the drama was dragged two episodes too much. Had they made the execution more concise, it would have been more memorable and more enjoyable.

Somewhere around the middle, the drama started dragging. There was a bit of repetition and too many flashbacks that gave the same feeling (and didn't necessarily add essence or emotion). I felt that there were missed opportunities for emotional and deep moments. The characters' growth and change wasn't seamless enough. Also, I did identify some loopholes in the plot.

Plus, I really wished that they kept the FL as strong as she was in the beginning. There should have been more occasions for the FL to show her strength, both physically and mentally. After all, she was a firefighter who had seen death and faced tough situations.

Even so, there was something about the drama that kept me wanting to come back and watch. I was made curious about the ending and about the fate of the leads. I've seen many people claim that the last few episodes were the most disappointing to them. But I beg to differ, for me, the last two episodes were my favourite from the whole drama. They were the most memorable and most emotionally provocative to me. Personally, I loved the ending and the depth behind it. The ending was a true testament to transcendental love. The last episode was the most well done in my opinion. You could clearly see how much the leads had improved in their acting, chemistry and roles. Although, I did feel that last scene of the finale was somewhat unnecessary. I would have preferred for it to not have been there and instead shown the characters in their old age so, that the audience could have really felt the time pass and the story come to an end.


ACTING:

I did feel that the leads (Pyo Ye-Jin and Kim Young-Dae) were quite awkward in their acting at the start. KYD in a historical context felt a bit odd to me, as if he wasn't very suited for it. PYJ was great but there were awkward moments but in her modern settings. The kiss scenes were just not giving, especially considering that the drama was supposed to be overflowing with emotion. There was only one decent kiss scene, every other one was lacking passion by heap. PYJ was absolutely gorgeous in her historical attire.

Their acting and assimilation into their roles peaked in the final episode. It felt like they finally got to be their characters. To me, their chemistry during the historical settings felt more natural and convincing.

P.s. I have to say that I am a simple person: I see KYD, I click. I see PYJ, I'm convinced.


OVERALL:

I really did like the drama. It's one I would recommend others give a try. But I can also see why it might not be someone's cup of tea too. At least for the sake of the finale, you should give it a try. As for me, the reason the drama got a such a high rating was simply because of its finale and concept.


Thank you for reading hehe <3

Read More

A Reincarnation Drama handled differently

While I watched this drama, many times I felt the need to commend whosever brain came up with not only the story, but also in how the story is told onscreen. I see that it's based on a webtoon, so I don't know how much is screenwriter's originality and how much the original work. Nevertheless, this is such a different overall product that I really appreciate the people behind the scenes for direction, editing, screenplay, script, etc. The whole vibe of this drama is just...different.

This *actually* has forbidden lovers--not some 'misunderstanding' or *hidden/actual truth* etc. The first scenes immediately tell you this is not supposed to be a 'happy' ending with the couple in terms of their physical life. But their souls get their peace and satisfaction. If you watch understanding that what was shown in the first episode is the foundation of their story, which means they really cannot be together--and you are into that type of story, then you won't be disappointed with this drama.

I really loved the storyline and how they utilized flashbacks and scene repetitions. I was only slightly impatient with the repetition maybe one or two times, and that too faded away soon. Things are hinted and shown in the beginning but characters claim something else--then we and the characters see the truth unravel.

They also acknowledged reincarnations don't manifest in the the same face/body. Of course, when it came to the reincarnation where they deal with that past life, the reincarnation took the same form, and that was also an important aspect to the story.

In short, I really appreciate how they told the story though there were some plot holes and a few head scratchers. Certain things are not explained or given sufficient background. Twice the lead characters instead of talking about an obvious third party decide not to discus and compare notes. My issues are explained in the comments. But despite all of that, I must give this a high mark simply due to the overall product.

Read More

There is something interesting about Kim Young Dae...

I enjoyed the historical plot and the plot around the main characters and was always waiting to find out. Historical flashbacks were exciting. For those who like historical fated love that magically meets in the future, go for it. A little spoiler: The series depicted the life of the main character in the past, who did not belong to a high-level family by blood, and was trained by his "adoptive father" to do dirty work. And when it stopped being useful, they would have him killed just to get what they wanted. With his life on the edge, he was no longer afraid of anything ... because his death was his redemption from the life he had to live. He will make you feel sad. And finally, the woman whose family he had to kill, and she luckily survived, got into his hands. Over time, the relationship where she hated him, despised him and wanted to take revenge on him, and his outwardly neutral to indifferent attitude turned into understanding, pity, and painful love. The real-life (present time) could be without someone who came from the past to make a hell among the main characters. Especially, when it didn't occur to the main character for a long time that who could come like him... the main couple had something to deal with even without him. I would skip the additional happy ending after some years. That is beyond the real heroes. Kim Young Dae was great in this show. I saw him for the first time in When the Weather Is Fine, where he immediately caught my attention. Then I saw the Forbidden Marriage, where I thought that even historical ones fit him. And here in the series a total combo of both. like the historical love story and the main actors. I give a lower rating because of someone I won't reveal, who came from the past.

Read More

Not Kim Young Dae's best work

I'm a fan of the ML but while it seemed the story wanted to showcase that he could portray playful/silly and then serious and angsty--but you get way more moody angst from him that it just gets too tiring to watch, and FL killed it in Taxi Driver and even in Our Blooming Days in support roles but seems likes she's overacting in this lead role--and the makeup does not take advantage of her beauty.
Watch Forbidden Marriage to see ML at his best--and for a far happier story. This one just stretches out so much sadness, angst, and tragedy for all of the roles that the little we see of happiness is not enough to make this a balanced work.
The premise of the story is intriguing and the only reason why I watched it to the end.

Read More

Good Enough

Korean Drama '' Moon in the Day '' is a historical fantasy melodrama.

The drama starts off quite good, though, as it turns out, the past storyline proved to be way more interesting compared to the main story, which got more and more boring as it went on. At least, the ending was interesting and didn't follow the cheesy way out. Rather, it gave closure, without messing with the laws of nature, but having a nice enough ending for all of the characters, including the side ones.

The actors and actresses of the cast, moreover, did a great job with their characters and their performances were enjoyable, aiding to the overall enjoyment of the drama as a whole.

So, overall, five out of ten.

Read More

The Love Story of a Curious Spirit

Surprisingly, the ratings for the drama "Moon In The Day" were really bad. It only got a rating of 7.7 on Mydramalist, and only 1.0 percent nationwide (according to AGB Nielson), not even in the top 20 in the Seoul area.

After watching, I just understood. Actor Kim Young-Dae was caught up in making the Korean drama Moon In The Day, which didn't really have a plot.

At the beginning of the drama, it is said that Han Joon-O, played by Kim Young-Dae, really hates Kang Young-Hwa (Pyo Ye-Jin) and even repeatedly intends to kill him. The reason was that Do Ha's spirit possessed Han Joon-O, believing that Kang Young-Hwa was the reincarnation of the woman who had killed him.

Strangely enough, in the middle of the drama, the fact that Han Ri-Ta, the spirit who experienced her 19th reincarnation in the form of Kang Young-Hwa, was revealed to be Do Ha's wife.

Or simply, 1,500 years ago Do Ha and Han Ri-Ta were a married couple who loved each other. The two of them were separated because of the actions of Do Ha's stepfather, who also appeared 1,500 years later as a curious spirit named Seok Cheol Hwan.

How could Do Ha, a spirit who lived 1,500 years ago, forget the embodiment of the wife he loved so much? Even willing to die for his wife.

As a result of this confusing plot, Kim Young-Dae was forced to act like he hated/antagonized Pyo Ye-Jin, changing to acting in love/infatuated with his co-star.

The audience was no less confused. The spiritual atmosphere changes according to the fragments that appear incomplete in each episode (cliffhanger). Makes you uncomfortable! While I was having fun listening to the love story of a pigeon duo who were often disturbed by an antagonist, suddenly I was thrown into the past.

Actually, it's a good idea. The cliffhanger in the Korean drama Moon In The Day is like a puzzle that is trying to be put together into one complete story. However, this series of misperceptions really tears the audience apart cruelly.

It's not surprising, even though Kim Young-Dae and Pyo Ye-Jin's acting didn't disappoint, their chemistry was a mess. After mutual repulsion, mutual attraction occurs. ??

How can the director and scriptwriter be so cruel?

The next review can be read here: https://www.maria-g-soemitro.com/2024/05/moon-in-day-cerita-cinta-arwah-penasaran.html

Read More