Scholar Who Walks The Night

밤을 걷는 선비 (Scholar Who Walks the Night) is a South Korean drama series that was aired on MBC from July 8th to September 10th 2015. It consists of 20 episodes and is based on a webcomic.

Story: When the Goryeo Dynasty collapsed vampire Gwi helped the first King of Joseon to build his new empire. In return, he was promised to be honored by the King's descendants but 200 years later, Crown Prince Jung-hyun tries to get rid of him. Jung-hyun visits a guardian vampire with his best friend Kim Sung-yeol in order to stop Gwi with a secret plan but the evil vampire finds out about it and fights the guardian vampire while imprisoning Jung-hyun. Trying to help his friend, Sung-yeol gets to the place where the guardian vampire lives - and is turned into a vampire by the guardian to fight Gwi. While the guardian passes away, Sung-yeol is going through the process and wakes up 3 days later only to find himself turned into a "monster" and his best friend to be executed along with his father. Gwi also captured his fiancée and first love, Myung-hee and Sung-yeol goes to find her but is too weak to beat Gwi. In order to let him live and fight against the evil vampire controlling the kings of the Joseon dynasty, Myung-hee choses death in the underground palace.
For the next 120 years, Kim Sung-yeol goes into hiding and tries to find Crown Prince Jung-hyun's memorandum that supposedly has the secret plan in it. In order to find it he asks book seller Jo Yang-sun to search for it. Yang-sun, a girl who dresses as a boy for reasons she herself doesn't know for sure, starts to look for the book in any place but can't find it at first - instead she finds herself falling for the good-looking scholar who happened to save her live quite a few times.
To be honest, this is just a summary of the beginning as I don't want to include too many spoilers but this whole story has way more to it than I expected at first. I'm not the biggest fan of vampire romance, and this is also paired up with historical things (I'm still trying to figure out when exactly the story is set but I assume episode one plays around 1592 or 1600 (since the 200 years were probably not exact) so the main story takes place around 1820) but I found this story to be surprisingly interesting. Yes, it is a lot of cliché but at least the vampires are not sparkling in the sun (sorry, no offense meant, I used to love Twilight when I was younger until I realized that a huge part is actually rather funny). Of course the good vs evil was obvious and to be honest this is highly what this drama is based on. Surprisingly the love triangle was not as bad as I thought - in fact I suspected there would be one but in the end there wasn't anything. I liked a lot of elements of this story after all, especially when Hye-ryung was brought in. Also the political issues and curruption which definitely existed. After all it was a solid storyline to me and I liked it for that reason.

Cast: Lee Joon-ki as Kim Sung-yeol. I know this guy is in a bunch of historical dramas even though I did not watch many so far but I actually quite liked him in this drama. However, it sometimes shines through that the character is from a webcomic/manga because some expressions were overacted to fit the description from the illustrations. I still quite liked his acting though.
Lee Yu-bi as Jo Yang-sun. If I ever saw her in any drama before I definitely don't remember her but I think her acting was actually not bad. She looked really young to me though so I spent half of the time trying to figure out how old her character might be. Anyway, I found her acting to be very good in this role even though the character was by far not my favorite.
Shim Chang-min as Lee Yoon. I think the character really was something Chang-min did well. While many people say he can't act I didn't find this bad at all, rather a reserved Crown Prince who couldn't show his feelings because he had to keep a certain emotional distance. As a character, there was one very quick.. development about his future wife that confused me. While at first he didn't really know her it seemed that he definitely loved her just a few episodes later and I was really confused because of that.
Lee Soo-hyuk as Gwi. When I first saw him in a drama before I was sure he would make a good vampire. Holy crap, I was so right with that. I loved him as Gwi even though I also have to admit that sometimes the webcomic villainish feel came through for me. Still he did really good in this role of the vampire thirsting for power.
Kim So-eun as Myung-hee/Hye-ryung. I actually quite liked her as Myung-hee, a kind-hearted young female just in love with a scholar. As Hye-ryung, her acting was cold for reasons but I couldn't really believe everything about that.
Jang Hee-jin as Soo-hyang. Overall I found her acting good but towards the end I did get the feeling - just a little bit - that she had enough of her character for some reason. However, she still delivered a solid enough performance for me.
Choi Tae-hwan as Ho-jin. Oh that poor thing broke my heart in the end! I loved the character and I think Choi Tae-hwan did a good job portraying him, especially the loyalty towards Kim Sung-yeol. I can't really criticize anything about him.
Yeo Eui-joo as No Hak-young. I absolutely loved his acting, too. He was for sure one of my highlights in this drama and I hated Gwi for doing that to him! (don't mind me, I'm just weird). In all honesty, he makes the drama even better.
Lastly, Han Jung-soo as Baek In-ho. The more I think about it, the more I feel like he definitely was made for historical dramas because he really seemed like someone who could've lived during that time (to me). I adored his acting even though he didn't have enough screentime by far but he was just a side character in the end.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was good but not entirely great. Of course they featured quite a lot of good and famous singers but some songs were overused. I still like G.NA's "Don't Cry" but it will forever be connected to this drama for me. Is that a bad thing? Not really. And it's a nice thing to remember her like this as she probably won't have a comeback anymore due to a certain scandal.


8.5/10
As you can tell I quite enjoyed the story and most of the acting in this drama. I didn't really have high expectations because usually I don't like historical dramas a lot, and vampire stories that are not about crime are totally not my cup of tea anymore (actually) but this drama still was quite good and could become my favorite vampire romance drama. Yes, it did have a few WTF moments, especially during the action scenes because it lookes so overdone but it was okay in the end and I still enjoyed it even though I think the final fight was just.. too fast? I don't know.
Recommended to vampire love story fans and fans of fantasy meets historical. And of the actors, you won't be too disappointed.

The Three Musketeers

삼총사 (The Three Musketeers) is a South Korean drama series that aired from August 17th to November 2nd 2014 every Sunday on tvN. The drama consists of 12 episodes with a duration ~65 minutes.

Story: The story is set in 17th Century Joseon and evolves around Crown Prince Sohyun and his guards Heo Seung-po and Ahn Min-seo as well as Park Dal-hyang, a young man who came from Gangwondo to take the military examination and find his first love. Even on his first day Park Dal-hyang meets the three men who introduce themselves as the "Three Musketeers" and soon he finds himself within a political conflict.

Cast: In the very first place we have Lee Jin-wook as Crown Prince Sohyun. While I don't really understand why his character is the way he just... is I kinda like this rebellious royal thing. It makes his character somehow special since he's not what one would expect. However, in some moments I couldn't really feel the acting, I just noticed that it wasn't real from time to time and I don't know if that's because of the actor or because of the writing. Yang Dong-geun as Heo Seung-po is the son of General Heo and one of the men the prince grew up with. He loves gambling and alcohol and usually is pretty calm about being sent to prison for some time. The acting in general worked with the character and the background. He shows a great loyalty towards the crown prince. The same works for Ahn Min-seo played by Jung Hae-in. Definitely an actor I will look out for in the future! Ahn Min-seo is a rather loyal and smart character and seems to be more pure since he comes from a religious background. The acting connected with the character himself made this character one of my favorites.
Jung Yong-hwa took over Park Dal-hyang's part. Solid acting? Well, his character was a little stubborn and sometimes childish, led by emotions but that's Park Dal-hyang's innocent, childish charm. So for a main character he was actually quite nice to watch and did cause some trouble from time to time. Seo Hyun-jin as the Crown Princess Kang Yoon-seo/ Kang Bin was one of the characters I somehow liked - and at the same time didn't. She's loyal and a horrible liar - and exactly these traits get her into huge trouble while the King tries to find out what's going on. Her acting was nice though her character was really stupid from time to time.
Of course there does have to be a bad witch in a series like this (though she's not exactly a witch but you get where I'm coming from). At some point I was literally waiting for her to just die. Though Mi-ryung/Hyang-sun played by Yoo In-young was beautiful and the obsessed acting was pretty much what I expected. A character you start to hate but one also likes to find out more about why she behaves the way she does.
Other actors in this drama include Kim Myung-soo as King Injo, Jeon Noh-min as Choi Myung-gil, Park Young-kyu as Kim Ja-jum and Kim Sung-min as Yong Gol-dae.

Soundtrack: I personally found the soundtrack to be pretty good. I LOVED the song "All For One" by NOXX and DinDin a lot though I thought they played the song too loud in the drama - it wasn't in the background anymore. The other songs seemed more subtle in a way but then again nothing can compare to a rock song as music played while fighting (at least that's where I saw it in my imagination when I first listened to it).


SO how am I going to rate this drama? 8.5/10 for a solid drama that's somewhat based on Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers but in a Korean background.
I liked it. It's sometimes too funny for a serious historical drama but I think that's what they intended to do and it was nice the way it was. They ended it with an open ending though because there were supposed to be three seasons - tvN cancelled the other two.
A beautifully filmed drama and good acting in general with an interesting story but the last parts were rushed while other things were dragged a little.

I'd consider this drama as highly recommendable though! So give it a try.

Orange Marmalade

오렌지 마말레이드 (Orange Marmalade) is a South Korean drama series based on a webtoon that aired from May 15th to July 24th 2015 on KBS2.

Story: In a fictional world, vampires and humans coexist in the same society. However, vampires are still discriminated against so they have to hide their true identity. Baek Ma-ri is a high school student who had to move with her family after being found out a few times already. After moving again, she becomes more careful so she won't need to transfer to another school again. In school she meets Jung Jae-min who hates vampires because of past events involving his mother. Jo Ah-ra who has a crush on Jae-min creates some difficult situations for Ma-ri while she's getting closer to Jae-min. Shortly after that, Han Shi-hoo transfers to the same school. Since he remembers Ma-ri from his childhood, he recognizes her in a tough situation and decides to help her out a few more times.

Cast: The cast and the acting in general is okay. Yeo Jin-goo did a good job as Jung Jae-min though I felt like sometimes he was too cold - something was missing in his expression. Kim Seol-hyun in general did have similar issues as Baek Ma-ri. She seemed too stiff but overall her performance in this drama was okay, nothing especially good or bad either.
Lee Jong-hyun as Han Shi-hoo simply delivered. Now I am not biased but I liked his acting and I liked his character - probably these factors are basically the same but I'm not really sure how to describe it. When the first highschool part ended, I was frustrated because I just thought they couldn't do that to him. Jo Ah-ra played by Gil Eun-hye was someone on the other hand I hated at first but came to like during the "past events" part. Her character in itself was understandable but the change from liking one person to just accepting without doing anything was faster than I expected but then again that's what I liked about her.
A rather unknown actress, but I loved Oh Kyung-min as Choi Soo-ri in this series. Sure she did have some of her insecure moments but she's definitely an actress I should look out for.
Lastly, I need to mention Song Jong-ho as teacher Han Yoon-jae and Lee Il-hwa as Kang Min-ha. While I personally liked Han Yoon-jae more that might be because he was in more scenes - a caring teacher always trying to support his students. Kang Min-ha, Jae-min's mother, was a respectable person, too. She didn't try to force her son into seeing her. She just accepted his wishes though it was obvious how glad she was when he finally met her again.

OST: There were basically two songs included in the soundtrack I sincerely loved and still love. One of them is "끌리는 여자 (Attracted Woman)" by Monsta X's Kihyun and Jooheon. It's a beautiful and light song that captured the atmosphere in quite a few of the scenes, not some overly dramatic sad love song. And then there's Hwanhee's "아프다 (Heartbreaking)", the kind of rather sad but beautiful songs performed by a great vocalist.

In total this drama received a 7/10 rating from me. The first few episodes were okay, the parts playing in back in the Joseon Dynasty were awesome (I loved that, they could've turned that into another drama..) and the last high school part was also nice but nothing too special. The ending was a rather open one but did not leave too many questions. It's something short and fun to watch and plays with tropes while I did see some critical ideas in this drama as well. (E.g. bullying someone because he/she is different.)
Something short, light and nice to enjoy between melodramas I'd say~.

Blades of Blood

구르믈 버서난 달처럼 (Blades of Blood, literally Like The Moon Escaping From The Clouds) is a Korean movie that was released in April 2010.

Please notice that I might give some more spoilers than usually because - as far as I've read - some people don't quite understand the story which is why I feel that I should try to explain the historical context as well as my personal understanding/ maybe some interpretation. If you plan on watching this movie, I feel like you should stop reading right now and come back when you've seen it.

Story: The story is set in late 16th Century Korea. It's the reign of King Seonjo, at least officially, but the Korean monarchy is weakend and the King has to rely on the support of the yangban class, the gentry. Due to some internal strife, mostly between the West and the East parties, corruption and the pressure coming from the Japanese the State Joseon is even more endangered. That's why in this movie an alliance was formed, firstly to defend the population against the Japanese forces. But it becomes obvious throughout the movie that General Lee Mong-hak has other plans and wants to become the King himself. He therefore killed a man that was later condemned a traitor. Hwang Jeong-hak, a blind swordsman, knows about this. He's also there when the alliance attacks the house of the Han family. After saving the illegitimate son of the family that son, Han Kyun-Jja seeks for revenge and asks Hwang Jeong-hak to become his teacher. While searching for Lee Mong-hak they meet Baek-ji, Mong-hak's lover/ girlfriend, who simply starts following them to meet the man who left her shortly before again. It seems that Kyun-ja and Baek-ji develop feelings for each other but in the end it seems she still wants to see Mong-hak again at any cost. In the end of the movie the showdown appears to be in Seoul, called Hanyang or Hanseong in the Joseon Dynasty, at the royal palace but the King and his loyalty had already left when Mong-hak and Kyun-ja meet and the Japanese forces invade the palace later. The scene following that showdown is something I don't want to talk about too much. But the moon's playing an important role, that's why I think it's necessary to know about the literal title as well. Personally, I would guess it's something otherworldly we see mostly due to the color effects used but it all depends on how you want to interpret it.

Now I think that's a pretty detailed story summary for my standards. I honestly don't get why some people couldn't make any guesses about it. I'm not saying that they're stupid, I would never do that, but I guess they didn't pay attention because a) I think the internal strife between the political parties was obvious, b) they've been talking about the Japanese all the time, and they even mentioned a Japanese invasion and c) actually the context isn't even that important because I personally thing the movie mostly focusses on Kyun-ja's revenge.
There is one thing I have to add to those short summaries I've found though: I DO NOT think that the characters are fighting for social equality. In the Joseon dynasty, Confucianism was the main school of thought. Due to the system the people accepted their role in society, they accepted that they were born into the system. And there were two 'rules' everyone had to obey: Filial piety and loyalty towards the State. Everything that endangered the system and especially those two rules/laws was unacceptable (which led to various persecutions of Catholics about 200 years later but that's something totally different).

Cast: Let's be honest, how many of us watched that movie because of Baek Sung-hyun as Han Kyun-ja? I bet a few did, and if you do watch it because of him, you might love it. His acting in this movie shows many different emotions and shades, though I would characterize Kyun-ja actually as a mostly young and impulsive man who wants to be accepted though he doesn't belong to the yangban class (I forgot the name for illegitimate children of gentry men with their concubines, sorry).
Cha Seung-won appears as Lee Mong-hak. Though he's listed in the main cast and definitely is one of the key characters he doesn't have too much screentime compared to Baek Sung-hyun and Hwang Jung-min. Most of the time I thought his acting was emotionless and therefore a little empty - there wasn't really a cold feeling around him but simply nothing - but in the latter half of the movie there were some really good emotions included. So his acting itself was at least okay (I would need to rewatch the movie a few more times to see whether I missed out on something or not).
Hwang Jung-min appears as Hwang Jeong-hak, the blind swordman. If I didn't miss out on anything important, which I don't think happened, it was never really explained why he behaved the way he did. Why did he turn against the alliance? I mean, why exactly? Sure it's said that he somehow realized the alliance won't make the world a better place and that in the struggle for power the situation might turn out worse. Anyways, I liked his acting after all. His eyes were closed basically 95% of the time and I don't think it's that easy to film some scenes without opening ones eyes so he definitely deserves respect for that.
Lastly, we have Han Ji-hye as Baek-ji. She's beautiful and I think her acting actually fit her role well but then again I wouldn't want to discuss whether it's a major or minor role. We don't get to know that much about her after all, only that she was Lee Mong-hak's girl, he somehow left her and she wants to see him again. That's why she follows Kyun-ja and Hwang Jeong-hak later.

Soundtrack: Since this is a movie, there is basically no soundtrack like there would be for a drama. However, I did enjoy the somewhat traditional feeling of many songs included in the soundtrack, especially of those sang by Baek-ji and played on an instrument called gayageum if I remember right. The music after all did fit the scenes. Especially in the fighting scenes some people will argue it would've been better to use rock songs but please remember that this song is set in the last decade of the 16th Century and imagine a hard rock song playing. That doesn't work, guys, it's just a huge 'Nope'.


After all I've rated this movie as a 7.5/10 mainly because I felt they could've shortened some scenes and maybe used less effects in the fighting scenes. This movie focusses surely more on action than on the plot but I think it's not that bad since the main goal, the revenge, still remained and the story therefore developed. Though it is indeed a rather slow development that's being displayed.

I hope I was able to clear up some things about the setting and the plot above though, and if you have any questions about the Imjin Waeran or Hideyoshi invasions that basically start during the time where the movie is set, you can either ask me - or simply try to find the information on Google or Yahoo search.

Chilsu and Mansu

칠수와 만수 (Chil-su and Man-su) is a Korean movie released in 1988 that is remembered to be a step towards freedom of the Korean film industry.

Just giving you a side note.. I didn't plan to watch this movie. Like not at all. But we've watched it in our Korean culture class so I thought writing a review wasn't that bad.

Story: Chil-su falls in love with Jin-a what makes him very excited about all the changes he's experiencing, inside and outside, after the democratization in Korea and finding out about those feelings. But things are not what they seem to be, there are many lies between the characters. They're also broke all the time, especially Chil-su and Man-su, while on the other hand many people experience the benefits of the economical and political changes.
While both characters experience difficulties due to their family and the circumstances they're in, they end up frustrated. As a result, they climb up to their just-completed billboard and vent their frustration at the "rich bastards" in downtown Seoul.

Cast: Park Jung-hun as Chil-su, Ahn Sung-ki as Man-su and Bae Jong-ok as Jin-a. Now I wish I could tell you a lot about their acting but I can't. I've watched this movie like last week and still can't remember.


As a rating in total I'd give a 6.5/10. The scenes I remember were alright. Some were funny, others dramatic. Thing is that I tend to end up bored by old movies most of the time. Especially when those are about social changes I've never experienced.
But then again I admit that I was sometimes online with my phone and sometimes just half asleep (the second wasn't the movies fault, at least not 100%. I think more like 50%, mixed up with me being tired as hell).
A recommendation? No. Only if you're interested in Korean cinema and the history of Korean movies. Though the movie wasn't a huge hit and still isn't one of the best movies at all, I honestly think that it shows signs of a huge social change if you know Korea's history and pay attention to what is said, there are loads of hints given.

Genre confusion: Historical

Historical, also known as Period, actually explains itself. The drama is set about 300 years back, maybe more, maybe a little less. Though I think we don't see historical series often in the US or in Europe, especially not involving castles or fortresses and the wonderful dresses, it's not that unusual in Korea and I think we see it at least more often than in Europe in other Asian countries as well.
In Korea, those dramas are usually referred to as sageuk which.. doesn't mean anything else in fact.

Giving examples? Well, let's just start with Secret Investigation Record which is not a typical sageuk drama (since it's somehow mixed up with the X-Files). We have for other examples Queen Insoo (starring Baek Sung-hyun, guess who'll watch this?), Chuno, Deep Rooted Tree, Yi San, Jumong, Gu Family Book, The Moon That Embraces The Sun, Faith and many many many more. Those are just a few examples, and the list probably could go on forever. Oh, and I almost forgot about Jang Ok Jung, Empress Ki and Jung Yi, Goddess of Fire. As you might notice, there are dozens and even more sageuk dramas.
Why do K-fans watch those dramas? We study history!

As to why that many historical dramas are filmed.. I have no idea. Even after doing some research I still don't really understand the reasons but maybe I will find out about that someday.

Queen Insoo

Secret Investigation Record

조선X파일: 기찰비록 (Joseon X Files: Secret Book / Secret Investigation Record) is an historical Korean drama that aired on tvN from August 20th to October 29th 2010.
It consists of 12 episodes that are relatively independent.

Story: In 17th Century Korea (Joseon Dynasty) strange things happen. Kim Hyung-do's former mentor Lee Hyeong-wook is sent to prison for "aggrandized his report with mendacious claims of a bizarre flying object” and “divine retaliation against His Majesty’s alleged lack of virtue." To save his own and his mentor's life, Kim Hyung-do needs to find an explanation and create a demonstration to a public that's terrified by an Unidentified Flying Object. At the end Kim Hyeong-do becomes an investigator for the secret Shinmuhwe.
During the next episodes the hero and his team consisting of his assistant Heo Yoon-Yi, a librarian, and Magistrate Jang Man is sent to various places to solve mysterious cases about supernatural objects, diseases and phenomena as well as ghosts.

Cast: Kim Ji-hoon did a really good job as Kim Hyung-do in this one. I've never seen a drama with him before but well, I think acting in a historical drama isn't that easy anyways. Im Jung-eun can be seen as Assistant Heo Yoon-yi. Damn, I like her character. Either she's a badass hot librarian or just a perfect not-so-nerdy bookworm but she's really really good. Jo Hee-bong can be seen as Magistrate Jang Man. Sometimes a little cowardly, always trying to save Kim Hyung-do once he's in trouble, so.. a plucky coward? To be honest I had to laugh about Magistrate Jang because it was just completely overdone from time to time. He seemed not to be that smart.. Last but not least I have to name Kim Gab-soo as Ji Seung who's the leader of the Shinmunhwe (if I remember right, however, he's the one collecting the records so.. I don't know how to describe that.)
YES, the acting was good and usually fit the story. It was relatively nice to see only four characters directly involved in the story, it wasn't too complicated.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack supported the drama. No modern pop music, no modern ballads, just some instrumentals and an effective use of silence as well. Nothing I could really criticize about this.

My personal ranking is 6/10 though. The first point may be that I'm usually not that experienced when it comes to historical dramas. Followed by the second aspect which was like "What the heeeell..." because of the effects. While I think they looked like some of the effects used in the 1990's and kind of old school others say those were awesome. Third thing is.. that I seriously couldn't take some things seriously because even if you do believe in the existence of aliens it's completely absurd.
I think the combination of a Korean historical drama and the X Files just didn't do it for me, I think it's more about the story than the actors who are indeed doing a great job.