A Powerful Magical Fantasy Drama - Joseon Period
Of demon Ma Wang, of deities Samshin, Goddess of Life, of Ho Ryeong the Tiger Spirit, of curses, of revenge, of Josean royalty brother fighting for the throne, of divine painter Cheon Gi, of gifted astrologer Ha Ram…… magical characters in an absolutely entertaining fantasy dramaLovers of The Red Sky is a magical fantasy drama set in the Joseon period. Action and drama from the get go. First episode witnesses how a Palace Shaman (a spiritual high priestess) removes the Ma Wang demon residing in the body of King Yeong Jong locked into a divine painting. In that, the demon curses the country to a long famine and drought. When young Ha Ram is discovered to bear the Water Element, he is used in a ritual to attract rain, putting and end to the curse.
At the same time through a series of event between two young princes, demon Ma Wang is released and enters the body of Ha Ram. The only way to extract the demon residing in Ha Ram’s body is by seeking help from talented divine painter Cheon Gi. They fall in love and Cheon Gi is determined to complete the painting in time for the day of ‘Sealing Ceremony”- on a date, month and time when the sky turns red making it the most opportune time to lock the demon again and have Ha Ram return back to his normal self.
The story is well told, the special effects, cinematography, costumes and music were perfectly laid out and shared throughout the drama. Not a boring moment, plenty of action and moments of love and affection between the two leads. Ahn Hyo Seop (Ha Ram) proofed his acting versatility by portraying Ha Ram, a blind astrologer as well as Ma Wang, the demon. As for Kim Yoo Jung, she really shines in period costume roles from Love In The Moonlight to Lovers Of The Red Sky. Kudos to the entire cast for bringing us a really good drama which I enjoyed thoroughly.
Epilogue in the finale chapter gives a strong indication that there will be a part 2 and I really do not mind to watch a continued story of ambitious and evil Prince Juhyang and his kind and wise younger brother Prince Yi Yul with new character and love story thrown in.
What a good drama, highly recommended.
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Enjoyable but haphazard plot
Enjoyable and gripping; love the cast and acting, the idea, OST and pace.All the usual sageuk plotting, scheming, jealousy, nasty characters and intrigue, peppered with humour, warmth and romance.
Cheon-ki was pretty capable and bubbly with a can-do attitude. Loved the supporting characters at the art school.
Ha Ram was quite melancholic and gentle, but with a darker side too ~ so well portrayed by Ahn Hyo-seop. His personal servant, Man Soo, was a favourite character (even though a small part), so well played by Kim Hyun-Mok ~ I just loved him 😁
Icing on the cake, is the dark fantasy element, which is a genre I really like and some interesting deities.
The leads worked well together and both are favourites of mine. AHS's voice is something else too, with a unique depth to it.
The reason I couldn't give 10/10, was because of a few holes in the plot.
Fantasy is one thing, but I got irritated by how easily a supposedly blind character could navigate stuff from walking freely to asking for written documents.
Also by how stupid Cheon-ki could be at times, in relation to getting when a character was possessed or themselves (black smoke and clawed hands should be a give away, surely?!)
Some of the scenes between her and her father I found a bit too melodramatic and the number of times she shrieked "abeoji, abeoji" made me want to scream!
I also found it hard to follow why Mawang only appeared at certain times when 2 characters touched and not others.
Finally, the reviewed second version of ep.1, put right after ep.1, totally ruined the flow of the programme for me (I watched on Viki). It duplicated so much of the drama and if I'd realised, I would have left viewing it until after I'd finished. It just did not fit there and would not have ruined the drama watching it later. Bizarre really.
Glad I watched it though.
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Yangmyeong was the real MVP and y'all did him dirty
So, another drama that was really difficult to rate for me. I don't think it's as bad as most top reviews make it out to be, but it's also not nearly as good as it could have been.The beginning was promising and it wasn't really a difficult drama to finish, but the quality definitely drops in the second half of this drama. The main couple becomes particularly annoying, which is sad cause I really liked them initially, but in the end I only finished the drama to know how everything would unfold.
Honestly it really enraged me how Cheon Gi kept making up excuses for Ha Ram, like I know it's not his fault but the dude is still a menace to everyone around him and he tried to kill her multiple times whe he was posessed by Ma Wang. He should totally be imprisoned but somehow Cheon Gi acted like Yangmyeong was some sort of monster when he tried to do that. It's like when any minimal thing happened to Ha Ram and he was separated from Cheon Gi she suddenly could not produce one rational thought anymore and just started crying pathetically. Her only redeeming quality by the end is that she was still determined to finish the King's portrait, even if it was just to save her boyfriend.
One of the main gripes I had with most of the characters (main couple and the other painters from the academy) is that they were against Cheon Gi painting the King's portrait because something bad MIGHT happen to her but none of them really took into consideration that if the demon was not sealed in the painting it would cause havoc everywhere it went and nobody would be able to stop it. Like, they're supposed to be the good guys, but they can't even think about all the innocents that would die and how the country would've been thrown into chaos if the portrait was not finished. This is about the greater good people, seriously, that was so irritating.
The ML was a very difficult character to root for as well. From the beginning he was more of a sinister character, since he just cared about his revenge (even executing it against innocents like hello, Yangmyeong was a child when that happened) and not really caring about the consequences of his acts. Even then I was at least intrigued cause I thought it was a different approach to a male protagonist, but later he becomes even more insufferable as he seems to only care about the female lead and makes stupid decisions because of it.
So basically that's why I kept watching mainly for one chracter: Yangmyeong. He seemed to be the only one with some common sense and who put the wellbeing of the nation and the people first, fighting to complete the Sealing Ceremony and basically saving everyone's lives by doing so. I even think his character was underused towards the end, but he was still one of the best. Damn, how I wish he was the first lead. So I don't think I even have to comment on the epilogue, my boy deserved so much more.
The last character I want to talk about is Sam Sim. She was such an useless old hag lmao. Honestly I couldn't tell if she was trying to help or to be a nuisance. Everything could've been much batter if she intervened when everybody needed her. Like why did she have to wait until Ma Wang got his eyes back to try to stop him during the Sealing Ceremoy????
Although the story was interesting and gripping, it still was full of plot facilitations, holes and they simply kept creating more rules that mostly made no sense or contradicted things stablished previously. It's like the writers just straight up forgot certain characters existed, too.
The CGI was kinda bad but that was to be expected. The OST was good and the acting was pretty good as well, except that the male lead couldn't really act blind. The romance could've been much better if they werent' so annoying and if it was developed properly. I understand they were like soulmates, but I really think the show lacked scenes of them bonding or getting to know each other better.
Overall I did have fun and managed to finish this drama pretty quickly, but honestly I don't know if it's worth a recommendation as it's pretty forgettable and has quite some issues. Some might think my rating is a bit high for this show, but I just don't feel passionately about it to rate it lower to be frank.
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Beautiful Cast, Stretched Story
Was excited to watch this because of the lead actors and the plot summary looked interesting. The build up at the start was interesting and I expected the story to unravel more. However, the story seemed to have been stretched so much that the conflicts with the demon and the "evil" characters were repetitive and the back stories became confusing. There were a lot of unanswered questions: Who is Mae Hyang? Who will win in the battle between the 2 princes? Why was that left hanging and why did they choose that to be the ending (a set up for Season 2, perhaps)? What's with the three hooligans who still haven't stopped looking for Hong Chun Ki? Most importantly, I honestly didn't feel that much chemistry between the two lead characters because their interactions as a couple were very limited and, sometimes, awkward.Was this review helpful to you?
Too cliched and trash storyline
If I can give this a 0 rating I will. What a waste of good actors... The storyline is trash..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Promising start -artistic and beautiful, yet the romance gets annoying after
The first few episodes were so great, they introduce a fresh, new, and an amazing fantasy storyline. From the cast itself, I knew that the acting will be marvelous and they show cleverness in acting as I expected but sometimes Ahn Hyo Seop forgets that he’s supposed to act as a blind man. I already watched a lot of Korean historical drama and most of them bored me at some point, the same goes with this drama but I’m grateful to witness a historical inserting magical powers and believes that make the story more colorful.The best part of the show is how they highlighted the traditional skill of drawing and painting. The gathering or competition among many painters was my favorite episode of all time. The way they executed the variety of brushing techniques, the sound of papers and brush, the big factor of being able to draw an art that has different kind of impression, and the quality effects of each drawings was really a masterpiece. I have so much fun watching the episode so much plus the three best friends call sign is so hilarious and cute (troublemaker, nuisance, and frown).
The early episodes were light and comedic but then it gets serious and dramatic. It was during EP12 when I started to hate the romance from the story. Obviously, they failed to emphasize the love story in a more pleasant way. Perhaps it became another cliché story that let either one of the lovers affects the people around them just because of their undying love on each other. The girl does risky things even thou she or her beloved people can be killed any minute. Then the boy sudden change of heart is odd, I hate it when he’s loyal subordinate man sacrifices his life just to save the father of his girlfriend. Where is the years of planning for vengeance? The same goes with the girl, the antagonist was right when he called that the reason why her father was killed was simply because of her desperate love for his boyfriend.
On the other hand, I love how the second and third prince rivalry story were given an open ended story. The second prince shows explicit facial expression on acting as an antagonist, it was good. The third prince was one of my early favorite because of his cuteness and innocent character. Every royal family in a drama always have to fight for the throne all the time. The demon and all other mythical creatures explicit in the show is something I am really happy about.
Another part of the show that I love the most is the music (OSTs, background songs). Byun Baekhyun proves that he is one of the most incredible singer in the industry. Hearing his song is a beautiful perfection fit for the concept and cinematography of the show. All of the music are cool, especially the background song plays when the characters are painting during the competition, a soothing and elegance vibes.
Overall, it was really good but only the romance during the last few episodes affected my enjoyment of watching. The ending is okay as well as the epilogue. The cast are the reason I started to watch the show but I fell in love with the story which was a great experience for me as a viewer.
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It's good
I initially started this drama because it's An Hyeseop fr. It's good it has a straightforward approach with the plot instead of flashbacks. Im not sure if I appreciated that because I like to wonder "oh what could be the cause of that" "how did he end up like that " but they just put it right at the beginning.What I dont like with the story (episode 1 to like the mid of ep 16) is that one of the main characters is always at a disadvantage, but ig it's okay.
The whole demon thing and the 2nd Prince felt underdeveloped and rushed. They should've spent more time on them. Because honestly there wasn't the full effect there like "okay they're there, they are obviously not going to win or achieve anything" i love when the villains give me anxiety tbh It's much better because the ending is more satisfying 💯.
I also felt that the main characters' chemistry was kinda lacking in some ways dont know how to explain that. The only thing that they got going for them is their history
Overall, it's a good drama, not the best I have watched but far from the worst.
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Enjoyable if you have the right attitude
It's a mistake to take a supernatural saeguk too seriously. Parts of this were so hyper that it was quite funny. I kept wondering what the Ha Ram script looked like as he turned into various manifestations of the demon - what are the stage directions like? The changes certainly kept the makeup people busy. And how many times did Painter Hong say abeoji in this drama? Good grief. I'm very fussy about CG, and all the CG effects were well done.This is possibly the most over the top historical I've ever seen, to the point that it became absurd. But it still provided pretty good entertainment. The cast did a great job, the writing wasn't annoying, it was a little over-long but not horribly, and even the music did not offend. It was fun to watch, and you could spend your time in a worse way - like watching Squid Game.
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so much potential
Great cinematography, great actors, really handsome ML, powerful beginning. After the first two episodes I was totally in love with this drama. I love fantasy and I love romance, it was perfect for me. But man they throw it away... Half of the show is good but the other half is so bad that in the end i don't recommend anyone to lose time with this. The problem is that each episode is half good and half bad: after each major scene there is endless time where the characters involved in that scene explain to all the other characters what just happened, what does it means, what they have to do next. Then they do that and the routine begin again.Half of each episodes is dragged from the beginning to the end of the show.
Another big problem is that the rules of magic in this world are a bit confused. It is not really clear when Ma Wang manifest, how strong are his power compared to the others and how powerful are the magical items. The magical spirits are cool but in some ways not so convincing, in particular the white guy and the green guy.
Last but not least the plot in the end is a bit weak and you can really feel it because of all the useless scenes.
I'm so disappointed, the premises were really cool.
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Compelling story with a good heart, great acting, and magnificent effects
I just finished Lovers of the Red Sky and cannot understand the number of very negative reviews generated by this enjoyable and beautiful drama. Perhaps I am more easily pleased than most but I found the story to be compelling and fascinatingly multi-faceted with a good heart beating under its skin. I enjoyed the complete acceptance of interaction between humans and immortals without a trace of skepticism to be refreshing. And art at its very center - the power of art, the divine gift of a great artist to be a beautiful unifying thread. The power of art to overcome evil, to bring joy, beauty, harmony to life is a powerful undercurrent to this well told story.The acting was good across the board though I've never been a fan of the twitching lips and nostrils that seem to be cliche motions for the bad guy! More importantly, the chemistry between the artist and the astronomer was powerful, poetic, and palpable. It was wonderful to see their love blossom and them living happily ever after.
The ambiguous ending with the forces of the good prince and his evil brother attacking each other reminds us that the battle between good and evil does not end and even as our hero and heroine live happily and happily far away from the strife in the capitol, that battle still rages and at some point may even touch them again.
It's a beautiful story, worth telling, worth experiencing.
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It was a painting show disguised as a supernatural drama.
It was a good drama, just not that great. The first 3 episodes suck you in because you're like "Hey, this is a cool supernatural drama." Then from episode 4 to 11 it lost all its steam, became draggy, kept repeating lots of plot that we've already been told about in the first few episodes and becomes a painting show. They seemed to forget that they were battling an evil spirit and when they DO remember, it's sprinkled in randomly in some scenes.It picks up after episode 11 and finally gets back to being a supernatural show, but then everything is rushed and they just start throwing so much random stories at you. It had the LONGEST revenge plot, which makes sense why it took so long because of the plot twist they throw at you in the end. It had the dumbest "overthrowing the king" plot line that all came to an abrupt, end when the king decided to put his son in time out. There were two random characters that had NO sort of explanation as to why they were in the series and involved in the revenge story (I'm talking about Ha Ram's right hand man and the Courtesan Lady) but we do get a little bit about the right hand guy for about 5 mins.
Then there was Ha Ram who you weren't quite sure if he was blind or not. The dude kept following people with his eyes and ANSWERING TO SILENT NODS, which made me think he was faking (he wasn't) and was pretty much the Korean Daredevil.
In terms of romance, you get one kiss in episode 6 or 7 and two in the last episode. It was pretty minimal because whenever these two were together Ha Ram was trying to kill her soooo.....there's that. You have a Second Lead (The Prince) who stood NO chance what so ever, so there were no love triangles, just the one that was in his imagination.
Finally the last episode came and everything was rushed, but you get the HAPPIEST of endings. (time skip) It's set up for a season two between the brothers, (with one of them coming again with another long ass revenge plot) but I do not care because the leads got their end and that's all that matters. I will not be watching it if they decide to do one. Does this warrant a re-watch? Yes, if you're into just staring at Paul Ahn in all his tall, red eyes, handsome glory. If not, nah, but it's good for a first watch.
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Interesting start, Messy ending
Lovers of the Red Sky (2021)Likes
1. I didnt realize when I started watching that this is a fantasy drama but episodes 1 and 2 were interesting and I loved the actors who played the younger versions of Haram and Cheon Gi, the background story was enough to get invested in the couple.
2. I loved the paintings, it was so amazing that simple brushes can make these fantastic masterpieces. The best episodes were the painting competition, although it was still unbelievable that a young inexperienced painter can win against everyone else. And her butterfly painting was not that great tbh.
3. I loved the Baekyu Painters Society and how they always had Cheongi's back, esp her two painter friends. And the friendship between Haram, Prince Yang Myeong and Cheon Gi.
4. The ending kind of redeemed the entire story since they get their happy ever after, but still dont understand why they decided to live in an area so faraway from the city. The last scene between the two princes, at first I though the story is incomplete, now thinking back i guess just shows life goes on.
Dislikes
1. The story got messy and a lot of things were unexplained. More than halfway and I still didn't get the reason for the ring, or why they need to seal the devil inside the painting (because the drama said so), how Cheon Gi is the divine painter (when it turns out without Hwacha's power her painting was useless so what was the point?), why Joohyang was still alive when his body is supposedly rotting away, the king knew all about Haram's plan and never told him the truth (rendering his whole life's revenge plot unnecessary). And the whole nonsense about Haram's grandfather. And what about Maehyang?
2. Haram was blind for 20 years but he is extraordinarily aware of his surroundings that he doesnt look blind at all! He looks straight at the person he is talking to, he fights against the soldiers when blind, he can interpret the stars without seeing them.
Rating: 7/10 (i should give a lower rating but the four leads were so pretty)
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