Love in the Moonlight (2016)

What a drama! This k-drama completely took me in for a ride and I genuinely loved every second of it.

To start off, this drama initially began as your basic gender bender. Typical. However, as you find yourself deeper into this drama you find underlying in that plot is so much more. There is a balance between your heart fluttering moments of pure fluff, moments that will make you laugh and the absolutely heart-wrenching moments-- this balance continuously plays with the viewers' heart, and it's exactly what keeps them wanting more. Since it was a romance historical drama, there was plenty of political elements to follow along with as well. I myself am a huge sucker for historical dramas, so naturally I found that this particular plot wasn't that hard to follow along with. But for someone who doesn't find much interest for them, they play a huuuuge role in the plot development - so I probably wouldn't recommend it.

The only portion I had dissatisfactions with was with how the story carried out towards the end of the drama. It dragged on for a little bit and then at the very last episodes everything felt very rushed to tie all the loose ends. There were a couple story arcs that they could have expanded on a little more which was disappointing. If they had cut the filler episodes a little short and was a little more detailed in the ending, it would've been absolutely flawless as a drama. But overall, the story was nothing short of amazing.

The general performance of the whole cast was exemplary, having both a reputation for their acting and endless eye candy! I even found myself becoming a Park Bo Gum fan in the process.

For starters, Kim Yoo Jung never fails expectation, upholding her crown as one of the best upcoming actresses with yet another hit drama to her lengthy list of filmography. Her character Ra On is a charming, optimistic and extremely outgoing. As having one of the more complex back stories in the drama, there were a few plot holes dealing with her family but nonetheless, it was carried out very well.

Park Bo Gum's presentation of the crown prince Lee Young was all in all praise worthy. I didn't feel much awkwardness from him even though he isn't nearly as experienced with historical dramas in contrast to his cast members. His tone, stance and relaying of emotions (his eyes I swoon every time), were executed in a manner that truly brought his character Lee Young to life. Not to mention, he suited the hanbok extremely well (and was very good looking in it). Although he was one of the more dull character archetypes, it was still entertaining to watch him grow from a childish troublemaker to a mature and refined crown prince.

The romance between the two was also lovely to the eyes, and although there is a bit of an age gap I didn't feel it as the chemistry between Bo Gum and Yoo Jung strongly made up for it. Although the romance did over shine the development of the friendship plot.

I definitely wish they would have shone a bit more light on the other characters Byung Yun and Yoon Sung. There was a lot of potential that the writer could of utilized to enhance the plot. These two character archetypes were definitely more on the complex side and it would've been really interesting to see more of their development and more of their story all in all.

The music in this drama was definitely really lovely to the ears, nothing really too special but they did include an OST by Park Bo Gum himself which was definitely a treat.

Another thing that I would like to make note on is the cinematography. I absolutely adooooore when producers pay respect to these aspects and I was taken by surprise at how stunning some scenes were. From the first episode until the very last, it was extremely extremely beautiful.

On the whole, this drama was definitely an exceptional coming of age drama deserving of all the hype and you should definitely give it a chance.

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I really loved this drama in the beginning, and thought the story was great throughout, so maybe it's Sageuk overload that made me not fall completely in love with "Love in the Moonlight/Moonlight Drawn by Clouds" (this is my first time watching 2 Sageuks at once). This drama isn't exactly innovative... we have leading lady cleverly disguised as a eunich, a love triangle including friends turned rivals, political greed, betrayal in the kingdom, and a young prince who must learn what it takes to become a great king... it's literally all been done before, but the cast brings this particular story to life in a way that stops the story from feeling too cliché. It did lose much of it's early appeal in the later episodes, switching it's focus from romance, to palace politics, which made me less eager to watch the next episode. Even so, I can't find much that is wrong with this drama. I think it's just a matter of genre preference, and how much you've fallen in love with the cast.

I think the entire cast was excellent. Park Bo Gum is perfect. He is completely charming as the young Crown Prince. I totally fell for his smirk, and truly empathized with his struggle to become a true leader within a corrupt system. He is matched with Kim Yoo Jung, who I was very impressed with. Usually underage romantic lead actresses seem so obviously out of place to me, but she was a formidable leading lady, and the age gap wasn't so big. Beyond pulling off the gender-bender trope pretty well, she was also very believable expressing the range of emotions Ra On had to go through. They had an extremely cute chemistry, and seemed to be generally falling for each other. They are definitely the MVPs of this drama.

Aside from the main couple, there are two young actors who also deserve praise, Kwak Dong Yeon and Jung Jin Young. Byung Yeon was so bad@ss, and although a man of few words, his was the only character that made me actually cry. Jung Jin Young as Yoon Sung is the perfect second lead. I didn't exactly have second lead syndrome, but I came close a few times. The friendship dynamic between all four is complicated, which makes it even more interesting. Nothing is what it appears to be at face value, and that's the kind of storytelling I think this drama did well.

There are too many great minor characters to mention them all. I honestly can't think of a single weak link. The villains are extra villainous, and some of the more comedic characters are completely silly, but they all felt real, and not just included to fill up space and time.

This story is more complicated than it initially appears to be, so it's not as if I was ever really bored, but I still wish that the second half of the drama didn't lose all of the fun the initial episodes had. At the same time, it makes total sense to the story that it was told exactly the way it was, so maybe I was just in the mood to watch something lighter. I'm really trying hard to find something solid to complain about, but the music... the direction... the amount of episodes... it all worked well. Some aspects may have been a bit repetitive, which was frustrating at times, but that frustration served to motivate the Crown Prince, so I think it was necessary. It isn't exactly filled with epic twists either, which makes it not extremely exciting at times, but also not unnecessarily complicated.

Would I watch this again? Sure. I also wonder if being in the right mood to watch this kind of story would make me like it more. I also liked that it all ended with no loose ends, which made watching the whole thing more satisfying. Even the title is explained, which was a nice touch.

Overall, this is a great addition to the pantheon of guy-falls-for-girl-pretending-to-be-a-guy dramas. Lovers of historical romantic dramas should definitely watch. Romance fans should make sure they are ready to watch something that isn't lighthearted. I also think it's a great vehicle for some impressive young talent. I look forward to seeing what's next for them.

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