Bameul geotneun seonbi

The poorly written prologue wasn't a good sign going into this drama. The leads didn't develop their relationship naturally, most of what we got to signify their romance was long dreamy stares. That's pure lazy writing. This what their romance was based off which made it hard to care about their romance, let alone their unmatched chemistry. If we were to ignore the romance, then we are left with the vampires which were equally lacking. The pacing of the storyline seemed uneven, resulting in moments of sluggishness followed by rushed progress. The bad guy barely showed up in the first half. Although I didn't expect much but the ending was just too boring.

This show does every thing a little better than the normal costume k-drama. The essential revenge-plot while obvious, holds suspense throughout thanks to a truly magical villain and title character. If you like a supernatural drama, it does not get better. This thanks to a production that holds a loving attention to detail that simply does not occur in increasingly vapid western vampire dramas. The melodrama is strong and unabashed and truly gothic, even though dressed as it is in delicious hanbok. The music is very strong and underscores the drama perfectly throughout. A little too weak/innocent/optimistic female lead is perhaps the only tiny scratch in the otherwise perfect show but there are other female characters that are deeper and more interesting so in the end it's all so very satisfying and a true feast for the eyes, ears and feels. A true sign of its quality is that it is equally delectable on second viewing. (Normally one is quite worn out by the slow build and obvious feel-stalling of a k-drama by the time it ends...) When it ended I immediately started over.

Had I rated before the tenth episode, it would have been a 5, maybe 6. The acting above all felt shallow and lame. The male lead, whose character is supposed to live in hell, perpetually torn between his human heart and his vampire instinct, could not convey those affects. Gwi was so handsome I wanted to die (or get bitten), but his face was still, expressionless, a pity. He could, should, have been sexier, naughtier, mightier. The staging didn't help either. It felt fake and cheap. In a vampire story everything else has to look real so we can believe that vampires exist, at least whilst watching.

Then came the tenth episode. For some reason, almost everything improved. Or I just got used to it? Anyhow, I started to really enjoy the show. There was a scene (can't remember the episode) with a young girl hurrying over to help the fallen scholar. Tears gushed out. After that, I got seriously hooked. It was like a spell, with the beautiful song "Love You Again" highlighting" the romance.

The ending was moving too. I like that Gwi, even though he didn't have a human heart, knew what it meant to be a decent human. And I felt for him. Basically, he is the main reason why I managed to bear until episode 10.

So, if you can see this as a fairytale and not pour too much expectations in it, you may like it, even love it.

I got the feeling the writer was fired around episode 12 of this mess as suddenly the writing improved so much. Prior to this every episode was nothing but the horrendously bad *dressed as a boy* female lead and her unconvincing romance with Lee Joon Gi. The plot was a mess and I thought I would go mad if they mentioned the 'Lustful Student' one more time. The plot was something to do with finding the way to destroy Gwi, the world's sexiest babe vampire, played by Lee Soo Hyuk.

Lee spends his time in a dank cave wearing sexy open robes and showing his chest. His presence is so mind numbingly sexual I can't really find the words. I think the programme makers knew this and yet decided to make his play second fiddle to Lee Joon Gi's Rudolf Valentino routine as the 'good vampire'.

The last few episodes are a massive improvement so I suggest fast forwarding a lot of the early stuff and getting to the nitty gritty after around episode 11.

Why or why couldn't Lee SH have gone to the US and introduced his extreme appeal onto a western audience? One of life's crimes.

Great plot series if you are fond of Vampire style dramas.

Love, kindness, humanity, action together with evil and intrigues.

I admired the AMAZING acting of Lee Joon Gi! His face expressions were one of a kind! He managed to move even little face muscles in order to give an intense and appealing emotion! Very Well Done!!!

Great acting also by the woman lead, the prince-king and an exceptional acting by Lee Soo-hyuk, the evil vampire!

All of them were fantastic!

I liked it very much!