A Lua Abraça o Sol

The younger cast had 6 episodes and really built a solid base for the drama. Their acting range were far superior to all the adults, except Kim Soohyun that reprises their roles.

The female lead was like a card board cutout that utters only the dialogues. She had just one emotion: Act Surprised!

There was no chemistry between her and the male lead. And their love story felt flat. The only saving grace was the Lee Hwon character, which was greatly built up by Yeo Jingoo and successfully continued by Kim Soohyun. The character is absolutely iconic! Props to the actors and the writers.

The story was sweet too (if not for the female lead for ruining it for me). I loved the comedy between the King and his servant, as well as the bromance between the brothers.

This is a solid drama. And would have been a masterpiece had they casted an actress who can actually act.

sure, a fairy tale. a Korean one, with the entire flavor of spices and scents and beauty and bitter joy. with slices of drama in brilliant clothes. with delicate romanticism and links between so different worlds. but, in same measure, chronicle of a fight. for love. and for self definition. the young king looking the right manner to solve the crisis. the young woman looking be herself and, in same measure, the good answer to the challenges around her. so, a film who preserves many ingredients from the historical films from South Korea cinema. but , in same measure, who remains special. for its delicate and precise use of poetry

Who the hell decided to cast Han Ga-In as a grown-up Kim Yoo-Jung ? It was a terrible mistake and totally destroyed the show! With all due respect to her, she looks nothing like Kim Yoo-Jung and frankly her acting was mediocre at best. Funny thing is, Nam Bo-Ra would have been so much better for this role as one could easily believe thats a grown up Kim Yoo-Jung. Han Ga-In would have suited much better as a grown-up Joon Bo-gyeong.

It was a great storyline but the bad casting spoiled the show for me. I still gave it 6 because of Kim Yoo-jung in first 8 episodes and wonderful performance by Kim Soo-Hyun as the King in remaining episodes.

* So heart wrenchingly emotionally charged. What great actors. So much crying and beautiful poetic language. I'm reading the subtitles. I tell myself that I'm going to stop watching these Kdramas but I can't help myself. Once I have a little peek I have to go all the way. Day and night and day and night I'm glued to my computer no breaks and hardly any food.. Laughing and crying. I tell myself over and over this time I'm not going to cry I'm going to harden up. Next thing tears rolling down my cheeks and I tell you this one was one of the best or worst. Which ever way you look at it. At least the ending was pretty happy apart from one of the best characters dying the kings brother who loved the king wife. The story is a fantasy historical so the authors were able to make the end a bit happy not like those historicals based on fact. You know that they are going to die in the end because that's a fact of life we all going to die in the end. I flick quickly pass the torture scenes but I love the sword fights and the kungfu fighting. Romantic scenes more up to your imagination. Least the kissing is better in this drama but most of these dramas kissing is just lip pressing bit amusing really.

If you love melodramas and period dramas, then you can not miss this one. This drama has it all, a strong love story, intense mystery, nice background story and politics. I loved that they kept the interest high throughout the twenty episodes, though some dramas tend to overdo it and spread the story so it can last for that long. The flawless acting helped in this case as well, though the leading lady was kind of emotionless at some points. Another thing that kind of stood out for me was that the moving from the past characters to the adult ones was a bit of a bumpy ride, but I can overlook that one, judging this drama as a whole.