Review – Scarlet Heart Ryeo

Scarlet Heart Ryeo… can we just give you an award for having one of the sexiest ensemble casts in history? I mean… good Lord… that’s a lot of handsome devils in one show.

I don’t want to over-review this drama because it’s better to just watch it unfold. So I’m gonna keep this short. Well… short for me.

The first 8-10 episodes of this show were solid.

They were sweepingly romantic, filled with tense political intrigue, familial love and hate, and suppressed emotions. All the sexy brothers and in-house fighting. All the playing and flirting! The love triangles! The rescues! The bickering and jealousy and shenanigans! I loved it so much.

But Do Not Be Fooled! These gorgeous achingly beautiful people and their full hearts are only bait to lure you in to one of the most tragic, depressing dramas of all time!

Moon Lovers is a romantic dream… until it gets serious… and bloody… and depressing as hell… as will happen when you base your drama on the sons of King Taejo, founder of Goryeo. But strap in – cause as far as melodramas go, this is top tier. Death by a thousand cuts! You will bleed out slowly as this drama consumes you body and soul.

No one is going to have a good time. NO ONE. It’s brutal.

This show has some of the best villains, which are really essential to a good melodrama. Just… cruel people. Some are genuinely evil, but most of them have very human motivations for the things they do. Jealousy. Being misguided by the people they trust most. Familial devotion. The best villains are the ones that kinda make your heart break, after all.

Behind the scenes footage of our villain (in orange) played by Hong Jong Hyun, who can seduce me to the dark side any time he wants to.

Anyways, it’ll end in tears. Your tears, specifically. You have been warned.

Though it’s a time travel story, you’d never really know it. The female lead, our time traveler from the future, doesn’t do much other than start out a little hellion rule breaker and before she slowly, sadly, adjusts to the past and all the impossible restrictions and repressions it affords its people, especially of the female gender. The modern woman was literally beaten out of her, as she went from defiant and interesting to suspicious and fearful.

Honestly, I suppose that’s realistic. Goryeo is not exactly on the top of the list for a modern time traveler, even one lucky enough to jump into the life of a privileged person living comfortably in the palace. 

I really like Lee Joon-Gi. His anime boy bangs in this show were really working for him, too.

Lee Joon-Gi career is almost all wins. He has a cute devious smile and gives us some of the firmer K-Drama kisses on the market. He was well-cast as the tormented 4th prince destined to ascend to the throne via murder and betrayals. Other than Yoo Ah In from Six Flying Dragons, I’d say he’s one of the best portrayals of the fourth son of King Taejo. Plus he just looks sexy as hell in all black. 

Lee Ji-Eun was unknown to me before this show, but delivered a convincingly cute duck out of water, with her beautiful face and her beauty industry skills. Then she basically just had to look sad and miserable most of the show, which she delivered on. But damn, I missed the plucky gal from the start of the show so much… it was Empress Ki all over again.

Confession Time: I did not like this drama the first time I watched it. I know, right?

But it’s one of those shows that kept calling me back… and I liked it more and more every time I watched it. I think the more K-Dramas I watched, the more I realized I had a unquenchable craving for melodramas… and tend to repeatedly watch any story that is soaked in tears and blood.

This is me. 😉

Now, it’s safe to say Scarlet Heart Ryeo is one of my favorites.

Overall Rating 9/10.