Moon Embracing the Sun (Korean Drama 2012)


Drama Rating: 9/10


Heo Yeon Woo belongs to a noble family and is a daughter of a high-ranking official. For the first time at the age of thirteen, she was able to enter the palace when she attended her older brother’s civil service examination congratulatory ceremony. Coincidentally, she meets Crown Prince Lee Hwon during the event and they get in all kinds of mishaps. Eventually the two of them falls in love and by chance, Yeon Woo was also chosen as the Crown Princess as she was seen to be fit for the Crown Prince.

KYJ_1Prior to getting married, wicked intents were being plotted against the Yeon Woo since the Queen Dowager wanted the Crown Prince to marry someone from her own family clan to be able to secure her power within the palace. Thus she orders a shaman to cast a spell that can kill Yeon Woo from an unknown illness. Fortunately, the shaman tried to save Yeon Woo from an eminent and was able to bring her back to life, but with dire consequences. Yeon Woo was able to come back to life but she had lost all her memories thus she was given a new identity, she became a shaman named Wol.

After eight years, Wol shows up in the palace shocking Prince Lee Hwon as she brings back all the precious memories of his lost love. To his curiosity, he started investigating what exactly happened to Yeon Woo and who Wol is and where she came from. Not knowing that he was racing against time because there were conspiracies within the palace walls which was set to bring down the royal family. 

This series is a fantasy-sageuk fusion with lots of drama, intrigue, secrecy, sorcery and a mix of law defying love story. In short it has all the elements a proper kdrama should have and would definitely suit both the young and the old. What made this drama appealing is the fact that the premise is a love story between two young children who grew up still in love with each other regardless of the hardships they have gone through. Even though politics brought them apart, their love was still able to surpass all odds. It defied the malicious intents of the people around, prophecy made by shamans and yes… even death.

Man… I don’t know what the writer had taken while writing the story plot, but everything the two main lead went through was quite unimaginable specially during the Joseon era. Though there were still quite a few loopholes, they are still forgivable since there is nothing such as a perfect story in drama land.

The characters in this drama were never wasted. Not even the supporting roles. Each of them had vital reasons to be on screen because you never know that this person may be the reason why both main leads were able to survive.

Music wise, it was a memorable one for me. It had this old and modern type of background tune which makes the scenes more cute, emotional, dangerous, eerie and memorable. I am definitely recommending this drama no matter what their genre preference is and I will also re-watch this in the when all the new sageuk dramas have failed my expectations.