Hit KBS drama Moonlight Drawn By Clouds wrapped up this Tuesday with the final episode 18, netting over 22% ratings for it’s fond farewell as fans bid adieu to cutie pies Park Bo Gum and Kim Yoo Jung. They really are supremely adorable in and out of character for this drama, a pairing perfectly sourced by casting agents and delivered 100% viewer satisfaction. I can’t say the drama would have even kept me interested for this long if it wasn’t for them, but as far as sageuk pathos goes Moonlight had just enough to be substantive. The ending felt rushed and perhaps too sad for certain characters and too easy solution happy for others. Overall it’s a solid win for me all around, like an affable high school student who is good at many subjects but doesn’t excel in a memorable way in any particular one. But still good enough to be winning in an environment with less than stellar competition.
Loved this drama despite its flaws. Even its flaws were forgivable given all its other attributes, especially the great cast. I didn’t notice Park Bogum before when I watched I Remember You but with this role, he became someone I will ardently support and follow. And Kim Yoo Jung… what can I say about this girl? She’s so young but her future looks blindingly bright.
The ending was a little disappointing for me. The biggest charms of this drama came in the sweet, happy interactions between characters and the last few episodes were just so political and depressing.
That being said, I think this definitely deserved the praise and high ratings. OST was awesome and the characters were great 🙂 I wish Kim Yoo Jung’s character had had more opportunities to shine beyond the vast majority of the time when she stared at someone and teared up.
On the other hand, Park Bo Gum is going to be everywhere for the next few months – he took the Crown Prince role and rocked it. Doesn’t hurt that he’s so freaking adorable. Blossom Entertainment is having a good year.
I love this drama to pieces. I agree the 2nd half of the drama is a little disappointing. I love the 1st half with the funny interactions, bromance. I wish instead of political issues in royal family, they would show more like solving cases together. the PM issues got dragged too long.
Park Bo Gum.. what can I say.. I’m in luvvvv. This drama deserves high ratings for the chemistry, and the team is doing such great jobs.
Why was everyone okay with a 17 year old being romantically paired with a 23 year old ?
Uhh…what’s wrong with the age-gap? It’s only 6 years?
That aside, it was such a waste that the comedy from the first few episodes disapeared after she got to know his identity. That was the true gem of this drama.
Yoo Jung nailed her role except for the big wide eyed expression in every sad dramatic scene. This is something she has to work on.
Park Bo Gum? No words, he is just the BEST out of the Best.
Yeah it’s okay if yoojung 20 yo and bogum 26 yo.
yoojung still under age doing lovey dovey and ppl just calm about it lol.
17 is underage
because they’re acting, and not actually romantically paired in real life? And there seems to have been an effort made to keep things relatively chaste out of respect for her age.
As far as acting goes though, I find 16-year-old Kim So-hyun being paired with 27-year-old Taecyeon far more repugnant, because he is and looks so much older than her.
How can you find one repugnant and not the other ?
i find both iffy
so it is okay if a 10 year old is paired with an 18 year old as long as they are acting right?
because that is the logic you are using
17 being underrage is an arbitrary number based on nothing more than government whim. I was in college at 17. I had done lots of dating and was very mature. Plus this is just acting! Not real.
as long as you aware that some sexually transmitted infections can also be transmitted via saliva, then good for you
(#Mai)
Yes people are aware of that, but what has that got to do with being 17?
This is still underage by law. No matter the philosophy
So spiteful. No wonder nobody wants to comment on your posts. It doesn’t pay to be so mean spirited.
Compete against Moon Lover so understand her she might not feel too good about it too.
For this drama here I think I liked the second female character more than the lead one. PBG stole the show
The character Ra On was 18 years old and given that it was a historical drama (albeit loosely) the age is very appropriate for a relationship and marriage. The characters only kissed as far as I could tell.
I think most 17 year olds (around the world) have locked lips a few times.
It was a sweet drama and I enjoyed the OTP’s chemistry.
All fans of this drama are okay for an underage teenage girl to be kissing an adult man in a drama??? What’s next for kdramas. A bed scene? This is sending bad signals. Let’s hope this is not going to be the new trend.
lets hope. I couldn’t finish this drama because that irked me
Since the mortality rate was so young back in ancient times, people got together, married, whatever you want to call it much earlier than what we do these days. Ever hear of child brides? Girls were having sex and babies in their early teens. They could also be married off to someone older than their fathers.
Sorry to sound rude but, I will never understand this mindset. This is a drama, not real life.
I don’t care about history of child brides. I know it happens. It still happens in some countries. But a big TV network such as MBC should be more responsible then broadcast a 17 year old girl kiss a grown adult man. There are many things teenagers do nowadays but does that mean it should be on prime-time TV???
@Abc. it’s KBS, not MBC.
Yes. I am OK with it. It is a drama. They are actors. It is a job.
maybe they should pair a 9 year old with a 30 year old since it is just a drama and that was what occurred back in the day
I keep thinking the PD etc are bordering on paedophiles
Yes, apologies it’s KBS which makes it worse because they have a wider broadcast audience worldwide.
why? because it turns you on so much? rofls
Just my opinion . I let it go after ep 12. Not because of actors but i lost interest. I ‘m happy for PGB that i loved in Remember you last year. As kyj she is a good actress but she doesn’t have the looks that allows her to play a male . Ella Chen, Yoon eun Hye still being models in this area. I ‘m not mean , i’m just saying Beauty can be sometimes a flaw for a type of roles.
I think for KYJ role it was a little different than other coz even though her character is dressing up and living as a guy but from the web novel she supposed to look beautiful even as a guy
agree with you @jenny. it’s just that KYJ said that she took YEH as a model for working in her role as a woman dressing up as a guy.
While I get the argument that she’s underage and he’s a legal adult, the reason I don’t care in this case is because 1) it’s a drama and 2) practically, their age difference isn’t a big deal.
She’s 17. She’s not 10 and she’s not 12. She’s on the brink of adulthood.
He’s 23. He’s not 35 and he’s not 40. He’s also very much a young adult.
This is very much a believable relationship and age gap, especially in the context of age differences in historical relationships. If you’re that bothered by the fact that she’s not technically an adult because the system arbitrarily decided that 18 was the official age of adulthood, then I’m not sure what to say.
Also, again: this is a drama.
“this is a drama”
is a very flawed arguement because the kiss scenes were real and shower scene was real.
I beg your pardon, but a 9 yr. old and 30 yr. old? This is a stretch. A big stretch.
Come on now.
she is still underage people!. its really surprised me how many of you are able to accept this. If you have daughter you probably will understand better.even-though it is acting but like clinton said its real and show to the world it’s okay to get smooching at 17 and the girl in the drama does not look like she is 17, more like 14 or 15 to me….. I have seen many teenagers got pregnant at young age because they have seen so much bad example on TV. I am sure they started of with kissing then later sexual intercourse. I’ve treated one pregnant teenager who tried to abort the baby at 3 months of pregnancy ended up with massive bleeding and almost died and I blamed that due to too much exposure on TV and internet nowadays. sigh
People need to calm down.
Teens have always been getting pregnant because there is a conflict between their biological development and societal norms for when people are ready for a relationship. Nothing to do with TV and Internet.
Though K-dramas may be creating unrealistic expectations of romance in adult women if some comments are to be believed:)
Anyway a good number of 15-17 year olds are intelligent and are hardly like to rush out after watching MDBC and kiss a guy and then somehow progress to pregnancy. Plus a drama sends out all kinds of messages – for many teens it may well be how much KYJ has achieved at her age.
Lastly if commenters are American, that culture seems to have dramas where kids and high schoolers kiss. And these commenters often seem to impose their own cultural norms, be it the kind of age gap they want to see or the lack of proper kisses in K-dramas. There is no pleasing them to the point you wonder why they even bother to watch these dramas.
Forgot to add, I can’t change history. No one can. It happened and it’s still happening today in some areas of the world. It’s only a drama.
u said you cannot change a history. no one can- yes you cannot change history I agree but when you said no one can it happened and still happening then you are wrong. if you/broadcast can avoid showing a kissing scene on teenager or at least give us an idea that’s it is not a good idea to kiss when you are an underage and this act has prevented 1 teenage pregnancy died of complication, it worth a try. of course u can’t change the world because at least you can always start with a small step. probably in western condom and pills are easily accessible but in asia where I live, we do not have all these contraception nearby and we dont even sex education to teach teenagers.many of you will argue it is just a kiss not sex but think again how it can lead you to. I have just visited soompi forum it’s already had KYJ and PBG couple forum so much for ITS ONLY A DRAMA .
sorry for some typo error
Who follows what TV shows is stupid, especially a historical drama. 17 is college age!! Not a child.
Some people just love trolling posts like this. They don’t comment on anything significant (quality of script, cinematography, etc) and they just hone in on one minor detail and go at it with all their might just to sound legit. ?
Anyway, I really like this show because it’s like a ray of light in an otherwise dreary and cloudy weather. PBG is the bomb. I liked him in the Answer me series because he just nailed his “special/genius” character there, but for this show he just went up another notch on his acting. I can also see why KYJ is considered one of the most talented actress of her generation. But it is true that her wide eyed look for most of the sad scenes looks weird. The cinematography is ❤️. Reminds me of QIM and MTETS. Kudos to the director and team for perfectly bringing the source material to life!
Haha yeah I binged the whole show in the past 3 days so I want to talk about what I liked/disliked, but ended up getting caught up in this age gap discussion :/
I wish KYJ’s character got more chances to be playful/happy in the last few episodes. Those made the show far more enjoyable – without those, it just felt like there were a lot of scenes (for everybody) where people were staring at each other and almost crying.
Like you said, PBG was amazing – kinda stole the show for me. He was charismatic, charming, a bad ass, etc. I was determined not to be a huge fangirl since so many people are already so obsessed with him, but I failed utterly and now I want to be his best friend.
Let’s face reality ! a lot of minors date everyday “adults” . 17 years vs 23 years is not a big deal. It’s just the way you behave when you date that matters ! In old times , it was very common ! and it’s a drama. But i respect every point of view.
Is it just me or is this drama just a young copycat of Moon embracing the sun ? The plot, the dialogue. Like PBG boy, anyway.
I was reading in Wiki and it says that KYJ is 20yrs old. So to me that is not under age, for drinking yes, but for some sweet kissing no.^.^
she is 17
No idea where you got that info from, but KYJ was born in 1999 i.e. 17 years old this year
I completely understand why some people find the age difference between the main actor and actress bothersome. I get it. But I would argue that the legal age of “adulthood” is completely arbitrary. What is the biological distinction between a 15 vs. 16 vs. 17 vs. 18 year old girl? Yes, in general, as you get older you become more emotionally mature, but not everyone hits the emotional milestones at the same age. I watched this drama from beginning to end. And personally, to pull off some of the scenes that KYJ did, this young lady has loads of emotional depth and maturity. Secondly, the argument that a pairing 17-year old girl with a 23-year old boy is somehow similar to pairing a 10 year old girl with a 23-year old man is completely flawed. A 17 year old girl is biologically a woman, even if emotionally young. A 10-year old girl is barely a teenager. If KYJ and her parents decide that she’s mature enough to handle this role, and clearly she’s the talent to pull it off convincingly, then can we with hold our righteous judgments for a bit and appreciate her talent and wish her the best? She locked lips with an actor, under the direction of a professional directorial crew. She didn’t commit a crime. She seems to be well-loved by everyone. I’m a mother and I would definitely struggle with the decision to let my young daughter take on this role, but on the other hand, I would hope to be the type of mother who truly understands her daughter’s talent, trust her, and be able to help guide her towards the greatest success she is capable of.
With your argument some 12 years olds are already adults also. I have to disagree with your comment. KYJ looks like an underage girl and her actual age is below adult age. I never said KYJ committed a crime, it is the thought of what signals is this drama sending out. What’s next? If there is no difference between a 15 year old and 17 year old, will MBC or the PD try to use a 15 year old girl next as their female lead and show a kiss scene? Its irresponsible attitude from them.
sorry, meant KBS and not MBC.
In Korean age, she is 18 years old. At least she wasn’t kissing a 40 year old man.
“Overall its a solid win for me all around, like an affable high school student who is good in many subjects but doesn’t excel in a memorable way in any particular one.” I’ve seen this blog for years to actually know when the koala is being partial and is dishing out backhanded compliment. Yes, this show wasn’t ground breaking but it excelled in selling human stories amidst a Saguek setup and had some excellent political and nuanced emotional moments which where well acted. I know your bias isn’t winning any brownie points with the Korean viewers a weakly made drama with editing, writing issues and he solely does the heavy lifting but don’t drag Moonlight down just because its good and the other one is pretty average and at times downright messed up affair. Forgettable, Moonlight, really! These crew had nothing going on for them, no buzz, no stellar pre-production, they worked hard and drew audience based on their performance. The whole crew worked hard. It certainly cannot be called a forgettable affair. Be happy that its over, now the other show might just get some audience who won’t have their beloved to show to watch every week unless Soo Ae does her magic trick again.
Woman with a Suitcase has higher ratings than ML right now so that’s there. Blog opinions are usually personal. And while fan feedback may be monitored ultimately domestic ratings and critical buzz is all that matters. So I wouldn’t lose sleep over opinions here.
Ikr! I’ve read this blog on and off for quite a while too, and can definitely sense the lack of sincerity in that comment lol
Almost everything about her bias show lacks in comparison to Moonlight, in my opinion. Also it really puzzles me when people compare the two shows and call Moonlight “cute fluff” and Moon Lovers “heavy and deep” as if that makes the latter a better show. Oh well, different strokes, different folks, etc.
The amount of reach in your comment is hilarious.
Koala said she thought the drama was good but she didn’t love LOVE it. Which is fine, I’m sure there are shows everyone can think of that they objectively enjoyed but didn’t think it was THE crack. She is as much entitled to her opinion as you are to yours.
And above all, I am totally puzzled by you want Koala’s writing to be objective/impartial. This is a blog. Where she posts her opinions on shows. Her writing is intended to be partial, period, because it’s her opinion.
P.S. If ‘overall it’s a solid win for me all around’ sounds like a drag to you….. I don’t even know what to say other than this: you must be new on the Internet.
Mind your language. I expressed what I felt after reading the post. I have read this blog long enough to know what means what?? This blog can always disable the comment feature if it cannot take difference in opinion. Stop trying to school me on internet darling, you’re the one getting personal.
Moonlight fangirls/boys please don’t get bitter. if koala wanted to diss your beloved drama, its her call. you have no right to say she should not, this is her blog. probably you should start your creating own blog to singing praise your beloved drama moonlight. korean taste is different from international all i can seen is moonlover is winning internationally. Just look at dramabeans and other international site. At this moment PBG is probably everywhere in korea but once the legends of the blue sea start airing, people will forget about him.I am no LJK fan and I don’t watch moonlover or moonlight but some moonlight fans are simply irritating. if u don’t like this site and how the articles were written why do u keep coming back.
We get that this is Koala’s blog. But if she feels free to ‘diss’ a drama on her bog, then fans of the drama should also feel fee to react to it.
What do you think the comment section is for dude???
dude u can comment anything on the drama but making personal attack on koala is a bit uncalled for. if you hate how she dislike the drama then please defend the drama but don’t making personal attack.
I don’t know, I think it’s rather ironic that you mention dramabeans as evidence of ML “winning” internationally. Do you mean the comment count? Because when a lot of the comments are critical of the drama in its own thread, I don’t think that’s something to be proud of. As a dedicated beanie, from what I’ve seen, I believe that most people there who love Moon Lovers talk about how addictive it is, but admit that its quality is not great.
Or perhaps you mean Soompi? Because if you’re judging “winning” based on comment count, look again.
Also, nowhere in any “Moonlight fangirls/boys”‘ comments was there anyone saying that Koala should not “diss” their “beloved drama”. I 100% agree that she should write whatever she wants. What I felt a bit iffy about was that it seemed (to ME) like she was just appeasing the so-called “fanboys/girls” and not being completely sincere with her comments.
just go to many online streaming u can see the view counts are much better. duh!
This winning internationally baffles me. People who aren’t native to Korea, watch Moonlight too. Sure, China hasn’t aired it yet but we’ll see what happens when it does. People talk as if no International audience watches Moonlight. That’s so not true. It has appeal internationally just as much as it has domestically. So forget others show, tell me what does this two fold popularity mean, can it still be labeled forgettable casually. If anything the other one will be soon forgotten and trust me for the veteran involved in that project the sooner he can move on from this mess the better.
LJK is eager to leave this mess… all of this hype for that???? Hahahaha. I like LJK but his agency needs to wake the f.cking up.
Besides view counts, “the winning internationally” was actually published in SEA countries’ newspapers.
China is already airing Moonlight.
Soompi’s comment count ~ the fans set a target of 1500 pages which they will be achieving very soon.
Imo, the difference between Moon Lovers and Moonlight is that MLSHR is flawed but addictive whereas MDBC is almost flawless but not as addictive. Don’t understand why though, it’s just how I feel when watching the dramas.
The 4th comment can be considered as personal attack on Koala and your own comment about lack of sincerity too.
At least PBG is basically better than nostrils-acting lmh. Gosh each time I search for CH original anime/story online I get pics of his nostrils first Ewww! Forever ruined a classic
Why are you dissing LMH? PBG has a lot to learn from him. For starters, don’t do a commercial that will offend China (where you might want to earn money in the future). Unless, your baby is so happy earning SK won only for the rest of his life.
@sirey you are a troll lmh has nothing to do with pbg or moonlight but yet you had to abuse his nose..in case you forgot that drama was a huge hit and it one of the drama that started hallyu in China… That guy did nothing to you but yet you abuse him you are really a troll
@abc… LMH needs to learn acting from PBG, though… LMH is a flower boy. Pretty, but his acting has never been better than mediocre.
Nosiry acting…wow you are a piece of shit
Legal age in my country is 16 tho. And you still can get married if you’re younger than that as long as your guardian approved it.
@ yyp haters learn acting from pbg really? You are pathetic believe me
Do I have to agree with Abc’s statement that “PBG needs to learn a lot from LMH”? What to learn from LMH? Learn to be pretty? Hahah…
At least you have admit he is famous for his pretty face…not for his acting skill!
why age difference is so much trouble??
do they have sex there and glorified the acted of liking young girl,
the drama is teens saeguk between 18-19 years old character portrayed by 17-23 years old actress that as far only kiss each other
people act like the love itself is a ban and it creepy for 23 y/old man to kiss 17 y/old female, 23 is young and 17 is old enough to kiss, people who think that it’s inappropriate is what irk me
so 23 is equal to 40 now?? so every one that above minor age couldn’t act with minor or touch a 17 y/old
sigh
can’t nitpicking the story and bring the only thing they knew about,
I only ask a question. Do you guys think it’s ok for a girl of age 18 years and 1 day to kiss a grown-up man but not ok if she’s one day shy from 18-year-old birthday, assuming the legal age is 18? I’m just imaging how ppl are gonna argue about that. LOL