K-Bu Bu Jing Xin Takes the Mon-Tues Ratings Lead After Moonlight Drawn by Clouds Ends

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• Now I finally figured out why SBS pre-empted last week's Monday slot so that they can capitalized from the wrapping up of MDBC. I love Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart and am surprised that it managed to take over the ratings lead since I was expecting that from Woman With Suitcase. Still hoping it will continue to lead the ratings until it wrap up next week. But episode 17 is horrible and this is the consequences from dragging on the Haesoo-Wook romance sage up to episode 12 and compressed the throne saga with the succession of 2 kings prior to 4th Prince into less than 10 episodes. Yes, the plot is moving super fast, with no background motive, things happening off screen and for someone who love this drama to the core, I felt abused being forced to swallow whatever crap they came up with because of the rush. Even the powerhouse acting of my beloved Lee Jun Ki could not save this episode. And my darling LJK, please eat. He is so painfully skinny that if I were IU, I would be scared to hug him cause he may break anytime. He have loss that muchness despite still being painfully handsome.

  • Haha please eat! Now that he is king, he'd be too afraid of being poisoned to eat!

  • Yes, I think we are all feeling that this should have been 24 episodes more now than ever. I don't even have an issue with the time jumps but in this episode, Wang So's character is evolving so quickly...but it is what it is. I actually think Koala has the right idea to finish it up in one sitting, but I don't think I have the will power.

    I also agree that LJG needs to gain some of his weight back.

    On another site, someone mentioned that the writer's original script of this drama had the story of the first 10 episodes basically in the first 5 episodes. Allegedly the PD had the writer re-write and expand on the Soo/Wook story line because he decided Kang Ha Neul was the best thing ever and wanted to showcase his talent. This is gossip that I took with a grain of salt, but I have to admit when you start seeing all the cut scenes on You Tube of So/Soo, a person begins to wonder.

    • PS: Not hating on KHN here. He's great and hope he has much success. It's just ironic if true because the whole reason LJK took this role is to work with the PD.

    • Ya. I have read about that somewhere and I think it's kinda true, judging from the comments the PD made regarding the 3 leads, saving the best praises for Kang Ha Neul and IU. And Lee Jun Ki himself did mentioned that they had so much leisure time during the beginning of the filming due to inexperience of the production team and later on rushing to meet the dateline which evidently, we could see out of the end product. I feel bad for LJK, not only that he had high regard on the PD which became his main reason for taking on this role but he was asked to shed of 30lb only for the PD to mess up the drama.

  • Actually, last Monday's episode really was pre-empted because the baseball game ended late. It was announced upfront that the episode would be aired only if the baseball game ended by 9.30pm KST as SBS will air the news after that. The game ended around 10.10pm.

• this drama is approaching 2 billions views on youku but UF actually was doing better at the similar rate/episode. congrats to UF for 3.7++ billion views which is as good as 'you came from the star'

  • I don't generally pay all that much attention to Chinese views, but I think MLFAS got double digit billion views because that drama was on multiple platforms not just YouKu.

    • MLFAS is only shown on iQIYI. It's a fact

    • Whatever it was shown on, it got double digit billion views.

    • MLFAS got 32.7 billion views on Iqiyi, not 3.+ billion.

• That's good news!
  I hope the rating gets better on the coming episodes.
  I am one of those who are fully addicted on the drama from the beginning.
  Watching it gives me a glimpse of korean history & it is quite interesting.

• Episode 17 dramafever version is horrible, the SBS version is better. Not perfect but still better. I feel like they rushed a bit to crown Gwangjong, but LJK was great as always.

  At least Moon Lovers got to be first in the ratings once, even if they lose the #1 spot when episode 18 airs.

• I'm so happy!! hope the rating keep in increasing!!! :)

• Personaly, I watch this drama only for KHN, he's so great in. I like IU and LJK but their characters are a little bit boring.

• I watched this fully prepared for a sad ending. But the writers were doing a good job of twisting bits here and there to keep me wondering if I'd end up in a hot mess of tears. But the tone of this week's episodes, tragic in so many ways, tells me not to get my hopes up. Dang it. I can't wait for the writer to deliver them the handsome kick back to the modern world. Preferably sometime this century.

• Its not a win yet. KBS is lagging by merely 0.8% if Tuesday can't gain back some more viewers that left after Moonlight instead Soo Ae's show gains again, it would be back to square one for Moonlovers. They aren't fully out of the danger zone yet and it hardly matters considering even Goodbye Mr. Black gained after DOTS ended.

  • The posting by Koala mentioned the same too. But it's still a good news to those who love the drama especially that it does not deserved to be that so low rated. ML nowhere near perfect but nowhere near that bad either. The storyline is solid except the execution is failing. The rating lead came as a surprise since Women With Suitcase packed on more rating than ML since its debut. But things can change and as fan of this drama, we have pretty much settled with whatever the rating is.

  • Don't expect it to win in view that the drama's almost over, and viewers are unlikely to start watching at this late stage. Generally, TV viewers will go for the new show or one which is still in the early stages, since it's easier for them to catch up by watching the rebroadcast in the morning or weekends.

    Considering the genre, Moonlight fans will prefer Soo Ae's show which is also a rom-com. Understand that Woman with a suitcase was pre-empted, so its viewers will also go to Soo Ae's show too, since they preferred not to watch historicals, whether Moonlight or Scarlet Heart.

    As a fan, we're just happy that the ratings have improved back to 8%-9%, and will be overjoyed if the ratings can break 10%.

    But anyway, thanks for raining on the parade.

• I am glad. Only wish the drama could have been as loved as I love it from the beginning.
  I think you're right to marathon the end, Koala, having just watched episode 18 which gave a heavenly 6 minutes until everything went to pieces especially knowing it continues to do so for the last episodes based on the source material. They had so many differences from the original I was hoping they'd forget about breaking my heart as it all ends. I'll stick with it but so far, just like BBJX, I can tell it's going to break me once more. Probably worse because LJK has made me care so deeply for Wang So, just as I did for Ruoxi.

• Reading the comments, I'm surprised to know that the PD was the main reason for LJK to work on this remake. Ironically, I think the PD was the main reason why the drama failed so miserably on domestic ratings, and then came the #2 culprit of sloppy editing squad even though I'm getting used to all the ludicrous close-up by simply moving my laptop one more foot away me. LOL. The Kpop idol's immature acting made the crime even worse. I hope SM entertainment isn't pressuring all the TV channels and production companies to give their top idols individual schedules b/c IT boys BTS appears to erode their popularity and very soon will knock them down. Don't act! Just keep improving your lip syncing skills. LOL

  • away *from me....

  • Can't blame LJK on why he wanted to work with PD Kim Kyu Tae. He had quite an impressive record with TWTWB and IRIS under his belt, even ever won Baeksang Best Director. With the big budget and in the hands of an acclaimed PD, no one would expect he would be the one doing the most mess and add up some more by hiring bunch of drunk monkeys to do the editing. But at the same time, he never did a saeguk but who knows he could be this really bad despite the inexperience.

    • "....bunch of drunk monkeys" Ha Ha Ha Ha. I want to find out how far behind they were to do such a poor job on some of the episodes. I imagine them completing episode twenty 5 minutes before they had to have it shipped to the Chinese censors to air at the appropriate time.

    • @Kat, I also think they ran out of time. They only finished filming towards the end of July (they were supposed to finish in June), and with a airing date of end-August, in reality they didn't have one month to do the post-production because they had to send the finished product to the Chinese censors at least a few weeks earlier, say end-July or beginning August.

      Because of location shooting, the scenes are not filmed in sequential or episode order for pre-produced dramas, unlike live shooting, so the editing team probably had a tougher time to put scenes together from all over.

      Ultimately, it all boiled down to inexperience and lack of time.

    • @Febe
      The last day of filming was on 1st July if according to LJK's IG. I read somewhere that the earlier script was leaked, so they wasted some times to rewrite and then came the issue with the PD wanting to give more screentime to KHN so that he could ride the Hallyu wave and the script again allegedly written to suit that requirement. And then they greedily bring forward the broadcast from September to August which further giving them the constraint of time with editing. As @Alexa commented earlier, LJK himself admitted of the rush towards the end. Even Jin Ki Joo (the actress playing Chae Ryung) felt dissapointed that so many scenes being shot but barely made the cut. I say most blame came from bad decision to rewrite the script which delay the filming and bring forward for early broadcast. Most of all, I feel bad for LJK cause he nailed it big time in this drama, putting up the best performance I have ever seen him. It's such a waste that such stellar acting and smoking good look not being appreciated due to messy production that gets the drama being tossed aside by domestic audience.

  • The director is/was well respected and has often worked with one writer. Padam, Padam; That Winter the Wind Blows and It's Okay, That's Love I believe share a writer and KKT was PD on them all. (He also had Kim Bum lose a ridiculous amount of weight for his role in Padam, Padam so this guy's got some issues.)

    I think the inexperience in historicals and in pre-production caused quite a bit of the issues so I'll give him that. I think the hubris in doing so much close-ups is on him...it's my understanding it is a time consuming process to film that way.

    I don't want to leave the impression this guy is the only reason LJK took the role though. It's known source material and with an investment from NBC, it no doubt sounded good. I know LJK is disappointed, but his fan base has exploded. Someone put this guy in a well-written sexy contemporary romance right now please!

    • Yes, contemporary drama please next time.

    • I would love to see him in a well-written rom com too. And with a queen of the genre or a versatile actress. Seo Hyun Jin has a drama, Han Groo is pregnant, Gianna jun is with Lee Min Ho, Yoon Eun Hye has disapeared, ... I think that i'ven't seen Park Shin Hye in a real rom com since 2009. But please not with Han Ye Seul, Lee Min Jung, Kim Tae Hee, Han Ji Min , Suzy,...Pretty actresses but so boring...

    • Moon Lovers is the first LJK's drama that focused more on romance, when previously he always took on projects that focused on the plight of the drama hero. He always voiced his reluctant to do melo and romance because he did not feel confident that he could carry this genre and yet, most girls turn swoony over Wang So. Partly due to how his character being written but majorly because LJK is smoking hot in ML.
      Writer Kim Eun Hee (of TVN Signal's fame) is coming up with new drama next year and she is writing a saeguk. Too bad that LJK has announced that he would take a break from saeguk, otherwise I would hope for him to do a project with this acclaimed writer.
      I don't mind him doing either melo or rom-com, so long as this next time around, he gets to work with really strong writer and PD and solid production team, which can produce quality drama regardless of the rating.
      My pick for his next leading lady is Ha Ji Won, she can do both melo, rom-com and let's not forget action. Others worth consideration are Moon Chae Won and Park Shin Hye (mainly because she brings good fortune to her leading man). Han Ye Sul is not on acting par as LJK but I worry not as she is taken by Ji Sung in "Defendant", and please no Kim Tae Hee and no more idol.