K-Bu Bu Jing XIn finally make it into double digit ratings as episode 18 got 10.1%. nothing to write home about but an achievement for this underachieving drama. But the new drama The Man Living in Our House vaulted over Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart: Ryeo and look the lead with 10.6%, nice for a rom-com and definitely a bright of sunshine for drama viewers not eager to wallow in the impending doom and gloom over at K-BBJX.
The story continues to loosely follow the original source novel which means the OTP barely get their palace breather before angst majorly hits the fan with one forced royal marriage for succession sake and one betrayal that hits too close to home. It’s all expected but good golly is it depressing, and in a way that doesn’t even feel remotely hurts so good or potentially cathartic. This version didn’t build up as much romantic intensity so I just want 4th Prince and his happy ending without any desire to cry my eyes out first. Next week is the final two episodes and Lee Jun Ki is holding a fan meeting to watch the final episode. That’s basically the silver lining now.
Seriously just want to stab princess in the eye and punch wook in the face.
Oh and claw 9th princes eyes out.
Why is it that this version has me wanting to be more violent than the Chinese version?
Frankly, for me Hae Soo can’t die to soon. In one way or another, she’s had a hand in just about every death this show has had so far. The fact that she still thinks Wang So is Big Bad, when frankly she’s got blood on her hands and zero recognition or remorse, makes me just want her gone.
Plus then at last she will close her eyes, and so it will no longer be a constant
@_@
It’s a real shame this version keeps the romance so chaste, it’s a waste of Lee Jun Ki and IU because I really think they had good chemistry there. I don’t know why the story chooses to keep dissipating it like this by not letting it be as intense on both sides.
“Perhaps the writers are trying to portray that good Korean girls do not fall in love with men, they know will be future dictators? That is one way to explain, the odd decision to devote so much time to the 8th romance, and barely show growth in 4th Prince and Hae Su’s romance.
First they made her helping him an accidental decision. Unlike the original where Rouxi was well versed in history, knew what 4th Prince would become and chose to love him for the man he was at the time.
Hae Su’s decision to leave over the treatment of “her little sister” Chae Ryung also doesn’t have enough gravitas, considering all the detailed explanation give of how Chae Ryung was involved in the death of a king, a prince and a princess (3 royal family members) and even that she was okay with framing Hae Su, for a murder.
Why change the original that Rouxi left when she realized that her actions and warnings to 8th Prince is what set the fight of the princes in motion. They even had a scene during the rain ritual, where Hae Su, told this version’s 8th prince something similar. It just shows that this was probably forgotten during the rapid, writing process.
It goes to show that just because a drama claims to be pre-produced, if the script is still being written, as scenes are shot, it is not that different from a Live Shoot after all. The only difference being, moving the chaos of the live shoot from the airing period to an earlier time.
The writer did a good job with adapting the story to the Korean royal family, but they dropped the ball on the actual script. And wasted too much time in the early episodes. Turning the latter half of the drama into a telling more than a showing experience, with so many time jumps, and so many important events happening off screen.
They probably thought they had 36 episodes, but later realized that though a common episode count in Korean entertainment, it would make it harder to get a time slot in China, where even dramas with bonafide Chinese stars, may take up to 3 years after completion, to get an air date (see postponement of Lee Young Ae’s Saimdang Story). So they rapidly cut down the number of episodes. But that is something that should have been fixed in post-production. You have the raw video, so cut out the extra scenes of say – 10th Prince, the superfluous Baekje Princess storyline that never materialized, the slow buildup to Hae Su and 8th Prince’s love story, etc.
Apologies for the long post, but as someone who was eagerly anticipating this drama, I hope what happened with Moon Lovers, won’t discourage the move to more pre-produced Kdramas.
I don’t know where to begin with when comes to Moon Lovers. When the drama was announced, we knew beforehand the weak links are the writer and IU.
But when you viewed the end product, seems like everyone has a fair share to blame except LJK, KHN and the veteran actors. Putting aside her knack for dumbing down our heroine, I say the writer did a fairly good job to deviate the plot while still loosely based on BBJX. Regarding her realization of becoming the catalyst for a predestined paradox, I think this will be exposed in episode 19. Over here, I seriously think the editing is the one that not doing justice to the writing. What keep us glued to Moon Lovers despite the flaws, putting aside LJK being the main factor is the intriguing storyline. So, I think it’s fair to give her that credits. Compressing so much into 20 episodes is another one hell of a bad decision unless they decided to cut off some characters and plots. Apart from possible delay for China’s simulcast, I think the budget was the concern since this PD loved being flashy, spent on the beautiful shooting locations and let’s not forget that we have so many actors and payment for K-actors unlike Japanese actors, basically incurred 70% of the production cost (though I seriously find that LJK is worth every penny spent on him).
At the end of the day, since the drama is geared towards international audiences, I say that it has succeed in accomplishing its goal and targeted audience. May be if the expectation wasn’t so high, we could probably looked passed it flaws. Another thing is, I doubt that the K-audience even that excited over this BBJX remake to begin with or any remake for that matter. And for this drama to be so addictive despite the shortcomings, there’s certainly lots more to say about it. At least on my part, I still enjoy it and will definitely give it a marathon watch once it wraps up next week.
Hahaha!!
same here.
Though I am happy for the increase of the rating, this episode gave me so much stress today.
I am still hoping for a better ending next week.
If only this was more than 20 episodes, everything will be better.
There are so many events that were not shown that are quite substantial on the series.
But I cant help not to be impress by LJK.
Beyond all this, he is so good, and so handsome too.
Oh and it’s really maddening how they don’t even show you how Soo’s feelings for So changed to romance over the 2 year time gap. Which I was initially ok with because I thought we would get a satisfying romance for a little while before the shit hits the fan, but the story seems almost afraid to show any actual mutual passion between the OTP at times, or to have Soo returning So’s feelings with as much intensity. Cute is nice but give me some true romance please!
I thought the scene where they make up again after being broken up for two years was lovely, though. And so was the scene where they were on the throne together.
Told you, they aren’t winning yet, Soo Ae is formidable force and may just take the lead. I don’t think it will enjoy lead in the remaining two episodes considering the massive disappointment that even the international fanbase is echoing all over SNS after episode 18, I am suspecting another drop in ML’s ratings and another win fro Sweet Stranger and I next week. Better luck next time Lee Jun Ki, this just wasn’t meant to be and its definitely not your fault.
We are pretty much contended with whatever the ratings that ML may achieve now. After all, I doubt that the viewers would bother to check on the drama since it is heading to its last 2 hours and dawn for an emotional breakdown. The international fanbase mostly are frustrated because a lot are expecting a happy ending. Judging from the viewership statistic on many streaming portals, ML still leading other airing dramas by large margin. I believe many will stay put just endure after all another 2 more episodes.
Really, most of the rant that I saw was about Hae-Su having double standards and the incredible speed that the show has picked up with huge plot holes here and there. This BBJX remake, how can we even possibly have a happy ending here?? Streaming portals give you total viewing statistics, there are other shows that have higher ratings, there. Also, numbers don’t bother viewers, it bothers makers and actors so it may have been accepted by some of the viewers but its not a good thing for the team involved so that is hardly a good thing.
Whatever the frustration that international fanbase are throwing at this drama, many will eventually choose to stay put since it’s down to the final 2 episodes. There is the camp that vent out anger out of possible sad ending, then there’s the camp that complaining over the drama being rushed to compress everything in these last 4 episodes. But still, there’s the addictive factor no matter how qualitatively flawed this drama is that got plenty to stay. Of course the entire ML team was hoping for domestic success but they are also surprised that this drama is doing exceptionally well outside Korea. Ratings is not bothering ML’s fans anymore. As @OMG said, we are pretty much contended with whatever the number is. And she is right, why would the domestic audience bother to check on the last 2 episodes of the drama that they have tossed aside long time ago. It’s better off for them to check on something new and that gives Soo Ae’s new drama the edge, even up against Woman With Suitcase. LJK still walk out of this drama smelling like roses. His fanbase (international fans most I presumed) is growing at rapid speed and with his sudden CF calls, I think he will be doing alright.
Potato, Powtato, again. LJK may not be affected but two back to back duds for him gotta hurt to certain extent. So, I just hope he chooses wisely next time.
I don’t know where the expectation of a happy ending comes from, the vast majority of international fans seem quite familiar with BBJX and with Korean history, and there’s no way to get a happy ending out of that.
@Lea – I’m hard pressed to find any international fans who think this version of BBJX is going to have a happy ending, the only question seems to be how miserable will it be?
Since this drama was made with the expectation of Chinese streaming portal success first, I suppose it fulfilled its goals there considering it scores these numbers even though recent episodes go behind a paywall for a week after release. But the domestic drubbing has sent a pretty clear message about what Korean viewers think of the end product, even if Lee Jun-ki himself escapes virtually unscathed because it’s widely accepted that he is the main reason people even kept tuning in to this at all after the first week. Like you said, it hurts to an extent but it’s been mitigated somewhat by the fact that a substantial foreign audience across Asia thinks he’s great.
@Gina
I lurked at soompi drama thread a lot despite never posting any comment. Pretty much flooded by those who wanted happy ending despite a lot are familiar with the original BBJX. But if you checked at DB, these are the more rational groups who vented frustration that the meaty plot being compressed into the last 4 episodes. It’s one way that the drama pace was wasted on Wook-Haesoo romance and there’s the bad decision of cramping so much into 20 episodes unless they decided to cut off some non-factors storyline and characters like Woohee and Lady Hae.
LJK is such a darling. There are just so much reasons to love him. Not only he is ravishingly handsome and a phenomenal actor, he is also super nice to his fans. The Fan Meeting is being held for free with all expenses borned by his agency. With his growing fanbase due to ML, he is really sweet to show his appreciation to his fans.
On a different note, I don’t really care for the romance because I could not like our female protagonist here. It’s all about 4th Prince that matters to me even though I know he is subject to a sad ending. LJK made me so invested with Wang So that I care so deeply for him.
Still loving Moon Lovers till the very end.
A fan meeting for free. Very nice gift for his fans. Others should do the same. A lot of actors are praised for their donation. But in my country we don’t care because Donation = less taxes to pay!!!
Totally agree. lol, would watch ML with him alone in it, kidding as that’s not possible, but I know you know what I mean!! Love this drama, nothing compares to it.
response was to what Del said about LJK.
My response was to what Del said about LJK. To those of us who are captivated by LJK, this drama was only frustrating to us because none of us understands why others won’t watching!! anyway, again, he so delivered and has me wanting more of him. I think LJK and IU had good chemistry, she has a lot of potential, she just has to work on her ‘deer in the headlights’ look at times.
@kimster, I too, would like to see him in a modern drama, would love to see LJK with a certain ‘very emotable’ actress who we haven’t seen in 3 years. 6FD was awesome, but it was 50 epis though.
Lee Jun Ki is the only reason I am still paying any attention to this mess. I read the recaps first, then just fast-forwarded to the death scene of the Queen. Maximum LJK talent on display, no IU: just what I want.
More episodes would make the drama so much more. The story would be more smooth, more chemistry can play out with the characters. Same thing with Moonlight.
Saeguk drama should be more sageuk dramas
The directing and writing sucks. Disjointed and plots don’t follow any flow. So adding any more episodes won’t help.
I agree, I wasn’t planning to watch it but it was getting major buzz online so I had to watch it. but man… this drama simply sucks in all directions. sorry I’m sure many of you fans of LJK including ockoala who seems to adore him, but this is just my opinion. I loved his dog and wolf to death probably his best project imo so I hope he get to play similar kind of drama in the future and i’ll be looking forward to it.
*should have more episodes
But, K-BBJX only reached double digits when Woman With a Suitcase got preempted for a special newscast. Barring any decline on the part of either WWAS or Man Living in Our House, I suspect 10.1% will be its peak rating.
I agree this should have more episodes.
Since it was squeezed to 20 episodes, some substantial scenes were sacrificed.
Though I find it somewhat lacking in some area but we can’t deny that this drama is obviously so addicting.
congratulaions to Moonlovers and The Man In Our House dramas!! Moonlovers is the drama that is killing me and I’m forced to keep on this suffering rode thanks to Lee Jun Ki!! mz heart achs baaaaaaaadly!! but then I found The Man In Our House and I am pleasantly surprised to come accross this drama to help me ease my depression over Moonlovers drama!! 😀
Well, i must be the only one who loves this drama even with with his flaws. In the past i tried to watch historical dramas and allways failed to pursue… But i did it with this one…Blaise Pascal ” Le cÅ“ur a ses raisons que la raison ignore”
My sister loves this drama despite the flaws and despite that there are three different versions. It baffled me as to why there are three different versions of the same drama. Oh well. I hope LJK has a better drama next time. He deserves a hit drama.
If you want a good historical drama that doesnt dwell alot on politics and has an amazing story-line that is fast pace, I highly recommend The Maids. That was my first historical drama that I have ever completed watching and I love every moment of it. And the leading female character is smart and kickass. I simply adore her.
@Cahill You are certainly not the only one. This drama is flawed because of the underwhelming execution but the storyline is solid. Plus despite being adaptation of a novel, the plot really deviates a lot which even when you have watched the C-version, you still everything feels very fresh and new. It’s also my drama cracks and let’s not forget to mention how good LJK is whom also the biggest force that draw audiences to continue watching.
@Nifty – seriously the production team of this drama (including the idiots who edited it and inserted the soundtracks) should be bowing in gratitude to Lee Jun Ki because without him, they wouldn’t be able to crack 5 percent, forget 10.
But with him, there’s a certain addictiveness to the story and characters that makes me keep coming back every week, even if I get frustrated sometimes.
@Nifty Agree with you. Lee jun Ki is the ” King” of Moon Lovers ! Love him to pièces.
LOL at this drama, still chugging along. Gave up early on, it was just not really doing it for me. Especially coming off of Six Flying Dragons which was perfect. But congrats to the production team. Still a feat for them given that they went as low as 5% before. I desperately hope that Junki’s next drama will be a major success!! He has been working so hard but things just haven’t worked out well.
Man living in our house quite surprised me. I am really enjoying it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s ratings increase further next week.
Just wondering at the international success of this drama. I’ve been keeping an eye out for this drama in the Chinese community, and I definitely don’t see it picking up the same traction and popularity as ‘Descendants’ and ‘You Who Came From a Star’ before it… there’s minimal buzz on Weibo and all of it is about how amazing LJK is…
it’s underperforming when compared to uncontrollable fond in term of view counts at youku. UF was able to gather counts more than 2.5 billion by episode 16.
Really? I thought that UF reached 1.5 billion view count for episode 14. So, a jump of 1 billion by episode 16?
@Fly Me To Polaris – yeah, that’s what I heard too – also UF only crossed 1 billion after episode 12. How does one get from that to 2.5 billion by episode 16, surely there would have been news reports about it if it was that big a deal?
Still, 2 billion is nothing to sneeze at.
UF already has 3.7 billion views now and counting. if it only 1.5 bilions by epi 12 how come it jumped to 3.7 billions after 1 month of airing.
sorry typo one month of finished airing. ok doesn’t matter lets see whether moonlover can match the feat. u dont need to hear from other people,you can check yourself on the website like i did.
Moon Lovers new episodes are behind a paywall – they’re not free to watch until a week after release.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think UF was put behind the paywall while it was airing, so obviously it’s going to have higher numbers.
@Amoi
Not questioning of the legitimacy of UF’s achievement. It’s because I can’t read chinese so I can’t check Youku by myself. So I rely on news that I googled where it mentioned that UF reached 1.5billion view count by episode 14. So, to have the view counts leap up to 1 billion in a matter of 2 episodes is pretty much impressive. And then I read about UF could be directly accessed after airing but not the same case with ML. Whatever the achievement is, both dramas received lackluster reception in Korea but doing very well in China. On a different note, as a fan of ML, I am happy with whatever the outcome in terms of rating for ML. At least the rating continues to rise (with exception of some baseball slot confusion in between). And as someone ever mentioned before, this drama is highly polarizing. Those who can’t enjoy it will hate it so much but those who love will appreciate it despite whatever the lackings. Let’s just not dampen others’ joy just because we don’t share the same sentiment about this drama.
Yes. I also read (since it was considered record breaking at that time) that UF attained 1.5 billion view count by episode 14 and therefore, that 1 billion was such a huge jump to do within only 2 episodes. And that’s what I heard too, that there’s a paywall imposed on ML whereas no paywall imposed on UF during its entire run. Then, let’s just say that this is not the case of apple vs apple comparison. Regarding the trending on weibo, I am not sure either since I can’t read chinese but we are all not fools or delusional to believe that ML is equivalent of YFAS or DOTS. Those two dramas are on different level being both domestic and international success. What we are happy about that despite being overlooked in homeground, the drama not totally losing due to the support from international fans.
Lee joon gi became the most searched Korean actor on weibo thanks to this drama so there is certainly buzz about this drama in China.
I hope LJK will do a modern drama next time round.
Whatever happens to the ratings, Lee Jun-ki has come out of this with a fantastic performance and well-deserved fan love for being the mighty pillar stopping this messy but addictive drama from completely collapsing on itself. I’m glad for his sake, at least.
But yes, the way the story has Hae Soo constantly distrusting Wang So even as she forgives total snake characters like Chae-ryung, is deeply frustrating to me as a viewer. You can’t have an epic love story if you constantly, CONSTANTLY undermine that love with the heroine’s distrust right up to the end. It’s illogical and deeply unsatisfying to watch. Which is a shame because LJK and IU actually have good chemistry and this drama should have used that long ago instead of having her constantly running scared and behaving like she was half-in, half-out.
Absolutely agree with you. LJK is the saving grace of this haphazard drama.
agree, he was and is the one reason I watch it.
Yes to everything you say @ Gina. I actually think the writer did a decent job freshening up the cdrama for Korean history with most of the issues being in the production area. I am bummed that it now seems to be a rush to the end though it was foreseen and really bummed that the two leads don’t seem to be true to what they said in the past. They wait all those years and then….argh. Definitely a time crunch issue. However all is forgiven for a better ending than the novel or cdrama. There will always be a lot of what could have beens about this one.
As far as I’m concerned the PD should re-edit the whole enchilada and release it internationally. Oh, and I wonder how much of this drama is on the cutting room floor. I imagine quite a bit.
With regard to LJK, Wang So should be added to the list with Gong Gil and Iljimae.
The Man Living at My House has quite an interesting start. Soo Ah kills it and the leading man, yes the leading man, is charming to my surprise. Pinocchio writer made this guy one of the most unimpressive and boring 2nd lead in the K drama history. How would I expect him to be such an interesting actor to watch???!!!! Sorry, this is sorta off topic since focus is supposed to be on K BBJX. But as far as ratings are concerned, there’re reasons the new KBS competitor fairs so well at get go and it may take the rating lead for next few episodes to come.
@Drama2016 Soo Ae was great in 9 end 2 outs in 2007 , so it wasn’t a surprise . Yes , I feel sorry for the actor in Pinocchio but i noticed him in 2009 when he played one of YEH’s butlers in “My fair lady” and he was very charming… It’s a pleasure to see him having a leading role. Like Kwon Yool who was in “Let’s fight ghosts ” not long ago.
I think Moon Lovers as a standalone drama is a mess, the story didn’t developed and the couple is not believable, idk but I think it deserves the low rating,
viewer wants a good show, at least the believable one by just watching and little bit thinking of some background plot, or just reassuring by the dramacsene/dialogue, no need a prior knowledge, research or implying things even read comments just to know what they feels for episodes and episodes,
If viewers want a believable show , why did they Watch “Doctors” , DOTS,… If they want something believable ,they just can Watch Ken Loach movies!
I’d take Doctors over this mess any day.
It’s a harmony show with good acting and chemistry, even among the staffs and PDH and is teaching good moral lessons at it too.
What do we get here?
LJK one man show with a non sense female lead?
what I mean is viewer wants a believable drama plot progression, that B happen after A since it establish that A is before B,
not some convenient flashback or make a shift difference in character to make the story shocking,
what’s the point of watching a drama but not understanding why anything happen, I know what happen but I don’t believe it cause it just happen without context,
like an accident but in every episode and every accident is not connected,
the acting also do not engaging so I think bad production, even it has the greatest actor ever need to have the objective review,
how the story line progress and how the conflict ends,
it’s not about show we think could happen as our time but A STORY THAT HAVE BELIEVABLE PROGRESSION,
anti hero protagonist is not a curse but every character has a journey and this show just crumble it into one big pit and selectively choose what convenient each episode
I think by believable, it really means a believable world. A well-created world (like Harry Potter), is very enjoyable for the viewer, and it’s very easy for the viewer to overlook small inconsistencies and make minor logic jumps. However, I think as a story, this adaption wasn’t very successful, from a technical standpoint and an artistic standpoint. The world and the characters were not enough to create a standalone drama world.
I do agree on some comments regarding technical and artistic standpoint. But idk if it’s just me, I basically do research for almost all saeguks that I watched unless fusion saeguks like Scholar Who Walk The Night or Gu Family Book. The setback actually catapulted by the constraint of 20 episodes for such a meaty storyline. Therefore not enough time to explain the backstory which they compensated by the time jump and direct speech by the characters. Unlike saeguks like Dong Yi, Queen Seondeok where they have more episodes to peel off those layers.
I don’t mind having a research but I just want the show established their own ground,
the drama never confirm any implied scene and when I want to try understanding what happen, I need to go to comment section that has 500+ comment with 10+ interpretation but most of it is selectively picked because the commenter preferred one character to another,
The drama needs to “said” the dialogue/punch line/statement to confirm watcher suspicion that left us to read their facial expression as we wants, it created unbalanced show and I just watch this because it’s available and the buzz
I couldn’t believe when hee soo sent the message to prince Wang Jung that she wants. which means she wants out I was like I thought you didn’t want anybody to die anymore?! what does she think Wang So would do if his little brother comes to steal his woman?! she didn’t want anybody to die but it looks like a lot of them will die because of her.
While I do understand that she is tired of the conflict surrounding her life in Goryeo, actually a lot of viewers, myself included having the problem with Haesoo due to the trust issue that she has with Wang So. This however did not happened in the C-drama which is why a lot could care for Ruoxi. It’s very much unlike her relationship with Wook where she gave him plenty of benefits of a doubt. This K-version still following closely to the original version with regard to where it is heading now. And don’t worry, his little brother won’t steal his woman, instead he is the one whose going to give her away to him. The main rift between Haesoo and So will not be caused by Jung, instead it is Wook since So regards him as his biggest enemy and totally oblivion of their past romance. I guess we are all so invested with Wang So that it is hard to like Haesoo in the process.
Rouxi was smart. Hae-Soo is a complete doofus. When tragedy happens even though a smart, principled person is doing their utmost to avoid it, that is a compelling story. When tragedy happens because an ignorant, foolish person is flailing around like a bull in a china shop, it is just irritating.
I didn’t see the Chinese version and you are right her mistrust of him is becoming annoying.
I didn’t see the Chinese version and you are right. we are emotionally invested in Wang So, therefore her mistrust of him is becoming annoying.
For me, Moon Lovers is the best K-drama that I have ever watched. The problem with some critics, they don’t watch the drama the way it is. The comparison with c-version is really unreasonable which the said version was presented in the female lead perspective and it’s more romantic driven.Unlike in the the k-version, it’s a Wang So-centric version and the main plot is his ascension to the throne. The palace is just like a wolf den that he has to literally kill the bad ones for him to survive. Though the romance has given good airtime in the first half of the series, but it’s when dining, it is just an entree to the main course. The main course being the political ascension of Prince Wang So to the throne and his reign.
Those people talking about bad screenplay and such… they were just disjointed to the drama to begin with because they were expecting it to be the same as the c-version, which in fact the two versions are totally different.