K-Bu Bu Jing Xin Gets 10.1% Ratings in Episode 18 and Rounds Corner into Angst Filled Final Two Episodes

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• 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.