The Moon That Embraces The Sun Review

Title: The Moon That Embraces The Sun

AKA: The Moon Embracing The Sun / The Sun and the Moon

Genre: Romance, Period, Fantasy

Episodes:  20

Broadcast period: 2012-Jan to 2012-Mar

Cast: Kim Soo Hyun, Han Ga In, Jung Il Woo, Kim Min Seo and Kim Young Ae.

The story of a very special crown prince named Lee Hwon (Kim Soo Hyun), who as a young teenager starts a friendship and special love with a young bright girl, Heo Yeon Woo (Han Ga In). In this time and age, kids are taught to be more than just kids, to achieve something greater. Lee Hwon and Yeon Woo meet on a special day: Yeon Woo witnesses the young prince trying to get out of the palace to meet his brother, but she mistakes him for a thief. Without revealing his true identity, the two separate, and it is not until later that they again encounter and grow greater feelings for each other. As the young crown prince is in the age of getting married, it is decided that there should be a crown princess election. As the bright girl of a minister Yeon Woo should join as well, though they know that in fact the crown princess has been pre-decided and the election is just a show as to show the people that regulations are followed. And if 'girl isn't chosen, she will live forever be forbidden to marry. The reason that she won't be chosen is because of the girl Bo Kyung the daughter of a corrupt minister, who alongside the old queen treacherously wants to get rid of Yeon Woo.

First of all I think this is my favorite king character! He is the perfect king. He is smart and nobody can play around with him. It's actually the opposite. Whenever the ministers think they have something on him, he turns the situation all around, he has them around his little finger (is that the wrong saying?) he can't be fooled and isn't weak. He wants the best for the people and often goes out to check the situation himself. I could continue forever. He is cool and hilarious, and his brother as well. And I absolutely loved that they would rather give up the throne than turn their backs on each other. I think the actors fit really well, especially the young crown prince. I just didn't really like the grown up girl. She was a bit awkward.. And that made the love story awkward as well.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Bunjis verdict

Hmm.. I can’t say I dislike this one, but it’s definitely not a favorite one of mine. I had the hardest time finishing it, and it seriously took me over 11 months if not more, to finish. My first ruin for this drama was the fact that I was seriously waiting for Kim Soo Hyun and Han Ga In to come, since I first of all KNEW that they would be this separated couple, and that she would die, since it says so in the introduction of the drama. That took about 7 episodes.. which was honestly the biggest reason for my wait, since it went on forever. Second ruin was the love triangle, and the ridiculous kid like feud between the two brothers, which most of the time is the older brother being jealous of the younger brother. But of course they have to have that in order to please the viewers.. (I was almost about to say stupid).. Then there is the main actress character.. Dull and “blaah”.. Lastly the king, Kim Soo Hyuns character, yes he was fair, but not at all just. I mean what.. Maybe it’s not his fault, but the Joseon have dumb rules, and I till this date really don’t care for these dramas. I really really really really don’t get period/historical dramas, and I have no idea why I keep torturing myself with trying to find out. Anyways.. Acting was great, I guess story too since everyone else seems to love this.. If you want an opinion, if you really like this genre, ask Jenji, I really give up..

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

The Thieves Movie Review

Title: The Thieves

Genre: Crime, action

Origin: South Korea

Release date: 25 Juli 2012

Cast: Kim Yoon Seok, Lee Jung Jae, Kim Hye Soo, Jeon Ji Hyun, Kim Hae Sook, Oh Dal Soo, Kim Soo Hyun, Simon Yam, Angelica Lee, Derek Tsang, Ju Jin Mo, Ki Gook Seo, Choi Deok Mun, Yeh Soo Jung, Chae Gook Hee, Shin Ha Kyun . . .

Popeye (Lee Jung Jae) is the leader of a small professional group of thieves consisting of Chewing Gum (Kim Hae Sook) a middleaged woman, Anycall/Yanicall (Jeon Ji Hyun) a young mischievious burglar and Zampano (Kim Soo Hyun) the youngest of them and Popeye's associate. The four of them fraud people with acting, getting close to them with the purpose of stealing from them where after they sell on the black market, earning their living. They are later joined by Pepsi (Kim Hye Soo), Popeye's old partner and the woman he likes. The team is offered a new deal. To help Macau Park, an thief who in the past had ran away from Popeye and Pepsi with gold bars they stole. Now Popeye and Pepsi see this opportunity to get their revenge on Macau Park and so the team is headed to Hong Kong where they meet another team they will work with, to steal the Tear of the Sun, the diamond worth 30 million US dollars.

I definitely understand the popularity of this movie, it has pulled up the standards of Korean action movies and is really a class higher. It was very professional and that is why I enjoyed it. I am pretty good at spotting stupid NGs and that often ruins movies/dramas for me. But this was decent, I only noticed one thing but it didn’t ruin anything. So it was very clean and pro. It had a long story, it doesn’t just end with them stealing the diamond but continues. Though I wished for a liiiiiittle bit different ending this was alright. And what I really liked was that even though they speak in Korean, Chinese and English, we didn’t have those awkward accents and weird talking, the actors had definitely practiced very hard and did a great job. I think its hilarious with the names actually, I can just imagine the writer sitting at his desk and wondering what to name them and he sees some Pepsi, some chewing gum and maybe just ate spinach so he thought of Popeye and then he received a call from a hot lady and named one of the characters Anycall. There was one scene I thought was way too long and that is the one where I spotted a stupid ng, but overall it was good, especially for a long movie like this one.

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 out of 5 stars 

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts 

Bunji's verdict
I don’t get this movie. Like yeah I get it, but what… Like yeah, good idea whatever, and interesting storyline. But I seriously wonder how many people wrote this movie together - like nothing was cohesive, except the plot. Like none of the actors acted together, and when they did the script was stupid. I just felt like it was a imitation of a Bollywood movie I once watched, except - besides that the story is different - the writer (most defiantly more writer that didn’t talk with one another) didn’t really bother to make sure that the characters gave a damn about what they were doing. It felt like a group of random thieves that have connections with one another, but barely. And it all makes me go like: how on earth do you trust each other. Which I later on realized they should have thought of. Okay I bet you don’t get anything of this, but to sum up: I wasn’t fond of it, bad wanna-be American action movie, but made decently with the exception of constant revenge/betrayal. But some people (most people honestly) might like it, I just didn’t. 

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars


♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts