Tree With Deep Roots, part 1

Where do I even start with Tree With Deep Roots? There’s so much I want to say, but this first part is dedicated solely to the aesthetic value that Tree provided, which I think is unrivaled with any other drama I’ve seen in terms of production value and sheer ambitiousness of artistic vision: set design, costume design, music direction, cinematography. Everything was lush and inspiring, from start to finish, and the fact that this was only a drama belies just how meticulously crafted the final product was.

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The young ones in High Cut

The young adult cast of The Moon That Embraces the Sun in the latest issue of High Cut. They’re going a weedle too hard on the whole “Flower Boy” thing, but this is the cutest photoshoot ever. Whimsy and Victorian fancy…! Can’t wait for the rest of the images to be released.

UGH I MISS THEM. /sadface
Yeo Jin-goo, pick! next! project! soon!


I’m a creature of habit

So I basically have a billion striped shirts and a billion denim shirts. And since these photos were taken, I’ve purchased two more striped shirts, and another denim shirt.

I’m too much a creature of habit. Winter is also really boring to shop for :(


The Moon That Embraces the Sun, episodes 4 to 8

I find that a general problem with K-dramas that are based solely on romantic relationships and the getting together of two people is that romance alone can’t sustain a story; there has to be other elements. With sageuks in particular, a lot of writers often times feel the need to fill their stories with a certain amount of politics — almost to fulfill a quota — or else, hey, their dramas would just be regular ol’ dramas.

And that’s what I’m starting to feel with The Moon That Embraces the Sun: what the writer of the original source material really want is for King Hwon to mack at it all day with Yeon-woo, but because they can’t, he’s gonna throw in a bunch of plotting ministers and rich nobles taking advantage of The Common Folk so that it feels somewhat historical, and call it a day. I love the relationship between Hwon and Yeon-woo, but I am wary already of how much fluff we’re going to have to sit through in order for the two to get together. It would be fine if the fluff were well-written and well-acted, but it’s not, so I’m gnashing my teeth a bit.

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This is how I watch TV

Okay, I don’t watch all TV like this, but Tree With Deep Roots is particularly dense and confusing historically, so I really needed to write everything out…