Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Sungkyunkwan Scandal- 20 episodes

Kim Yoon Hee passes off as her brother with her brilliant learned mind by transcribing red novels and becoming an examination substitute. Her antics landed her into the Sungkyunkwan, a school for scholars who learn the teachings of Confucius. And at this era only men goes to school and women are forbidden to enter the Sungkyunkwan.

The story is based on novels "The Lives of Sungkyunkwan Confucian Scholars" written by Jung Eun Gweol which is actually very, very racy. There's a lot of school and gender bender formula but I find this adaptation very refreshing since the setting and the historical background is something new to me. This is my second sageuk and I'm beginning to get the hang of Korean history and customs. (I'm also currently watching third sageuk which I think is a reverse harem I hope I finish it already). Everything was great from direction, script, setting, costumes, scoring and most especially the cast! The F4, the supporting cast and even down to the minor characters shine into unforgettable characters. Literally everyone from the king to the little kid ringing the bell. The cast is so huge but I would just like to narrow it down to the lead and my favorite Jalgeum Quartet. Park Min Young is so feminine in real life and she made a fine job of acting so very un-feminine even though it's incredulous for her features to pass off as a boy. And of the three guys, I'm such a fan of Moonie (Yoo Ah In)!!!! He's got a lot of sides of him and facial expressions that makes your heart skip a beat! There's the bad long haired Moonie, the scholar Moonie, the sweet senior, the red messenger...the angry, the sweet, the shy, the jealous Moonie....I can go on and on and on. I demand for an alternate story with him ending up with KYS!! Next would be Yong Ha (Song Joong Ki), he had a lot of potential at the start. How I loved his winking!I thought he was going to be villain playboy who will fell in love with KYS. I didn't like how his character turned out to be. The story feels stretched at times. They could have just made his character fell in love with her to complicate the things but yes it will deviate so much from the novel. His character is such a waste. Well I hope he and Yoo An In gets a romantic drama soon! Of course not together and with each other. And last, Mickey Choon. He's my least favorite of the F4 but he was really impressive like a veteran actor and later on as we get to see his sweet side he does look adorable. It's hard to accept their modern looks. in real life. They would forever look like their characters in costumes in my mind. Also Yoo Ah In is a real life student of Sungkyunkwan University while Mickey Choon is the member of JYJ who sang some of the songs of the drama. It's such a hit and been compared to the popularity of BBF OST. I don't see the end of hit reverse harems with one or two guys from kpop or jpop groups. I mentioned before that I race home to watch the raw episode and then re-watch it once the subs becomes available. But it took me long to finally watch the last 4 episodes and it took me weeks to find the will to blog about it. I just don't want to make it end. Sigh! :( There's no season 2 either which makes sense as the producers have said they have stretched the story already. I just wished the ending was not so abrupt. My top three cliffhangers by the way are: Someone finds Kim Yoon Shik taking a bath, Kim Yoon Shik dressed as gisaeng and rans off to Someone and Someone saving Kim Yoon Shik from the waterfall. Edited the names since it will be spoilers lol.