[Review] Moonshine

[honou_no_izumi]

Yoo Seungho played as the main lead... how can I not watch this drama? Though to be fair, this drama kept making me want to rewatch Ruler so many times due to the many scenes that tend to parallel some of parts of Ruler that amuses me a lot many times. And when I say there was a lot of parallel plots, there was really a LOT.

The character of Kang Roseo had been set up pretty well with her being a former noblewoman who ended up becoming a moonshiner to make a living. The crown prince Lee Pyo also have his own story to which it also connected with the prohibition order as well as the general plot around it. And above all, Nam Young hold the biggest mystery that lead to a clue that tied the three people together. He's quite a cute character (something that Seungho had a natural flair at playing it) and his upright as well as innocent persona was enough of a charm to make you like Nam Young. Though some may find him a bit annoying but that's how he's been raised. 

 

The story was quite light-hearted enough and fun to watch. Though the serious plot would start to creep in the more the plot dwelve more into Lee Pyo's past and Nam Young's locked memories. As well as the romance that started to grow between an unlikely pair of inspector and a moonshiner.

 

Yanno, I have to say that I had fun watching this from the very beginning. I always love it whenever Seungho played a character who would be so shy towards  their love interest and being comedic while at it. I mean, he tend to mostly play upright characters, in which at times he tend to play it very seriously like in Ruler , Remember and Memorist... but I also love it when he do characters that could be so clumsy and naive like in this drama, My Strange Hero and I'm not a Robot.

Hyeri also did well for I think her first time doing sageuk and as much as her acting didn't quite fit the way characters in sageuk usually have (as in their speech patterns) the drama played it as being the result of her having to live a rough life after her father's death. Thus explaining why her behaviour and speech had been so rough. And you do get to see Roseo improving in her manner of speech and behaviour as being around Young and Aejin gradually rubbed off to her. I love Bae Yooram. You can blame it on Ruler I guess, but I always look forward to ANY scenes of Haesu and Young together. Seriously I love him being the comic relief guy... even back in Ruler. 

And it turned out, this is also Kang Mina's first attempt at sageuk as well... and I have to say Mina did wonderful in her portrayal of Han Aejin. As much as I'm not really that much invested with Pyo's storyline... I really love Aejin so anything featuring her was amazing. I love the fact that despite Pyo being so all over Roseo, it was Aejin who ended up setting him straight to not just sit and do nothing and let Young die.

I have to agree that what happened to Unsim and Sim Heon was kinda anticlimatic (not to mention abt Lady Park/Daemo), like it would have been nicer had Unsim and Sim Heon team up with Roseo-Young gang. But hey, we can't always have everything the way we want.

I'm fine with how the drama ended. As expected, once the goal of having the alchohol prohibition lifted... there wasn't much else to be told (to extend the storyline even more). Though as much as it was nice to see how everyone had fared after the ban lifted (and most of them were no longer criminals and co-conspirators), I do wish the drama could have expanded it a bit more.

I mean, I get it that the few backstories about Young's mum was to establish the reason why he might be a bit too upright as well as give reason on how he ended up at Mangwol temple and end up witnessing Hoyeon's murder (as well as the whole thing about him being from a no-name family), but I do wish the drama had invested a bit more on Young's backstory. Like what's the deal with having explicitly tell us that Lord Nam wasn't his real father like are you seriously telling me that THAT was done JUST to misdirect people about the real identity of Jannabi's son and nothing else? But yeah, I wished we get to see Lord Nam again--I mean it was funny to see him getting a week's worth of shocking news revolving Young and having such rollercoaster ride in a minute. XD. Like the old man did seem very dedicated to making sure Young succeed in life (as if it was his sole mission he had to do in place of Young's mum... and whoever had been his dad.) Like man, I wished to see more of Young's flashback with his mum and the child actor IS cute okay I admit it!

That said, I wished we get to see more of Queen Yeon being the general she was. I mean we do get a fair share of her in the last four episodes taking action and stuff but I wish to see more of her finally be able to form better relationship with the king, like the king had misunderstood her loyalties for so long. And I wished we get to see her giving birth to a prince finally. Like after all the earlier fuss over her being pregnant, it felt lacklustre to only hear about it in passing like some unimportant fact. Also, as much as dethronement of Pyo was expected, was it that hard to let us see him and Aejin get married? (like this stuff was quite typical of daily dramas ao why not have it in this?)

Also really... you'd think that being the main characters that drama would have more focus on Young and Roseo? I mean, sure with Pyo's dethronement Young was no longer his tutor... but what about his Head Inspector job at Saheonbu? Did he take a long study leave or what? Or was he put on reserve for the future as tutor of the new CP once the baby grew up so that being reason that he was on 'holiday' atm? I mean he did put much effort during his exam last time so don't tell me he need to retake his exams again to get back into Saheonbu? Haha.

Though have to say that I like his proposal. Like that plan was put on hold last time when Sim Heon stabbed him so it was nice to finally see that comb being put to use. Also Roseo's doing the kabedon on him again made nice parallel to the first time they did it. So yeah... cos of that I can't really complain too much.

Also had to agree about wishing we could see more of Siheum thinking more about Sim Heon and realizing that perhaps there was another reason why Sim Heon's mum lied about being raped (like I assume that the scene was when it was found out that she was pregnant, thus being the reason why she lied) which was to protect her baby. Like it would be nice if we get to see Siheum realising that it wasn't that people had always abandoned him but it's because he himself had been pushing people away.

That said, I can understand why we can't have the drama a bit longer. I mean... we're still in a pandemic after all so we do have to think of people's safety during filming etc. Regardless, I still love how beautiful the whole drama had been. Like the visuals are really pretty. Have to say that Seungho tend to have quite a good luck in getting into dramas with pretty visuals. Like aside from Moonshine you can see pretty scenes in Ruler, My Strange Hero, I'm not a Robot, Remember etc. And even if Memorist didn't have much romance you can still see some pretty good fx with the whole psychometric scenes.

Well, that's all. I think I wrote long enough already. Time to watch all the other backlogged series I still have cos aside from Through the Darkness, I don't really follow any other currently airing show rn.