Scarlet Heart: Ryeo (2016)

_**A 花より男子 (Hana Yori Dango); Meteor Garden show with political sibling rivalry**_ **I. Story** In a story with many important characters, it is important to tell it clearly, they did well in doing that. The political war between the brothers were interesting, they also picked a good period for the Korean version of a Chinese novel. Sadly, the romantic aspect of the story was delivered poorly. It did not elicit any emotional reaction. There was no built-up. This is primarily a story about sibling rivalry gone to the political level. **II. Acting** It was lacking in some areas, there were also scenes which looked like they were practicing. There were also memorable scenes, from pure laughter to serious where their acting were very natural. **III. Music** The music, unfortunately, did not make an impact. There were scenes where a powerful music fits but instead it did not have any or a weaker music was used. They should've used more. **IV. Production** The production was very good. They spent for quality materials and designs for the wardrobe of the actors. This is specially true for IU where she was able to wear historical wardrobes yet with a modern touch which fits her aura. Great job in blending the two eras. However, close-up shots were overused to the 5th power. It wasn't needed in many of the scenes, it became annoying. In the boat scenes, there was too much backlight glare from the sun the actors (again close-up shots) can be barely seen.

This drama turned out to be a reverse harem in disguise. A handful of princes with varied flavors happened to meet a mentally handicapped girl to start their quest of hunting this wild female from a different timeline. All of these princes have the edgiest troubled teens behaviors with a mix of daddy/mommy issues. Out of all of them, the male lead took the edge in being the ultimate dark and mysterious bad boy, literally. Zooming out, all of this was done for a trail of pathetic emotional baits with no substance, they were begging the viewers for pity points. The moment the female lead knew about them, she approached every single one with the mentality of "I can fix him". While the princes were intentionally irrecoverably broken by the writer to serve a purpose for the female lead, she equally had her own set of problems. Within the span of a few episodes she became weirdly too attached to all of them and going even further to offer sacrifices, while neglecting her brief arrival and the fact that she was transferred to the past, but I guess shirtless bois are irresistible. The romantic entanglements in general were agonizing to tolerate, it kept you wishing the worse for all of them. Although it was bad as is, but why did they decide to make it worse with each passing episode in the second half? It's just too painful knowing the writer is making fun of us. At least the cinematography was okay and I watched it on BluRay.