Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo vs. Moonlight Drawn by Clouds Kdrama Review

It's no secret that Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Moonlight Drawn by Clouds were pitted against each other, even if indirectly. Two fusion sageuks with pretty, fresh-faced cast members airing in the same time slot were bound to draw some comparisons, even if the shows ended up being drastically different. So was a sweet cross-dressing romance enough to beat out a multitude of flower boys? Let's discuss!

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo Review

This drama. SO MANY FEELINGS. Where do I even begin? 

The Really, Really Good Stuff

Scarlet Heart (as I'm going to refer to it from here on out) captured me from the beginning. Even though there were weird production flaws, this show was more engaging than any simulcast I've seen in a long, long time. I found myself invested in the fate of the characters (at least the central triangle), and I really couldn't predict where the show was heading, something that doesn't happen often after this many years of drama watching.

What really captivated me was that the stakes felt real. Even though it was a fusion historical, the series never shied away from the bloody, dark aspects of life in Goryeo. There weren't easy answers to every conflict in the show, and characters had to make legitimately awful decisions without any K-drama magic to sweep away the consequences. Sometimes that meant that I absolutely couldn't root for the female lead to choose either male lead, but it also meant that the characters felt multilayered, interesting, and—most importantly—unpredictable.

Gahhhh everything about this episode was perfection.

I particularly love how the drama handled (Spoilers ahead!) Wook's transformation. I completely understand why Soo would fall for the sweet, gentle scholar who teaches her how to read instead of the hotheaded serial killer, and for many episodes, I had no idea how they could ever make her stop loving him. Then episode 11 happened, and I understood. Suddenly, you see how he's had a pattern of indecision throughout their entire relationship, even in the good times. You remember all those times he caved to the pressure of family loyalty, even back in the beginning. Maybe he turned totally evil a little too fast, but just as much as I understood why Soo loved him in the first place, I also understood why they eventually broke up.

The narrative conflict also set up my other favorite aspect of the show: the men couldn't save the damsel in distress. In pretty much every other K-drama in the history of K-dramas, the male leads will swoop in at the last minute to save the lady fair, but that didn't happen here. On not one, but two occasions, the male leads stood by helplessly as Hae Soo faced death, and in both cases, Hae Soo was saved by women willing to make sacrifices that the men wouldn't. For a majority of the series, the writing really respected its female characters and filled the palace with clever, powerful women who were both heroes and villains.

As a final plus to the show, we have Lee Joon Ki, who absolutely slayed in every scene, as did his early-episode hair. Yeah, let's just all remember his glorious mane before they decided to time jump and crimp his bangs...

The Really, Really Not-So-Good Stuff

Aside from Lee Joon Ki's run-in with the crimping iron, there were plenty of problems with this show, which even I'm willing to admit. The last handful of episodes were kind of a hot mess, so I'll just list some of the issues for you:

• The musical choices. It's like they just spun a wheel covered in song names to choose which one they assigned to each scene.

• As much as I really appreciated the individual characters, I never understood why the lead couple was together. When did she fall in love with him? Why did she fall in love with him? For a woman who cared about her freedom of choice so much that she would slit her wrists rather than be forced into marriage, it makes zero sense that she would fall for the guy who for years keeps talking about how he will never let her go. Aside from the amazing rainfall scene I screenshot above, it was hard to care much about their star-crossed love.

• Speaking of which, Soo literally has the worst taste in men. Really, you're going to waste your time painting that guy's face on a bunch of rocks when you have sweet, supportive, handsome Jung by your side? Really? 

I'm just gonna pretend she said "Oh yeah, I'll totally remember you and BTW I definitely love you and not my crazy ex!"
Make better life choices, Soo.

• Baek Ah and his girlfriend. What? Why? What?

• Did no one clean out the mercury-filled bathtub after the king died? Because that's the only reason I can think of why every single king started crazy laughing right after taking over the throne. Remember how I said that Wook's transformation made sense? Yeah, So's not so much. How did we go from "I want to be king so people don't have to die" to "Kill them ALLLLLL" so fast?

• Where did Wook go for the second half of the series? Did they blow their Kang Ha Neul budget in the first few episodes? I know some people complained that he got too much screen time at first, but I would watch Wook forever and always on my screen.

• Everything about Soo's time travel. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The show devolved into Nonsenseville, so it was really hard to care about anything anyone did at the end of the show. It's a pity because so much of the drama had so much potential.

Moonlight Drawn By Clouds Review

Let me just get this out of the way: You're not going to like my review.

The Good Stuff

On paper, Moonlight Drawn by Clouds is a far superior drama to Scarlet Heart. The writing is smooth. The production is clean. The music makes sense. The leads are both talented actors who also happen to be so adorable that you just smile when you see them on screen.

Because the leads (and particularly Park Bo Gum, who got the more entertaining role of the pair) are so likable, it's easy to root for the romance, and the writers knew it. There's no shortage of squee-worthy moments sprinkled throughout this very, very pretty series.

The Not-So-Good Stuff (Don't Hate Me for Being Honest!)

Given the general adoration this show got (especially in comparison to Scarlet Heart), I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but I couldn't actually finish this drama.

Maybe this is a case of "It's not you; it's me." I fully recognize that the production was good and the acting was wonderful, but I watched a full six episodes and just completely lost the will to keep going. At first, I felt like I must be the only one who felt this way, but then I saw that Amanda from Outside Seoul had written two posts articulating pretty much exactly what kept me from feeling engaged. (But seriously, is she a mind reader? Because I had been composing thoughts in my head and she basically said them word for word).

What it comes down to is that Moonlight Drawn by Clouds suffered by comparison to two other shows: Sungkyungkwan Scandal and Scarlet Heart. Sungkyungkwan Scandal is one of my all-time favorite dramas, so when I saw Moonlight Drawn by Clouds with the exact same group setup, it was hard not to see the second and third male leads as a poor man's Song Joong Ki and Yoo Ah In (though Park Bo Gum's character was leaps and bounds more charming than Yoochun's snooty scholar). 

I also found the female lead in Moonlight far less compelling. Kim Yoo Jin is a talented young actress, but I felt like her character had very little development (at least in the episodes I saw) in comparison to the lead in SKKS. She was just cheerful and ran around the palace. We knew so little of her dreams or ambitions that it was hard to connect. Maybe if I loved SKKS a little less. I wouldn't have cared, but every episode just made me wonder why I wasn't marathoning the best parts of SKKS instead.

When it comes to the Scarlet Heart comparison, I get that Moonlight, even in the early episodes, has better production value. That being said, it's so clean, cute, and sanitized that I found myself far more eager to immerse myself in the gritty, complicated world of Scarlet Heart. What made me drop Moonlight was watching a scene where the prince supposedly has to give up the female lead to protect the country, but then—SURPRISE!—we find out that he actually had a plan to save her all along! I made the mistake of watching that episode right after Court Lady Oh's magnificent episode on Scarlet Heart, where there was no such thing as getting out without losing something, and suddenly all of the neat little resolutions in Moonlight lost my interest.

Feel sad for me! JK no worries!

The Final Verdict

Moonlight was probably a better-executed show overall and Scarlet Heart ran off the rails at the end, but when Scarlet Heart was good, it was so very, very good. 

What did you think of these two? Did I get it totally wrong? Convince me!

I'm sad how it all turned out too, Lee Joon Ki.

Where to Watch Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo 

DramaFever

Where to Watch Moonlight Drawn by Clouds

Viki

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo vs. Moonlight Drawn by Clouds Kdrama Review

Balance in the K-drama Relationship

No, today's post isn't going to be me getting onto my soapbox again about how much I love strong female leads. Well, okay, it sort of is, but it's not only about that. 

When I first started watching K-dramas, I was so swept up in the magic of these extended romances that I didn't pay much attention to the power imbalance that is so pervasive in the K-drama world. People were being romantic, and as long as the women weren't total puppies, I was okay. Now that I have much more expansive experience with dramas, I have more room to recognize the best of the best K-drama relationships for what they are.

So what makes a power relationship? It's not just the romance. I have seen plenty of dramas filled with grand romantic gestures where I, as a viewer, was left wondering why these two even wanted to get together in the first place (Heirs, anyone?). While I love a swoony chaebol romance as much as the next person, I have to admit that some of the most powerful K-drama relationships focus less on the gigantic romantic hurdles between the couple and more on their non-romantic time together. Without a foundation for the relationship, what happens once the in-laws get out of the way or they recover from amnesia? Could they enjoy watching TV or grocery shopping together without all of the K-drama drama? 

To me, the best K-drama relationships involve an equal amount of give and take. This is why puppylike female leads drive me insane. Real relationships don't just involve one person hanging on until the other person gives in at the end of the series. Instead, we need enough time to believe that both characters are wholeheartedly invested in the relationship. For the record, this was my biggest beef with You're Beautiful. I wasn't ever fully convinced that he cared about her nearly as much as she cared for him.

Sometimes, I'm conflicted over K-drama chaebols who relentlessly pursue the women they desire. On the one hand, the feminist in me rages when I see an entitled man dragging a helpless woman around until she finally succumbs to him. On the other hand, when you set up a dynamic where the man is wealthy, charismatic, and powerful, while the woman is poor, unattractive (according to the show), and socially awkward, having the man develop feelings first is a way to offer some power to the female character. The ball is finally in her court, and it's ultimately her decision if she wants to proceed. It balances the relationship.

When a show's writers recognize that both characters can contribute equally to a relationship, it allows for a natural friendship between the characters that serves as a basis for their love. Some of my absolute favorite scenes in romantic dramas involve the two leads spending time together and becoming friends before a romance blossoms. If you aren't even friends with someone, why on earth should we believe that you're willing to give up your family company or your first love or one of your kidneys for that person?

Where does one find such balanced friendships? Here are a few of the more equal relationships in K-drama land:

1. History of a Salaryman

This is a prime example of how a focus away from romantic hurdles can actually build a stronger K-drama relationship. The main couple never kissed. THEY NEVER KISSED. And yet, when I think about the best relationships in dramaland, the relationship between Yoo Bang and Baek Yeo Chi was refreshingly balanced. What made this couple so fantastic is that, while they grew as people, they never stopped being themselves. We didn't get a Prime Minister and I scenario where the two leads started out with personalities that gradually deflated into tame, generic pleasantries by the end of the show. Instead, we got two very flawed characters who accepted and enjoyed each other for who they were. This couple didn't need to cry over each other with solitary tears because it didn't match their personalities. Instead, Baek Yeo Chi was swearing her face off until the very end of the show, and Yoo Bang was boisterous as ever. That's the kind of relationship you believe will last until they're old and grey. I'm only partway through My Love from Another Star, but it seems like it may be a similar dynamic with a female lead who doesn't lose her sass to love.

2. Sungkyunkwan Scandal

There's something about a gender bender that invites a balanced relationship. When you take physical appearance out of the equation, the male lead has no choice but to respect the female lead as a person if he's going to fall in love. Sungkyunkwan Scandal allows its female lead to act as the core of her male group, demonstrating her value in the relationship before the relationship even begins. Even the romantic parts blossom from their shared interests, like the love notes hidden in library books.

3. Coffee Prince

Coffee Prince was my very first K-drama, and when I initially watched it, I was constantly uneasy that the relationship would turn into a puppy-master disaster. After all, Han Kyul is clearly the one in control as the wealthy, handsome playboy who also happens to be Eun Chan's boss, and Eun Chan is pretty open about her feelings from the beginning of the series. I have to admit that Eun Chan's enthusiasm sometimes bordered on being puppylike for me (I know that Coco disagrees), but what ultimately saves this relationship is the deep friendship that precedes and underlies the entire romance. Han Kyul and Eun Chan are completely comfortable around each other, both as friends and later as lovers.

4. King 2 Hearts

The chemistry between the leads wasn't the best I have ever seen, but what I appreciated in this drama was the recognition of strengths and weaknesses on both sides. Kim Hang Ah can fend for herself and then some, which means that she has plenty to contribute to a relationship with a king. Because they first meet as colleagues in training, there are quite a few moments throughout the drama where these two enjoy their time together.

5. Protect the Boss

Both of these characters are quirky and odd. What makes them work so well is that they bring out the best in each other. Alone, they're both a bit lost. Together, they're much better than the sum of their parts. This is one example where the male character fell first, but it didn't turn into a feminist nightmare. Instead, the female lead gave him (and viewers) a lesson on sexual harassment and focused on building a lasting connection before even considering the possibility of love.

So far, You Are All Surrounded is giving me hope that it might be a drama with a strong central friendship. Sure, Dae Gu is still in the mean phase of the relationship, but both characters have strengths and weaknesses that complement each other well, and working together is generally a good premise for building deep friendships. Fingers crossed that it uses the potential well!

Maybe you've noticed that this list is short. You know what that means? It means that I want suggestions for balanced K-drama relationships. Anyone have favorites? (And if you say Boys over Flowers or Heirs, I will disregard your opinion forever. Don't take it personally, okay?)

Balance in the K-drama Relationship

Kdrama Spinoffs!

Sometimes while I watch Kdramas, I catch myself imagining spinoff television shows based on the characters. Does anyone else do this? Just me? Well, some of my imaginary spinoffs are more desirable than others, but here are a few (mostly joking) spinoffs that have crossed my mind of late:

1. Koreans in Sombreros: The Yeo Jin Story

Lost love! Lost limbs! Frantic wedding day car chases!

C'mon. A Cunning Single Lady/Sly and Single Again prequel featuring Yeo Jin's ill-fated first love would be like a telenovela having babies with a soapy, melo Kdrama. In other words, incredibly trashy, but totally addicting. Can we add in a birth secret for good measure? Sure! Why not dream big?

2. Mastah Chep

I envision this as a cooking reality show where Lee Chun Hee and Gong Hyo Jin each head up teams of competing chefs. The two actors would, of course, take on their previous roles from Dating Agency: Cyrano and Pasta, respectively.

3. Noodles for Young Do

My brother-in-law happened to see bits and pieces of Heirs, and he later asked me, "Why is that Young Do kid so obsessed with noodles? Is that code for going steady?"

Well, in this spinoff, Young Do would throw off the shackles of being a hotel heir and open his own noodle restaurant by the sea. In the process, he would discover inner peace, and, of course, love. A Korean noodle company could fund the project in exchange for delicious product placement. Kim Woo Bin ain't cheap, you know.

4. Barassi's Playhouse!

Why does this dog not have his own children's show? WHY? It's been a while since I learned how to count to ten, but I bet his furry face would have been great motivation.

Oh, and P.S., in this spinoff, Barassi can fly.

5. The Adventures of Geol Oh and Yeorim

This actually isn't a joke. This is a serious ongoing fantasy. Hurry up and get into the army, Yoo Ah In! The sooner you go, the sooner you and Song Joong Ki can be reunited in magnificent glory. 

Who do I have to pay to make this happen? Oh, wait, I'm too poor for that. Which chaebols are available for Coco to marry so that she can bankroll this project? Because I'm usually opposed to selling out my friends, but I might make an exception to see this wonder on the screen.

Kdrama Spinoffs!

A New Favorite from an Old Story: Sungkyunkwan Scandal Review

Dear Sungkyunkwan Scandal,

Thank you.

You might not be the perfect drama, but you were the perfect drama for me.

Much love,
Vivi

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The Cast

I feel like I'm the last person in all of drama-dom to get on the SKKS train, but in spite of my late arrival (fueled by uncertainty about historical dramas), I'm glad I made the leap.  

The only word I can think of to describe why I loved it so much is balance.  First of all, the cast was excellent all around. I put Park Min Young's portrayal of Kim Yoon Hee onto my list of smart kdrama female leads when I was only halfway through the series, and I never regretted my choice.  Her character was smart and capable without being a monster.  The men in the show did step in to physically save her quite a few times, but she also pulled through at enough key moments to prove that relationships are a two-way street.

I know that a lot of people initially gravitated towards this drama for Micky Yoochun's role as Lee Sun Joon, but this isn't one of those dramas that relies on the male lead by any means.  Let's face it: his role as a morally rigid scholar basically requires a wooden performance 90% of the time.  It fits his character, but it wouldn't be enough to pull the show through a full 20 episodes. I did, however, appreciate that his character was a decent person from the beginning of the show, much like the lead in Queen In Hyun's Man.

Fortunately, the writers balance his stoic nature by offering us the most dynamic duo in bromance history: Moon Jae Shin ("Geol Oh") and Gu Yong Ha ("Yeorim"), played by Yoo Ah In and Song Joong Ki, respectively. (For more on Song Joong Ki, head over to Crazy for Kdrama's Khottie of the Week post.)  These two add humor, friendship, and depth to the series.  Every time the two of them were on the screen, I was enthralled.

Can we please have a sequel to this drama entitled

The Adventures of Yeorim and Geol Oh? Pretty pretty please?

Given how much I loved these two, it would have been really easy to fall into second (or third) male lead syndrome, clutching my heart and wishing that the female lead would choose the guy in the background instead.  While I wanted ALL of them to find love (hence our "Which Sungkyunkwan Scholar Is Your Ideal Match" quiz), the two primary leads actually matched each other really well, and the romance grew on me quite a bit in the last few episodes.  Love notes hidden in library books?  Be still my nerdy heart!  

Reading books and holding hands?  True love!

The Plot

With a few exceptions (which I will get to in a moment), I felt like the pacing in this series was pretty smart. The tone was balanced between lighthearted and serious throughout the entire series as opposed to starting out fun and ending with a cryfest. They plotted out the big moments in the drama so that it felt pretty constantly engaging without becoming ridiculous--for the most part.  I did have a hearty chuckle every time they tried to identify the Red Bandit using that drawing.  ("Have you seen the Red Bandit?  He has eyes.") I have heard some reviewers complain that Yoon Hee becomes less interesting towards the end of the series, but I actually felt like that was one of the show's biggest strengths.  The first two-thirds of the series are really heavily focused on Yoon Hee's character development and the concerns she faces as a woman hiding in a man's world.  In the last third, however, the focus shifts to the other three members of the Jalgeum Quartet.  We get to learn more about each one of them as we see their progress towards the series finale.  That's part of what made me feel invested in the characters--it was episode 18, and I was still getting to know Yeorim and Geol Oh a little bit better.

Having stunningly beautiful backdrops to even the silliest of scenes doesn't hurt the interest level, either.

As I said, there are some exceptions to this rule.  The two or three episodes leading up to the finale draaaaaaaaaaaagged along, and then the last five minutes of episode 20 zoomed ahead at warp speed in an attempt to wrap everything up with a nice neat bow.  As a result, I had some problems with the conclusion of the show.  

(Spoiler) I was happy to see Yoon Hee teaching, but it seemed a little too tidy for the problems raised in the earlier episodes.  Based on the way the scholars reacted to her, it seemed like she was teaching as a woman.  That's great from an empowerment perspective, but it undermines the depth of discrimination that she faced.  So in the space of maybe a couple of years, women are suddenly accepted not only as scholars, but also as professors?  That solution is both anachronistic and simplistic. 

The other option is that she's actually teaching as a man, which is supported by the headmaster calling her "Kim Yoon Shik."  If this is the case, then how is she pulling off leading a double life married to another professor?  Nobody noticed her?  What happens when they use that little red book a little too efficiently and she ends up pregnant?  Either way, this drama deserves better.

The Message

As I mentioned earlier, Kim Yoon Hee is pretty progressive in terms of gender portrayals in kdramas.  This is why I appreciate most gender-bending dramas.  The relationships are built off of mutual respect and friendship before physical attraction even enters the equation.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal doesn't stop at feminism, though. It's filled with commentary on sexuality, politics, and socioeconomic status, which is interesting considering that it's set hundreds of years ago.  As I watched, I was reminded of an article I once read that compared Clueless to Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow). Both films were adaptations of Jane Austen's work, but Emma was actually more progressive in terms of gender representations.  The author suggested that modern films don't feel the need to push boundaries as much as period pieces do.

I think that's what's happening here.  Maybe viewers (and producers) enjoy seeing Yoon Hee talk about the capability of women because they can recognize the oppression in her society, but they're less comfortable raising those same issues in a modern-day setting, where they resort to wrist grabs and floods of tears instead.  Just a thought.

She wouldn't be smiling so much if she got stuck with a million wrist grabs.

And Now for Some History

The major reason it took me so long to get to this drama was the historical setting.  I wasn't sure if I would be interested in a series that takes place in Korea's Joseon era, so I stayed away for far too long.  What eventually helped was that I eased into historical dramas with two time-travel dramas: Rooftop Prince and Queen In Hyun's Man. The combination of the two helped me get used to some of the costuming and customs before I watched a full series set in the past.

While time-travel dramas helped a bit, this drama can be hard to follow if you don't know much about Korean history.  Once the political intrigue began, I was very, very confused until I did some research to figure out what on earth was happening. (Dear Subtitlers: I love you very much, but when you translate "Geum-deung-ji-sa" differently in every scene, you aren't helping.)  In order to help others who may want to watch the show but are too lazy to use Google, here's a quick overview:

King Yeongjo had a son, Crown Prince Sado, who may or may not have been insane.  Rumor on the streets had it that Sado was going around killing random people in the palace, so, thinking that murderers don't make good kings, Yeongjo ordered his son to sit in a hot rice basket until he suffocated to death (eight days later--shudder).  Some people later argued that the prince's death was mostly a plot by the Noron faction, but Sado's wife (Lady Hyegyong) wrote some memoirs suggesting that her husband really was both mentally ill and violent.   

So how does this all relate to the events of SKKS?  Well, there were rumors of some scrolls (called the Geum-deung-ji-sa) that Yeongjo wrote at the end of his life, lamenting his decision to kill his son and explaining that it really was just a Noron play for power.  Sado's son Jeongjo (the king who appears in SKKS) really did spend his life looking for those scrolls and trying to clear his father's name (though they were never found).  He also moved the capital to Suwon and tried to open government positions to lower classes, though many of those reforms didn't totally stick.

The short version? These guys = bad.  Everyone else = good.

Got it?  Yeah, history is crazy.  Even though I tend to agree with Yoo Ah In's drunken tweets on the subject of historical accuracy in fictional stories, my nerdy side loved sorting out which events actually happened in real life. I also really, really want to read Lady Hyegong's memoirs now.

The other confusing historical part is some of the costuming.  Maybe it's just me, but  it was really hard to tell all of the government officials apart at first.  This isn't some  "all Asians look the same" statement.  It's more of a "When all of these middle-aged Korean men wear identical outfits and have identical facial hair, they look the same" statement.

With all of the Mickey Mouse hats and goatees wandering around the set, I ended up rewinding a lot and thinking, "Wait, is Long Face the Minister of War?  Or was that White Beard? I'm so confuuuuuuuuuuuuused!"  I ended up getting it all straight in the end, but it took a while.

In Conclusion

This series was just what I was looking for at this stage in my drama-watching life.

So long and thanks for all of the good times, Jalgeum Quartet!

A New Favorite from an Old Story: Sungkyunkwan Scandal Review

Quiz: Which Sungkyunkwan Scholar Is Your Ideal Match?

I'm in the middle of Sungkyunkwan Scandal right now (right around the point in the show where I'm throwing things at the TV and shouting "JUST TELL HIM YOU'RE A GIRL! AAAAAAAAAHLJSFDLJF;KSJHGHSDKGHSDKJHFLKSDH!"), and I am having some serious trouble deciding which cast member is my favorite.  That actually says something about how well-rounded this show is, but it's nice to know which character you're rooting for over all the others.  To save others from a similar predicament, I have composed a (ridiculous and completely unscientific) quiz to help you figure out which member of the Sungkuynkwan community is your ideal love match. For those who haven't seen the show, there is some spoiler-y stuff in the questions, but nothing that you couldn't guess pretty early into the series.

Source

The rules: Just keep track of your answers and tally the number of times you answered A,B,C, or D.  Then, BEFORE you look at the results, vote in our poll. The results are underneath the poll.  NO CHEATING!

Which Sungkyunkwan Scholar Is Your Ideal Match?

1. Which style do you find most attractive?
A. Tousled and scruffy
B. Clean-cut
C. Metrosexual
D. Conventional, but combined with a cold glare that tells you who's boss

2. Who was your favorite male character in Boys over Flowers?
A. I could never decide between Ji Hoo and Woo Bin.  If they could somehow combine the two into a clone who is very sad and also punches people, I would be in heaven!
B.   Jun Pyo.  I like tall, reserved leaders.  I just wish he had been more of a scholar!
C.  Yi Jung.  The sexy saxophone totally won me over!
D.   Remember Jae Ha?  Crazy Harry Potter kidnapper guy?  Swoon!

3. What primary life motivation do you find most attractive?
A. Revenge/honoring the dead
B. Principles
C. Entertainment
D. Power

4. When a man is unexpectedly attracted to someone off-limits and doesn't know what to do, how should he respond?
A. Nervous hiccups covered by sarcasm
B. Give the object of his affection the cold shoulder
C. Off-limits?  There's no such thing!
D. Threats--threats always work!

5. Assuming that they all suddenly transformed into attractive Korean men, which Beauty and the Beast character would you date?
A. Beast 
B. Cogsworth
C. Lumiere
D. Gaston 

6.  Everyone brings some baggage to their relationships.  Which one would you be most willing to accept?
A. He's secretly a ninja messenger trying to avenge his brother's murder and take down corrupt government officials. Think of him as Joseon Batman.
B.  He feels very strong filial loyalty, which would be great if his dad weren't actually a corrupt government official who was involved in your father's death.
C. You're pretty sure he's had more than a handful of gisaeng girlfriends.  STDs, anyone?
D. His father once tried to force you to be his concubine.  Awk-ward!

7.  You have to pretend to be a man for a while, but then your love interest finds out.  Which response is most endearing?
A. In order to protect you, he pretends not to know.  He then spends his time secretly making sure that no one touches a hair on your pretty head.
B. In order to protect you, he tries to make you leave and stop pretending to be a man. He also really, really wants to be near you.
C. He invades your personal space and makes a lot of sassy jokes involving double entendres, most of which you don't understand.
D. He tries to get you expelled--or, better yet--executed.


8. How should the ideal man feel about sports?
A. He's naturally better than everyone else at every single sport ever invented, but he only gets competitive if it will help others.
B. He has quite a bit of athletic training and natural talent, but what makes the difference is his dedication to practice for as long as it takes to succeed.
C. Sports make his clothes dirty.  He's better as a hilarious commentator.
D. Sports are an excellent opportunity to injure and/or humiliate enemies.

9.  Someone is causing trouble for you and your friends.  How would your ideal man respond?
A. Grab a lot of people by the collar and threaten to break their arms off.
B. Say something fancy about Confucius that shames everyone into leaving you alone.
C. Schmooze in the background to find a way around the problem.
D. Again, threats.  Threats will almost always be the answer.

Okay, tally up your answers and select the letter you most frequently chose in the poll below:

Which Sungkyunkwan Scholar Is Your Ideal Match?
	A
	B
	C
	D
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Results

A. Moon Jae Shin ("Geol Oh")

You like a little danger in your romance.  Geol Oh ("Crazy Horse") is rough-and-tumble on the outside, but he will do anything for someone he loves.  He is loyal, thoughtful, and he's great at comforting you when you feel down.  The downside?  You may have to bandage him after some of his midnight bandit exploits.

B. Lee Sun Joon ("Ga Rang")

Lee Sun Joon is an upright scholar.  He believes in the rules, and he wants to make the world a better place through order and logic. He may seem a little uptight at times, but when he's in love, even Confucius goes out the window.  He would be a great Scrabble buddy--unless, of course, you want a chance to win. 

C.  Gu Yong Ha ("Yeorim")

If you picked Yeorim, you've got a soft spot for the ladies' man.  He's a smooth operator who can sweep you off your feet with just one wink and a charming little grin.  Beware, though.  Yeorim knows how to show a girl a good time, but you can't fall for him too easily or he'll get bored and move on to his next conquest.

D. Ha In Soo

Yes, he's Sungkyunkwan's clever, handsome, wealthy, athletic student body president.  He's also a sociopath.  You should probably rethink your taste in men.

Quiz: Which Sungkyunkwan Scholar Is Your Ideal Match?