Oh My Drama: Scholar Who Walks The Night

Officially Kmusic

October 1, 2015

I thought my infatuation with vampires in Korean dramas was over once I finished ‘Blood.’ How could it get any better?

By adding Joseon era Lee Joon Ki, of course!

‘Scholar Who Walks The Night‘ is a drama by MBC and lasted 20 episodes, running from July 8th to September 10th, 2015.

The synopsis of the drama goes something like this: A daughter from a collapsed noble family, due to being branded a traitor, dresses up like a man and goes out to sell books. She meets an attractive scholar walking at night, but the scholar is actually vampire.

HOWEVER, you really need to watch the drama to understand the first half of the synopsis, because the amount of information it leaves out and you don’t figure out until the middle of the series is astounding. Like A LOT. I didn’t even understand the synopsis until halfway through anyway because there’s no real mention of it until then. It’s literally all about Sung Yeol and his life for the first few episodes, and then it starts getting there around episode 8.

In ‘Scholar Who Walks The Night,’ the story first centers around scholar Kim Sung Yeol (Lee Joon Ki) and his friend, Crown Prince Junghyun (Lee Hyun Woo), who is also the writer known as Forbidden Quest.

One night, he tells Sung Yeol about a terrible monster controlling the king within the castle, a vampire. Junghyun plans to rid the kingdom of the beast, and leaves important clues in his personal journal.

However, Junghyun is soon killed by the vampire, known as Gwi (Lee Soo Hyuk), and Kim Sung Yeol goes out in search of another vampire, Haeso, the one that helped formulate the plan to kill Gwi in the first place.

But alas, Gwi has reached him as well, and as he is dying, he bites Kim Sung Yeol, turning him into a vampire as well.

Without going into too much detail, let me tell you that the vampire who bit Sung Yeol could walk in daylight with the help of a black garb, which was passed on to Sung Yeol when he awoke three days later after being bitten. The black garb plays a big role later on in the drama.

Sung Yeol, distraught at his new circumstances, searches out Gwi. Gwi, knowing this, kidnapped his beloved fiancee, Myung Hee (Kim So Eun).

Gwi informs Sung Yeol that he must devour humans to stay alive, rather than her lover be tormented by Gwi, Myung Hee sacrifices herself and tells Sung Yeol to feed on her so that he may one day defeat Gwi and restore the kingdom to the rightful ruler.

A very sad scene ensues and I was drowned in my own tears.

Fast forward 120 years later, we are know focusing on a very obviously cross dressing boy (who is actually a girl) named Jo Yang Sun (Lee Yoo Bi). She dresses up as a boy to provide for her family. Her father used to work in the palace, until ten years prior when the former Crown Prince Sadong (Jang Seung Jo) began an uprising to overthrow Gwi, which failed. He and many others escaped, and now live normal lives.

Yang Sun one day goes to Hwayanggak, the brothel where the Scholar likes to hang out and meet merchants/study. This scholar requires illegal books, which Yang Sun is known for being able to provide.

However, she decides that at that time she NEEDS to save a chipmunk. So in her sleeve, in front of the scholar, it flies out. Running past the black screen, so she decides to give chase, and it bites her.

Overcome with her scent, the scholar covers his face and looks away. Yang Sun, confused, thinks its because she smells bad.

I mean, you probably do, if you’re carrying around a wild animal in your clothes. Just saying.

Anyway, push comes to shove, and it turns out that Sung Yeol needs Yang Sun to defeat Gwi. This plan also includes the new Crown Prince, Yoon, son of Crown Prince Sadong, played by TVXQ‘s Changmin, who is also the new Forbidden Quest. Who draws naked ladies and writes smut.

Dreamy, isnt he?

To explain this drama in its entirety would take much too long. So I will leave you with a few thoughts:

There are certain scenarios that are repeated throughout the drama and are rather tiring.

There is death. And a lot of it near the end.

I wept several times but not as much as near the end

The ending came way too close to making me hate the show. They pulled out a surprise in the last five minutes, and I hate it when they do that.

Lots of double crossing. But its so obvious, like really? You fell for that? How stupid are you? And you’ve been alive for how long now?

A lot of the time, the show made me want to pull my hair out. Other times, it was really cute…or I was drowning in tears. If you’re interested, view this drama with English subs on Viki or Dramafever!

Edited by: Morgan Oswald

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