The Scholar Who Walks the Night

The Scholar Who Walks the Night (2015) Information

• Drama: Scholar Who Walks the Night (literal title)
• Revised romanization: Bameul Geotneun Sunbi
• Hangul: 밤을 걷는 선비
• Director: Lee Sung-Joon
• Writer: Jo Joo-Hee (original comic), Han Seung-Hee (original comic), Jang Hyun-Joo
• Network: MBC
• Episodes: 20
• Release Date: July 8 - September 10, 2015
• Runtime: Wednesday & Thursdays 21:55
• Language: Korean
• Country: South Korea
• "Scholar Who Walks the Night" takes over MBC's Wednesday & Thursday 21:55 time slot previously occupied by "Warm and Cozy" and followed by "She Was Pretty" on September 16, 2015.
• Based on webcomic "Bameul Geotneun Sunbi” by Jo Joo-Hee (writer) & Han Seung-Hee and the webcomic was first published as a comic on December 25, 2012 by Seoul Media Group.
• Actress Jin Se-Yun was offered the lead female role, but declined the offer.
• Lee Joon-Gi and Lee Yoo-Bi were injured while filming for the drama series on June 10, 2015. Actor Lee Joon-Gi fractured his nose and actress Lee Yoo-Bi injured her waist. Lee Joon-Gi resumed filming on June 18, 2015 and Lee Yoo-Bi resumed filming on June 25, 2015.

The Scholar Who Walks the Night (2015) plot

In Joseon Dynasty, immaculately dressed in scholarly robes, the young nobleman Kim Sung Yeol lives as a vampire to keep his promise to his friends. When Sung Yeol still was a human, he found out about the vampire Gwi who sits above the King deciding the next royal line and has resurrected as a vampire trying to fight against Gwi. And now, he is living as a guardian vampire fighting against the evil vampire without losing his human nature.

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.

Thoughst on The Scholar Who Walks the Night (2015)

I loved so much about this drama. God, after the 5 first episodes I was falling hard and so happy I was watching it. My reasons: the acting, the costumes, the budding romance between Sung Yeol and Yang Sun (that chemistry!) and just Lee Joon Gi's acting in and of itself (and the fact that he's insanely beautiful here. Those eyes!) Sometimes something is just really your thing, and I really felt it (and still feel it to some extent) here.

But it got a bit chaotic. The story went places I was skeptical about. So much noble sacrifice. So much angst that didn't really feel worth it and I longed for the tone in the beginning of the show again. (I'm not against angst, but you want it in proper meaningful doses not just as a go-to-tool to make you care more about characters you already care about). Also character voice-overs that sometimes added to a scene, but just stated the obvious in others. But I trusted it would be better, or at least a bit more happy (I loved the characters and wanted them to feel good), so I persisted. A lot of people have complaints about the story and worldbuilding and I understand them. I'm usually pretty accepting when it comes to plotholes, inconcistensies etc, but there were quite a few here and I think they added to the less engaged feeling I had in the middle of the series. I also hear they changed the writer in the middle of the series, so that might have to do something with it. I would say that the interactions between Lee Joon Gi's and Lee Yoo Bi's characters are what make this drama worth watching till the end, despite there being some tropes and effort to romantizise certain scenes (thanks to the music) that aren't really romantic (which is a pity, since there were plenty of beautifully romantic ones). But Lee Joon Gi and Lee Yoo Bi are so good that I just believed it all, and the supporting actors and their stories were really good too. There were also several scenes and dialogues that were really profound and touching.

And the fight and action scenes were really neat. Not to mention the costumes! Gorgeous.

I've seen a lot of people not liking the soundtrack. Granted, there were some weird music choices in some scenes and I think they could have used A LOT LESS love songs the second a romantic scene started (sometimes you should just let a scene speak for itself!). But, there was also some really epic soundtrack, I'm thinking of the instrumental tracks. (especially in action/epic scenes). The feeling of those tracks made me think of Peter Greenaway's music and a certain track by The Mutato Mu used in The Royal Tenenbaums (if anyone knows what I'm talking about). There were scenes where those tracks just enhanced them beautifully, so much that I went back and rewatched a couple of them just for the joy of it. (Too bad those tracks aren't included in the OST).

I would recommend this drama if you like Lee Joon Gi, great acting and touching romance and some epic scenes. If you demand a tight plot, consistent story and a great deal of thought between what's happening you might want to pass. (But then again, if you're a fan of Lee Joon Gi or Lee Yoo Bi, you might not ;) ).

I haven't watched a great deal of dramas (yet), so I'm new to k-drama-land and maybe that's also why I'm willing to overlook some tropes and inconsistensies. But for me, Lee Joon Gi and the other actors along with visuals and some of the music here is unmissable and what makes me willing to rewatch this again sometimes.

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