Austin's Choice - Korean Drama : 7. The Moon That Embraces The Sun

Based on the novel of the same title, The Moon That Embraces the Sun (also known as "The Sun and the Moon") reached almost 20% in viewership from its first episode. The acting and the visual appeal of the young actors have stolen the hearts of young female viewers, and the show’s ratings only improve with each new episode.
The Moon That Embraces the Sun is a historical drama depicting the first love of a fictional king, set in the royal court of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). It is a sad but beautiful love story of innocent young people, with the story developing around the conflicts and conspiracy of political powers vying for the throne against the king’s efforts for good politics.
The drama is a quality fusion historical drama enhanced by the strong acting of the main and supporting actors, its visual appeal, and the engaging dialogue that draws from the humor on the Internet.

Drama Information

Head producer:

Oh Gyeong-hun

Directed by:

Kim Do-hun, Lee Seong-jun

Screenplay by:

Jin Su-wan

Cast:

Han Ga-in, Kim Soo-hyun, Jung Il-woo, Kim Min-seo

Aired on:

January 4, 2012 - March 8, 2012 (20 episodes)

Broadcasting channel:

MBC

Website:

http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/drama/sunNmoon/ (Korean)

Synopsis

Heo Yeon-u, the daughter of a high-ranking official, visits the royal court with her mother to see her brother attend a ceremony congratulating his first place in the state examination. By chance, she comes across crown prince Lee Hwon, and the two feel attracted by each other. Yeon-u’s brother, a person of high scholarship with a great personality, is ordered by the king to become the mentor of the crown prince. After learning that his mentor is Yeon-u’s brother, the crown prince uses him as a messenger of love.
Inside the palace, there is a conspiracy to have Yoon Bo-gyeong, the daughter of a family clan that is in opposition to the king, selected as the crown princess. Lee Hwon manages to have Yeon-u selected as the crown princess, but his great-grandmother Yoon asks shaman Nok-yeong to cast a spell on Yeon-u so that she becomes stricken with an unknown sickness. Yeon-u is taken to her home in her last remaining days of life, and passes away. Nok-yeong secretly visits Yeon-u’s father and tells him how to break the spells. Upon being resurrected from her grave, Yeon-u lives her life as a shaman by the name Wol, without any recollection of her past. Meanwhile, after Yeon-u’s believed death, Yoon Bo-gyeong becomes the crown princess and expands her political power in the court. Amid difficult political circumstances, Lee Hwon grows to be a cold and aloof king. As time passes, his yearning for Yeon-u only grows. One day, he sets out on an excursion to a hot spring. Seeing him in the royal procession from afar, Yeon-u (Wol) becomes confused as Hwon comes back vaguely in her memory.

Characters

Heo Yeon-u played by Han Ga-in

Yeon-u - the moon containing the sun. Though her name means ‘misty rain,’ Yeon-u is like the clear sky after a shower. The daughter of a high-ranking official, she is educated and wise. She comes across Lee Hwon when she happens to visit the royal palace to attend a ceremony congratulating her brother’s first place in the state examination. Her first impressions of the crown prince turn into love. Though selected to be the crown princess, she is stricken with an unknown illness and is forced out of the palace. At home, she dies in her father’s arms. Not knowing what had happened to her, Yeon-u is brought back to life and becomes a shaman. One day, she comes across Lee Hwon again.

Lee Hwon played by Kim Soo-hyun

Lee Hwon - the sun reaching out for the moon. Handsome and always bright, he learns from his mentor (Yeon-u’s brother) the pleasure of scholarship and the etiquette expected of a king, while also learning about the world outside the palace and the joy of first love from Yeon-u. After the sudden death of Yeon-u, who was selected to be his crown princess, and the court’s decision to declare Yoon Bo-gyeong as the crown princess, he turns into a cold and cynical king. During a royal procession one day, he steps inside a shaman’s home to escape the rain. There, he meets a shaman called Wol who looks uncannily like Yeon-u.

Yang Myeong played by Jung Il-woo

Yang Myeong - a sad light overshadowed by the sun. Though he looks like he doesn’t care about anything in the world, he strives to be free from his destiny. As the half brother of Lee Hwon, he grew up in the shadow of Hwon. His father, the king, shuns him. To cope, he leaves the palace and roams about the world. He is a friend of Yeon-u’s brother and feels love for Yeon-u, but he falls in despair after Yeon-u’s death.

Yoon Bo-gyeong played by Kim Min-seo

Bo-gyeong - a mirror longing to be the moon. With a ladylike demeanor, she has a nice, warm personality on the surface. But her affection of the elderly, the respect of those who serve her, and the sympathy of the royal relatives are all the outcomes of her carefully crafted strategy to become crown princess. It was her father that turned the innocent young Bo-gyeong into an ambitious person. When Yeon-u dies, her wish to become Hwon’s consort comes true. But eight years later, her worries start to grow after seeing shaman Wol appear in front of the king

Filming Locations

.

 

The residence of Choi Champan is the background of Korea’s noted historical novel Toji (The Land) and a famous filming location. In The Moon That Embraces the Sun, it appears as the house where Yeon-woo spent her childhood. The residence is housed in a hanok building and has on exhibit various items showing the lifestyle and culture of the later part of the Joseon Dynasty. It boasts a splendid natural landscape with an expansive neighboring field and the Seomjingang River. In the spring, the area is bright with cherry flower blossoms along the river, and in the fall, the area turns into the venue for the Toji Literature Festival.

Yongin MBC Dramia

Yongin MBC Dramia is the filming set where Korean historical dramas like Jumong, Queen Seondeok, and Dong Yi were filmed. The facility features buildings from the Three Kingdoms era (the era of the Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla Kingdoms, between the 4th and mid-7th century) to the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). In The Moon That Embraces the Sun, royal palace scenes were mostly filmed here. With the popularity of Korean drama series, Yongin MBC Dramia is becoming a major tourist destination for both local and international tourists.

 

Korean Folk Village

The Korean Folk Village features the lifestyle and private houses of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). It has on exhibit various items from the era, including household tools, farming tools, and crafts. Various events are held by season, such as farmers’ music performances, tightrope dancing, and traditional wedding reenactments. The market inside the village sells various traditional foods like injeolmi (rice cake), bindaetteok (mung bean pancake), pajeon (spring onion pancake), and Korean liquors. In The Sun and the Moon, the local markets, the private residences of the commoners, and the night scenes were filmed here.

Information & written by KTO

Contact us about Korean Folk Village & MBC Dramia : Send Email

Korea Folk Village

On a time machine to 600 years ago!!

Wisdom in the Josun era, life of seonbi (classical scholar).

A professional tour guide will take you to Korea Folk Village,

a place right out of a historical drama.

 

 

 

 

Folk Village

Set in a natural environment occupying approximately 243 acres, visitors can experience the natural atmosphere with over 260 traditional houses reminiscent of the late Joseon Dynasty, including various household goods from different regions. All these features have been relocated and restored to provide visitors with a broad understanding of Korean food, clothing, and housing style of the past.

 

 

 

 

About twenty workshops, various handicrafts such as pottery, baskets, winnows, bamboo wares, wooden wares, paper, brass wares, knots, fans, musical instruments, iron wares and embroidery are practiced. In the Korean Folk Village, where the customs and lifestyles of the past generations have been carefully preserved, various lifestyles prevalent during the Joseon Dynasty can be seen.

 

 

 

 

You can visit the Folk Museum as well as the Art Museum (scheduled to open) to see and learn about the essence of Korean culture and folk customs, which are not suitable for display and re-creating in the open-air setting. Korean Folk Village is also the filming location for the famous movie Scandal as well as the TV miniseries Daejanggeum.

 

 

 

 

 

Contact us : Send E-mail

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korean Traditional Costume - Hanbok

Experience wearing Hanbok program : Click~! Korean culture tour

The Hanbok is the traditional outfit of the Korean people. Koreans nowadays wear this outfit only on festive days or special anniversaries, however it was worn daily up until just 100 years ago. It is a kind of traditional formal dress and most Koreans keep a hanbok for these special times. Children wear hanbok on their first birthday and adults wear it for their wedding ceremony and on their 60th birthday. The hanbok is also worn for funerals or religious services, and is still used as casual wear in villages or districts where the traditional ways of life are still maintained such as Chunghak-dong on Mount Jirisan.

One way to refer to Korea is 'the people in white’, which refers to the fact that the Korean people often wear white or similar tones. Koreans have long worn white clothing made of hemp or cotton regardless of their status. The case of formal dress was different, however. Color and design were typically luxurious and the hanbok was particularly highly valued for its gracious and subtle colors. Modern designers have presented the traditional Korean costume at renowned cities of fashion such as Paris and New York.

The hanbok is colored using natural dyes. The colors of nature are imbued in the cloth. For example, red dye is obtained from the petals of red flowers. The color pigment is extracted by grounding the petals in a mortar, putting them in a jar and rinsing them with hot caustic soda. It is a very slow, complicated, precise process. The colors obtained in this way differ greatly from artificial dyes in their color and depth. The Hanbok is creative and emotional in its design. One Korean phrase regarding the shape of the outfit is the 'upper is narrow, lower is wide'. The jacket must be tightened and the skirt relaxed, as was the silhouette of the women’s hanbok in Joseon times. The tightly fitting jacket attractively reflects the shape of the upper body. The wide sleeves and flexible skirts enhance the wearer’s gracefulness by hiding the physical features of the lower body.

The principles behind the creation of the hanbok can be explained by the movement from 2 dimensions to 3 dimensions. The flat cloth is patterned, cut, and sewn in 2 dimensions but the subject wearing the hanbok is a 3 dimensional being. The hanbok is frilled or fastened with string to enhance the 3D affect. The unique line of the hanbok is created from this process. The lines of the hanbok costume are as smooth as the curves of the eaves of tiled roof house and as sharp. An old adage says that you can tell the man by his clothes.

Koreans have traditionally lived as one with nature, and obtained all material from natural sources for making cloth and coloring it. Koreans favor smooth curves rather than straight lines and that has added a gracious line to the hanbok. A common comment that every hanbok designer gets is that the outfit is more beautiful when it is worn than when it is on the hanger, and more beautiful when moving than when standing. Indeed, the unique lines of the hanbok appear at their greatest when the wearer is in motion.

Although hanbok have become the ritual dress of choice worn only on traditional holidays, Koreans' love for hanbok is tremendous. The popularity of Korean classic dramas is causing many foreigners to take a keener interest in traditional Korean attire as well.

Contact us : Send E-mail

Students from Okkodo High School (Guam) visited Korea