The Scholar Who Walks the Night (2015)

Entertaining But Average

I wanted to watch because Lee Joon Gi really left an impression on me from flower of evil. I’m happy to say that he didn’t disappoint. He plays a heroic vampire brilliantly and some of his monologues in the last few episodes were pretty solid.

The script is flawed. Though the main plot of vampires in Joseon era and the political struggle between humans and vampires is really interesting, the delivery is quite weak. 20 episodes felt too long for such a plot and I could tell they were really prologuing issues despite clear solutions; therefore, it felt stupid. I couldn’t take the problems seriously.

The characters didn’t seem to really have a plan which disappointed me because they were supposed to be leaders of this time. On top of this, the female lead’s character is extremely unbearable. Though i don’t mind the classic ‘damsel in distress’ arc, the girl should be worth risking your life for, right?

The female character has no charm. She seems to be the most useless person in the drama who just moves according to what plot demands. Characters around her treat her like a child. She’s so slow, painfully naive and just… clueless. It just baffles me how terrible they wrote her character. She’s not filled in on the most basic plot line even halfway through the drama, that’s just how irrelevant her presence is. It’s just a convenience that Sung Yeol fell for her.

For the positives, I do really appreciate some scenes because it feeds my vampire fantasy. Also, oh my god, the villain has to be the best character I’ve ever seen. Gwi shines throughout, his presence is bold. He is so attractive. I loved him.

Overall it’s average but some of it was memorable.

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Drama particolare diverso ma bello!

L'ho iniziato per la curiosità visto che è un drama un po' diverso da quelli che guardò generalmente e visto che i protagonisti mi piacevano ho deciso che era l'ora di vederlo.
Al inizio un po' piatto ma piacevole da guardare,i vampiri qui non fanno paura ma se parliamo di sangue score a fiumi.
C'è il vampiro buono che è vampiri non per scelta e che non fa mai male agli umani tanto che alla fine si innamora follemente di una ragazza dopo aver amato per 120 il suo primo amore.E bello e affascinante e con aria da studioso ricco e fantastico.
C'è la ragazza povera ma intraprendente che crescerà come maschio per poter far andare avanti la famiglia.
Poi c'è il cattivo che se è tremendamente bello e sexy e pur sempre un vampiro senza scrupoli che ammazzerà un sacco di gente.
L'ambientazione storica da una bella nota in più a questo drama,costumi bellissimi.Effetti scenici abbastanza belli nonostante i soliti cliché sui vampiri.
Sinceramente io il finale non l'ho ben capito e no saprei dire se è un bel finale o no,forse è la parte che mi ha lasciata più perplessa.

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Vampires in Joseon

This drama falls into the so-bad-is-good category for me. I love vampires, Lee Joon Gi and Lee Soo Hyuk was such a good villain that you almost end up rooting for him, and it has a couple of great supporting actresses in Jang Hee Jin and Kim So Eun.

Let's face it: the plot makes no sense most of the time and the production (mainly the practical effects), editing and music were bad. Still... You've got vampires fighting their beast and trying to maintain their humanity, literal and figurative bloodbaths and an emo vampire who was trouble tying up his robes and loves eyeliner.

The actors are too good for the script and they're what saves the day in this drama. If they'd had a better production (the high-speed running is hilarious, for example) and script this would have been an epic drama with this cast. The premise is good, but it's hard not to see the plotholes.

The romance part is a stereotype and Lee Yoo Bi doesn't have much to do with her character. She's most of the time kept in the dark and others make choices in her place, she then decides to keep secrets, noble sacrifices... nothing we haven't seen before but infuriating none the less.

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good, but

I went to watch it because I like the genre, fantasy/historic. the beginning gave me a bit of confusion, it didn't seem clear, but the next few episodes held me back to have interest. but it didn't last long. the protagonist, I'm not much of a fan of him, despite being the second drama I've seen him, it made me emphasize this feeling in this one, maybe it's something personal.
his romantic partner, the second protagonist, is very cute, nothing to say from her. but the plot of the story did not seem to favor her, leaving it somewhat useless. the plot made her all the time make rash decisions in which the protagonist missed her all the time, and that made the whole story roll up slow.
I think the drama could easily unfold into 10 episodes, and even with its 20, the last capitols, I found it very rushed, without much explanation (actually the whole drama doesn't have many explanations for many things). the villain, I liked it a lot, but for me, it lacked motivation. at last, the only character that caught my charisma, nor was he one of the protagonists, but the servant (he) of the vamp protagonist. Anyway, I can't say I don't have fun, but it's a forgettable drama.

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Struggles Halfway Through - But Otherwise Decent

I love the supernatural, especially vampires, so it was obvious that I would check out this drama. I liked the idea of a female character (Yang Seon) gaining some form of economic independence, by cross-dressing and selling illegal books for a living - and a handsome vampire (Sung Yeol) whose turning was very traumatic. I was interested in seeing how these two characters would introduced to another, and how their lives would intertwine.

Somehow, I feel like they are not very compatible, even later on. Yang Seon is, to put it mildy, an idiot. I know female characters are usually written this way, but it becomes very infuriating as the series goes on. It makes sense for her not to know anything in the beginning, as she's just a regular person with no knowledge on vampires or their existence. However, this continues to be a thing throughout the whole drama. The viewers and all the other characters know everything, while Yang Seon struggles to keep up. The immediate moment she learns something new, the viewer is introduced to a new "secret," so Yang Seon is behind once again! It's stupid! If I hear her say "sunbaenim" one more time...

The writers seem to prefer to use Yang Seon as a plot device rather than a character of her own. This is especially evident halfway through the drama, where everything becomes very chaotic. Plot points are introduced and resolved within the same episode, and they do this several times! Yang Seon learns something new, she gets herself into danger, Sung Yeol saves her. Rinse and repeat for multiple episodes. I'm normally very good at staying focused, but at some points I was just looking at the screen once in a while to catch up while doing something else. The only redeeming episodes were the last 2-4 as the plot seems to pick up again.

Besides my furious disposition towards the FL, I actually like all the other characters. Sung Yeol and his crew are well-written characters. Gwi is a well-rounded villain and quite entertaining on his own. Sometimes, just being evil is good enough when it comes to writing. There is some very good character development that I feel makes this drama worth a watch. This is not the worst vampire-themed series I've seen.

I agree with others about the music choices. Be ready to hear the same three tracks used in every scene.

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I was curious at first and thinked this is gonna be best Drama but i've watched one by one eps the plot was not unpredictable. All are good except the story. I love the music, acting, and i got the feeling but at the end of story when they got all of 3 way to kill Gwi, they need 120 years to make that plan but they didn't used that plan to kill Gwi. It was so easy to killed him by sunlight and bombed the underground's castle. They shouldn't needed to wait 120 years if they did it. I just said this Drama had overpowered Enemy but they killed him easily without the plan they habe made in 120 years

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Para sakin ang drama nato ay hindi ako nasatisfied hindi ako kinilig sa mga bida wala silang chemistry dalawa, naiinis ako sa FL parang hindi masyadong marunong umacting naiirita ako sakanya parang hindi masyadong marunong sa facial expression may pa lipbite pa pati yung mata nya na iirita dn ako parang wala ng alam na expression kundi palakihin yung mata nya akala mo laging nagugulat
Pero yung kontrabida Ang galing ang gwapo at ang sexy ni lee soo hyuk pwedeng pakagat LHS huhu ayan na naman tayo delulu
Una kong nakita si lee soo hyuk sa Tomorrow ung kita ko napasin ko is yung ilong nya ang tangos at ang gwapo nya grabe

Pero balik tayo sa kwento kayo kung nagustuhan nyo ang kwento ok pero iba2x naman tayo ng opinion ako slight lng dahil fave kong actor yan si lee jun ki🥰

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Great historial/fantasy drama.

I really love this drama. It is really well made historical drama, with vampire lore, which is very well done, as the main villain (the vampire Gwi) was absolutely incredible, as much as Lee Joon Gi in the main role. It was some small weaker spots and so at times, but I think it was partly because its slightly older drama and it could've been two episodes shorter, maybe. I enjoyed the main story and most of the scenes, the chemistry between main leads was good and the OST was really great. The ending was satisfying. Cleary a happy end if you watch properly, but it leaves some space for imagination, for after life as well. For me, definitely worth watching for anyone who enjoys historical drama and fantasy elements.

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Story is quite interesting, full of secrets and politic too. Acting is good. Still watching, will update the review once finished watching this.

UPDATE: I like lee joon gi's acting here.
Lee Yu Bi is cute, but the acting is okay lah. Not too good and also not too bad,
but quite different from the webtoon's character.

The story itself is great, and makes sense even though it's a fantasy story.
There is no unnecessary misunderstanding, i like how the lead female really trust lead male.
However, some parts are not explained here and make u guess it yourself, for eg why Kim Sung-yeol didn't want to fight the vampire king in the beginning and kept trying to find the secret book, well, i guess it because he doesn't drink human's blood so often so he is weak? etc.

Even though it has flaws, but i really like the story and lee joon gi really bring Kim Sung-yeol character alive. I don't get bored watching this too even though it has 20 episodes. The ending even though is ambiguous but i am satisfied and i will just view it as a happy ending.

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Female Lead Idiocy

It was a good start, i was pretty excited for a vampire drama seeing as they were pretty limited. I think all the characters did good and the acting was as good as it could be.

However, as the show continued I started becoming irritated with the FL, not even the actress, more so how they wrote the character. There is no reason she should be this stupid, like read the room woman. She has encountered ML countless times in his vampire form and exerting strength that isn't humanely possible but still goes around all confused on this and that. Not to mention everyone is trying so hard to protect her but she does everything out her way to make that protection invalid. ML really tried at least three to four times to send her away because Gwi (the main antagonist) knew her scent but each time she kept her family from leaving until it ended up with her father dead because she left a damn shoes in the house.

Like that’s why you’re suppose to be wearing the damn shit, no sense why he gave her shoes as a gift because she didn’t have any and yet she never wears it and carries it around like a trophy, simply ridiculous. And after that scene I never saw the shoes again or even her remembering it. It even pained me some more when she ran off into the palace because she didn’t know if ML was still alive,and then said she was being impulsive because she loved him knowing that he had to buy her slave contract and everything to even get her out of the palace in the first place, but i digress. Nothing could be worse than when the rogue vampire had killed everyone and ML finally had him down to kill him and she starts screaming not to kill the vampire, and now the vampire is of use to Gwi. After that scene I couldn’t deal at all anymore, it was ridiculous. I’ve seen countless dramas with female leads that are a bit of airheads but this honestly takes the cake. Semi high rating is only for the actors and team who helped put together this foolery despite the questionable character setups.

I barely remember any of the music in this, it was pretty forgettable.
The chemistry between the leads was hardly what I would call swoon worthy.

Sad I had to drop this after basically being at the end, but I couldn't stomach the cringe and the stupidity any longer.

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