My Say: Sungkyunkwan Scandal

" Is a man's love for another an ignominy? Of course, for scholars who practice Confucianism, the most important virtue in Confucianism, "in", refers to love for your friend ("ren"). In, Eui, Ye, Ji, Shin (ren, yi, li, zhi, xin in Chinese), they're virtues that should be upheld, as scholars following Mencius's teachings. But, instead of seeing the truth as it is, the foolish mind that only sees what it wants to see and believes what it wants to believe cannot be considered wise ("zhi"). To put others in harm's way because of irresponsible curiosity,laughing and enjoying it without knowing that it is a sin, cannot be considered as just ("yi") or proper ("li"). And a heart that cannot trust ("xin") a friend cannot be called a Confucian scholar. No one has the right to judge and point fingers at a person for his love for another with precepts and skewed standards of what constitutes a scandal. If that is the way of a neo-Confucian scholar, I would rather choose to be...homosexual." - Lee Sun Joon

Sungkyunkwan Scandal, a cross-dressing in an era-themed Korean drama, is the new series I'm able to finish last night. Unlike its previous predecessors, this series is not just your ordinary romantic-comedy series but rather it's more on a serious side with sprinkled comedy. Although the series employs the cross dressing theme, putting it in a Joseon era setting gave the drama a different feel and more seriousness unlike other cross dressing series.

With the political struggles of the different faction of that time, how can friendship blossom in four people with different backgrounds and belongs to different factions? With the strict compliance of the ideals of Confucianism in their time, how can they question the tradition and change the place where they lived?

Introduction:

Sungkyunkwan Scandal is set in Sungkyunkwan University in the late Joseon era during the reign of King Jeongjo, revolving around the exploits and love stories of four youths. When her younger brother's illness worsens and their family is in danger of being evicted from their house for lack of money, Kim Yoon Hee enters the school under his name, disguised as a boy in her desperation to support him. There, she becomes friends with the intelligent and upright Lee Sun Joon, the playboy Goo Yong Ha and rebellious Moon Jae Shin.- DramaWiki

My Say:

When a cross dressing series comes to mind, people always associated it with romantic-comedy kind of drama and true enough, series like Coffee Prince and You're Beautiful is a rom-com series and it is always a big hit. But unlike them, Sungkyunkwan Scandal or SKKS for short is not your ordinary romantic comedy, it is romantic, it has comedy but with the addition of the historical element in the drama, it helps to spice up the series, adding more mystery and seriousness to it.

This series is also notable for having a good ensemble of cast portraying lovable characters who wears astounding costumes in a wonderful cinematography giving remarkable dialogues. These are just few of the reasons why SKKS is a hit to the people. But for me, the intriguing plot is the reason why I am hooked in this series. One must say that this is just like other Kdramas but for me, I see some uniqueness to it although I cannot point out what it really is, maybe the perfect harmony of the cast or the intricate connection of the characters to each other or because each characters have their own story, I really don't know.

My Rating: I'm giving this series 7 out of 10 stars for giving a popular themed drama (cross dressing) a different take, for the actors who played their characters well and for the great cinematography and story.