The Moon That Embraces the Sun

The Sun and the Moon is one of those TV series that I would have wagered in advance that I'd like a lot. And because I need something to look forward to all the time, I deliberately kept it "for later". I myself can't believe I managed to put it off for so long. At first, it seemed like my hunch was absolutely right. I don't really go for the childhood period in the series, I usually treat it purely as a prelude and look forward to getting into the main plot. Here, though, is perhaps the first time I've fallen for the childhood prelude more than what followed years later. I'd be hard pressed to find better young actors. These ones were absolutely amazing and their performances had everything. Sadly, that can't be said for the actors in adulthood. The king is probably the only one who was ultimately able to match his younger counterpart. The choice of the main character was rather unfortunate in my opinion. Ga-in Han just couldn't pull off the role. While her predecessor may have set the bar very high, she also laid a really nice foundation for this character to be loved by the audience. And Ga-in didn't take advantage of that. I'm not saying it didn't work with her at all, but if I imagine another, slightly more capable actress in the role, the series would have been stretched to near perfection. The slower pacing after the time shift could be excused. But the chemistry between the main characters in the second part of the series is really lacking. It's a shame, a little would have been enough. 4 stars. (01.03.2019)