Kdrama 2021

Lovers of the Red Sky (Kdrama Review & Summary)

 

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• Genre: Historical Costume Drama Fiction, Joseon Period,  Romance, Fantasy
• Release Date: 30 August 2021
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 16 Episodes

Cast

• Kim Yoo Jung as Hong Chun Gi
• Ahn Hyo Seop as Ha Ram
• Gong Myung as Lee Yul
• Kwak Shi Yang as Lee Yoo
• Go Gyo Pil as Chung Gi Ki
• Jo Sung Ha as Emperor Sung Jo
• Kim Hyun Mok as Man Soo
• Lee Bo Hee as Queen So Hun
• Jo Ye Rin as Ho Ryung (Mountain goddess, palace protector)
• Chae Gook Hee as Mi Soo, the female shaman
• Yoon Sa Bong as Kyun Yoo Daek (Institute Housekeeper)

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Quick Precis

Kim Yoo Jung will play Hong Chun Gi, who is the only female painter during the Joseon Period.  She possesses beauty and a bright personality.

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Snippets

• After the aborted partnership in Clean With a Passion drama, finally, these two will team up.  Filming has started.
• Hong Chun Gi had been retitled, Red Sky.  Retitled again to Lovers of the Red Sky.
• 7 June 2021: Slated for release in August 2021.
• 13 July 2021: The release date is apparently 23 August 2021.
• Has been pushed back to 30 August 2021.

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Episode 1

I was so excited to watch this drama but I was slightly disappointed that Kim Yoo Jung was not in the first episode.

But despite that, it was actually quite a sweet episode for the leads during their younger years.

It started with a blurb that once upon a time, the demons co-existed with humans but before too long the demons became the bane of humans’ existence.  So they had to seal in the demon lord into a lifesize painting of the old Emperor.

While this ritual was being actioned, a woman gave birth to a baby boy, alone in a secluded place watched by hungry wolves.

The woman was dying. She prayed fervently to a deity to save her son as the wolves started to advance towards her as they can smell the blood oozing from her after giving birth.

The woman’s last act was to hug her baby to herself as the wolves moved even nearer.

At the last moment, a deity appeared to pick the child up.  Looking at the baby fondly, the deity said that she must look for a life partner for him.

Meanwhile, the baby’s father was a shaman with powerful cultivation.  He was the one who was able to seal in the demon into the emperor’s painting.

Instead of being feted, he was tortured badly and would have been killed if he did not disappear.

Eight years later…

The Emperor was having a problem.  Famine will happen in his kingdom if rain would not come soon.

His new shaman, who is a very ambitious woman said that she had found the old shaman, who has a son with a powerful qi.  They could use the son to end the draught.

The old shaman and his son was immediately brought to the Capital

The son was Ha Ran who immediately liked and was protective of a young blind girl, Chun Gi, who was the daughter of Ha Ran’s father’s assistant.

Young love immediately developed between the two children with Chun Gi bossing Ha Ran to steal peaches from a tree for her.

Anyway, at the palace, the Emperor was getting ready for the rain ceremony.  Everyone was attending including the Crown Prince and the Grand Prince, who was the brother of the Emperor who has ambition to be the Emperor.

During the ceremony, young Ha Ran was brought in by the pond and he was made to beat a big cauldron as the shaman started her dancing and chanting in keeping with the drum beats.

The Grand Prince left the ceremony and went into the villa where the old Emperor’s painting was being kept.  The prince heard someone saying that he must come to him to become the Emperor.

This was all it took for the envious and ambitious Grand Prince to remove the talismans off the painting keeping the demon sealed.

The demon immediately flew like smoke into the ceremony as young Ha Ran was being thrown into the deep pond to his death much to his helpless father’s regret and sorrow as he was being held on by guards.

Meanwhile, young Chun Gi also fell into the pond and would have died if the deity did not save her and Ha Ran.

When the children woke up, Chun Gi can miraculously see while Ha Ran can’t.

The deity said that one day Ha Ran will get his sight back.

Episode 2

The Emperor was enraged that the shaman did not tell him about sacrificing human life.

But she told him that the end justifies the means,  that a human sacrifice was necessary to bring forth rain.

The Emperor told her that he would not execute her but she had to leave and never show her face again in his kingdom.

Twenty years later…

The shaman did not leave. She was now under the protection of the Grand Prince, who was biding his time to take over the throne after the emperor’s death.  For some reason, the Grand Prince was actually protecting the current emperor.

Anyway, back story, after Ha Ran was fish out of the pond, his father took him home but not for long because the soldiers had come to take Ha Ran back to the palace. They would not allow any opposition so they killed Ha Ran’s father and mother.

Ha Ran became quite an important player in the palace as he is learned, calm and logical.  Very suitable adviser to the emperor.  He became the palace astrologer.

Meanwhile, young Chung Gi had grown into a very resourceful woman.

She had to because she was the sole breadwinner and caretaker of her father who suffers from dementia.  She had been earning money since the age of 8.

Now, she had become a prominent painter, the only able woman painter in the kingdom.

However, she was doing some illegal works to get more money to buy the medicine that she was told was a sure cure for her father’s malady.  A Chinese guy had this medicine which cost a lot of money.

Chung Gi did a lot of art reproductions which the clerk at the painting institute passed as the real thing.

Finally, she got the money.  With the help of the sales clerk from the painting institute, she was able to buy the golden mini orb which was apparently the dementia cure.  She gave all the money to the guy in exchange for the mini golden orb.

She hurried to her father who did not recognise her at all. She gave him his lunch and then presented him with the orb which he willingly swallowed.  It almost made her cry when her father pocketed some of the food because he said that his beloved daughter Chung Gi must be hungry.

Anyway, she watched him expectantly to see for any change after taking the medicine.

Nothing.  None at all.

But she was not too worried.  She will wait.

Days passed, still nothing.

Chun Gi went to the house of the person who sold her the medicine.  She overheard him talking to his wife about his regret of having to con a nice girl for a lot of money over fake medicine.

Chun Gi was gutted and found out that the mastermind was the sales clerk at the painting institute.

So she reported the art forgeries at the art shop to the soldiers who ransacked the place and found the forgeries which Chun Gi ensured to have subtle little images to differentiate it from the original.

The man was arrested but he had some influential friends which helped him to be pardoned and let out in no time.

The man and his cohorts hunted Chun Gi, who was running for her life and in desperation jumped into a passing palanquin.

It so happens that the palanquin was already occupied by a handsome man with the most beautiful eyes according to Chun Gi.

The man was surprised how she found his eyes beautiful when others discriminate over him because they think he has demonic eyes.

Chun Qi said that au contraire, his eyes are radiant.

Anyway, he was Ha Ran which Chun Gi still does not know.

But she said that she was being chased and harassed by bad people who sold her fake drugs for so much money and probably through the instigation of Wolseongdang of Wooljongga who is a bad man.

Ha Ran was enjoying her endless chatter and that she did not know that he was Wolseongdang.

Unfortunately, their time together was cut short when he fell into her as the palanquin started rocking due to the uneven road.

Touching Chun Gi made the butterfly tattoo on Ha Ran’s neck be activated.

He told Chun Gi to get out of the palanquin and go home.  She did not have any choice as he almost chucked her out.

Ha Ran inside the palanquin was metamorphosing into something dark and demonic.  His power was such, it catapulted him to the top of a tree nearby.  He had turned into a dark demon and said that Ha Ran was unlucky to have left the palace on the night when his butterfly seal was broken during the winter solstice.

Ha Ran was taken over by the water demon who had zeroed in on Chun Gi and said he found his eyes.

Whoa, really loved this episode.

BTW can he have another naked torso of Ha Ran in the next episode, please?!!!

Episode 3

I love this drama so much.  Kim Yoo Jung is was so adorable.

The Emperor heard the cacophony of hootings made by a parliament of owls in the palace ground.

The Emperor said that it is widely believed that the owls were prolocutors of wronged spirits and this is worrying.

Meanwhile, in Inwang mountain, the guards were killed and incinerated by the water demon who then went to search for Chun Gi, who at that time was being waylaid by the butterfly deity who had become the guardian of both Haran and Chun Gi.

Chun Gi, however, was determined to get home at the institute before her teacher found out that she was still out.

The butterfly deity can’t really delay her any longer.

The water demon finally found Chun Gi and was about to pluck out her eyes when time seemed to stand still.  Then there was a glowing huge tiger who turned into a young deity, the mountain goddess of Inwang.

She told the water demon that he was trespassing in her territory and wanted him to be gone.

He tried to ignore her but he was in her territory where she rules.  So after so my beautiful CGI of a luminous tiger beating up a black smokey water demon, Ho Ryung, the Mountain deity flung him on a tree where he was immediately tied in animated twigs, roots, and branches.

Then, the water demon once again disappeared from Haran, who then fell down on top of Chun Gi.

Chun Gi was annoyed at first but when she realised that the man on top of her was the handsome palanquin man, she made sure that he was alive.

She then carried/dragged the unconscious Haran on her back to the empty Inwang ink institute where she made him comfortable on that cold winter night.

She woke up later sleeping next to him.  She apologised profusely for taking advantage of his warmth but she got worried when he woke up and then fainted once again.  She decided to get a doctor.

But when she got to the institute, her teacher put her under lock and key when she explained that she found an unconscious handsome guy.

Her teacher thought she was too boy-mad.  BTW, the teacher should encourage her to be boy-mad and get married because at this point she is at least 28 years old.

Anyway, the palace and the princes found out that Supervisor Ha (Haran) had been missing in the mountain and send their people to investigate the deaths of the guards who first went looking for him.

Prince Joo Yang brought Mi Soo with him and said that the guards were definitely killed by the water demon.

Finally Chun Gi was able to convince Joo Daek to help her.

Together with a medicine doctor, they quickly went back to the mountains but they saw a lone rider ahead of them.

It was Man Soo who heard the whistle from the now conscious Ha Ran.

Ha Ran was gratified that Man Soo had turned up but told him to hide when they heard Chun Gi running towards them.

Ha Ran was happy she was back as she reminded so much of his first love, the girl with the plum blossoms.

Chun Gi was equally happy to see him up and about.

Ha Ran asked her for her name rather urgently.

She said shyly … Hong… Hong …Hong.

So he said could it be Hong Hong Hong?!!!

She gave a little giggle and said Hong Chun Gi.

Ha Ran was surprised because that girl he used to know was also called Hong Chun Gi.

Could they be the same girl?!!!

So cute.

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

It was found that Chun Gi was the divine painter the Emperor had been looking for.

Aww cute, they finally reconciled as Ha ram and Chungi.  Awww and they had a kiss but it activated his water demon persona.

Because of this he told her to forget him, he was not the boy she knew from childhood.