SungKyunKwan Scandal

Sungkyunkwan Scandal


     This 20 episodes of historical drama took place in Sungkyunkwan, the highest educational agency of the Joseon era. Sungkyunkwan University often previously featured in other historical dramas as the most prestigious academy at that dinasty but none of them ever focused on the Sungkyunkwan itself. This time, a production crew decided to produce a drama that took place fully in the Sungkyunkwan.


     At first, I hesitate to watch it and decided to watch the drama because of the main cast is Micky YooChun, a member of the legendary 2nd generation idol group, DBSK. As I watched it, my heart grew fonder towards this drama because of the interesting storyline and at last, I got completely addicted to it. Some of the scenes in this drama had made me literally rolling on the floor laughing or clapping hands while adoring and seriously, I got a lot to say about this amazing drama.


     Sungkyunkwan Scandal is a novel-inspired drama. This drama was different than other typical k-dramas, in my oppinion. Well, of course the main story is about the girl and the boy but the differences could be seen in the side stories where they reflected the politic world nowdays along with the wealthy and the poor in a country.


     This story is about YoonHee, whose father died because of his loyalty to the king, having a sick younger brother, living in a society where people still couldn't accept the facts that women could do other things too than staying at home cooking and taking care of the kids. She, who was trapped in the situation and could not stand doing nothing, decided to work using her brother's identity. With the amazing brain of hers, she could totally decieved everyone with her expertness in confucian and poetry and got herself a job at a bookstore. Involving herself in a syndicate helping the Joseon teenagers to cheat in the entrance exam, she found herself taking the exam using her brother's identity after meeting with an upright good-looking young man, Lee SeonJoon and being picked in by the king himself.


     Men and women were strictly divided socially during the Confucianist Joseon era and Sungkyunkwan was off limits to women. Kim YoonHee ventures into this all male institute. She will die if she is caught. She's not as slick as she thought. She needed to hide and there were those who wanted to unveil her secret. They chased after each other.


     However, this girl is protected by her three guardian angels; Lee SeonJoon, the arrogant genius, Moon JaeShin, the rebellious child who seeked for justice and Gu YongHa who did everything for fun. Starting from Gu YongHa, they all soon discovered that the woman-like 'Kim YunShik' was actually a female. They then developed the instinct to protect her and that's how she could survive. Just like the well-known F4, these four blooming flower-like 'boys' were adored by the gisaengs along with girls at that area. Surprisingly, they're always together facing all the challenges as Sungkyunkwan scholars despite their differences in political views; SeonJoon was a Noron(Noble), JaeShin was a Noron prentending to be a Soron, YoonHee was a Soron and Gu YongHa, a half noble. With that, they gained themselves a name, 'The Political Harmony Room 2' group.


     Just like the king's dream of the new Joseon; a country with political harmony, they then gained trust from the king himself to uncover the truth about Geum Deung Ji Sa, a missing will from the late king which was the reason Kim YoonHee's father and Moon JaeShin's brother were dead while protecting the will. The will that talked about building a new Joseon where everybody was the same and have the rights to do anything had openned YoonHee's eyes about how much her father wanted her to succeed that he's willing to be dead as long as his daughter could pursue her dreams in the dreamed new Joseon.


     And of course, there were some love scenes between YoonHee and SeonJoon. SeonJoon, who initially thought that he was a gay, was relieved when he discovered that the one that he loved, Kim YoonHee was actually a girl. He tried his best to protect her while they're still in Sungkyunkwan. It was a little late for SeonJoon and I felt bad for JaeShin, my favourite character who had protected her since her first week in and had some feelings towards her but YoonHee clearly showed her interest in SeonJoon in front of him.


     My favourite scenes in this drama were a lot. One of them was the scene where the girl prentending to be a boy pretended to be a girl. Well, I know it's kind of complicated but it's definitely interesting. She did that as a way to save Lee SeonJoon from the government guards and her dressing like a girl had made the almighty Lee SeonJoon stuttered and shivered his whole body. That totally cracked me up. Another one was after they confessed to each other their real feelings. It made me grinned from ear to ear like an idiot when the ultimate bookworm, Lee SeonJoon got all itchy to touch her hands and they end up studying all night while holding hands. 


     This drama had taught me about hope, love, trust and loyalty. It told me to not give up hope, to love myself before loving anyone, to be careful before giving full trust to someone and to be loyal to person that never leaves us.


     Lastly but importantly, this drama was indeed an amazing drama. I even decided to put it into my all-time favorite list along with other dramas that had left great impressions to myself.


t/n : this was written in 2010.