Kyên ổn Yoon-Hee / Yoon-Shik (played by Park Min-Young)Lee Sun-Joon (played by Park Yoo-Chun)Gu Yong-Ha (played by Song Joong-Ki)Moon Jae-Shin (played by Yoo Ah-In)
If you commit a crime against a system that is gender biased, is it really a crime? And, just as importantly, should you be punished?
Yoon-Hee is an impoverished girl who is her family’s sole breadwinner. Her father is deceased, và she has a mother & siông xã younger brother to support. Industrious & smart, Yoon-Hee learns that people will pay her to lớn write their reports & take their exams for them, if they think she’s a boy. So, she borrows her younger brother’s name and disguises herself as Yoon-Shik.
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Through a series of circumstances she didn’t initiate, Yoon-Hee finds herself enrolled at the prestigious all-male Sungkyunkwan University. Though she’s well aware that she will be executed if anyone reveals her secret, Yoon-Hee falls in love with the adademic lifestyle, the camaderie và the three square meals a day.
Of course, she will eventually also fall in love sầu with one of her classmates. There’s the richly-dressed và impish Yong-Ha, who loves nothing more than to stir things up. His polar opposite and best friover is the mysterious Jae-Shin, who is a social justice warrior in the literal sense.
Then there’s stoic & straight laced rule follower Sun-Joon, whose world is black và trắng. He sees no reason for grey. Coming from a privileged background, he has never gone hungry and doesn’t have sầu lớn worry about rules, because rules were made by and for people lượt thích hlặng. When his eyes are opened to poverty and those who have sầu no privileged background to fall baông xã on, that’s when he truly grows up.
Because Yoon-Hee is easily the tiniest student, the other young men give her a hard time at first, nicknaming her girly boy, pretty boy và flower boy. But when she more than holds her own academically & in athletic competitions and, more importantly, wins the favor of the era’s most famous kisaeng, her classmates are under the impression that Yoon-Hee is quite the Romeo và nickname her Big Shot.
“Sungkyunkwan Scandal” is a love story, but it’s also a mystery in many ways, as the Joseon-period Scooby Gang tries to lớn discover a missing scroll that entails the previous king’s wishes for a society without class distinction. It all sounds like a good idea, but if the caste system was eliminated, then what would become of the royal family? Would the king have sầu been willing lớn live sầu as a commoner?
It wasn’t too long ago that girls were discouraged from continuing their education, and this series makes it painfully obvious what happens to lớn women when they are reliant on men for survival. When her mother is unable to lớn pay her bills, the Minister of War decides that he will take Yoon-Hee instead. Enrolling in Sungkyunkwan allows the education that was denied her, but it also allows her to escape a life where she will at best serve sầu as his concubine.
It’s not a huge surprise khổng lồ learn that the Minister of War’s son, In-Soo–who happens lớn be the student body president with a ridiculous amount of authority–becomes Yoon-Hee’s biggest enemy at school.
The question of homosexuality arises when several of the boys are attracted lớn Yoon-Hee, who they believe sầu is a young man. Questioning his attraction, Sun-Joon asks Yong-Ha if he has ever been attracted lớn another man. Yong-Ha admits that he was once attracted khổng lồ Jae-Shin & adds, “Hating people is a sin. How could liking them be one?”
Yessssssssss!
The series goes by quickly and (for the most part) is engrossing. I could’ve done without all of Yoon-Hee’s crying, which made her appear much weaker than her male classmates. In that kind of school situation, her crying would’ve sầu made her ripe for being bullied.
Though she bound her chest khổng lồ appear male, most women will wonder how she hid her monthly cycle from her roommates. You can suspover your belief in reality to overcome that dilemma, but I wondered why none of her enemies did a little sleuthing of their own. Had they gone lớn her village và asked around, they would’ve seen the real Yoon-Shik at trang chủ with their mother. And even if they didn’t find hlặng, they would’ve learned from Yoon-Hee’s neighbors that they hadn’t seen her in months. It would’ve sầu been easy enough to lớn figure out that the tiny boy at school, who looked like a girl, actually was one.
The ending is satisfying, with everything falling into place as it should. But moreso than the ending, my favorite scene was when her brother revealed lớn Yoon-Hee that their father wanted her to learn, but didn’t know how lớn do so in a society that made it illegal for girls lớn obtain higher education. (The real) Yoon-Shik pointed out that when he was a toddler, their father would read to lớn him, always picking higher level books than he could understand. Sitting by the door with hyên ổn on his lap, their father would read in a loud voice so that Yoon-Hee could listen to the lesssons as she waited outside. The lessons weren’t for Yoon-Shik, but for her.
Gay rights:
It was interesting lớn me that though homosexuality was treated as an aberration–as it would’ve been during the Joseon era–the writers also pointed out that more important than punishing “deviants” was understanding & loving everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. In a day when homosexuality is still treated as a perversion in Korea and, yes, in many parts of the U.S. as well, it is heartwarming to see these Korean dramas present it is something that just is. You don’t choose to lớn be gay, just as you don’t choose lớn be born.
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Frustration:
Whenever someone became angry, but had to lớn present an even-keeled persona, they balled their fists up in frustration. I enjoyed this, because it’s something little kids do; & it made some of the more unlikable characters a bit more human.
You may recognize:
• Many new Song Joong-Ki fans sought this drama out after watching hyên in “Descendants of the Sun.” Coincidentally, he is a graduate of the real Sungkyunkwan University.
• Kyên ổn Min-Seom, who played the hated Queen Bo-Kyung in the “Moon Embraces the Sun,” portrays a much more sympathetic character here: a highly cultured, but low-caste kisaeng named Cho-Sun. When Yoon-Hee, dressed as a boy, shows her kindness, Cho-Sun falls in love with her.
• Kyên ổn Mi-Kyung portrays Yoon-Hee’s mother. In “The Master’s Sun,” she played So Ji-Sub’s fashionable aunt.
• In this series, Ahn Nae-Sang plays a professor, who knew and respected Yoon-Hee’s father. In the “Moon Embraces the Sun,” he portrayed Kim Soo-Hyun’s father — the king.
Airdates:
This 20-episode Korean drama aired from August 30 to lớn November 2, 2010 on KBS2.
Spoiler alert:
Yoon-Hee’s father was a revered Sungkyunkwan professor who was killed while carrying out a mission for the king. It’s not clear why her mother kept this tidbit from Yoon-Hee & her brother, but it was most likely to protect their lives. He & Jae-Shin’s older brother were murdered while trying lớn help the king implement plans for a country where there were no class distinctions.
What’s puzzling is the fact that Yoon-Hee’s father had ties khổng lồ the king và Sungkyunkwan University, và yet no one helped out his family after his death. The least the king could’ve sầu done was ensured that his widow & children would have a a roof over their heads & food on the table.
In episode 15, Sun-Joon tries khổng lồ revive sầu Yoon-Hee, who he rescued after she fell in the river. When he opens her shirt, her bound bosom is revealed. Now, he knows that she is a girl.
The final episode shows that In-Soo — the evil student body toàn thân president — is capable of showing humanity to those he love. When his father tries lớn strike Cho-Sun, In-Soo defies him to lớn protect her.
