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Moon in the Day: Episodes 1-2
by lovepark
A vengeful spirit latches onto the woman he loved when he was alive, and for 1,500 years, he remains by her side, plotting his revenge. The opportunity to return finally presents itself to him one day, and thus, their doomed tale begins again. A man who remembers everything and a woman who has forgotten — will this be their love story or their death?
EPISODES 1-2
Two timelines, two souls, one curse, and over a millennium of angst. The premiere of Moon in the Day wastes no time jumping into the story, and opens in the past, 1,500 years ago during the fall of Gaya. The general dies on the battlefield at the hands of Shilla nobleman DO HA (Kim Young-dae) who immediately kills the rest of his family to set an example.
However, his daughter HAN RI-TA (Pyo Ye-jin) survives and vows to get revenge on the man who ruined her life. An undisclosed amount of time passes until one fateful night, Do Ha stands over his dead body as a spirit and watches the woman he loved run away after slashing his throat. Ri-ta turns around to look at Do Ha one last time before jumping off a cliff, and with the roles reversed, Do Ha is now the one seeking revenge.
All these events appear as a nightmare to Ri-ta’s present-day reincarnation KANG YOUNG-HWA (Pyo Ye-jin) who wakes up in a cold sweat with no recollection of her dream. Though the frequent night terrors bother her, Young-hwa is thrust back to reality when duty calls, and she rushes off with the rest of her squad to put out a fire. Hailed as the “miracle firefighter,” Young-hwa has never lost a life, and for her latest feat, she saves ousted-CEO SEOK CHUL-HWAN (Jung Woong-in) and his dog.
Her heroism becomes the inspiration for a new public service advertisement, and the face of the campaign is top star HAN JUN-OH (Kim Young-dae). Though Jun-oh looks identical to vengeful spirit Do Ha, the two are not the same — in fact, their personalities seem to be polar opposites. Jun-oh is your typical bratty celebrity, and cleaning up after his messes is his older brother and management company CEO HAN MIN-OH (Ohn Joo-wan).
Creating scandals left and right, Jun-oh gets caught on camera with his actor girlfriend JUNG YI-SEUL (Jung Shin-hye), but their lop-sided relationship comes to a close when she breaks up with him via post-it note while he sleeps. However, Jun-oh never sees the message and wakes up in the hospital. As it turns out, he has late-stage cardiac cancer, but currently, only Min-oh hears about his condition since our top star returns to film the advert he postponed.
Young-hwa appears on set for the re-filming and finds herself non-immune to Jun-oh’s good looks. Those initial butterflies, though, quickly disappear as soon as she interacts with him off-camera, and they end up fighting. As Young-hwa huffs about the rude punk, she hears a commotion and discovers Jun-oh passed out in the driver’s seat of his van. The vehicle crashes into the river — I guess no one thought to put it in park — and without a moment of hesitation, she dives in after him.
While Young-hwa manages to free Jun-oh, her foot gets stuck in the process, and she loses consciousness. Floating in the water, Do Ha reaches out to her, and as their lips meet, she wakes up and swims to shore. Back on land, Jun-oh is unresponsive, and all her efforts to save him are for naught as the doctor in the ER pronounces him dead.
After Jun-oh’s body is placed in the morgue, Do Ha’s spirit enters it, and he wakes up without a single bruise. The first thing our new host does is find Young-hwa who fainted after Jun-oh’s death, and embraces her. He claims to have missed her, but while his words sound sweet, his actions say otherwise. He reaches for a knife, but as he attempts to stab her, an invisible force pushes him away.
Relieved to see Jun-oh alive, Young-hwa ignores the fact that he is holding a knife and checks to see if he is all right. Her actions remind Do Ha of the past, and the memory makes him faint. When he wakes up again, Young-hwa has already left the hospital, but Do Ha has waited far too long for her to get away this easily. After being discharged, he finds out where she lives, and goes for a second attempt.
Like before, a force field shields Young-hwa from harm, and Do Ha seethes at the unknown interloper. He demands to know who is protecting her, but Young-hwa scoffs since her goal has always been to protect others, not the other way around. Unable to do anything, Do Ha retreats for now and resumes his role as top star Jun-oh.
Of course, the people around Do Ha notice the change in his behavior, but the doctor chalks it up as a stress response to a traumatic experience. Though it is a shoddy explanation, it makes more sense than vengeful-spirit-body-possession, so Do Ha’s identity remains hidden to all except for his poor manager who learns the truth and becomes his new lackey.
At first, Do Ha thinks his new body may be an inconvenience, but when he reads over a script Jun-oh was eyeing, he recalls the source of Young-hwa’s guardian angel: a talisman a young monk gifted her when she was a child. Thus, Do Ha sets up a new plan to break his curse and invites Young-hwa to the press conference of his new drama, co-starring Jun-oh’s ex-girlfriend Yi-seul.
In front of all the reporters, Do Ha thanks Young-hwa for saving his life, and his declaration causes a minor commotion. Unaccustomed to all this attention, Young-hwa runs away to an empty room, but inside, Do Ha waits for her. Like the others, she assumes he is traumatized from the accident, but his demeanor remains resolute. Leaning towards her, he tells Young-hwa that he will keep her by his side every day, and she stares at him speechless.
Meanwhile, Do Ha’s little stunt at the press conference irks both Yi-seul as well as actor GU TAE-JU who was originally cast in the role. A little maneuvering by Min-oh got Tae-ju essentially blacklisted, and he blames Jun-oh for his demise. Drunk and pissed, Tae-ju causes a scene at Jun-oh’s house, and Do Ha ignores him until the actor mentions Young-hwa’s name. The mere insinuation of Tae-ju harming Young-hwa angers Do Ha, and he uses his ghostly powers to scare the actor into submission.
While we know Do Ha needs no help in keeping gnats like Tae-ju away, Min-oh still sees him as his little brother and hires a bodyguard to protect him 24/7. In a matter of seconds, Do Ha tosses the bodyguard to the ground and offers a compromise to Min-oh: he will choose his own.
Unaware of Do Ha’s schemes, Young-hwa returns to work where she is showered with accolades for saving Jun-oh. At night, she celebrates her “Firefighter of the Month” award with her squad, and they congratulate her on getting one of the three positions down at the Antarctic research station.
Giddy and tipsy, Young-hwa steps out of the party for some fresh air and stumbles across a poster of Jun-oh. She tells him that she will be leaving, and from behind, Do Ha asks where she is going. She momentarily thinks he popped out from the ad, but she snaps back to her senses when Do Ha asks her to be his bodyguard. She tells him that she will be going far away soon, but Do Ha refuses to let her leave.
Young-hwa makes a bet with Do Ha on whether or not she can go, and his face falls as her words echo the same ones uttered by Ri-ta long ago. In the past, she was the one trying to hold onto him while he wanted her to leave. All he had to do was cross the stepping stones without looking back, but as he was about to win, Ri-ta cheated and hugged him. Turning around to face her, Do Ha accepted defeat and kissed her.
Returning to the present, Do Ha stands in Jun-oh’s house where a similar path of rocks adorns his living room. In voiceover, he tells Young-hwa not to blame him for cheating since she was the one who taught him.
With that, the show ends with a musical crescendo and a camera swivel to emphasize the drama of their bitter tale, but I’m left feeling… apathetic? Overall, the show was unoffensive without any glaring flaws, but in the same vein, I found it a bit bland and uninspired. None of the performances are bad per se, but they do feel a little lackluster, especially Kim Young-dae as Do Ha. I actually preferred his performance as Jun-oh more, and though I dislike bratty men, I thought he was more interesting as the rockheaded top star than as the vengeful spirit.
At this point, I’m unsure if Jun-oh is gone for good because I don’t get the impression that Do Ha can stay. The whole point of his existence is about moving on whether or not he kills Young-hwa because, in the end, his arc seems to be about closure more than anything else. Though he tries to kill her, there are hints of other emotions behind his actions, and it would not be a stretch to say that Do Ha appears to love Ri-ta (and in conjunction Young-hwa) as much as he hates her. When he flashes to the past, he remembers the good moments alongside the bad even after all these years, which makes me believe Do Ha is still clinging onto her and feeding into his so-called curse.
I think the most compelling part of Do Ha’s story is that he’s been stuck this entire time next to the woman he loved, and has watched her live and die through multiple past lives. Even if he wasn’t angry at her for killing him, I feel like any soul would eventually break after such an experience. It will be interesting to see how the story pans out because I think the premise is ripe with potential even if I found the first week a tad trite. Hopefully as the show continues, I’ll get more invested in the characters and finally understand why the creators chose to adapt this webtoon despite all the fans asking them to leave it alone.
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