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Moon in the Day: Episodes 3-4
by lovepark
Ever since our leads have met — both in the past and the present — not a day goes by without some event mucking up their lives. From jealous rivals to a glory-hogging father, there are plenty of obstacles standing in our couple’s way, but the biggest hurdle they have to overcome may be themselves.
EPISODES 3-4
A lot happens this week from kidnappings, murders, and multiple near-death experiences, but for any of these crazy shenanigans to occur, Do Ha needs to find a way to keep Young-hwa by his side. In order to win the bet, Do Ha resorts to “cheating” and forces Young-hwa to participate in his public advertisement which means the interview for her upcoming transfer is canceled.
While Young-hwa marches to the film site to confront Do Ha, she finds him unconscious inside his car. She notices a syringe on the ground hinting at foul play, but someone knocks her out before she can make sense of it. By the time she wakes up, she is tied up in an abandoned building alongside an unconscious Do Ha, but luckily, she has her pocket knife and frees herself.
In the meantime, Min-oh enlists the help of the police to locate his missing brother, and they corner Tae-ju who they assume is behind this kidnapping. Their guess is not too far-fetched since the idiotic actor did intend to kidnap Do Ha, but he was beaten to the punch by ex-CEO Seok Chul-hwan who orders his hired men to kill them both.
After a quick tussle, the kidnappers recapture Young-hwa and decide to beat her up instead of killing her because Chul-hwan is a cheapskate and didn’t pay them enough. However, before they get the chance, Do Ha wakes up. The kidnappers are no match for the seasoned general, and he leaves his enemies at death’s door. If anyone is going to kill Young-hwa, it’ll be him. (The show is so ridiculously serious that it’s becoming funny.)
Moments later, the police arrive on the scene and find Young-hwa surrounded by a group of badly beaten men. In a rather unfair turn of events, the police interrogate her for using excessive force, and to make matters worse, Yi-seul leaks a video of Young-hwa manhandling Jun-oh. Soon, his fans take to the streets demanding her resignation, and as punishment for her actions, she receives a three-month suspension. No more penguins for Young-hwa.
Digging through Jun-oh’s memories, Do Ha realizes that the mastermind behind the kidnapping also tried to kill him the first time by the river. He follows the breadcrumbs of clues all the way to Chul-hwan, but karma seems to catch up to the washed-up CEO as a malicious spirit chases him off a building and takes over his dead body. Guess there’s another ghost with a 1,500-year-long vendetta.
Since Young-hwa is technically free, Do Ha demands Min-oh to hire her as his bodyguard, and his brother complies to his rather absurd wish. Min-oh convinces Young-hwa to accept the offer by revealing Jun-oh’s terminal illness, and after confirming the truth with Do Ha, she agrees to stay with him for one month (AKA, the length of his life). In exchange, Min-oh promises to restore her tarnished reputation so she can resume her duties as a firefighter once this all ends.
Her first task as Do Ha’s bodyguard is to accompany him to the script reading of his upcoming drama, but everyone there, especially the director, has very little faith in his acting abilities. Their dismissive attitude, however, is exactly the motivation Do Ha needed to succeed, and he amazes everyone in the room when he starts reading the script with gravitaaaaas.
The script reading ends early thanks to Do Ha, and in his exuberance, Manager Jang accidentally spills water on him while going in for a hug. Young-hwa leaves to fetch him new clothes, and in the van, she finds his bloodied shirt. When Do Ha comes to check on her, Young-hwa asks if he is responsible for hurting the kidnappers and threatens to get it DNA tested. He tries to stop her, but the force field pushes him back, making it impossible to touch her.
As he stares at Young-hwa, Do Ha notices the bracelet on her arm: it’s the artifact that has been protecting her this entire time. Distracted by this discovery, Do Ha fails to notice the speeding car headed in his direction, so Young-hwa jumps in and pushes him to safety. As she gets hit by the car, her bracelet breaks, and Do Ha cradles her in his arms, begging her to wake up.
While Young-hwa flatlines in the present, her conscious returns to the past, specifically the morning after her first assassination attempt. Do Ha recognized her as the Gaya general’s daughter and spared her life, claiming that it would be too easy to kill someone who already accepted death. Though irked by his haughty attitude, she vowed to make him regret this decision one day and entered his household as a servant.
If it was not enough that Do Ha allowed his assassin to live under his roof, he even went out of his way to train her in how to kill him. After giving her a lesson on using a bow, he turned his back to her — a perfect opportunity to attack— but Ri-ta only watched him walk away with a look of confusion and curiosity.
Hailing him as a war hero, the Shilla king offered Do Ha a reward for his achievements, but Do Ha gave all the accolades to his father — correction, stepfather. The old codger accepted the praise without a hint of shame, and then he had the audacity to tell Do Ha to return with a wound next time. If the message wasn’t loud and clear, his stepfather also sent him a gift of yew berries: a highly poisonous seed often used by those who wish to commit suicide.
Ri-ta learned of the tumultuous relationship between the two when she discovered Do Ha acting as his stepfather’s food taster, and for a moment, she seemed concerned for him. However, any sympathy she may have felt soon disappeared when the other maids bullied her and ordered her to follow Do Ha on his trip.
The two of them rode into a forest, and though Do Ha told Ri-ta to stay behind and guard the horses, she ignored his commands and chased after him. She found him holding a memorial service, and enraged by the sight, she berated him for his pretentious actions: did he think all those people he killed would forgive him if he did this? Answering her question, he addressed Ri-ta by her full name and told her to never forgive him since he knew better than anyone that his feeble attempts would heal nothing.
As they returned to the path, their horses had escaped since Ri-ta forgot to tie them up, and a sudden rainstorm forced them to seek shelter for the night. While they sat by the fire he made, Ri-ta asked if he doubted her skills to kill him, but he told her that it was the opposite: if anyone could kill him, he thought it was her.
At first, she questioned his claims, but when Do Ha called his life a living hell, she realized that he meant everything he said. Brimming with indignation, she accused him of using her to ease his own pain and threw his words right back at him: it would be too easy to kill a person who expected death. She ordered him to survive, and once he learned to value his life, she promised to kill him then.
The show returns to the present timeline where Do Ha wakes up in a hospital bed after nearly losing his life when Young-hwa almost died. Back on his feet, he marches to Young-hwa’s room, and without the bracelet to stop him, he grabs her neck. As soon as he makes contact, Young-hwa opens her eyes, and instead of Jun-oh, she sees Do Ha standing in front of her. She calls him “my lord,” and Do Ha disappears before she can fully register his presence.
While Young-hwa recovers from her injuries, the news reports on the accident and how Tae-ju remains at large for the crime. Though he is a bad man, Tae-ju is not evil enough to kill someone, and the true architect is the ghost inside Chul-hwan who hypnotized the agitated actor into doing his bidding.
Besides Tae-ju, Yi-seul also gets entangled in this case as the police investigate her as a possible co-conspirator. She meets with Min-oh to cut a deal for the blackmail photos he has of her with Tae-ju, but Min-oh asks how he can trust her. With a huff, Yi-seul storms out of the meeting, but then an idea hits her: what if she pretends to be in love with Jun-oh?
Unlike her previous nightmares, Young-hwa remembers the dream she had, but she assumes it was all a childish fantasy about Jun-oh. When her sister teases her about it, Young-hwa denies having any feelings, but when Do Ha drops by later to see her, she smiles at him brightly. Looking up at Young-hwa, Do Ha realizes how similar she looks to Ri-ta and leaves before she comes down.
That night, Young-hwa goes to his house to meet him in person but finds his pills scattered on the ground. Worried, she rushes inside and discovers him unconscious on the stairs. As he loses his balance, she catches him, and Do Ha wakes up. He imagines Ri-ta in front of him rather than Young-hwa and asks who she is. She tells him that she is the person who came to save him and assures him that he will not die as long as she is around.
While I do think both actors are pretty, I’m feeling nothing between them. While the acting is part of the issue, my biggest gripe is with the characterizations and directing of their budding relationship. As a viewer, I do not understand why Ri-ta started to feel butterflies for Do Ha after some physical contact, and her sudden attraction to the man who murdered her family sort of belittles her resolve. Also, it does not help that her anger feels misplaced. I’m assuming she is mad at him for killing non-combatants like her mother as a way to end the war quickly, but I think the show made her outburst too generic. She blames him for killing so many people, but at the same time, he was merely a pawn in a larger sociopolitical game where the true individuals in power waited safely off the battlefield. In some ways, Do Ha is no different from her father who was also a general killing Shilla soldiers. In essence, the show paints their backstory in such broad strokes that everything at the moment feels slightly superficial and forced.
In theory, Do Ha should be a compelling, angsty lead, but he comes across as emotionless and flat. While I understand what the show is aiming for with the guilt-driven general who wishes to atone for his sins by letting the daughter of the man he killed end his life, it all feels so contrived and formulaic. The whole scene where he broods by himself over the fact that the only person who told him to live is the same one trying to kill him was heavy-handed, and I blame some of this emotional disconnect on the director. Everything is treated so seriously that the characters are coming across as farcical, and I’m starting to wonder if some of these scenes (particularly in the present) are intended to be comical because the directing is so dramatic. The music, the close-ups, the gravelly delivery! Am I supposed to swoon over our hero or hate him? Is he trying to instill fear or just being over-the-top because he’s a 1,500-year-old ghost who couldn’t get over his first love?
I’m sure there are people watching the show who are enjoying it immensely, and more power to them — don’t let the grumblings of this viewer ruin your experience! Just to be clear, I don’t actually think the show is bad, but I do think it’s dull. Thankfully, I find myself chuckling at it from time to time (probably not the desired reaction), and on a positive note, I think Pyo Ye-jin has really expressive eyes. I doubt I’ll find myself in love with the show at the end, but if you’re all right with reading my rants (or skipping over them, that’s fine, too), I hope you guys continue this journey along with me as we see where this show leads us.
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