Review of Moon in the Day /
낮에 뜨는 달

If you’re new to this site, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I’m a former film critic who decided to focus on what she loved and do her own thing instead of publishing for an outlet. This is how my blog came to be, and while this is a post about a Korean drama, I cover everything from books, travel, theatre, and movies. I love a lot of things, alright?

Anyways, in the fall of 2024 I was waiting for an opportunity that I had been told was promised to me. There was even a contract and everything. But as life is weird, the opportunity did not materialize, and the three months I spent waiting for it were a bit of a rest period for me. I spent a lot of time watching shows, movies, and reading books because I thought I was set.

I’m now funemployed at the time of typing this because of that, but it’s okay. I decided to take some time to focus on my blog and life as a writer, as my finances were in order, and I’ve been slowly catching up on the backlog that exists for this blog. I’m having a lot of fun reflecting on what I’ve come across during my waiting period.

Regardless of all of this context, I was spending some time specifically catching up on my to-watch list of Korean dramas. I have a Viki subscription that I’m a little too obsessed with, so I was going through shows pretty quickly during those three months.

One of those shows was Moon in the Day. It wasn’t really high up on my list, if we’re going to be honest, but I was feeling it that day so I just started watching the show. I didn’t even look at the synopsis, I just went for it because of how the title sounded like a poem.

Let’s get into the review then, shall we? I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

A top star becomes possessed by his past life’s consciousness, and he’s looking for revenge.

Alright, so this drama plays on some of our favorite tropes in the Korean drama world. It’s story takes place in the present day, where the characters all have careers and relationships—but, most importantly, no memories of their past lives. Our female protagonist is Kang Young-hwa, a firefighter with a passion for helping people.

Our male lead is Han Jun-oh (at first), a top star who seems a little brainless at times. It doesn’t help that he’s madly insecure, so when he has a moment, he doubts himself and what he’s capable of. It’s during both of their jobs that they cross paths and meet, even though there’s some drama.

When Jun-oh gets into an accident and seemingly dies, he wakes up in the hospital, while people are actively mourning him, with a completely different personality. Turns out this is a drama about past lives and reincarnation, as the male protagonist has been possessed by his past life Do-ha.

Do-ha isn’t just here to gawk at the modern world though. He’s much colder and calculated than Jun-oh ever was, so people kind of just chalk it up to brain problems when they realize how drastically his personality has switched. Physically he’s the same, but now he’s Do-ha, a Silla aristocrat who wants revenge against his wife Ri-ta.

Who, in the modern days, happens to be Young-hwa. But whenever Do-ha comes after her and tries to take Young-hwa down, who truly has no idea what’s happening, there’s something preventing him from actually touching her and actually causing some damage.

This drama moves between past and present throughout its running time, filling in the blanks as to not only why Do-ha wants his revenge so badly, but the reason why his wife betrayed him in the past. She didn’t just do it out of a whim, that’s for sure, but finding out why is the journey of this show.

At the same time, there’s romance crackling between the leads, no matter how much Do-ha wants to end her. The plot thickens when there are people in the present day looking to actively cause them harm, even though for a chunk of the show Young-hwa has no idea what’s actually happening.

Overall Thoughts

So I’ve been actually kind of impressed with this show! I thought that it would be another trope-filled show that I wouldn’t really care for, and was only watching to do something instead of staring at a wall, but I genuinely enjoyed the plot and leads in this series. It’s somewhat believable the transition between love and hate here, and they kind of show how it goes hand in hand.

The visuals and poetry of it all is what got me though. I’m a sucker for anything that reminds me of a poetic myth, and this is a show that struck all the right chords with me. The visuals really helped that come alive, and I’m grateful to watch shows that are filmed beautifully. They’re rare.

While I enjoyed the show, I think that there isn’t a high chance that I’ll rewatch this. I was just happy finishing it off here, and I don’t see myself returning to it unless I have a very specific urge to come back to it.

Go watch it if you haven’t already! If it sounds interesting to you, you’ll probably come out of this liking it a lot.

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