THE SCHOLAR WHO WALKS THE NIGHT
EPISODES 9 & 10
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Poster to promote 'The Scholar Who Walks The Night' DVD / Blu-ray
Handsome Joseon scholar, Kim Sung Yeol: sad eyes
Masked: Lee Joon Gi's amazing eyes
Good-looking Lee Joon Gi: Nice Eyes
Kim Sung Yeol: Tears in his eyes
Sexy Vampire Kim Sung Yeol
Long-haired vampire
Lee Joon Gi: Is he winking at us?
Smiling eyes: Lee with his look of happiness
Sexy vampire asleep
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WOULD YOU THROW
THE WOMAN YOU LOVE
TO THE WOLVES?
EPISODE 9
It may be perverse to begin talking about romantic love that may have dire consequences on one or both parties. Kim Sung Yeol, played by Lee Joon Gi, in the historical fantasy drama, 'The Scholar Who Walks The Night’ goes to great lengths to maintain his stand that he is not in love with Jo Yang Sun, to prevent his 120 year-old mission from being thwarted. His mission is to lay his hands on Crown Prince Jung Hyun's diary and get rid of the evil vampire, Gwi from the Joseon world.
Crown Prince Jung Hyun's diary
Nefarious: vampire Gwi
He has been living a celibate lifestyle without a lover or wife by his side for over 120 years. It is probably his way of doing penance for the death of his beloved Lee Myung Hee, who has sacrificed her life for him. He has lost her because of the conflicts in the vampire world.
Gwi’s name is a byword for iniquity or evil as he ferociously attacks people who are in his way of getting hold of Prince Jung Hung’s diary, and drink their blood, one after the other.
Would a man who loves a woman throw her to the wolves? Kim Sung Yeol steels himself to proclaim callously that he would do nothing short of sacrificing Jo Yang Sun if the situation demands it. If her death can save the Joseon people, he will do it despite the fact that it hurts him, and he adds dispassionately, he will do more than that if he can wipe Gwi off from the face of the earth! The end is important but the means to that end is equally important to him. If he can defeat Gwi, which is his ultimate purpose of living for more than 120 years, he would stop at nothing to kill him, even at the expense of betraying Jo Yang Sun, and selling her out!The vampire-scholar means business!
Mysterious scholar
Kim Sung Yeol: cold vampire
So, one asks ‘Where is his humanity? Where is his human heart? He puts his mission to kill Gwi above romantic love and loyalty. Perhaps, it is understandable because he is a vampire who has lived with this mission for over 120 years. Gwi’s domination in the Joseon palace has brought unbearable and endless suffering to the people.
Jo Yang Sun, a warm, naïve and idealistic young lady, in contrast, would sacrifice herself for the scholar’s sake. The cold vampire has met his match, someone who would be his conscience. Being a vampire has made him cold and unemotional but meeting a warm-hearted human female in the form of Jo Yang Sun, melts his frozen heart a little.
For a moment the viewers are invited to consider the darker side of this relationship. Viewers are at odds with each other concerning Jo Yang Sun’s attitude towards romantic love.
Vampire: blowing hot and cold
The poor girl envisions a romantic life with a man whom she barely knows. She does not even know that he is a 120 year-old vampire and he is not ready to reveal himself yet. It is less than advisable for anyone to wear their heart on their sleeve under such circumstances. Jo Yang Sun seems guileless.
The vampire scholar wants to send her to Tamra Island (Jeju Island). She is being shunted out of his life or driven further out of the vampire’s sight but she does not know the reason. 
Map of South Korea
Map of South Korea
Jeju Island / Tamra Island
Jeju in relation to foreign countries
Some viewers despise Jo Yang Sun for her endless loyalty to Kim Sung Yeol, the cold and calculating vampire who is not worthy of her love. They are convinced that she is fighting a losing battle. But some sympathise with her plight, and like her, has high hopes of a beautiful romantic ending.
What accounts for so dramatic a contrast in the viewers’ reaction to “The Scholar Who Walks The Night”? To the realistic-minded people, Jo Yang Sun’s idealistic love is impractical in a very self-centred and individualistic world. It serves no purpose in loving a person, a vampire at that, who is unemotional and cold towards any notion of romantic love. Moreover, he is haunted by his first love. Others, of course, are stalwart die-hard romantics.
Loving two women
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THE MOST POIGNANT SCENE
EPISODE 10
The closing scene of Episode 10, is by far, the most poignant scene in the vampire drama, ‘The Scholar Who Walks The Night’.
Jo Yang Sun is rescued by Kim Sung Yeol
This is the scene that Kim Sung Yeol, played by Lee Joon Gi, grabs hold of Jo Yang Sun before she falls off the cliff’s edge. She has been tottering precariously at the top of a cliff with a sharp drop. If she has moved, she would have plummeted off the cliff.
The viewers are aghast that she is thinking of hurling herself off the cliff. When she is just a step short of going over the edge, the vampire-scholar Kim Sung Yeol, her knight in shining armour, or should I say, her vampire lover in his glorious black and dark green hanbok with embroidered plum flowers, comes to her rescue.
This scene is a grotesque reminder that if one is not careful, things might drive one over the edge too. It calls our attention to the obstacles people have in life and the decisions they might have to make to overcome them. Certain things can make or break people and one has to think things through before making choices or decisions.
Kim Sung Yeol saves Jo Yang Sun's life
Earlier, in Episode 9, the viewers learn that Kim Sung Yeol is determined ‘to throw her to the wolves’, that is, to sacrifice Jo Yang Sun’s life as long as he is able to get rid of Gwi. It is a cruel decision that horrifies the audience that one can or would with cold calculation, do anything to achieve one’s aim, even sacrificing someone that one proclaims to love.
If Jo Yang Sun’s crippled sister has not crawled to Kim Sung Yeol’s house to show him her adoptive sister’s (Jo Yang Sun’s) book which is about him and to beg him to save her life, his heart would still be tightly iron-clad and also wrapped further in a thick layer of steel.
Jo Yang Sun's adoptive sister begs the vampire for help
Jo Yang Sun's book about the vampire scholar
The pitiful pleas probably compel him to mull over the issue and reverse his decision to sacrifice her in the process of achieving his aim.
Yook Sungjae (BTOB) 'Love You Again'
The book stirs Kim Sung Yeol’s memories of the beautiful times they have together: their frolicking in the forest when he notices her beautiful, porcelain-smooth neck, he bedding her (He has, if it can be artfully put, gone to bed with her. It is her first intimate experience with a man), and he carrying her when her leg is injured. But the sweetest of all, is when he kisses her by the riverbank when she is drunk from her drinking bout with Prince Lee Yoon, and then, he tells her that she is in a dream.
The vampire and the bookseller: holding hands in the rain
Jo Yang Sun's pretty neck
Jo Yang Sun's book about him stirs his memories
Kim Sung Yeol: Look of love
Jo Yang Sun tells him not to leave her
Kim Sung Yeol kisses his beloved
Kim Sung Yeol's love for Jo Yang Sun
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SUICIDE
IS IT A SOLUTION
TO ONE’S PROBLEMS?
EPISODE 10
Jo Yang Sung has chalked up so many losses in her young life. Who in her right mind could possibly handle them without being destabilized?
1. The death of her adoptive father, Jo Saeng, who, though has fallen on hard times, still accepts her into his family. Her real father, Seo Jeong Do, has died at the hands of Gwi. Jo Saeng loves her more than himself and has sacrificed his life for her. She regrets not being able to save him.
Loving adoptive father: Jo Saeng
Killed: Jo Saeng
Jo Saeng's corpse: Kim Sung Yeol blocks her view
2. The hate of her adoptive mother, who in her mental instability due to the death of her husband, Jo Saeng, is like poison being splashed on her. She accuses Jo Yang Sun of being the cause of her husband’s death and that she will bring more harm to other people because of her biological father’s supposed treachery to the Joseon king. Her adoptive mother’s cruel and harsh words drives her up the wall and tests her endurance. Forbidding her from accompanying them to Tamra Island or Jeju Island is the last straw.
Jo Yang Sun is cast out of the family by her adoptive mother
because her biological father is a 'traitor'
3. The Crown Prince, Lee Yoon’s betrayal has also pained Jo Yang Sun. She has been made a slave and the ‘property’ of the local Yeongjo government after his betrayal. Lee Yoon has allowed her to be tortured cruelly by the Deputy Prime Minister for not confessing to be ‘The Lustful Student’. He allows her to take the blame for his crime of being ‘The Lustful Student’ who wants to destroy Gwi. Jo Yang Sun does not want to see him any more after his betrayal. This heartbreaker, has at one stage, declared that if she is a female, he would have made her his lover. How magnanimous of him!
Hard-hearted Crown Prince Lee Yoon
Should we entertain the idea at least for a while, that human beings when forced into a corner might also take the same stance or path as Crown Prince Lee Yoon, who is at Gwi’s mercy? If so, can we or should we sympathize with him? Anyway, he shares the same mission as Kim Sung Yeol, that is, to get rid of Gwi.
Prince Sadong's ghost: Shim Chang-min agonizes over
helping Jo Yang Sun on seeing his father's ghost
Betrayal: Jo Yang Sun admonishes Crown Prince Lee Yoon
4. Is Kim Sung Yeol a cold-hearted vampire? He blows hot and cold in his emotions. At that crucial time, she has been cold-shouldered by Kim Sung Yeol. Jo Yang Sun, being very vulnerable, comes very close to being mentally and psychologically unhinged or defeated and has nothing left to live for.
Kim Sung Yeol's ambiguous feelings confuse her and she does not know whether he really loves her or not.
Love Is Not In His Future Plans:
Kim Sung Yeol plans to disappear after he defeats Gwi
She is being isolated and has given up hope by the end of Episode 10. She takes Kim Sung Yeol exactly at his word, ‘Go home’, a harsh command spoken by the vampire to her at one stage of the drama. Home, for her at that moment, is death. Does the drama remind us that ‘Life is fragile?’
Kim Sung Yeol shows his love when she is imprisoned
Choi Hye Ryung informs Kim Sung Yeol
about Jo Yang Sun's weakened condition
Kim Sung Yeol heals Yang Sun with his blood in a bath
Kim Sung Yeol kisses Jo Yang Sun after he heals her in the bath
Earlier on, before she is supposed to leave for Tamra Island, Jo Yang Sun has asked Ho Jin, Kim Sung Yeol's aide, about his whereabouts but is told that he is far away in the countryside. It dawns on her that the scholar refuses to see her.
The drama is replete with scenes that seem to depict scales falling from Jo Yang Sun’s eyes, and she finally realises certain truths. She is forced to confront the cold truth about the betrayal of both men in her life. Resist and desist is the best solution to her problem. She should make a strong decision not to have high hopes for her relationship with Kim Sung Yeol.
Betrayal: The two handsome men in her life,
Kim Sung Yeol and Crown Prince Lee Yoon
The fear of being a burden to everyone adds to the aggravation, especially when she knows that she is a heavy burden on her family and on the man she loves. She is in no condition to be rational, and being in a disheartened state, she wanders disconsolately to the cliff’s edge.
The heart-palpitating scene sends chills down the viewers’ spines but luckily, it is rendered benign by the appearance of Kim Sung Yeol who grabs her and leads her to safety.
Prior to that, the viewers are shown the state of great agitation he is in when he is not able to find Jo Yang Sun. The truth reveals itself. What he has repressed has surfaced in this exciting scene – that he cannot let Jo Yang Sun go. 
Kim Sung Yeol: An enigma
Many people in this present era, especially young people, contemplate suicide due to lack of parental love and education, societal influence and today’s deteriorating moral standards. Many are dying immoral deaths like flies. It must be pointed out that it is in the comfort of one’s home which establishes the moral tone of and the purpose of one’s life and parents are accountable for that.
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IS THERE A FUTURE FOR
KIM SUNG YEOL, THE SCHOLAR VAMPIRE
AND
JO YANG SUN THE BOOKSELLER?
The closing scene of Episode 10 is the most romantic scene so far.
Some viewers are agitated that Jo Yang Sung would want to throw her young life away. She is so alive and vivacious, someone who is so lovable, bright, giving, kind and generous – someone whom any right-minded man would want to fall in love with.
There are so many questions that viewers want to ask but at least one is answered by the time Episode 10 draws to an end.
Is there any hope for this vampire-human relationship between Kim Sung Yeol and Jo Yang Sun?
A Fan's creative artwork
When Kim Sung Yeol saves her from an uncertain death, there can be little doubt about his love for her, and it is vividly portrayed. He sidesteps his own conflict about romantic love.
What an ingenious reversal of the love story by the writer of the script.
Lovebirds
But no one’s complaining. Viewers love this lovey-dovey romance. Well, who doesn’t? At least, the script writer clearly tells us that there is a future for a romance between a cold-blooded vampire with a half-vampire, half-human heart, and a warm-blooded human being who is all heart.
Healing in a tub
So in this regard, Kim Sung Yeol is shown to appeal to the better instincts in himself – his pure romantic instincts and responding to considerations of morals and honour, not cold calculation. Jo Yang Sun symbolises his conscience in his vampire life. Mind you, don’t dismiss such incongruous youthful love with disparaging off-handedness!
Kim Sung Yeol: Playful look
The crowning touch in this episode of the drama, ‘The Scholar Who Walks The Night’ lay in the message that this vampire-human romance would work out after all.
Couple in love
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HOW DO
THE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES
FARE IN THIS DRAMA?
Detractors should not jump to a conclusion too soon and should watch the drama with a positive mind.
Foreigners who want to understand and learn about Korea should watch this drama.
Viewers love the litany of romantic stories in the drama which make up the heart of the story.
Fans of the drama would want to commend the scriptwriter’s sensitivity to the complexities of romantic love and her profound respect for the value of the characters who make up this very compelling story.
Lee Joon Gi: Amazing acting skills
And of course, Lee Joon Gi, who helms the drama, is as usual, always perfect in his role as Kim Sung Yeol. Lavish praises have been continually heaped on him by his fans, the public and the press. He impresses in all ways: his good looks, his impressive portrayal as the cold vampire and his interpretation of his role.
Great actor
Lee Joon Gi as Kim Sung Yeol
Lee Yu Bi and Jang Hee Jin are highly commended for their credible and emotional portrayal of their respective characters.
Lee Yu Bi: well appreciated by viewers
Lee Yu Bi is very natural and sweet and is very suitable for the role of Jo Yang Sun. The portrayal of a very sunny and vivacious character at the beginning has won her new fans. Her tears of sadness drive a wedge into the viewers’ hearts and make them sympathise with her and her situation.
Jang Hee Jin: Impressive
Soo Yang: beautiful gisaeng
Soo Yang: devoted companion
Soo Yang: Unrequited love
Jang Hee Jin’s portrayal as a gisaeng and also Kim Sung Yeol’s confidante, Soo Hyang, is absolutely impressive with her submissive demeanour when she expresses her love for him, and her strength when dealing with the business of the vampire. Her thwarted or unrequited love makes one’s heart heavy with sadness. Her connection with the viewers is real and one can feel her hurting especially in Episode 10 when Kim Sung Yeol goes into the tub of water with Jo Yang Sun. She has also won critical acclaim for her acting.
And of course, Jung Kyu Soo, who plays the pitiful character, Jo Saeng, the adoptive father of Jo Yang Sun, makes one pity the old man who has to bear so many secrets and burdens in his life. His voice adds an interesting touch to the character.
Jung Kyu Soo as Jo Saeng
Max Shim Chang Min has also exceeded expectations by portraying the weak Crown Prince who could not protect the girl he claims to love. His declaration, ‘If you are a woman, I’ll make you my lover’, leaves a bad taste in the mouth especially when he does not prevent her from being tortured. One wants to hate him. But his portrayal as a happy playboy prince in the earlier episodes is so sweet that one’s heart towards him melts and softens.
Handsome Crown Prince
Max Shim Chang Ming
Viewers must have cried buckets while watching the two episodes.
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Parents should sit down with their children, young or of marriageable age, to watch the drama, “The Scholar Who Walks The Night” and then discuss:
The Birds and the Bees
Boy-Girl Relationships
Filial Piety
The Respect That Their Sons Should Show To The Opposite Sex
Solving The Problems Of Life Without Resorting To Suicide
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